Visual Research: Rhythm Games

For my visual research, I'm looking at the way different rhythm games display the song, beats and game elements, and what elements I could use or improve on for my Music Fight game idea.

Audiosurf

Audiosurf generates a race track based on the song that the player specifies. The player must collect coloured blocks that are scattered along the track, and build groups to same-coloured blocks to score. The placement of the blocks is effected by the intensity of the song, as is the shape of the track.

The specific design of the track is not made by a level designer, but by algorithmic analysis of the song by the computer.

The game's visual design is quite nice, with abstract 3D forms spinning and pulsing in time to the music. Each track ends with the player flying towards a giant octopus-type construction that waves its arms with the music.



Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero attempts to simulate the playing of a rock song by the player. The player must hit notes represented on the by different coloured points or lines moving towards the bottom of the screen, using the buttons of their guitar-shaped controller.

Aside from the dots and dashes moving along a guitar fretboard, the rest of the game represents the music rather literally with shots of a 3d rock band playing along with. But since the game is attempting to simulate playing a rock and roll song, this representation is sensible.



Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution is one of the most famous rhythm games, and it's influence is certainly visible in Guitar Hero, which I wrote about above. Like Guitar Hero the player must simply hit the notes moving down the screen, though in DDR the notes are hit by stamping on the large buttons of a dance pad, not a fake guitar.

DDR's representation of the music is even more simple than Guitar Hero's; it just shows the song's music video, with the game notes transposed over it.



Rez

Rez takes an approach to rhythm games that allows for more player creativity. Different actions in playing the game, such as targeting or shooting enemies will trigger different musical sounds. The levels are designed so that when played the player creates a song of sorts.

The graphics of Rez use quite abstract 3d forms in an interesting style, but are quite similar in their function to other 3rd-person shooters; an avatar, controlled by the player, and enemies and other elements of the level that must be traversed. Unlike previous examples, there are no distinct beats to hit.



Patapon

Like Rez, Patapon also allows for a more creative approach to rhythm games. The player controls an army of little creatures that are given orders by hitting the correct sequence of buttons, which make different drum noises. The buttons must be hit in time to the beat, so the player makes music while giving orders to their soldiers.

The graphical style of Patapon is more illustrative than previous examples. Like Res, the beats to be hit are not represented on screen, but are only shown after they have been played. The players soldiers are shown as flat characters that perform the orders given to them on screen. Like Rez, the graphics do not respond directly to the music. Rather, the music is more defined by the actions of the on-screen characters.