Mu-Heng (Eric) Yang (mhyang@stanford.edu).
My final project is a music game in Chunity. I'm inspired by the popular mobile games Temple Run, and Piano Tiles. Therefore, I named my game TempoRun. Unlike Temple Run's setting, the ground is an actual music staff with a lot of music notes, so user has to control the runner to collect the coins to generate music notes that aligns with the background chord progression. There are obstacles like airships, trees, stones that runner needs to dodge. Alone the way, there are shoes, stars, and chests that modify the speed, octave, and instruments, so users can create their own music.
I always wanted to do gamification in music education - building game that is fun, but in the meanwhile can teach people music. The game is laid out in music sheet (staff) with many music notes. User can learn the concept of music notes, intervals between notes, tempo, absolute and relative pitches. For example, to change lanes, user can press 5 and then left to quickly move the runner to the perfect 5th. It's a legit music education game, but in a fun way. It's fun game, so users will spend hours playing and learning. After training, users will know the intervals when hearing two notes. Also, there are bonuses in the game. The shoe bonus will double the tempo. The star will turn all music an octave higher. The chest will change the instruments for melody and chord progression.
The ultimate product is a music education game. Its purpose is to learn and play music in a fun way. Users start like normal games without realizing they are learning. But after awhile, they will know the concept of intervals, absolute pitches, and relative pitches. Most importantly, it's really fun to play, so users will spend hours playing it, so unconciously knowing more about music. The interface is straightforward. Users control the arror key to move the runner. Left and right arrows can change lane, and down arrow can crouch and slide. When you slide while touching the coin, the sound will have the NRev effect. By pressing the number 1-8, users can quickly change lanes from 2nd interval to 9th interval. After finishing one level, there will be a score based on your time and coins collected. So users will have incentive to play well and collect coins/notes. The software is built using Chunity. The main script is in Player.cs. When the runner bumps into different obstacles, coins or bonus, there will be different response, and sound generated by Chunity. I used various unit generators for different instruments and controlled the pitch based on the object location in Unity. To measure the goodness of the game, hours of playing is a very important factor. To make it a better game, I spent a lot of time designing various mechanism and bonuses. I personally have spent many hours playing it. It's really addictive since there are many combinations and bonuses. Another metrics is its impact. Music education is essential and important for everyone to fully appreciate music. The game allows users to learn more about music and music sheet, and better understand the structure of a song. After playing this game, users without music knowledge will have a deeper understanding for songs in daily life.
