Music Games: Execution vs Expression
As I’ve said in past articles, good music games are all about atmosphere.
When I first started researching music games, I was surprised by how many generic Guitar Hero clones I saw. I think we’ve all played Guitar Hero, or at least some Guitar Hero style game, where the goal is to hit a button in time with the music and in time with an indicator. It seems counter-intuitive to what a ‘music game’ could be. I’m not saying there isn’t value in that style, but getting a ‘good’ ‘bad’ or ‘perfect’ isn’t exactly the most musically engaging experience.
Music styles and genres are unique. They have different moods. Shouldn’t the gameplay reflect the variety of music styles? In the years since Guitar Hero, I have been amazed by some of the recent entries to the genre, and the way the genre can be divided into subcategories.
Innovative ways to create gameplay paired with an intended mood provide interesting games to the genre. Last article I said I would provide some tools to help design music games, and this time I will be sharing a tool to help shape musically inclined experiences.
I give you; a graph!
This can be used as a way to define your music games context and gameplay style. As it currently stands I’ve classified music games into two axis, agency on the horizontal, and feeling on the vertical.
Let’s start with the x-axis, execution vs freeplay. Execution based music games are about keeping time with the music, and inputting what the game instructs; like Dance Dance Revolution, Amplitude, or even Thumper. On the other hand, there is freeplay, and although there is no such thing as a sandbox music game (excluding music generative games), games can differ in how much expression and ‘freedom’ is given to the player. As opposed to the little agency execution-based games offer, freeplay games offer less strict timing gameplay. Like in my example below, Sound Shapes, as most of the challenges in the game are lenient with their timing.
The y-axis is mainly for differentiating atmospheres of music games. Is the gameplay trying to relax the player, or is it trying to simulate a rave? Either way, it is important to think about where your game lies on the graph in accordance with other games.
Entwined (top left), is a zen rhythm game in which you fly two joysticks through rings. It gets it’s relaxing zen gameplay from the continuous speed at which the rings appear. It’s important to note that there is no fail state in the campaign of the game, as the intended experience was to make a relaxing game. However, they included a challenge mode that gives you 3 mess ups before stopping your timer, and the game becomes about how long you can manage more and more challenging hoops; this completely flips this relaxation into self-pressured stress.
Entwined follows the same execution based gameplay that most music games do. Invector (bottom left), being one of those music games, uses the DJ Avicii’s music to create the intended trigger based experience. The game suffers from a lot of issues which I won’t get into now, but it is definitely an energetic space ship ride.
On the right hand side of the graph, there are games that care less about timing. In Sound Shapes (top right), a 2D platformer that invites you to interact with the environment, the games enjoyment comes from moving to the beat in whatever time window the obstacle sounds create. This game, although it can be exciting, it is more geared toward the leisurely ‘relax’ type of fun.
Rez: Infinite (bottom right), at the nexus of freeplay and excitement, is incredibly engaging and fun. As it is a rail shooter with a linear level layout, an argument could be made for it to be classified as execution based, but I would contend that since the game allows you the freedom to shoot enemies at different combo lengths, it is much less about the timing of the targets, and more about how you decide to target and hold firing.
Either way, positioning games on the graph can be left up for debate with team members, as a consequence as you fill out more and more game-points on the graph you can question the legitimacy of the position between them. When making a game, it’s interesting to see the points where your ‘competition’ lies but the real question is ‘where does our game lie on the graph?’ In asking this you will hopefully be able to more concretely define your games context and gameplay style in regards to how much agency and expression you give your players.
Hopefully this is a helpful way to think about how to differentiate your music game from those pesky Guitar Hero clones!
Check back next month for more perspective :)