Game Concept

Working title:

Ghost Notes

Concept Statement: 

A rhythm/puzzle game where you escape a maze by intentionally missing notes at the right time. The screen is split into 2 sections, a rhythm game and a maze game. Notes will fall down 4 tracks on the rhythm game side of the screen with 2 bars at the bottom 1 named mute and 1 named move. If the notes the move bar, then Clef the ghost will move in that direction in the maze. If you hit the correct arrow key when the notes hit the mute bar, the note will be destroyed and Clef won’t move.

Genre: 

Rhythm/Puzzle

Concept creation: 

Inspired by rhythm games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, Hi-Fi Rush, Rhythm Heaven, and Project Diva. As well as Puzzle games like Push-Mo, and maze games like Pac-Man. The idea came from my own love of both rhythm and puzzle games. I was mostly inspired by Crypt of the Necrodancer and thought that the concept of a rhythm based adventure game was really interesting. I decided that a maze based puzzle game would be a bit more achievable than a full adventure type game such as Necrodancer. Because of the time limitations, I figured that a maze game would be the best way to show off the idea of the rhythm based movement. 

The idea of skipping notes came from me playing the rhythm game Project Diva, I was thinking about how a rhythm game could be used to control a character in 2d space and realised that my initial idea of hitting notes at the right time to have the character move would be very limiting in terms of the music part of the game and would also make the game a little mindless. If I were to implement my first idea, then you just hit the notes at the right time and the character moved, then that would result in a rhythm game with a funny background where you fail the song if you don’t get it perfect. That's where the idea of intentionally missing notes came from, it would mean that you have to pay attention to the game as a whole and decide when to skip notes so that you can move through the maze. It also means that I am able to make the songs more complicated and larger without having to worry about the player coming across an instant lose condition if they mess up even slightly. 

Audience: 

The Audience is ideally people who play both rhythm and puzzle games, in a sense this game is entirely for me. It takes things that I like from two of my favourite game genres and combines them. The only reason that it combines only two and not all three of my favourite genres is because I don’t think that I have enough time to make a proper role playing game. I am not the best at rhythm games so the idea is that this is more of a beginner friendly rhythm game. More in line with Guitar hero then Project Diva. A part of this is that the game is not just a rhythm game but also a puzzle game. Because of this the rhythm part of the game is a little bit slower than other rhythm games. This means that players are able to understand how the game works and lets them think about the solution to the maze puzzle and plan ahead based on what notes are coming up in the song. The puzzle aspect is also quite simple compared to other puzzle games, again this is because it is more than just a puzzle game, it’s also a rhythm game. The rhythm style of the game means that the puzzles have a time limit and can’t be too complicated as you need to complete them within a limited number of moves. 

Because of all of these factors, the game will be a lot more casual than some rhythm games tend to be. This is a part of the market appeal, a lot of people love rhythm games and music based games, but with how intense some of them can be it’s a somewhat daunting genre that is very hard for some people to get into. I just happen to have the right kind of brainworms that make me good at rhythm games, but I understand that people who love the music in these games just as much as I do find them inaccessible because of how difficult and over stimulating they can be. So, this game is looking to capture a more casual audience that wants something more laid back and calm, that isn’t Rhythm Heaven. 

Game treatment:

Ghost Notes stars Clef, a ghost trapped inside a variety of musical instruments. He can only move on the beat and needs your help to escape the maze like internals of the instruments. 

One of the main inspirations when coming up with the concepts for Ghost Notes was my own experience as a musician, as such a large number of things in the game are named after musical terms, even the name of the game, Ghost Notes, refers to the act of intentionally silencing a note for a greater melodic or rhythmic effect. The name came first as I figured out how I wanted the game to play, from there I decided that it only made sense for the player character to be a ghost. I named him Clef after the symbol on sheet music that shows if the part is in the treble or bass ranges. I chose to use the word mute to describe the action of successfully hitting a note as that is both what you are doing, muting the note so that it doesn’t affect Clef, but muting a note is also the action that is taken in order to create a ghost note. Along with this the three levels of the game that I have come up with are called verses, it’s not the most creative thing in the world but it’s a simple bit of naming that I think helps get the idea of the game across. 

The three verses are all based around different musical instruments, a piano, a guitar, and a synth. I chose these three instruments as they are the instruments that I have the most experience with. Each of the verses will also have a unique song that uses the instrument that it is based off of, this is to create variety in the music and make each level feel unique. Outside of the level's key instrument, the music tracks will use the same base instruments in order to keep a feeling that all of the tracks are still from the same game. The visual design of each level will also match the instruments, with the piano level having a wooden look, the guitar having a more plastic and metallic look and the synth level being more futuristic. I have not finalized the visual design of everything yet, but I plan on going for a pixelated look, akin to the Super Nintendo or Game Boy Advance. 

Each of the verses also have musical references within their names. The first verse is titled Sing us a Song, this is in reference to the song Piano Man by Billy Joel. The chorus of the song features the line “Sing us a song, you’re the piano man” thus the verse was named, Sing us a Song. The second verse is called Wall of Noise, this name comes from the wall of noise speaker setup that was used by the classing rock band, The Grateful Dead. This was a wall of speakers set up behind the band at their live shows which created an atmosphere like no other at their concerts. The final verse is named Voice of the Future, this is derived from the phrase “The first voice of the future” which was a marketing line used by Crypton Future Media when first advertising the vocal synth software Hatsune Miku. The phrase was used because Miku, the personification of a Yamaha synth plug-in, was one of the first widely successful and popular vocal synths. The somewhat robotic sound of the character brought to mind the holographic idols of cyberpunk stories such as Blade Runner, and so Crypton Future Media sold the idea that Miku was the first step towards those digital idols, thus, “the first voice of the future”. The reason that this name was chosen is because the visual design of the synth verse is largely inspired by the aesthetics of Hatsune Miku and the other Vocaloid Characters. 

(The layout of the game visualised, as well as the basic outline of the gameplay loop)

(the basic idea of Clef, short descriptions of the visuals for each level)

(Musical notation is an inspiration for much of the visuals)

(the piano verse “sing us a song” is visually inspired by a grand piano)

(The guitar verse “Wall of noise” is visually based on Marshall amps and the Fender Squier) 

(the synth verse “voice of the future” is inspired by the visuals of Blade Runner and Hatsune Miku)