Making musical toys at Unity Hackweek

Initial Idea & Inspiration

At Unity Hackweek 2018, a group of us worked on a music maker, which was eventually named Super Sound Synthesizer 3000. The aim was to create a music sequencer that lives in the Unity Editor as an editor window.

The idea for this came from mentoring at Girl Game Maker Day. We had provided code and art for the girls to make their game, but music was an afterthought (as it too often is in game jam environments, unfortunately). Even asking the girls to download some free music from the internet was a challenge, as most free music sites require registering, and many of them were too young to have an email address of their own. We needed something simpler to create music without learning a new tool.

After this initial idea, a lot of the early inspiration came from Doodle Studio 95. It’s fun, it’s playful, and it’s simple to create sprites and animations that can go directly into your Unity project. One of the main things we wanted to achieve with our music maker was that it should be easy for a beginner to create something, but someone more skilled can also create something great if they want to; Doodle Studio does this so well (as shown by the trailer for it!)

The team

I started rounding up the team a couple of months before Hackweek even started. First, I approached Andy Selby, since I knew he enjoys making digital music, and he had made music-related Unity projects in the past. He said “oh, yeah alright then”. One down.

Next I asked Siobhan Gibson and Hope Rudd. I can't remember which order I asked them in, but they both said something along the lines of “oh, that sounds fun”. Ideal.

Siobhan is really passionate about fun and simple game-making tools, so I hoped she’d be keen. Hope is new to programming and I knew this would be a great chance for them to deep dive into a project and work collaboratively with a team, so I’m glad they agreed! Hope is also in a band, so extra points for them.

Other people joined our Slack channel to ask questions, but it ended up just being the 4 of us in the team. I didn’t realise until later on how beneficial this would be. We all knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so we knew how to work together (even though none of us had actually worked in a group together before).

Further research

On the first day of Hackweek, we planned to only research, experiment and prototype. This gave us a chance to get used to the atmosphere of the hacking hall, and all decide how the project should look and feel.

Siobhan spent the day looking at other playful music tools (because us saying ‘Doodle Studio but music’ is not a sufficient design spec).

One of the stand-out tools that Siobhan found was Song Maker. We all fell in love with it pretty much immediately.

Toc and roll is also great. We especially loved the way you could use your voice and a sample, and that is has effects pedals! Siobhan was able to quickly made a lovely song (that actually got stuck in my head) and had a fun time showing us how to use it, which the the exact sort of thing we wanted from our music maker.

Siobhan used these tools as inspiration and created a mock-up in excel for how ours could look.

Andy has been making digital music for years, so he was able to provide great insights from the more professional angle, too. On the more professional side, we looked at tools like FLStudio and Reaper.

Microphone Recorder

As a sort of coding warm-up, Hope and I pair-programmed a very mini prototype of one of the desired features. We created an editor window where you enter how long you’d like to record for in seconds, then press record to start a microphone recording. This recording is saved as a .wav file inside the Unity project. We did this so we could get an idea how the workflow could work, and how wav files are created and saved. It also gave Hope a chance to make Editor Windows, and learn about the process that goes into creating tools. (Side note: Hope is a total joy to work with. They made notes about everything we went over, and asked good questions as we went. Not only did they learn a lot (hopefully!) but it made me slow down what I was doing and think about it.)

We used this code to save the AudioClip as a .wav file, and we had a lot from the Unity Manual to learn about how Microphones work with Unity.

UI elements

Super Sound Synthesizer 3000 was made using Unity’s UI Elements feature. We chose this instead of the existing Editor GUI so that we’d have more flexibility and a chance to play with a new area of Unity. UI Elements is much closer to web development than EditorGUI. This intimidated me, but Andy was great at learning the information and explaining it back to me. We had to do some odd tricks to make things work (for example, we had to manually flip through frames of a sprite animation because there is no support for gifs out of the box).

Buttons using GUILayout are simple to implements, as shown here: GUILayout.Button. A button in UI Elements requires a few more lines of code, as shown in their example project: UIElementsExamples.

Wav saving fail

The biggest hurdle was trying to get the audio created with our synthesizer to save as a .wav file. I investigated a few different methods:

• Joining audioclips
• This gets confusing when more than one clip plays at a time
• An asset package: Audio Clip Combiner
• Recording from “in-game” audio
• We couldn’t figure out how to access it without using something like Soundflower

We ended up using a hacky version of the microphone recorder that Hope and I had worked on earlier in the week. It waits until the audio loop is back at the beginning, and it records for the length of time of one loop. It was terrible and included all the background noise from the room, but creating our own way to record in-editor audio somehow could have been another Hackweek project! Definitely not something to do on a Thursday evening.

Last few hours

Earlier in the week, I needed a sound to test the synthesizer. Luckily, I could just easily record a small clip using the Microphone Recorder window. Naturally, I meowed. I did not think about how this would be played whenever someone opened the window. It sort of became a meme within the team. We HAD to include this in the final product, so in the last few hours, Siobhan created a cat icon, and I added The Cat Button to our window.

We also wanted to add tempo buttons, as we pretty much already had the code to do it. To make it beginner-friendly, we opted for a tortoise, a heartbeat, and a hare to illustrate slow, medium, fast. It worked really well and looked cute!

The Final Product

Watch the video here

The Future

We all had loads of fun working on this, and we'd like to keep it up! One of the things Hope started working on in the week was a way to add effects to the audio (like Reverb, for example) but we didn't have time to get this added. Hopefully, we can make some cool guitar-pedal-esque UI and get this hooked up :)
As UI Elements will eventually be usable for in-game UI, we'd like to make a small in-browser demo for this toy, too.

I've been playing around with RPG Maker

Before I begin, if you're going to come here to tell me that it's not a REAL game engine etc etc, you can just leave now. Because I don't care, and I'm not interested. I'm just having a bit of fun.

As the title suggests, recently I've been playing around with RPG Maker VX Ace. I've always been a very visual learner, so this program has been perfect for me. The program provides the graphics too, which is even better.

I started off by making a very simple map.

An NPC came next. She may, or may not be, Taylor Swift. Initially, all she did was wander around saying "I'm Taylor Swift". Kinda boring.

Then, I added a house. This took a little bit longer to make, but I think it looks quite cute.

Using the "quick event" function, I added a treasure chest. It felt a bit cheaty at first, but then I realised it gives you all the code (RPG Maker uses Ruby, I believe). So I started taking that and applying it to other events, like barrels.

Baby steps...

Adding treasure chests gave me items, so it was time to make a simple fetch quest. Taylor Swift needs a potion! (In retrospect, I should've said it was to mend her broken heart... ah well.)

It started off with her simply taking the item from me if I had it in my inventory and giving me some gold, but then I added in a Yes/No option. It's starting to look like a real game!

Next came adding a conditional branch. There's a chest in there, but some lady is blocking it. I need to complete the quest for Taylor first. Seems fair enough. Just need to find that potion.

Long story short, here's a quick video of what I've made so far! (Apologies for crappy quality etc, I'm still trying to figure out which capture software I like best)


Basically, I'm having fun with this program! I have some fun ideas for other games I want to create with it, and I'll probably keep adding to this one and see what it turns into. Hopefully I'll be able to show off something cool I've made in Python soon, too.

On falling back in love with Nintendo

A few months ago, a late-night grocery run in Tesco resulted in us coming home with a Wii U. We bought the bundle with Mario Kart 8, and an extra Wii U Pro controller. It was kind of impulsive, but I've certainly had no regrets.

My love for Nintendo probably started with the GameBoy. I didn't own one, but my best friend did. I borrowed hers as often as I could. I mostly played Pokemon, but I don't think I was particularly good at it. It didn't matter, though. I was hooked.

One Christmas, Santa brought me a GameBoy Advance and Warioland 4. I still have such vivid memories of playing that game, and it brings a smile to my face.

My collection of games (and Pokemon) grew. I was basically never looking up from the screen. Of course this only became more intense once the DS came out.

Long story short, I eventually fell out of love with Nintendo. I was busy with school, games were getting way too expensive, and to be honest, I was pretty bored of Mario. It just wasn't doing it for me any more.

For a while, I was so sceptical of Nintendo in general. Their determination to do things their own way had clearly not been working, and I didn't want to buy a whole new console just to play the games from the franchises I love. I turned to Xbox and PC, and I thought that would be it. Until the late-night trip to Tesco.

Okay, so I've been making it sound as if I turned up at Tesco and went "FUCK IT", but really, I'd been thinking about the Wii U for a long time. Nintendo's display at E3 2014 REALLY impressed me. The announcements from Nintendo stuck with me the most. So many of the displays left me thinking "I need to play that game!" In particular, Captain Toad and Yoshis Wooly World, but obviously not forgetting that open-world Zelda announcement, and Smash Bros! And Amiibo! There was just so much that piqued my interest.

So buying a Wii U just felt like a good choice. How else would I play all those games?

The Mario Kart 8 bundle is basically fantastic. And the fact that Nintendo have hopped on the DLC bandwagon? I'm all for it! I love having new tracks come out every few months.

For someone who's never really been able to sink many hours into fighting games, I've had so much fun with Super Smash Bros. Although I will say that the Amiibos level up a BIT too fast. It didn't really feel like AI that was learning, to be honest. It just felt like a really tough CPU. But hey, they're still cute and fun and something new to play with!

Obviously I can't forget to mention the game pad. I loved having a map of the course on the controller while racing on the TV. It's also great if you want to play Captain Toad (which is amazing) while your boyfriend is using the TV to play Xbox (or if your bedroom is conveniently placed above your living room- that game pad is coming to bed with you). It feels like somewhere between a GameBoy and an iPad.

Nintendo get a lot of stick for putting out a lot of remakes, but they're more than some new textures. For example, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are just outstanding. I got a 3DSXL with Ruby for Christmas, and I didn't put it down for about 2 weeks. It made me nostalgic about the original, but it didn't feel like the same game. It's so much better.

3DSXL with decal and case from Etsy (Can you spot Logan's toes?)

As well as all the new content, Nintendo have been keeping the classics alive with the Virtual Console. I bought Earthbound, which never had a European release the first time round, so that was great. I also bought the original Legend Of Zelda for my 3DS. It's been a joy.

Logan, pls.

Nintendo also made me realise that it's okay to enjoy "lame" games. All the boys in school who said you didn't really like games unless it was a shooter were clearly idiots. It's okay to play games the way YOU want to play them, and Nintendo are the best at embracing that.

What I'm trying to say is that Nintendo have really been doing things right recently, and I hope it stays this way. Let's just say that there's far more games that I'm currently excited for on 3DS and Wii U than I am for Xbox One.

Mini(ish?) Review: Child Of Light

First of all: wow. This game is fantastic. I wanted to share with everyone WHY I enjoyed it so much, so here we are. I'll try to keep this as short and spoiler-free as possible :)

Child of Light is an RPG "arcade" game (I'm not sure what else to call a game that doesn't have the £50 price tag, but isn't just DLC?) by Ubisoft Montréal. It maybe took me about 10 hours to complete, but would take longer if you wanted to explore absolutely everything. I played it on Xbox 360, so I spent a little while trying to get all the achievements (I succeeded).

This game is GORGEOUS. I loved looking at it. The backgrounds, the characters, the animation, the dialogue images (cutscenes?), EVERYTHING. I could've spent forever moving Aurora around just to see her hair flow.

Dat hair physics.

The sound of this game is also spectacular. In particular, the song I've embedded below filled me with JOY every time I heard it. I'm listening to it as I write this, in fact. It makes me want to skip FLY through a field, but also fight dragons at the same time.

The game's combat system is very interesting, and difficult to explain unless you've tried it. It is turn-based, but there is also timing involved. I, personally, have not seen anything like it in any other game. It constantly kept me on my toes, and I didn't tire of it. The names of the monsters are never shown, and you never see their HP either. I would've liked to have seen their names, at least. I'm sure there's people who worked on the game who put a lot of thought into the names, and it would've been nice to see.

I would definitely play this game again (I love that there is a New Game + option) and I have been recommending it to everyone I see. If you enjoy RPGs, play it! If you don't, still give it a go! It's was a joy to experience and I had so much fun. If you're new to video games, I'd say this is a great place to start out, too. I played it on easy, so there's no judgement here.

Child Of Light Website

Child Of Light Official Tumblr

Did you like this review? Have you played Child Of Light? Leave me a comment or talk to me on Twitter!

WildStar beta fun: Part 2

NOTE: This is most certainly written from a noob's point of view. Try not to get too ragey about what you're reading.

Okay, so I've been playing some more WildStar! I did the first few intro quests, and I'm having lots of fun! It's just been tutorial stuff; combat etc. I helped some guy save his pregnant wife, and now people like me. I dunno. It's all very overwhelming

My character is on the "Scientist" path, which means it wants to learn and discover etc. One of the quests I did involved having a "scanbot" follow me around and scan relics...? You can also level up your path, which unlocks rewards. It was quite confusing, but I like how there's different quests depending on if you're an Exile or the Dominion, and what path you're on. I'm sure it will make more sense as I go on.

Aboard The Gambler's Ruin: The Exiles' arkship

I haven't seen much of my Esper class much yet, apart from in the first few combat situations (but the combat is so confusing that I don't know what's going on anyway.) I think it's something to do with telekinetic powers? A magical looking bird thing appeared during battle, so there's that. I've kinda just been pressing buttons.

The controls have been annoying the hell out of me. This is probably mostly due to the fact I'm playing on a 3 year old laptop, but still. I've fallen off of so many ledges.

(1 day later...)
After some fiddling, I started to get the hang of everything and had MUCH more fun. I completed some more quests, and made my way to Nexus!

Leaving for Nexus

Nexus is a lush green planet, but after landing, your character discovers that "the planet is angry", or something along those lines. Either way, there were plants trying to kill me. I got to fight some more powerful enemies, and I even died for the first time while playing! (I think I've got the hang of combat now, too.)

This is the part of the game where the story really opens up, and I can't wait to keep playing. For now, I'm trying to resist, as I'm in the middle of exam season...

Nexus

Long story short, WildStar is fantastic. I love games set in space, so combined with the RPG mechanics, I've been having so much fun. I will definitely play more of this game once it is fully released, and I'm looking forward to see how it performs once I build myself a badass gaming PC.

The beta for WildStar closes at 7pm GMT tonight and the full release is June 3rd, 2014.

Do you have suggestions for more games I should play? Or perhaps you'd like to see more alpha/beta game "reviews"? Let me know :)

Wildstar Beta fun: Part 1..?

I have always liked RPGs. I love everything about them. Most of all, I love how you mould a unique character. You get to live in a fantasy world. I'm a sucker for that kind of immersion.

Aside from briefly dabbling in Runescape in my youth, I have mostly avoided MMOs. There are a few reasons for this. Primarily, the cost. As a kid, I could never afford to pay a subscription, and my mum certainly wouldn't pay it for me. There was the lack of a decent PC. Slow computers are worse than no computers at all. Lastly, MMOs intimidate me slightly. I know that I would LOVE WoW, but the game is around 10 years old, and has millions of players who are much better than me. I feel like if I started playing at this point, I'd probably just die over and over again. (This probably is not true, but I'm still a WoW virgin nonetheless.)

Jessica Nigri's cosplay of a Wildstar Draken (Photo by Martin Wong)

I first heard about WildStar when I heard Jessica Nigri (above) would be cosplaying for them at PAX East. When I saw that VG247 were offering beta keys, I thought, why not? The full game comes out after I finish uni anyway.

I was also intrigued by Wildstar, because the guy (below) on a lot of promotional material reminds me of Ratchet from one of my favourite games, Ratchet and Clank. It made me quite nostalgic.

The Chua: one of the races available to play in Wildstar

So, when the beta realms opened, I immediately logged on (probably not the best idea, seeing as I'm in the middle of revising for my university exams....)

Today I have only gotten as far as character creation. I chose to be on the side of the Exiles. My race is Aurin, my class is Esper, and my path is Scientist (obviously). The game gives a brief description of what these mean, but right now I have no idea of the story or relevance of any of this. It sounds pretty sweet so far, though.

The character creation is very detailed for the face; you could probably make it look very similar to yourself if you tried! I kept it simple. Big eyes, big mouth, and I didn't mess around too much with the rest. I decided to have light blue skin, long pink hair, and purple eyes. I was disappointed that the customisation for the body wasn't as detailed. There were around 10 pre-sets to choose from, all of which had big, giant boobs.... sigh.

My Wildstar character. Obviously I went for cat ears.

I started on the first mission, spoke to the first guy who had an exclamation point above his head, and lost connection. This is probably a sign that I should carry on revising... or that I need to upgrade my PC (which I'm planning on doing later this year!)

I'll try to post more about the Wildstar beta over the course of the weekend. I'm excited to delve into quests, and actually learn what Wildstar is all about!

Review of 'Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons'

Official website for the game

Image via Starbreeze Studios

I decided to write a review for this game because it was my favourite arcade game of 2013, and despite it winning the BAFTA for Game Innovation, I still feel like not enough people have played it.

I had no idea what was in store for me when I started this game. I'd heard Burnie Burns talk about it on The Patch, but that was about it.

Controls

The controls immediately confused me. They definitely took some getting used to, but part of the charm of this game lies in the controls. It it a good physical representation of how close these brothers are, and how they must work together.

The player controls both players on one controller. After a bit of fiddling, I learned to control them effectively if I aligned them on the sides of the screen that correspond with their positions on the controller, otherwise I'd end up with two characters wandering around aimlessly.

Image via: http://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/

Storyline

Despite the lack of dialogue, the storyline is very easy to grasp (through a lot of pointing at things from the various characters). It's a simple storyline that we've all heard before in many different forms. A combination of controlling both brothers at once, and the puzzles throughout the game makes a simple tale so engaging. You really want the brothers to succeed.

Puzzles along the way keep the story interesting. Each chapter is exciting and different. It's also interesting how the achievements aren't story based, which makes it possible to complete the game without getting a single G. I felt like this added another layer to the game- it was almost like little side quests throughout! They range from cute things like playing with rabbits, to very dark moments involving a man trying to hang himself.... (That wasn't really a spoiler, don't worry). I really had fun going through and getting all the achievements. (Hint: It's worth interacting with everything you see)

This game was an emotional roller coaster. Without giving too much away, there were parts near the end where I actually teared up. I don't even get like that with movies! (Perhaps that's a testament to why video games are better than movies IMO, but that would be a WHOLE different topic)

Summary

Like I said, this game was one of my favourites of 2013. I loved every second of playing. It was never repetitive or boring, and I would recommend this to EVERYONE.

The first step in my Raspberry Pi adventure

So here's my Pi in its little case. I bought a 16GB SD card for it with NOOBS pre-loaded.

But I still haven't decided what to do with it!

I briefly thought about turning it into an aurora detector. I've just built a magnetometer to detect geomagnetic storms in my astronomy lab (a slightly more advanced version of this one), and I thought I could apply the same principles here. It would be interesting, but not very interactive. It would be a case of building it, then sitting and leaving it to run. I want to be a bit more involved than that.

I've also thought about using it to build some very simple 2D games. That could be quite complicated?

Anyway, I'm not going to start playing with it till my exams are all out of the way, but that doesn't mean I can't THINK about what to do with it.

Let me know if you have any suggestions about what I should do with it!

My first blog post

So it looks like I've started a blog.

I'm doing this because I want to have a record of when good things happen, so I can look back and be happy. I also want to be able to share the good stuff with my friends in a more personal format than Facebook or Twitter.

I haven't really decided how this is going to go yet. It may be posts about a new video game I'm playing, a cool trip I went on, or a new pair of shoes. Who knows.

Maybe you'll enjoy it, maybe you won't.

But it's my blog and I'll do what I want to.

For now, here's an article I wrote recently for theGIST about solar flares and the aurora. I'll maybe be doing more in the future.