SOUND*PHANTASY

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Development.

The SoundPhantasy* project has gone through various states of development before it reached the final piece of software you can play with now. Initially, the game had a much longer and slower type of gameplay, but this was altered soon after it was found to be too laborious during testing. On this page, you can discover some of the key developments and influences on the project and how it was eventually constructed into a playable online game.

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Influences.

SoundPhantasy* is a rhythm-action game, a type of game whereby the music determines the action on screen. These games are typically very simple to pick up and play, but difficult to master. For this project, it was decided that a rhythm-action game would not only make use of sound and vision, but would also suit the nature of online gaming due to its simplicity.

The WinAmp media and MP3 player contains an audio-visualiser that was a big influence on the aesthetic design of the game. This relatively powerful application creates a visual response to any music played through it.

In turn, SoundPhantasy* was developed in response to a theoretical question: "What if these visuals could be manipulated by the player as the music plays in the background?"

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Style and approach.

For the game, a minimalist approach to visual and sound design was applied. The use of basic shapes and colours complimented the electronic soundtrack which was determined before the actual game was constructed. Initially the game had long levels that exceeded three or more minutes, but these were later shorted to a maximum of 60 seconds per layer/level. A total of five levels were developed, each containing their own soundtrack, level enemy and visual theme.

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