I have typed up my idea into a script (without any scripting done yet). Also as a note this will be a discussion and a request at the same time, so if you can help me script this, it will be greatly appreciated

That's a really interesting concept. I'd really like to see a game about that. My question: is it a collection-ish game like pokemon? It seems like because these songs affect both your stats AND attack skills you'd be constantly on the look out for new songs. It's a suggestion and a question. It's a great idea, but is it really fundamental to he gameplay, or is it a more traditional turn-based RPG with a wacky-fun battle system? I think it would work really well as either!

It seemed like an okay idea until I realised that if you replace batteries with mana and songs with magic, you've basically not come up with anything aside from your magic slightly changing the bgm or turning off the bgm when you're out of mana, and that you have infinite mana during the day. I think maybe you should put a bit more thought into this because it may not be as innovative as you thought, let alone require a script for implementation.

What if you had a limited sized file system to hold songs? Like the low-level beats could be MIDI, average beats could be MP3 format, and the best could be FLAC. Since you don't have unlimited data storage you'd have to store some beats in computers for the time-being. And later you could get upgrades for your drive.

That's actually a really interesting concept.

It needs to be fleshed out more though. i.e. if you have multiple songs playing at the same time, which one will trump the other? how exactly will the songs work with each other?

I think to answer these questions, the easiest way right now is for you to come up with a couple sample songs (not actually write them, mind you, just what they do) ideas as examples of different song types and talk about how they interact. The reason is that because your design at this moment leaves the songs in different tiers of implementation. (i.e. Do they effect the BGM or not? Do they last multiple rounds or only on the rounds they are being played?) But it's hard to wrap your mind around all of this if we dont' have some examples to talk about.

It's a good idea, and I have no real problems with it...but it would probably be better to see a snippet of what it might look like in battle, perhaps?

This kinda reminds me of Mother 3 with the beat system...maybe not. But I'm all for it if you plan to add this into your game.

Never heard of Mother 3 before xD but as for someone else mentioning multiple songs.. you'll only be able to equip one as a stat booster (I have yet to name these) and the "weapon" song. All songs can be used for either but some may favor one type or be balanced, and for that idea of having limited space

I was thinking about that when I started the idea.. but I'm not sure how I would make it work exactly. Feel free to suggest things for that though though This game will be ridiculously complicated to make though lol, the battle system will be an ABS, but I'm not sure if there are any that "suit" (so-to-speak) my game, I'll figure that out later hopefully. The reason is because I know it is an ABS but.. I want the player to still go into that.. "battle scene" I'm not sure how to explain at the moment.

Some-what. You can beat the game with out searching for alternate songs (like buying songs that aren't as good as ones you can search for) there will be hidden songs that will of course be much better than average songs. So I guess yeah it'll be something similar to pokemon capturing/collecting or w/e you feel like calling it lol.


Actually there won't be a "mana bar" so-to-speak, the battery of the F.R.I.N.E is just for the F.R.I.N.E, there will be multiple things outside of battle that will use the battery. There will be changeable batteries, what I mean is that you can receive "larger" batteries that have a higher maximum battery capacity, other things like the battery depleting slightly faster after use sorta like a "duarability" system, you know how with real batteries they start to "die" after a long time and need to be replaced. As for what I said about the "batteries affecting the weapon songs", I mean, for this example I'll use a RC Car I got for christmas 2 years ago, the batteries it came with weren't that great, so I got brand new batteries, stronger aswell, when I tested it out, the car actually moved 2x as fast. So, again with the "durability" of the batteries, the newer they are, the stronger your attacks will be. Also for the songs changing BGM, I'll make that optional, so when you "equip" the song, it also asks you (if that song is able to change battle bgm) whether or not it will be used in battle, or if you will have default battle bgm. There will also be a setting allowing you to change what bgm is playing when your travelling through the world (you know like GTA you can change the radio's soundtrack etc.)

Pheww... But.. I cannot show you any battles (unless you just want to see a bland default battle) as I haven't gotten a new battle system I think I can throw some stuff together and show you some examples though. Not sure if I have time tonight.

brainstorming here

If you want to use some kind of action time bar system: (or any battle system that actually has real time as a component)

Looping songs: these are your basic BGM soundtrack songs. They tend to provide a static effect through out the entire song. i.e. bonus to damage, etc. you can turn on once by a player, and it just plays until you choose to end it.

Single track: these are songs with a beginning and end. You start a song, and it plays. Through different stages of the song, the song will have different effects. i.e. during the guitar solo, enemies will take damage by the seconds, which adds up to a massive amount, during the start up percussion sequence, players all get a boost in speed.

you can only have one song active at any time.

as for shorter, more usable powers, you also have "songs" that are more like short instrumental performances. These need to be a bit more neutral in terms of how distinct they sound. (So that it can blend in with the main song playing) But they can be used to either directly effect the enemy or enhance the effect of the song playing at the moment.

i.e. maybe some of the songs do not have a bass or beat track behind it. By providing it with a beat track, you can give your players a bonus to speed.

That's actually a really nice idea thank you, I'll think about that one thouroughly.

I was thinking about little "performances" for "super/ultimate" moves, like he gathers the songs energy waves and concentrates it into a air guitar solo and releases a huge volley of bolts at the enemy(ies) doing a huge amount of hits, while each one is individually weak, all of them combined will devastate the enemy(ies) or depending on what you use it on, instantly kill the enemy(ies) or a drum solo. I'm not sure if anyone here has played Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days.. but for those of you who have, do you know the part where Xion has that claw arm thingy and she jumps in the air and releases a volley of yellow bolts, they really hurt if you don't avoid them, like that but unavoidable.

Bump. Tell me what you think, and any suggestions are fully welcome <(^^,<)

I'm still not 100% on the idea of treating individual pieces of music as weapons, mostly because of how it will come out acoustically. Does each piece of music weapon actually HAVE music attached to it or is it more like just a blip sound effect and that's it? the difference is between having a game that really makes the music front and center or an RMXP game that just incidentally has a bunch of music based theme.

None of the songs equipped as a weapon will have a song, however equipping them as a Soundtrack (yes I finally named the slot), will activate the song in battle.

not sure what you mean exactly there :S

sorry, I reread what I wrote and I'm found it confusing too. Let me try to elaborate.

In FF2 (the one with Edward the Spoony Bard), one of Edward's powers is he can sing a song that boosts stats or puts enemies to sleep. When that happens, all you hear is a simple sound effect of maybe 3 notes and it's over. The background soundtrack syncs with the sound effects of the game in no way at all.

Now, consider the game Elite Beat Agents, or any music rhythm game you can think of. Everything you do will ultimately sync with the soundtrack in the background somehow. If you hit the right keys at the right time, you will basically be playing an instrument along side the song, even though the activity you're playing might not necessarily be tied in with the music itself. In Fist of the Northstar: Ken's Rage, whenever Ken goes into his hyper mode (by hitting the right button when his rage meter is full), the background music actually gets FASTER and the guitarist goes ballistic on the guitar while he's in hyper mode. It actually enhances the mode of combat quite nicely.

That is what I meant. Right now, the implementation you have would be closer to the FF2 Edward-Spoony-Bard style song playing. I was wondering if you were going to make it into a full rhythm game thing. (Except instead of trying to hit notes on target timing, you just play pieces of a music that comes together to make a huge song.)

I've heard of those games before, and I'm aiming to try and make all the music "sync" or "flow" nicely together, I haven't played FF2 myself though, since the one I have is in Japanese lol. Although there will be maybe... 2-3 songs trying to flow together at once.. tops, like if you were doing a super attack, it would have the the actual battle bgm quiet down to maybe 10-20% and then it'll have that super move's song played over the top. This was the inspiration to my project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzxVrBoTX74, not that song in particular, just the game lol.

I have another idea.. viruses.. y'know those pesky buggers that infect files and things? well what if it was possible to get viruses on your music? (sounds kinda weird I know but still). Tell me what you guys think.

Just a thought, but have you ever played Megaman Battle Network? In one of them, (I don't remember which) you can place "programs" into a gridmapped square. The programs have different shapes, and RAM sizes. It's kind of like working a puzzle. There's also a RAM limit, if your programs exceed it, you get glitches, or viruses, that cause random in-game effects like the screen becoming blurred every time you move. Those can't be fixed any other way but going into the gridmap and rearranging the programs so that they fit together and you're not over the RAM limit. Eventually, you can improve your RAM limit and gridmap size to accommodate bigger, more powerful programs.

When you mentioned the virus idea, that reminded me of this. I think it would work well in a game like this.

Thanks for the comment I'm glad it sounds ok xD but it doesn't make a lot of sense considering I've never heard of an infected music file (mp3 or w/e)