soloway: origin story

devlog about video game

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 0: what is soloway?

Soloway is a deconstructed rhythm game that talks about joys and struggles of Ukrainian funk musicians in a playful manner. The project is based on a research on the origins, features, and politics behind Ukrainian Funk musician communities. The author deems the discussion of this cultural phenomenon crucial in the days of global unrest caused by Russia's imperialist tendencies. The author has chosen video games as a medium for this project due to deep belief into the power to engage and captivate the video games posses. The author believes that funk is a music of joy and playfulness, and believes that the media that talks about funk should be playful as well, one way or another. The questions the project is exploring are: 1. What are distinct traits of Ukrainian funk music? How, and why this cultural phenomenon came to live this specific way? 2. What was the fate of Ukrainian funk musicians in Soviet Union era, and afterwards? 3. How to talk about Ukrianian funk with people outside of Ukraine? How to talk about Ukrainian culture outside of Ukraine? Stay tuned for further conversation!

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 11: Hackathons As Source Of Improvement

My next design was inspired throughout MIT Reality Hack. Thing is, last time the game was two-dimensional, with character bound to earth, and with trying to balance inputs and dodging. At this note, I have went on a hackathon. Thing about hackathons is that aside from crafting and designing, you get a moment to talk about your projects. What means you need to tell elevator pitch whenever asked. What means, on social mixers you need to say pitch about 20 times per night. What means, you get a moment to think of stuff. Aside from this, you get a grasp of level of Cool other people get to create in limited amount of time. (And see whole universe in five minutes, what is infinitely awesome). Coming back, I have decided to scrap old visual design, and work on sensation of Flow, and Flight, to make game excited feel-wise. Not exhausted.

This has resulted in a brand new prototype: this time, with infinite scroller, and dramatic cameras. Here, I have connected WASD to motion, making it not only jamming, but also a dodging tool for player to use. While still a bit disorienting, this prototype was much more exciting to play in the end of the day. Yet, I have found a new issue. With this design, the players had hard times focusing on what objects are flying onto them, and what notes they are supposed to play in Suggested Note Line.

Therefore, I went back to prototyping Once Again.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 10: Character Design: Nightingale

Placeholder for a Nightingale was a little guy.

This design was drawn in about 5 minutes as a temporary imagery soon to be replaced with something more substantial. The imagery itself was inspired by these specific depictions of musicians of that epoch.

A bit later, I have come up with idea to adapt character design into a nightingale. Solovey. This bird is iconic for Ukrainian culture. In Ukrainian folklore, nightingale symbolised beauty of poetry and music due to their complicated singing patterns. In Ukrainian spring songs- Vesnyanky- nightingale is often depicted as a bird of hope. Ukrainian language is often called "a language of nightingale" because high amount of wovels makes the language sound melodic. At the same time, I was considering incorporating some design elements of the musicians themselves, as like iconic vests and straw hats.

Graphics-wise, I intended to remain two-dimensional, as like in iconic album cover of Chervona Ruta.

These inspirations have resulted in this design.

Later, I have decided to give game some dimension, and started testing different ways of emulate flight. I needed to create more stylized and easier-to-prototype design to start playing with dimensionality. I have looked in artworks of my greatest inspiration artist, Maria Prymachenko. Her style was drawing form folkloric patterns and designs, but adapted them to more modern look.

In addition to this, I appreciated work Ivan Semesyuk did for an album cover for canadian-ukrainian band Balaclava Blues.

These have resulted with me altering the design to get it similar to this two-dimensional style:

This sprite was cut up in tiny pieces for further prototyping. I have come up with this design:

Turned out, sideways motion was making people nauseous. I have moved to front-viewing morion, the one that is used in infinite scrollers, what has resulted in a need to update design once again. Now, in 3D, to allow me to rotate model in space. Material-wise for 3D I have decided to go with ceramics, with this iconic ceramic rooster that survived russian bombing being an inspiration:

At the same time, I was looking in other designs of traditional pottery, such as these decorated kitchenware items:

I wanted to bring back a bit of decorative ornaments into the design, combining 2D art (Maria Prymachenko paintings) with 3D sculptures (the pottery works) What together has amalgamated into a brand new design:

To preserve stylized, cutout-esque feel, I did not create rigging for the model, using separate pieces (wings, body, and head) for animation. In the end, I have added Cool Trails that make everything flowy and pretty C: And here is the model in scene:

Soon, very soon you will learn what is the imagery you see on top ;)

And for now, stay tuned!

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 9: And We Are Back To Prototyping

After the fail of previous prototype, I have decided to improve visuals to ensure people would have easier times getting grasp behind the game.

Old but gold prototype. Here, the player had two input systems: WASD to make music, and arrows to play notes. Arrows let the player move sideways and dodge attacks. WASD was used to play music. Each key was connected to a note within chord, what let player create music. In addition to this, each time player played a note, game would suggest what one note to play next, and when player clicked right note, it would suggest next one. Upon completing provided combination, player would deal extra damage to the BBEG. While I had not figured out how to record sound back then, it is important to notice first appearance of Note Switching system as well. Core idea behind it was that, while retaining similar values in relation to each other, notes would change their tone to maintain within background music's harmony. This mechanic let players jam along with music, what I felt an important part of the gameplay. Upon play test, players have reported bulky controls that could have been optimised, and some would not hear the sound as well. What was next? What were my bigger and more important steps? How would break impact the project? You will know very soon!

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 8: Character Design: Eagle

At this point, I started looking into UI.

I had an idea for depiction of BBEG for the game.

I wanted an apocalyptic and threatening antagonist. We are talking about Soviet Union, and what is it to Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries? It is steel curtain, colonizer, nuclear explosions, censorships, and repressions.

It is cult of victory in WWII, that forgets about all sacrifices and all deaths, and glorifies the war itself.

I wanted to make entity that will represent these horrors. I want game's boss to be intimidating and monumental, to capture the sense of steel curtain at least in design. Two of my big inspiration pieces were soviet monuments and russian coats of arms, that were turned into this monumental steel eagle. In addition, eagle was getting shiny red star- another favorite logo of soviets. Here is an initial sketch:

Being baby Ukrainian in 2000s, I had a bad luck to witness russian cultural presence in my home's media. They were everywhere: TV, cinema, newspapers, music, and more. And russian culture was often posed to be "superior" to any other one. We were always playing role of silly village people of some sort. One of great symbols of that invasive omnipresence was this specific imagery burned in my retina, impossible to erase even with my nerd decreasing vision:

In some ways, indirectly, this specific image has amalgamated into semi-final design of the eagle of censorship:

I wanted to keep wings low-poly intentionally. I kept thinking a bit of the war planes, and the brutalist steel sheet sensation that was wide-spread around.

Motion-design wise, I was very inspired by Omega Flowey from Undertale. I wanted to create this collage-like, Spongebob Random Realistic Element sensation to the BBEG's motion. In further iterations, BBEG is made to be a pre-rendered PNG, what not only improves my computer's performance, but also contributes to the game feel.

In the end of the day, my colleague told me how he felt "being yelled at in russian" when looked at the render. I do find this phrase an indicator that design works the way it is intended.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 7: Typing: the game

As for new prototype, I have decided to play with the "suggested note combination" concept. For these purposes, I have created this game:

Here, the players were timed again, but now they had much more accessible interface (we are talking about keys instead of strings, what is much more intuitive), and whenever they would input any of suggested notes- they would receive a suggestion on what to type next. The game was timed, but had no interface yet. One of my big ideas was to not start doing any parts of "pretty" UI until I get mechanic to work (I did not want to waste my time on something I would need to scrap anyways in case of emergency). Oh boy, I was wrong. Playtesters were confused about the interface, and, what is worse, they were not as interested in a gameplay. On the other hand, I assumed that with adding of narrative and visuals players will have better grasp on what was going on within the game. On this note, I went back to prototyping.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 6: Circuit Workouts and Mythologies

While ideating on mechanics, I got interested in principles behind circuit workouts and music structures.

Specifically, we are talking solo and shadowboxing. They are similar in their core: for a set amount of time, you need to rapidly come up with combinations of different movements bound to certain rules. If we are talking music, solos are always in harmony with music. If we are talking about boxing, you are bound to actions of opponent, and certain combinations of movements work better together, providing much more damage in the end. That thought made me abstract from concept of pure rthythm, and consider how I can incorporate elements of fighting games. I was inspired by Player Mythologies talk led by Alexander Jaffe, lead designer of Riot Games. During the lecture, Alexander Jaffe talked about who players imagine themselves as when playing games. I wanted my players to feel challenged yet powerful, experience the sensation guitarists (or, what is worse, bassists) feel holding the guitar. At this point, I was a bit inspired with Scott Pilgrim Vs The World game. It was a fighting game, but it created a sensation of "keysmashing makes some sense", as nearly for every movement combination during combat resulted in some cool special effect, or additional damage, or some bonus. But it meant, I needed a combination system to play with.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 5: References and Searches

At this point, I have started digging into all the numerous iterations on rhythm games I could find. First of all, I was looking into Crypt of a Necrodancer. This rhythm rogue-like required fast yet strategic way of thinking. I loved idea of the puzzle that would, at the same time, preserve core idea of fast reactive movement of rhythm games.

In addition to this, I have looked into Parappa the Rapper. I was interesped in "phases" in a gameplay, as well as how the artists have framed the plotline at the first place. Also, I have glanced into two games not bound to buttons as much. First of all, there was osu! Peculiar part behind osu! was use of mouse position as an input for the rhythm. In a similar way, Trombone Champ used position of one of the joystick and button to abstract an experience of playing trombone.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 4: Ideating and Prototyping

My first early prototype was a box with the note line inside. The first idea behind core mechanic was to translate Guitar Hero-esque rhythm game mechanic into use of an actual bass guitar playing. The idea was to teach my audience how to play music within my chosen genre at very first place. But then, just before testing, I decided to push idea a little bit further. I was inspired by the way boxing circuits work. You are provided different movement combinations, and you need to produce as many of them as you can in limited amount of time. The new design idea worked this way: player was provided time windows in which they had a chance to play as many different note combinations from list as they could, and these combinations would accumulate to deal damage to the big bad evil guy. In this iteration, the rhytm behind the gameplay was only in phases of offence/defence, and music itself was not bound to specific timing. At this point of design, I have started relying on a theory behind innate sense of rhythm of human beings.

In this version of prototype, I would time people 30 seconds to recreate provided combinations of different notes (it is up to them to choose which combination to try and play), and record how many they would possibly recreate. Big issue with this iteration was general confusion of human beings behind timing and notes. The results would range between 6-7 different note combinations and 0 combinations in worst cases. While I had instructed to focus on strings rather than frets, they would still get disoriented about note combination. Looking back, I am considering that results were also drastically impacted by use of real guitar, that humans unfamiliar with instrument would find intimidating. But also, some reviews found this game idea not interesting, what, in combination of general disorientation, resulted in me scrapping this prototype and returning back to ideation.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 3: Inspirations (Part I)

One of the greatest people to inspire me to start the project at the very first place was Daria Kolomiets. Currently, she is organising a project of Ukrainian Cultural Mission. First part of her work is the Diaries of War, a podcast that communicates stories of how Ukrainians met the russian full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Another project she is currently working on is inclusion of iconic Ukrainian musicians into DJ sets on fundraising events and parties around the world. One of ideas I draw inspiration from is the way Daria picks out and cherishes old Ukrainian music, the similar way musicians of 1960s-1980s would bring out and appreciate Ukrainian folklore motives (consider, for example, Chicheri, a folk song adapted for funk scene). Another great inspiration of mine is Radio 477, an avant-garde epic theatre play by Yara Arts group that highlights the story of jazz age in Kharkiv. The play, in tradition of epic theatre, combined old records of original play intended to be staged in Kharkiv, with the new framings and present days of the city. The play is travelling in time, deconstructing and playing with viewers and theatre itself. I draw inspiration form it in question of play, atmosphere, and whimsy the play creates, engaging unfamiliar audience and making them care.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 2: Audience

soloway is intended to engage human beings familiar with history and curios about digging deeper. My target audience is queer, loud, and believes that many world issues are intertwined together. My target audience likes indie games like OFF or Papers, Please; and loves good music. I am thinking a bit about fans of Cranberries (the band), especially ones who listen not only for melody. My audience is NOT tankies or anyone who thinks that peak leftist ideas are handful of XX century chauvinist dudes from Europe. It will potentially be exciting to adapt the game for custom controller community, such as one for Clone Hero, to make it a multiple level gameplay average user would be capable of finishing in 2-3 hours, learning about Ukrainian music through times and people. It would be nice if the game consisted of ~10-15 levels 7-10 minutes each, where each level is dedicated to one specific musician or band. This way, my target audience would have a chance to savour the game gradually, after work or school, not bound to space and time to do it. My target audience is terrible at schedules. Aside from this, it would be great to expand the work into cabinet that would travel on conferences, exhibitions, and festivals. I do see smaller cycle /~10 minutes gameplay/ being placed in space like Wonderville, letting people get engaged in game on big loud and queer events. Like my audience.

[soloway-videogame]

Chapter 1: impetus

Hello, I am Ukrainian. Born Ukrianian in 2000 meant seeing numerous pieces of Russian media where Ukrainians are depicted ignorant, greedy entities of a poor taste and low culture. Being Ukrainian immigrant to US meant interacting with people who thought Ukraine is Russia, as well as ones who knew of Ukraine only because of Chornobyl, and ones who didn't know this country ever existed. Being Ukrainian means knowing your friends and loved ones are being bombed on a daily basis. Being Ukrainian means constantly seeing symbols of genocide of your people being picked up by western leftists, polished to shine, and displayed happily everywhere around as like they are "progressive". There is nothing progressive in hammer and sickle as like there is nothing progressive in imperialism.

It is hard to formulate the biggest reason behind my research coming to existence. Maybe, it is the fear of loss of my culture: the consistent genocide, deportations, and looting of museums are not best influence on history preservation. Maybe, I wanted to talk about misconceptions behind communism youth on West seems to ignore: it is not "good because not capitalism". It is terrible because it is an empire. Most importantly, I wanted to approach an unfamiliar layer of my culture, explore it, savour it, and gift it in some form to new audience. Because Ukrainian culture is worth cherishing. Vocal and Instrumental ensembles were on a raise in 1960s-1970s. By default, they were in opposition to USSR government. Not only Ukrainian funk and big beat bands were inspired by western counter-culture bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but also they would borrow from native Ukrainian music tradition, what was deemed unacceptable by Soviet government. These two influences created playful genre that would combine jazz, rock, and folk motives in unique amalgamation of sound, delivered on DIY musical instruments. (source) Numerous bands from that era did not survive: some would breakup, some musicians would be secretly executed due to their pro-Ukrainian activity (source). But even now, their unique sound inspires composers in and outside of Ukraine, including projects like Gogol Bordello, Kolo, and Balaclava Blues. I will be talking about Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian protest because I believe that I need to. Because it is who I am.