Hello everyone, I’m Ajie, the planner of the “Sword in the Song” team.
The game has been tested for a week, and I have received a lot of feedback. I also thank the players who love our game and those who have provided valuable suggestions for our game. The game development process is a long night, and your support has brought us to the light of day. Motivated to continue improving.
“Ancient Songs” and “Adaptations”
“Sword in the Song” is an ink-and-wash martial arts music game with the theme of traditional ancient songs. We need to adapt the “classical songs” such as “Three Lanes of Plum Blossom” and “House of Flying Daggers” into “rhythm game songs”, so how to Balancing “ancient songs” and “adaptation” has become a top priority. Here I will share with you some of the ideas in our design process.
The design goal of our music adaptation is to “increase rhythm and rhythm on the basis of retaining the core musical characteristics and artistic conception of the original song” .
For example, our first song “Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms” is a guqin piece. The biggest feature is “Three Lanes” , which refers to playing the main melody three times with overtones on different emblems.
The repertoire also retains this feature. The flute section at the beginning, the guzheng section on the boat and the overtone section of the guqin at the end, respectively, perform the same theme melody in three styles.
The whole process of “Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms”
Another example is “Hujia Eighteen Beats” , we used the original words of the Yuefu poem “Hujia Eighteen Beats”, extracted the part that can best express the emotion of the original poem from the first, second, thirteenth and eighteenth beats, and added Elements such as the matouqin that reflect the exotic style are used to express the living environment of Cai Wenji when she wandered outside the Great Wall.
Below are our lyrics.
Hu Jia Shiba patted me for nothing at the beginning of my life,
After I was born, Han Zuo declined.
Heaven is not benevolent and chaotic detachment,
unkind,
make me at this time.
It doesn’t mean that the remnant of life can return,
Stroking Hu Er’s tears stained clothes.
Yunshan has returned to the road again and again,
The wind blows dust and sand,
Dusty.
It doesn’t mean that the remnant of life can return,
Stroking Hu Er’s tears stained clothes.
Step by step, it’s hard to move,
Soul ecstasy is absolutely loving.
Heaven and earth, looking west to east,
The end of the law is endless.
In the stage of “Hujia Eighteen Beats”, the protagonist is not fighting, but dancing with Cai Wenji to appreciate the true feelings in the song. So we want the boss to have more varied dance movements and different rhythms, but during production we found that if the boss’s action rhythm is changeable, it is difficult for players to predict how they should operate next, so we designed The reflection on the water is played , and the reflection is used to preview the next action of the boss in advance, and the player needs to remember the rhythm and imitate it at the right time.
This kind of imitation gameplay also derives the mechanism of “sandstorm”. During the song, the upper part of the screen will be blocked by sand and dust. Players can’t see the boss’s actions clearly, or even the “sound wave prompt”, and can only rely on the reflection . voice to judge.
Many players found this gameplay interesting after testing, but my favorite is actually the fusion with the original word.
In the middle of the music, before the sandstorm begins, the lyrics just sing to the second beat of “Hujia Eighteen Beats”, “The Wind Raises Dust and Sand”. We hope this section also conveys to everyone that Cai Wenji is alone in the desert beyond the Great Wall To the situation of yellow sand and homesickness.
The whole process of the level of “Eighteen Shots of Hu Jia”
In the player questionnaire, we found that everyone’s favorite is still the level of “House of Flying Daggers” based on the classic pipa song.
The original song of “House of Flying Daggers” depicts the scene of the Battle of Gaixia. When we adapted it, we also retained the core elements of pipa performance and battlefield . The friends who have played must have an impression of this faster and faster bow and arrow.
Here, the iconic pipa strumming paragraph at the beginning of the original song is used, and the speed is the same as the original song. The beginning is slow and powerful, and the follow-up is getting faster and faster, rendering the tense and chilling atmosphere of the battlefield.
Since the final speed is really fast, there is no way to use the boss’s attack to show it (the boss’s attack can’t be so frequent), so I use the archer soldier to express it (two, because one person can’t shoot arrows so fast) ).
What I like the most is this passage, the pipa and the big drum cooperate with each other, and at the end, when the suona comes out, it directly sends me away (mistakenly).
On the level, we also let Xiang Yu’s continuous attacks and pressing step by step, in line with the rhythm of the music, allowing players to experience a fierce fighting atmosphere.
“House of Flying Daggers” level full process
The production of the music was a big challenge, but the finished product has been loved by many players, and we are very pleased.
Thank you @Tencent Tianmei Studio Group for your support. Special thanks to the audio colleagues of Tianmei Audio Lab, who designed and produced a large number of exquisite sound effects and music related to UI, battle and level performance for us. The ancient bamboo slips, scrolls, drums and other sound effects add a layer of texture to the game. .
“Historical Allusions” and “The Game’s Own World View”
After talking about the balance between “ancient songs” and “adaptation”, let’s talk about the balance between “historical allusions” and “the game’s own world view” .
Outside the level, we also hope to tell players the characters and stories behind the ancient songs through comics, so that players can understand the creative background of the ancient songs and better understand the emotions and artistic conception.
For example, “Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms” tells about the relationship between Huan Yi and Wang Huizhi, and “Drunk Crazy” tells about Ruan Ji’s drunkenness and feign madness under the oppression of those in power.
The whole process of the level of “Drinkmaniac”
But if there is only one historical allusion in each level, and the game itself does not have a skeleton to connect it, the player’s experience will appear a bit fragmented. So we have been thinking and iterating on the world view setting since the beginning of production. We have really tried many, many versions, and many times over and over again.
The challenge here is really big. In our vision, the ideal worldview structure should not only connect these historical stories of different dynasties and styles, but also be related to the protagonist’s mental journey, and express the protagonist’s mood and emotions through these stories. Grow, and finally convey some values that fit the theme of the game to the player .
Our earliest demo version during Kepler minigame is a relatively simple martial arts world view. The protagonist has the ability to see through the enemy’s tricks through voice.
After the official start of production, in order to make the world view and ancient music more closely integrated, we have thought of many plans, such as: the protagonist is a swordsman who cultivates both piano and sword. Qu Xian and so on… But in the end, we all felt that these were not reasonable enough, or did not convey a clear theme well.
The team members repeatedly iterated and overturned the game world view, and finally determined the current plan: the protagonist is a frustrated pianist in reality, who can only escape the depression through music. And obtained the rusty curved sword, a mysterious person told him that only by learning from the seniors in the realm can you sharpen the sword and break the realm. In the process of acquaintance and encounter with heroes in history, he gradually understood the true meaning of music and clarified his own path.
Here we have designed some metaphors: the protagonist plays music (fight) through the qin (sword), talks with the ancients, polishes the rusty sword (makes the heart strong) and breaks through the music (inner predicament).
Just like in reality, ordinary people will heal the troubles of real life through the pursuit of the spiritual world, Zhu Quan, the prototype of the protagonist of “The Sword in the Song”, in history, also through the pursuit of music and art, let him forget Frustrated by worldly fame and royal power struggles, he gained inner peace.
We hope that this game can allow players to experience another world brought by traditional music culture in addition to the impetuous modern life.
“Guqin Simulator”
Finally, we would like to share with you our journey of making “Guqin Simulator” .
During the production of the game, we found that the guqin occupies a large part in our game. “Three Allures of Plum Blossoms”, “Junk Crazy”, and “Eighteen Beats of Hu Jia” are all Guqin songs, and Zhu Quan is also the editor of Guqin score “Magic Secret Score”. . Then we became interested in the guqin. After searching online, we found that many other traditional musical instruments, such as the guzheng, have some easy-to-use electronic versions, that is, the version that can be simulated on the mobile phone, but the guqin was not found. , so I came up with the idea of making a Guqin simulator .
However, none of the team members can play the guqin, so in order to learn it personally, we asked a teacher who is a non-genetic inheritor of the guqin culture to give us instructions , and the team members also experienced how to play the guqin. Then we also put a guqin in the project team, and later provided a great reference for making a guqin simulator.
The Guqin simulator is mainly divided into several operations: scattered tone, percussion, portamento and overtone. We also explored and designed a set of operation methods that are compatible with each other, and the playing method of each tone is also as close as possible to simulate the real Guqin. The way of playing gives players the experience that is as restored as possible.
During my study with Guqin teacher, I also learned about the concept of “ minus character notation”, which is a traditional notation method unique to Guqin. The radicals and numbers of the characters form “minus characters”, and each “minus character” represents a fingering. We have also produced a section of teaching in the Guqin simulator, which not only includes basic operation teaching of percussion, dispersal, and overtones, but also introduces and recognizes notation of minus characters.
When making a Guqin simulator, the key words we wanted to emphasize were “fun” and “awe” .
I used to think that using games as a cultural heritage might have some restrictions on the gameplay. In other words, it might not be fun, and if it’s not fun, people who come to play may give up after playing for a long time. , that is not to mention the inheritance of culture.
But after I tried it myself, I felt that although it was a big challenge, I still had the opportunity to take into account both “cultural communication” and “fun” , because traditional culture may also have been popular culture in ancient times, and the culture that can be passed down in the long river of history must be He is popular and liked. It just means that when we express it in the form of games, we should make good use of the characteristics of the culture itself and the characteristics of the game as a carrier, so that the favorite place can be operated by the players. to experience .
It may be a bit abstract. For example, Guqin is an important part of traditional music culture. If you just introduce the history and structure of Guqin in words, and then listen to a few pieces of Guqin music to the player, it may not catch the player’s attention and give him enough. touch.
However, the concept of “learning to play the guqin” may be able to take advantage of the interactivity of the game and arouse players’ interest, and playing the real guqin is also quite fun. It has a sense of operation, and even if a novice plays it casually, it will not be unpleasant, and even if you play it as you like, it has a kind of charm that belongs to the guqin.
If we make good use of the fun of playing the real guqin and show it well in the game, then it may be possible for players to learn the knowledge of traditional culture happily on the way of “playing” .
I think there is another insight that is “awe” .
When dealing with a concept of traditional culture that has a very wide audience, it must be used with caution and awe in a carrier like a game.
Because of this cultural element you use, it may be very important to some people and have considerable weight in their life and spiritual world.
When we were making Guqin, we went to Guqin lessons and checked a lot of information. After the internal test started, we found that there are still quite a few players who can play Guqin who will be attracted to play, and some who play it quite well. Posted on station B For the big guys who play videos, if these players come here because of their reputation, but we don’t do it carefully and rigorously, I think they will still be quite disappointed.
This is true for the big guys of Guqin, but it is also similar for players who don’t know Guqin. If there are many mistakes in details, they may also distrust your introduction to the culture, or they may feel that you are not taking it very seriously, then they will also play with a mind of indifference and absent-mindedness. It will not achieve the purpose of inheriting the culture.
Maybe it’s “fun” and “awe” that moved players, and made some players who didn’t know much about traditional music before became really interested in guqin.
Players in the player group who used the guqin simulator to play “A Laugh in the Sea”, and we also saw players who played their favorite songs with our “simple mode” guqin on station B, which moved us very much.
In the end, let’s end with the lines in the game. The protagonists in the game, like us who are on the long road of game development, are all “Only the hard work leads to success”, although there have been many experiences on the road of development Challenges, but we will continue to search up and down, continue to pursue, hoping to find the true love, meaning and value in our hearts.
“There is no sword in the song, the world is scattered like smoke, and there is nothing to ask for in the rest of my life, only this violin is wound.”
Source: Zhihu www.zhihu.com
Author: Ajay
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