Music Games Analysis: 140 and Thumper

Ever since I played 2013’s musical platformer game 140, it got me thinking about how music and sounds in games are used to effect the gameplay experience. 140 quickly became one of my favorite games, and still remains at the top of my list. As the 4th level of 140 has just been released I thought I would share some of my findings about the music game genre and how games like Thumper and 140 create these atmospheric and immersive musical experiences, albeit in very different ways.

For this article, I’m defining a ‘music game’ as a game that’s sound output plays an integral part in the player experience, so much so that if the game became mute, you would start to ask: “Why am I playing this?” At the same time though, music in games isn’t what gamers play them for. Games use music to define their atmosphere and gameplay, intriguing the game’s niche audience of music gamers.

When talking about music games, historically they have been extremely linear and on rails experiences, as music is. The whole idea of a ‘music game’ in design terms, is making the gameplay support the audio, rather than vice versa. We see the latter often with non-music games like Overwatch, whose designers put together a supporting soundtrack, allowing players to better understand and gain information by listening to the sounds in the battle arena.

Sound provides an immediate emotional response, packed with information about the game; as a result, musical games are lifting the game’s state of flow to a higher level (Schell, Csikzentmihalyi). Music games are then, in theory, the optimal way to experience tactile, audio, and visual information, in the pursuit of a synesthesiac experience.

In traditional music games like Harmonix’s Amplitude or Guitar Hero, the level simply exists to turn on the selected track of the song. Thus, the game is about how much of the song you can get through, what I call execution based gameplay. This is different in musical platformer games like 140, where the soundtrack shapes the way the obstacles interact with the player; in the game there are a variety of different sounds that make up the music, and each sound is linked to a different obstacle, moving at its own rate, ultimately making each obstacle or challenge unique and satisfying to play with.

140 also gives players music to jam and dance to. The gameplay is based on the idea of what an instrumentalist does; listen to the music and play in time with it, what Carlsen Games calls ‘rhythmic awareness’. The player is given the freedom to move, and jump, as well as to utilize whatever mechanic the music introduces. As the game is abstract, with basic shapes, and electronic sounds, the game’s goal is to move the player forward in the space and add more layers and mechanics to the music.

Now let’s examine Thumper in contrast to 140. Where 140 gives the player free time to overcome obstacles, Thumper is a bit more like a traditional music game, where you are riding on a strict set track and making two mistakes in a row will restart the level. The player pilots a space beetle on the track, forcing the player to execute the prescribed movements. The tone of the game is dark, with bombastic music and visuals that give the feeling of a cosmic wormhole. The music largely creates the experience as it provides information about the transitions of the game; it can go from still and simple to bombarding you with explosive grinds, lasers, and nightmare creatures, which is perfect for the intended atmosphere.

Thumper tries to give the player rhythmic cues when they have to act, but this becomes more or less lost in the more chaotic visual and musical measures of the levels. The confusion doesn’t detract too much from the player experience because of how the levels are set up to work with the established mood and atmosphere. However, since music games are about atmosphere, the intense punishment of restarting the level for missing a note kills the flow and mood; instead it focuses on the idea of ‘rhythm violence’ and frustration. When you mess up the game just hits you on the head and says, ‘try again’ (Albor).

The developers of Thumper said that the game “has a very different vibe to what people consider music games to be” (Calvin). The punishment the game dishes out, along with the unique dark cosmic music and visuals, creates a cohesive gameplay experience.

As music games are about atmosphere and feeling, innovative ways to create either will provide new and interesting games to the genre. They may not be what the public thinks of as ‘music games’ but experiences where the music supports the contextualization of the gameplay and atmosphere have always been where the success of the genre has been.

I’ll be publishing more of my research on music games, with more analytical content to create more concrete tools to help make these games! But for now, here’s what I’ll leave you with: Music is a unique aspect of gameplay because it is subjective, and it makes the player feel something. There is no perfect way to classify these ephemeral states of mind. In order to design a successful music game, you have to know what epistemologies are the best fit for the atmosphere. You have to know what players want to do with the game: and where it falls on the spectrum of how they want to feel.

Works Cited:

Schell, Jesse. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Print.

Carlsen Games. 140. Computer software. Carlsen Games. Double Fine Productions, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Albor, Jorge. “The Anti-Zen of ‘Thumper’” PopMatters. PopMatters, 20 Oct. 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

Calvin, Alex. “Developer Drool on Why Thumper Is Not a Rhythm Title.” MCV. NewBay Media, 08 Nov. 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.