Finding a Theme

Last week I found a mechanical theme in momentum. This week I've made the choice for my aesthetic theme: Jazz. More specifically, a night at the Jazz club. In this log, I will aim to better explain how I arrived at this theme, how I intend to implement it, and the hurdles I have faced already.

For a few weeks, I have been performing an experiment. My goal is to find out exactly what I love about playing the three games that inspired my to make this game, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Xrd, and Smash Ultimate. To do this, I completely stopped playing them. Instead I bought two fighting games I hadn't played before, Skullgirls and Killer Instinct. After a couple weeks of learning these games, I came back to Smash's training mode and started writing down things I liked and disliked about Smash's core gameplay. I will go into more detail about this experiment soon through YouTube, but one of the things I found is that I love how rewarding improvisation is in Smash. Because EVERY interaction has 4+ options for both sides of the battle to choose from, using per-determined "optimal" strings or movement becomes extremely non-optimal. The flow of Smash is similar to the flow of a Jazz performance... JAZZ. I decided then and there that the theme would be Jazz.

At first, I just intended for the music to be Jazz, but after further thought, in order to truly get a theme across, all aesthetic elements must work together to prop it up. I then began work on the splash image. The goal was to simulate the classic neon sign that would often adorn a New Orleans Jazz club. It took a lot of work, but I think I nailed the theme and feel of a neon sign. I then began to search for the music.

After looking around YouTube, I found exactly the type of music I was looking for. These were songs by “The Thrill,” “JABBERLOOP,” and “SOIL & PIMP SESSIONS.” The playlist of my inspiration is here: Playlist. The first three songs are key. However, this led me to my first major hurdle: copyrighted content. I realized that I needed royalty free/creative commons music as I do not have the budget to hire a musician. After a couple days of searching I came across some pretty good free tracks which I have credited below. This experience made me realize, if you don't have the skills to do it yourself, money is imperative to making a "complete" game that satisfies the designer's vision.