![]() ![]() “Now, I always try to keep a single concept per level, but try to find different ways to exploit it. This one was ‘stuff falling in water’. So, when the beats start to get more aggressive, it starts to drop stalactites as well,” says Lachance.Īll the while, Lachance is having a bit of fun with the visual hazards as well. Still, the idea could be taken even further, with the developer working to add to the stage’s mechanic even more. In this example, one can already see the developer working to build onto the idea of water drops falling down, giving players the drops to dodge, but also a steadily rising water that would cut off the bottom of the stage from them. ![]() ![]() When Lachance found his theme, he could then start to build on it. "My point is basically to share my love of music." I did exactly that. After seeing lots of drops falling down, it gave me the idea of forming a huge pool of water ascending,” he continues. “With ‘Dubwoofer Substep’, for example, the beginning feels like a cavern theme, with drops falling from stalactites. “To be a bit more technical, it starts with me listening to a bunch of songs. Usually, after a single hearing I have a rough idea in mind that I know I want to play with,” says Lachance. To begin the process of stage creation, Lachance would listen to several tracks while seeking out a certain theme buried within the song, or some sensation that would strike him for the music. In sticking to these rules, Lachance could take music and turn it into an inhabitable space, one players could delight in dodging through together. My rules were that the level has to be visually beautiful, it has to follow the music, and the player needs to know what is coming up (to avoid cheap shots),” says Lachance. “The level creation is the most difficult thing I ever did. These themes were further shaped using a set of three rules that would form the backbone of the entire work, helping the developer work through creating any given stage. Within each of the tracks, Lachance found a form of moment he could work with, turning it into a level based on the theme he could hear within the music. The process of turning these songs into stages where players avoid visual effects involved a search for a theme within the music, or an emotion evoked by the song. Just Shapes & Beats drops the player into deadly obstacle courses born from chiptunes and EDM tracks, creating traps out of the beat and flow of the music. I fell in love with the album and told myself ‘I need to make a game out of that.’ 6 months later there was a game jam here in Quebec where I made the very first level based on the song ‘Chronos’,” Turns out it was Parallel Processing by Danimal Cannon & Zef.
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