Whispering Tracks Devlog #5 - LED Installation

If you've been paying attention in the previous entries, you might have noticed those weird looking, um, “torches” in some of the screenshots.

What are they for? Well, today I'll finally reveal their function. In fact, there is more than one! The last updates were all about improving them, and thus they are now a key part of the game-design.

Colors code

I call them "torches" because initially, those objects were supposed to have two states: off and on. Their only purpose was to indicate to the player how many paths were completed. It would thus allow the player to keep track of their progress: there is 5 paths to find in the game (including the tutorial one in the start screen), and thus 5 torches to light.

However after some considerations, there is actually more information that those lights can convey. But for that, they need to have more than two sprites. Therefore, I have replaced the torches by some kind of light panels, who can display different colors.

Grey is their default state, it indicates that the path has not been completed yet. Once it is, the panel turns green.

Then there is some special states. The first one is red, which only concerns the tutorial path's panel (the one at the center of the screen). Before this path is completed, the player cannot leave the first screen. Now if they attempt to, on top of being blocked by a wall at the border of the screen, the panel will blink in red, indicating that there is an action to perform before going further. Of course, a beeping sound is also emitted (once again for visually impaired player, and to improve the UX). It's a small thing, but a crucial information to guide new players.

But what about the blue state? Well, this is linked to the question I left you with at the end of the previous entry: how to help players find the paths?

Signal broadcasting

The initial idea I had to guide players was to simply have paths emit a sound that could be heard from a distance. It would be the same for all the paths. But this come with big problems: how should that sound sounds like so that it blends nicely with any music while still being perceptible? For how far should the player hear it? How to make sure that the player understands that this specific sound indicates that a path is nearby? In the end, I wasn't pleased with this idea at all. Because this game is about listening to music to explore, and this mechanics makes the music an obstacle to exploration, as it conflicts with the “relevant SFX”.

So instead of following a sound, what if the player was following the music itself? That's what the game is about after all! As each path is surrounded by unique musical loop, if the player knows those loops in advance, they can more easily search for them. Thus came a new use for light panels: they are radio emitting the musical ambient surrounding their respective paths! Well, not the whole ambient actually, only hints. More specifically, two instruments nearby. This way if the player recognizes one, they can look for the other, and search the path in the intersection between the two. While it is sometime large enough to require wandering a bit, it makes the search for the paths much more easier!

So here is the new behavior of the panels: when the player comes near them, they automatically turn blue and start playing their radio signal. I added some effects to make it sound like it an old radio : high-pass filter, distortion, white noise… It was pretty laborious to fiddle with those, but I eventually obtained something quite satisfying. Those effects were made directly with the native Web Audio API. I first intended to use Tone.JS helpers, but discovered that it connects very poorly with native audio nodes (that my library orchestre-js uses). A bit disappointed, especially given that Tone.JS is largely used across the web. I'd like developers to be able to use it with my own tools! I understand that it aims to be used cross browser though, so it has its own custom audio context. Urgh, if only Google could follow web standards…

Anyway, besides those struggles, I've been able to implement those radios and do some playtests. And the game is much easier this way! Now player can memorize the music emitted from the radio in the start screen, and look for them around the world. Although they might need to have a bit of musical ears, and auditory memory. Of course, they can always go back to the start screen to listen to the clues. They'll have to find their way back first, but that's part of the challenge! My only worry is the risk that visually impaired  players will totally miss the radios. So I made their detection range large enough to increase the probability of activating them, and I'll make sure to mention them in the game description (along with the game's complete instructions).

Hey, now that this is done, we actually have a complete prototype! Even if there isn't any end, the game can be finished! This means that I can (finally) work on visuals! Next time, be prepared to see some art! We'll see if I manage to draw something nice.