Features from Level 1:
Level 2 Developments:
Where has my Sharpie gone?
It’s taken me eleven weeks (honestly, longer than expected…) and I’ve finally misplaced my Sharpie :(. The closest thing I could find was my beginner’s fude pen, so I’ve written this week’s target in Kanji with Hiragana subtitles! Its amateurism is probably offensive to the Japanese, so for that I apologise. I’m working on it!
I’ve already started to create Hanami level 2, and actually the main structure is very much in place and I’m filling out the details. I started off by making the platforms all one block colour, which I did in the previous level several times! This time took considerably less because I wasn’t making tiles as I went a long and I knew the sorts of detail I would be adding.
For the outdoor detail, I’ve also changed things like grass and plant colour to orange, as well as all man-made structures. I’ve only used my previous tileset around the door to the previous level, to show which level the door goes to! I’ve also added some orange flowers around the door to this level.
There’s currently no lighting or background in the level, which is why it looks very plain! Although in a way, I kind of like how bright everything looks. It reminds me that I sill need to sort out the ambient colour overlay in the first level, as everything still looks really dim (I actually made it darker to see how that worked out!)
I’ve made a few additions to the tileset to give this level some unique features, but they have been minimal. My old set seems really flexible, especially when it comes to creating new platform shapes. In the screenshot below, you can see a couple of new features like the bamboo fence and square plant pots. This building is supposed to be a roof garden belonging to an ikebana specialist, hence all the plants! I makes the similarly styled buildings more interesting.
As well as continuing the development for this level, this week I’m hoping to wrap up my Game Design Document so that I can produce a nicely designed copy to go into a development folder. The graphic design style used for this will be similar to the one I use in any other physical designs, such as box art and game manual design, which are really the second dimension to the retro re-enactment project! It will probably be fairly minimalist, similar to the style I’ve used so far in my Pecha Kucha presentation and rough idea for album art for my soundtrack (hah!)
Palette Swap Tactics
Palette Swapping is a cheeky little technique used by game developers in order to recycle assets. It involves taking an asset previously made and changing its colour scheme, sometimes (but not often) giving that asset a completely different look. Using a little Photoshop magic, I’ve quickly and easily turned my pink/red tileset into an orange/yellow one!
Obviously, not everything here is usable like this! I’ve kept a lot of wood and neutral colours from my original set and combined it with some of the elements from this colourised set like roof tiles and furniture. Testing is really easy in game maker because you can swap tilesets out for new ones. To see how this looked in the game, I simply swapped out my old tileset temporarily for this one and all the tiles were already in place! Here’s how it looked at a quick glance:
The level design for “Daidai Iro” is now complete, so I’ll be constructing this in Game Maker over the next week, whilst working on some of the things that still need a little sorting out from before, including the implementation of NPC characters and with that the new petal system which I still need to make!
Daidai Iro Mood Board
More inspirational colour-themed images from Japan in preparation for creating my new orange coloured level!
Sound Effects
In contrast with the synthy background music track I created, I’ve actually been experimenting with 8-bit NES style noises as sound effects elsewhere in the game. These started off as placeholder sounds so that I could work out what type of noises to include, but they all seem to fit really well.
I’ve been making the majority of my sound effects using a browser-based software called as3SFXR, which generates random 8-bit sounds that you can adapt and customise in your web browser before saving and downloading your generated sound. You can see from the image above that its possible to customise all settings of any sound created, generate sounds based on category or create completely random sounds using the randomise button. You can export sounds as good quality .wav files!
Sound effects I’ve currently created in as3SFXR are:
- jump & double jump
- hurt sound
- door sound
- “flower squash”
- “flower unsquash”
- blossom collection
- sushi box collection
As luck would have it, a couple of days ago an article came up on TIGsource about a lesser known piece of software that could be used to generate multi-channel sound effects called LabChirp.
This works very similarly, you can generate random sounds or create your own very easily. The main difference about LabChirp is that you can use the 8 channels listed down the right hand side of the first window to create complex sounds which utilise up to 8 instruments playing at once. You can see here that I’ve set the category to footstep, which is a category not covered by as3SFXR! I’ve made myself a very simple footstep sound based on a random generation which I customised to be softer and quieter. This only uses one channel, but was much easier to make from the starting point presented by the program. I’ve also made a “death” sound which uses two channels, and plays when the player runs out of health. You can also export sounds created in LabChirp as .wav files.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to avoid using Game Maker’s built in sound functions because there are much better ways of implementing sound effects and music. I had a go at using the Caster extension for Game Maker, which supports .ogg playback. Ogg Vorbis files are a great alternative to mp3s, especially with the restrictions on mp3 files and as Game Maker support for mp3s is temperamental at best. Game Maker plays .wav files fairly well, but using many .wav files can result in an unnecessarily large game file. Caster uses many of the same sound calling functions as the built in GM functions, but allows better customisation of things like volume and panning. In the end though, I’ve decided to use the SuperSound.dll because it seems to have much more support on the internet. This .dll still support the use of Ogg Vorbis files, and many of the same functions as Caster, but works much differently as it is a .dll rather than an extension.
The Super Sound System comes with several scripts for GM. This example is a script called SS_Init, which is called in any instance where a sound is played. There are several other scripts (you can see some of them in the browser on the left hand side) including scripts to play and stop sound, and change various settings. In order for an external sound to be played, it must first be loaded. This can be done individually within each instance, but to save memory I’ve created an instance which loads all sounds as globals. This is created once, meaning that all sounds are only loaded once but can be played several times.
Here are all the sounds I currently have loaded (this list really needs some sorting out and arranging-it’s a bit messy!) I start off by initialising the Super Sound System, then use the SS_LoadSound function to load sounds from their location in the “Sound” folder. I’ve given each sound a handle, which acts as a unique ID for each sound. for example:
global.musHanami
is the background track which is continuously looped;
global.sndstep
is the sound that the footsteps make.
You can see I’ve also used the SS_SetSoundVol function, which allows you to change the volume of individual sounds. Because my sounds files have been brought in from various places, volume levels are a little erratic! This is only there temporarily, as eventually I’m planning to change the volume of the actual files to decrease the amount of functions called. I’ve been using Audacity to convert my files from .wavs to .oggs, and changing the volume is no problem.
Here’s a really simple example of how a sound is played. This script runs when the Z button is pressed (making the player jump). The Super Sound System is initialised with SS_Init();. If the player is on the ground when the Z button is pressed, the SS_PlaySound(global.sndjump) function is called. The second section of code applies to when Z is pressed and the player is in the air performing a double jump. This plays the global.snddoublejump handle, which is a higher pitched version of the jump sound.
Most of the sound effects have been fairly simple to implement, based on various parameters like the ones above. The most complex so far has been the step sound, which uses a timer between plays that I had to time perfectly to the point when each foot touches the floor! You’ll be able to hear some of these sounds in my next devlog video!
Hanami Theme Tune
For the Hanami main theme I’ve started off with a repeated pentatonic scale played on my “koto” instrument (which is actually just the higher notes of a piano sampler instrument). I’ve harmonised (most of) this scale, using notes 5 semitones below the melodic line. Instead of playing the scale in order or pitch, I’ve rearranged the scale.
I added in a percussion track made of simple wood-block and bell sounds below the koto tracks. This track comes in a couple of bars after the music begins.
The third layer comes in at the same point of the percussion. I’ve used an “aaah chorus” sample for this layer, which is similar to the one used in Hisaishi’s Kaze no Toorimichi. This comes in two parts, which alternate every two bars, unlike the other tracks which repeat every one bar so far.
My top layer holds the track’s melody, which is played by a flute sampler instrument. This comes in gradually, as I’ve noticed it’s fairly infrequent in the tracks I’ve listened to. It starts off in small chunks, before eventually becoming the main emphasis of the track towards the end.
To add a little more emphasis to the end of the track where the melody is played, I’ve added in a new instrument playing a variation on the pentatonic scale. At times this mimics the flute melody.
The resulting track loops seamlessly, and constantly changes in depth and instrument type so hopefully won’t seem too repetitive, despite only being a minute and a half long. It may still need some refinement to make some of the instruments sound nice, but I’m happy with the overall sound of the track.
Music Creation for Games
I’ve tried a couple of programs in the run up to trying to make some good game music, mostly software designed for making great chiptune pieces. In previous projects, I’ve used a program called Famitracker, which produces 8-bit music based on the sounds of the Famicom or Nintendo Entertainment System.
The difficulty with Famitracker is creating the “instruments” or the sounds that the blips make. The image above shows the various settings which can be changed to create unique instruments, and a handy little virtual piano to preview your created sounds. This is where I’ve struggled before. You can just import instruments from other sources, but it is then implementing other people’s instruments into your track that proves difficult.
It would be nice if the virtual piano could be used to lay down the track, but it’s not the end of the world using the keyboard keys instead. In the main window of this image you can see the track visually. It is made up of beats which align horizontally, and channels which are displayed in columns and allow different instrument types to be played at once. The letters and numbers in each space depict the notes or sounds being played, and correlate to a specific instrument. This track is a chiptune version of Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria which I started to write. In the Square 1 channel I’ve put the main melody. I would usually use Square 2 for harmonies, but haven’t placed any here. The Triangle channel plays a much softer note, and I’ve used this for my base line. The Noise channel plays white noise-like tones which can make a drum beat if programmed well, and I’ve attempted to make one here (although it’s not perfect just yet!) The letters obviously refer to notes, and the number refer to the octave that the note is played it. When you play the track back, it plays from top to bottom. You can hear a little tune I wrote in Famitracker here. This was a piece I used for some motion graphics a while ago.
Another program that I was really excited to acquire was PXTone by Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, creator of Cave Story. I’ve mentioned this before, because it creates the music that Amaya uses in his games, and everything he makes is just exceptional quality.
This is where you customise the instruments you wish to use. While it’s possible to add effects to instruments, most of the instruments the software uses come in a file with the program. Most of them are short blips and electronic sounds, which aren’t based on the sounds of any specific console but have a chiptune feel to them!
This is a visual representation of when each instrument makes a sound. The beats are spaced vertically this time, with the track playing from left to right. Here I’ve made a melody and a harmony using a similar blip instrument, and a simple drum beat using a drum sample. Most of the programming in PXTone is done visually rather than using letters and numbers, which takes a while to get used to but is nice for those who aren’t familiar with music theory.
Each horizontal line in the image above can be expanded to see the tones that are played. For reference, keyboard keys are displayed on the left hand side of the screen. These correlate to the orange blocks, which represent the tone and timing of the note being played. This track is an experimental track which I worked on for a while to get myself into the software. I originally tried to create something using a pentatonic scale, but found myself making something that sounded like a piece from a Daisuke Amaya game! The best examples of PXTone tracks have to be from Cave Story, so here’s the Cave Story theme to help you get an idea of the type of sound produced:
The software I’ve had most success with so far is one that I’ve only recently discovered. SunVox was recommended to me as a great chiptune creation program, but is also just a very user-friendly sequencer that can be used to create tracks using any sound or sample.
To get familiar with the program, I start to create my own synthesised version of Joe Hisaishi’s Kaze no Toorimichi from My Neighbour Totoro (although it still needs alot of work because the timing is really weird). At the top you have a similar layout to Famitracker, where rows represent beats and columns represent layers of instruments. The tones are similarly represented by letters for notes and numbers for octaves, although in this case notes can be added using the virtual piano in the row below. This just makes life so much easier! I often find myself making mistakes whilst trying to remember which note belongs to which keyboard key, although this input method is still available.
The “02” next to each note shows which instrument is being played. The instruments are shown visually here. You can see that “02” is a sampler instrument, in this case a midi piano sound. By experimenting with the program I noticed that the high notes of this particular instrument sound a little like a Japanese plucked string instrument, with a little imagination! Most of my instruments are samples, although the generator is what really makes the chiptune-like elements of the track. In this example, each instrument is connected directly to the output, but filter and effect modules can easily be placed between the two to change the sound of the instrument.
This makes a very weird sound! You can see the levels here in each instrument and the output as the track is playing. The track plays from left to right in the bottom window, where the little patterned blocks are aligned. Each block represents a segment of the music which can be layered, copied and pasted and changed by moving blocks around. I haven’t done it here, but you can customise the patterns to have more meaning! Repeated patterns show places where I have repeated parts of the track, which is very useful for creating drum tracks and base lines.
I had a go at using some of the Japanese music theory I’d learned to create a track in SunVox which used a broken pentatonic scale as a basis. I’ve carried on using the suspicious piano instrument and a flute sample to create a melody. This is written in E flat major, but has quite a dark, serious tone to it. I didn’t take it much further as I hoped to create something a little lighter. I have screencap issues so please forgive the audio only!
Traditional Japanese Music
So far throughout this project I’ve had a pretty good idea of what I wanted Hanami’s music to sound like, so it was about time that I actually gave the game some sound.
The music has really been inspired by two things:
Traditional Japanese Music
This is very typical of the sort of thing that comes to mind when you mention traditional Japanese music. The music is held together by hand-beaten percussion, accompanied by the plucked strings of instruments such as a koto and a woodwind melody. The music is then layered with additions of extra percussion from bells and wooden blocks or clappers. There are a couple of things that really stand out from the examples above. The second piece from Traditional Japanese Music 2 shows a very steady drum beat, unlike a lot of the examples I’ve listened to in research. This has resulted in a very “full” sounding tune throughout, in contrast to other tracks that use minimal percussion. I liked Flower because although it probably isn’t the best example of “traditional” music, it uses the same instruments and elements. This is a lot thinner, but often uses a harp sound as a base, rather than percussion.
Studio Ghibli Soundtracks
A lot of the Studio Ghibli films are set in or based on locations in Japan, and as a result have ended up with traditionally Japanese-sounding OSTs. One of the most obvious examples is the soundtrack from Pom Poko. The film itself is about a struggle against a modern way of life which destroys tradition, and this trailer showcases about three of the different types of music that the film captures. My Neighbour Totoro also shows a very traditional way of life, set in rural Japan. The track I found most inspirational from Totoro is Kaze no Toorimichi, “Path of the Wind”. The composer Joe Hisaishi, who also wrote the soundtracks to many Ghibli films including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Ponyo, manages to balance traditional Japanese instruments with a modern orchestra brilliantly. This is an orchestral version of Kaze no Toorimichi, which is just as good as the original but unfortunately without the sound of traditional Japanese instruments.
It’s very difficult to find examples of Ghibli OSTs online that haven’t been met with copyright restrictions, so there’s not a lot more I can show! You can listen to some of Hisaishi’s music here.
Traditionally, Japanese instruments were tuned to pentatonic scales which consist of five notes per octave. This is why if you punch out a tune using only the black keys of a piano it can often sound very Eastern! The Western piano is tuned in C major, which uses seven notes per octave. Most traditional Western music is played in a major and minor heptatonic scale key signature, which is partly why traditional Western and Eastern music sound so different even on similar instruments.
There are various types of pentatonic scales which have specific names in Japanese. One example is the In Sen scale, which is often used as the tuning for wind chimes. In the key of C, In Sen plays:
C Db F G Bb (repeat C…)
For Hanami, I’ve chosen to use the E flat major pentatonic scale. I’m not sure if this was a scale that would have been used in traditional Japanese music, but when I was trying to work out the key signature for Hisaishi’s Kaze no Toorimichi it was the one that seemed to fit best (I’ve tried to work this out from the video, but can’t really be sure…) The scale of E flat major consists of Eb, Ab and Bb, and the pentatonic scale looks like this:
Eb F G Bb C (repeat Eb…)
Because it’s a major scale, it can have a very “happy” feeling. When I’ve asked other people what they think the music should sound like, they’ve mostly all agreed that the music should be calm and create a light atmosphere, rather than being too dark or energetic. Some of the examples in the first video Traditional Japanese Music 2 sound very serious, but Flower definitely shows a more relaxed and carefree musical experience.
“Momoiro” Finishing Touches
Today has been pretty similar to yesterday. The first level Momoiro is now looking pretty finished, from now until the end of the project I’ll probably just be tweaking little bits rather than making huge changes. In the screenshot above you can see the second cave part of the level, which probably has way too many lights! So there’s something that could do with some rearranging.
Here’s a screenshot from another part of the level, which leads down to the cafe. I was previously trying to play around with things I could do with the red brick tiles and some of the shadowy overlay tiles, but in the end I’ve decided to try and keep things simple.
The part of the level which has been changed the most today is the cafe itself. To set this apart from other buildings, I’ve added outdoor table arrangements and a unique flag which reads カフエ “cafe” in katakana. I’ve also added a new table light, which shines a small circular light which at the moment is the same colour as the hanging lights. It might be a little too bright at the moment, so I might dim this later. Also, I’m trying to work out how to create a flickering effect to make it seem like candle light, but I’m not currently sure how to do this with the EasyLighting system.
Other than that, there’s not much more to do, except for adding the extra characters and working on the background imagery. I’m still happy with the silhouette at the top of the level, but the rest of the level looks very dull without anything in the background. I’ve also got to add the trees back in before I forget!
Some of the characters are more developed than others. This afternoon I started working on Kaze, a resident of Momoiro who wears a face mask and scarf due to his cold. I’ve given him a walking and climbing animation so that he can manoeuvre around his home, but haven’t programmed any movement in the engine yet.
Getting Ahead of Myself?
It turns out I jumped the gun a little last week as I was advised to “finish the first level to move on…” I checked back to my time plan this morning and my goal for this week was to add UI elements like the HUD and inventory menus. These are now well under way, so I feel like I’m doing well for time, although I know in my head that this can only mean I’ve omitted to do something a long the way. Obviously, graphics are still a working progress. The reason I wanted to start placing UI elements now is because I felt the natural graphical style would be evident enough to start expanding from background assets to the other areas, like the UI, title menus etc which will start to take form over the next couple of weeks. Right now, I’m still filling out my days with level refinement and perfecting areas which have been left overlooked for a while. So that I can’t miss A SINGLE THING, I’ve started at the beginning of the level and worked my way, changing and improving on specific things as I’ve gone along.
In a lot of places, parts of the level simply needed filling out slightly. You can see some improvements to the graphics here where I’ve added little plants and bushes and filled out large plain areas with small rock details etc, so that every part of the level has a unique combination of my existing tiles and assets. What may of may not be noticeable from this image is some adjustments to the lighting which I’ve made. I’ve expanded the sprite I use for these lights so that it covers a larger area and isn’t so concentrated on a small space, which brightens up the level significantly and adds more light variation across the level.
One major addition to the tileset has been these grassy edge tiles, which droop over the edges of platforms and just round them off nicely. They make everything seem a lot more finished, and eliminate a lot of the very hard, straight edges that were causing problems before.
Another significant change has been to the lighting system inside caves. I’ve made the ambient light nearly black, which almost makes the background invisible, except where there are lights. I’ve made these lights much brighter than the outside lights as they are significantly more essential more gameplay. I think this change make the level more interesting visually as well as in terms of how the player plays the game. Instead of looking at an entire surrounding area, the player is constrained to one small space. In this image, you can also see some improvements I’ve made to the Hanging Adversary sprite, which is now finished and working very nicely.
When it came to animating the Hello Mushroom sprite, I admittedly got a little stuck. My original design didn’t give me much space to work with, and I felt like I could only accomplish very minimal movement. This would have been fine, except my other obstacles are now much more active in comparison! So, I redesigned the shape of the mushroom to be more flexible. This new mushroom still releases spores in exactly the same way as the old design, but this one now dances about a bit. The smaller mushrooms are harmless and (I think) create a nice little piece of scenery, but warn when there is a nasty mushroom around!
