Swing, Soar, Sing.mov
Swing, Soar, Sing.ck
Use the mouse to swing.
Contentment. Solitude. What else will you feel on the swingset?
Swing, Soar, Sing - M3.mov
Swing, Soar, Sing.ck
I am struggling to adapt the swing mechanics to the flying mode. The physics are different, but I want them to still feel natural and continuous. I'm not sure if I should change the underlying system between the two modes and if I should try to make the feel the same.
Swing, Soar, Sing - M2.mov
Swing, Soar, Sing.ck
I think one way to look at what makes a good computer music piece is what how it balances working within the constraints of the medium and pushing the boundaries of what the medium can easily do. In this piece, I am pushing the boundaries with physics and character design. I want the the physics model and the way the character looks and moves to hold the magic of this piece.
I want this interactive story to evoke peace and unity through delightful shared nostalgia.
How do I want to make people feel?
I would like people to feel the safety, comfort, and trust that comes from caring for yourself.
I would like people to feel the joy of becoming themelves and expressing themselves.
What do I want to do with an interactive audio-visual tool? I want the mechanics to be nuanced and responsive. I want something springy that you can push or jump on, or maybe a swing.
I like the swing idea. You press a button to extend your legs and swing forward. You make sound proportional to the amplitude of your swinging. How could I integrate the sound with the action of swinging? I could imagine creating a calming, reflective feeling. How would I design the swing in ChuGL? I want it to look smooth, without unnatural edges. So, I would have the limbs floating, slightly detached from the body. Every body part would be ovoid. Maybe it squeaks at first, but as the amplitude grows, the sound becomes more sonorous. Perhaps the perspective is a narrow at first, but then as the amplitude grows, you see a beautiful landscape. What is the narrative besides the growing amplitude? How does the sound change? How does the dynamic evolve? Maybe the camera leaves the swingset and starts to move through the landscape as you continue to swing based on the sound alone. Maybe you start to fly with the camera, and the dynamic changes while the mechanic stays the same. Maybe you meet friends who fly along with you and contribute their own sounds. Maybe you meet them at some landmark. Maybe you all get on a huge swing together and make something happen with it, like making a light beacon emanate from a temple, making a sound and drawing more friends with whom you celebrate before returning to your original swing and landscape, now seeing the illuminated temple in the distance, as the music fades and only your swing sound is left, but now with the bass and maybe harmony from the temple. Maybe as you are flying, the dynamic is that you jet forward when you would normally swing forward. Maybe you stretch out when you accelerate forward.
Do I want to have physics simulations?
A totally different feeling would be one of excitement and jittery movement. I imagine triangle particles shooting from something. You could shoot triangles at differently pitched mugs with the mouse, and you could use other keys to play percussion.
Maybe you jump on a spring in time with music. The spring could be a trampoline. Do you have a trampoline partner?
What if I did something abstract? Does ChuGL lend itself to gradients patterns?
Do I want to build a physics engine? No. I do not want to implement collisions. That might rule out shooting particles and jumping on something. You could still interact with a spring though, just without up and down on it.
What do I want it to look like? How can I make it look with ChuGL? ChuGL excels at 3D and 2D rendering.