Nov 1

Rhythm Quest - ddrkirby

Another bonus level, huzzah! I'm really excited to show this one off since I'm a big fan of how the track came out -- lots of energy, and fills in a niche that isn't quite covered by any of the existing tracks. As I continue to churn out bonus tracks here and there, I've been thinking more about trying to inject some more variety in the type of songs that I add to Rhythm Quest. I've already added some drum and bass music, classical songs, and even a track inspired by synthwave sounds, but I could probably have some fun exploring other genres, too. Stay tuned for the upcoming Gregoriant chant level? Haha, just kidding...

Here's the video of "Clematis", with its normal mode chart. The song is quite fast at 180BPM, and the chart is pretty dense and challenging!

Charting Notes

At this point I have pretty established patterns for how I like to chart my songs in Rhythm Quest. As I noted above, this song is quite difficult, reaching well above 300 effective inputs per minute at some points. You can tell from the obstacle counts that I tend to chart harder songs primarily with air jumps, flight paths, and flying enemies...

One notable aspect of the chart design is that this is one of the rare occasions where I actually drafted up the entire music track first and then charted it afterwards. For the main levels in worlds 1-6 it was important that I sequence the music according to the specific gameplay mechanics that I wanted to highlight, but for these bonus tracks (especially the more difficult ones) it's more okay for me to just let myself run free with my melodic and rhythmic content and worry about the charting afterwards. That's especially true for songs at a higher tempo as at that speed I generally don't compose using syncopated rhythms that would be difficult to chart anyways.

There were some segments where there was a lot of emphasis on offbeats and I had to spend some time reworking them until I came up with something that felt "intuitive" to read. I have some general rules of thumb that I try to follow as I'm charting, but this is the kind of thing that's tough to really check without just doing some trial and error to see if a section flows well or not.

Something that I ended up changing my mind on while doing the charting for this song was the charting of flight paths with flying enemies in the middle of them. I have an especially common pattern where I use a one-beat flight path with a flying enemy on the offbeat since it's an intuitive and satisfying "grouping" of inputs to parse.

Previously I actually favored keeping these flight patterns horizontally flat, so that everything is in one line, but I've backtracked on that decision and I think I'm instead going to lean toward adding ramped height changes to these flight paths, as the vertical position of the enemy can then help you parse out where in the beat it's placed in relation to the beginning and end. This was already something you could distinguish based on the fact that the enemy was a red one instead of a green one, but I think the additional visual clarity can potentially be good here.

Music Design

As I mentioned earlier, I've been trying to think about greater diversity in the (bonus) tracks I create for Rhythm Quest. To that end, I've been referencing some other rhythm game tracks to give me ideas of what kinds of sounds I could be exploring. For Clematis, the intro section is pretty heavily inspired by Sota Fujimori - Phlox, even going so far as to use the same chords (the flower-related name of the track is a nod to this inspiration). I also used a faster tempo, as I feel like most of the existing Rhythm Quest tunes are more in the realm of 120BPM.

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-intro.mp3

Like the song I was inspired by, I wanted the drums in this section to be sparse, but feature some quick hi-hat and percussion fills for rhythmic interest. Since there's not a ton of density going on in the soundscape, I dialed up the reverb to add extra "spaciousness" to the sound:

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-introdrums.mp3

Going into the chorus drop, there's a chorded "supersaw" synth which opens up using a lowpass filter, and then the main bassline filters in using a highpass filter. It's a pretty tried-and-true technique of holding back the low frequencies until the downbeat, at which point you can open everything up and kick into a full sound.

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-introbuild.mp3

The chorus is really full and energetic...I really like this song, haha. Here's that whole section -- note the changeups in the drum rhythm that coordinate with the lead melody, as well as the "mini drop" / beat freeze (is there a name for this?) halfway through where everything cuts out except for a big impact sound. Toward the very end I use a phaser effect for some added spice in the transition out of the chorus.

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-chorus.mp3

The snare sound here and the drums in general are more full when compared to the intro. As noted before, there are some rhythmic changeups dictated by the melody, and I also layer in some of my favorite triangle-wave based tom drums, though they're a bit understated because there is so much else that needs to be heard in this section.

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-chorusdrums.mp3

The main "meat" of the sound here is provided by the thick supersaw chord synth, and then a thick bassline layer that plays mostly with the same rhythm. (There's also an extra mid-bass pulse wave layer thrown in for good measure to fill things out) The sidechain "pumping" against the kick drum is pretty aggressive here...it sounds almost overdone out of context, but when you listen to it with all of the other sounds going on, it's not so bad and helps give room for everything else to breathe and balance.

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-choruschords.mp3

The delicious icing on top here is the sparkly echoed arp sounds that fill out the soundspace. There's a few different layers going on here, including a dialed-back version of the riff from the beginning of the song, but the main element here is the bell-like sound (a patch based on FM synthesis) that washes over everything with a nice sparkly reverb (courtesy of Valhalla Supermassive).

https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/81-chorusarps.mp3

I still need to chart out the easy and hard versions of this chart (maybe I'll dial back the normal one a bit depending on how those turn out), but for now I'm happy to have another cool song added into the game. I'm almost nearing the point where I'll have just as many bonus tracks as normal ones, but I have no real gripes about that! In some aspects, you could consider the "main" levels to be the "extended tutorial" that guides you through all of the mechanics in the game as well as how to parse different canonical charting patterns, which will then equip you to tackle all of these bonus songs...

Nov 1

Exploring the Martial Classes in Revenge of the Firstborn

Revenge of the Firstborn - robkoska

Greetings everyone!

This month we’re going to take a deep dive into the melee classes in Revenge of the Firstborn. The wizards have their flashy spells, but when they run out of juice, it’s up to the frontliners to bring it home.

The Paladin

When someone thinks of a knight in shining armor, they’re thinking of the paladin, at least in D&D-inspired games. With his ability to Detect Evil at will, his immunity to fear and his smite evil ability, the paladin makes a formidable foe for the forces of evil. His Lay on Hands and Remove Disease abilities make him a strong protector for his allies as well.

Add in some limited spellcasting ability and the power to turn undead, and the paladin brings a broad array of skills to bear.

One of the paladin features that is often omitted from computer RPGs is the paladin’s mount, but with mounted combat featuring heavily in Revenge of the Firstborn, having the paladin’s mount in the game was a must. The paladin mount is a warhorse that levels up alongside him, becoming hardier and stronger as the paladin’s gains power. Additionally, any spells that the paladin cast on himself also affect the mount.

We touched on the mount’s improved survivability via improved hardiness in the form of extra hit dice, the mount also gains the ability to use its own saving throw, or its rider’s, whichever is better. At higher levels, a paladin's mount even gains spell resistance.

Some people hate the “goody two shoes” paladin and others love playing the idealistic hero. For those people, the paladins in Revenge of the Firstborn offers a lot to enjoy.

The Ranger

Depending on who you ask, the ranger has fallen on tough times in the latest version of D&D, but in 3.5e, the ranger brings a lot to the table, from the stealthy archer, raining death from afar, to the whirling tempest of steel, dual wielding weapons better than nearly any other class.

As a ranger levels up, he must choose one of the two paths – selecting either a combat style of archery or two weapon fighting. Each path comes with a handful of feats that are granted to the ranger, whether or not he would normally qualify for them via his character attributes.

As he levels up, he chooses a type of creature as his favored enemy. The ranger gains +2 damage to creatures of this type as well as a +2 bonus on many skills when used against favored enemies. As he levels up, a ranger gets to designate 5 different types of creatures as favored enemies.

The ranger also gets some limited spellcasting abilities, but the other class feature that really shines for rangers is their animal companion. In Revenge of the Firstborn, the ranger’s animal companion levels up alongside him, gaining Evasion, extra attacks, and the ability to benefit from spells the ranger casts on himself.

Currently, the ranger’s sole option for an animal companion is a wolf, although more may be added in the future. The wolf can be ordered to attack aggressively or to stay close and defend the ranger or another party member.

The Barbarian

From Conan to Fafhrd to Wulfgar, the barbarian is a well-established fantasy archetype. The muscle-bound, gruff warrior who charges into battle wielding as large a weapon as possible.

Unlike any other class in D&D, the barbarian is as much who a person is as a character class. Wizard, fighter, and bard are professions, but the barbarian is defined as much by heritage and worldview as by skillset. Because of this, they cannot be of lawful alignment in D&D in general and Revenge of the Firstborn in particular.

The barbarian has the highest foot speed of any character class in the game. They have the Uncanny Dodge ability which means they're never flat-footed and cannot be flanked. They have bonuses to saves against traps and higher-level barbarians gain bonuses to their will saves, but the first things most people think of when they think of barbarians are Damage Reduction and Rage.

Starting at seventh level, a barbarian gains the ability to shrug off some of the damage from physical attacks. It starts off as one point of damage and increases to five at level nineteen.

The barbarian’s defining ability is his Rage. At first level, a barbarian may enter a Rage once per day. He gains the ability to do this as many as 6 times at level twenty. When he’s raging, a barbarian gains a bonus to his strength and constitution, which increases his hitpoints. He also gains a bonus to his will save. These all come at a cost of a -2 penalty to his armor class.

The Fighter

The fighter often gets short shrift in 3.5e-based games. In some people's eyes they pale next to the knight in shining armor that is the paladin, or the ranger, with his dual wielding abilities and skill with the bow, but the fighter, with all of its bonus feats, can be one of the most versatile classes in the game.

The ranger has his fancy auto-granted archery or two-weapon fighting feats, but fighters have available feats to be ready to take Manyshot at level six, just like a ranger, with his combat style. The fighter also probably has weapon focus: ranged as well by that point. Throw in weapon specialization and the fighter is arguably a better archer than the ranger. You can do a similar scenario focused on two-weapon fighting.

The fighter is also the most likely to have feats “to spare” to choose feats such as Improved Trip and Whirlwind Attack. These feats expand the options available to the fighter in combat. Improved Trip, for instance, grants a free attack on any target the fighter successfully trips. Whirlwind Attack allows a fighter to make a single attack against all targets that are in melee range.

Fighters also have the weapon specialization feat which increases the damage they do with their chosen class of weapon. Those of you who know the 3.5e rules well may raise an eyebrow at the phrase “class of weapon”. In the pen and paper rules, weapon specialization requires choosing a single type of weapon, such as a greataxe or longsword to specialize in. In Revenge of the Firstborn, fighters choose a class of weapon to specialize in, such as single-hand martial weapons or polearms. This is due to the fact that, in a tabletop campaign, a good dungeon master ensures that the fighter specializing in the scimitar will find a good scimitar now and then. The computer running the game cannot make this sort of assurance.