Drops

iarwainiarwain
edited October 2008 in Projects - Tools
Drops is an ambiant musical "game" experiment.
It has been designed my Mochi and is still WIP.

However, you can try this first public version here: Drops.

It is fully functional and runs on windows and linux. The zip only contains windows binaries though so as to make it lightweight. Debug version has also been removed from the zip.

However the full code source is available, part of the zip, so feel free to play around with it. It can be considered as a good advanced level tutorial! ;)

You'll need the latest SVN version of orx if you want to compile it, or you can wait for the next release (v0.9.1) that will arrive in a couple of days.

The source, even if not properly separated (keep in mind it's only an early build and has only been written in a couple of hours), is fully commented and shows how easy it is to develop using orx.

As for Drops itself, here are the basic controls:
  • Logo on the top left corner: left clicking it will clear the workspace
  • Button at top-center: left click on it to show the palette. The palette can also be called with mouse right button, anywhere on screen!
  • Cross at top right corner: left click will quit (who would have guessed? :P)
  • On the bottom of the screen, the left button is save and the right is load. Clicking on them will show the save slots. A grey slot is empty, a colored one is full
  • Middle mouse button will move the camera when kept pressed and moving the mouse
  • Mouse wheel will zoom
You can add notes on the workspace. Each note has its own color, tempo and sound. When grouping notes, the last one added gives its tempo to all previously created notes. That's pretty much it! :cheer:


Any feedback is welcome! :laugh:

PS: If you want to use a widescreen resolution, open drops.ini, in the [Display] section, change the ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight values. UI should follow nicely! B) A last thing, the experience is better with headphones, even if sound paning is broken with OpenAL on most sound cards, but everything should be fine with the upcoming fmod sound plugin for orx.

Comments

  • MochiMochi
    edited October 2008
    Hi there,
    The project itself is kinda WIP so it's supposed to evolve during the next weeks/months.
    Have fun and feel free to leave any kind of feedback about it !
  • LoopsLoops
    edited October 2008
    Hey,

    it's pretty fun, reminds me of tenori-on a bit :) I like the way notes change their rythm with the latest grouped one.

    Keep on the good work!
  • MochiMochi
    edited October 2008
    Thanks !
    Yes, it was a school project at first, made with 3 other people, and driven by the idea of making a musical toy that anyone would be able to play with, without giving any instruction.
    Electroplankton and Toshio Iwai's have been huge references for us to consider the user interface.

    This version is heavily improved from the original one, thanks to Iarwain's magic ! More to come about that project in a near future.

    Hopefully.^^
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited October 2008
    And hop! Drops is the first project having some screenshots on the site's gallery! :)
  • warrble726warrble726
    edited February 2009
    :woohoo: Its such an addictively fun game!!! I could play for hours!
  • MochiMochi
    edited February 2009
    Thanks ! It's the goal of that project, being interesting and enjoyable on long play sessions, despite having rather simple mechanics.
    I'm ashamed I'm not working on it enough, but we'll be back on it ASAP, it's a precious game, to me.
    *proud mother's tear*
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited February 2009
    Oh, a positive feedback, cool! :)

    The current version has 3 distinctive sound sets. You can switch from one to the next by pressing space.

    Sound spacialization will also work in a close future, as soon as Mochi gives me a correct version of the sound samples! :P

    The project is currently on hold as we're working on another one right now but any feedback is welcome! :)
  • MochiMochi
    edited February 2009
    Sound spacialization will also work in a close future, as soon as Mochi gives me a correct version of the sound samples!
    Blah blah blah blah...
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited February 2009
    Mochi wrote:
    Sound spacialization will also work in a close future, as soon as Mochi gives me a correct version of the sound samples!
    Blah blah blah blah...

    It'd been faster for you to convert them than to log in and write this post! Not even speaking about it being (not) constructive! :P
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited February 2009
    Thanks to Mochi, the current online build (here) works now with sound spatialization.

    I also added the possibility for user to change their inputs (look in drops.ini for a section called [MainInput], the rest is self-explanatory).

    It will also create a 16/10 screen ratio by default, if you prefer having a 4/3, just go in the same .ini file and look for ScreenWidth & ScreenHeight.

    Any feedback is welcomed! :)

    Enjoy!
  • rotorrotor
    edited March 2009
    i had a look at this project. i'm quite impressed with concept and the fidelity of the final presentation.

    although it's quite sandboxy, it shows what can be done as a structure for a game, which is something similar as i am aiming to set up, but i will aim to add more content.

    good effort!
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited March 2009
    Yes, it's really a WIP. It was written as a proof of concept and helped me on fixing a few things on orx and simplifying others too.
    Mochi and myself are currently busy with another prototype (of a more traditional game), and we'll be back on Drops afterwards.
    So yes, right now, it's only a first step, not at all a finished project. :)
  • MochiMochi
    edited March 2009
    Thanks for your input, Rotor !
    As Iarwain said, Drops' current version is the first step of three designed so far, so a few features are going to be added.
    I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeves, Rotor ! :D

    Mochi
  • rotorrotor
    edited March 2009
    with sandboxy i meant like non-restricted and free, aside the interface is a bit unrefined, it doesn't feel very WIP. it's a great prove of concept! :)
    I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeves, Rotor !

    i hope i will have something to show ;)
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited June 2009
    Hop, a small bounce to say that the archive on the site has been updated to use the 1.0rc1 version. :)

    As this Drops prototype has been developed with an early version of orx, some things could now be remade with a more data-driven approach. It will come... eventually! :)
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