Multiplayer

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Pabreetzio
Synthesia Multiple Donor!
Posts: 8

Post by Pabreetzio »

This game needs to have a multiplayer option if it is ever going to take off. People love to play games against other people, thats the nature of a game; Otherwise its just an educational tool, and there are plenty of others out there. I would say that including a multiplayer option is more critical to the success of the game than most of the requested features that are currently towards the top of the list. Competition is what makes a game fun, and its just a lot more fun to compete at the same time against one another than to see who can get the higher score.

The features I feel need to be added on the subject, in order of priority and on ease of implementation are as follows:
1. Nicknames recorded for each high score. (should definately be in 6.3)
2. Separate scores for each track (and nickname associated with track) (probably should be in 6.3).
3. Multiple input devices (selected on a per track basis).
4. A display that can show overlapping tracks, and which instrument is pressing which keys(hopefully there is a way without splitting the screen).
5. A way to play over a network (should probably wait till 6.5 or 6.6?)

The game display need not change at all, but it is critical to be able to select which competitor play a track. Each player should be able to enter their nickname, and the high scores should also display who it was that got the high score. Naming the player who achieved the high score should already be in the game, and even if development of a multiplayer option gets delayed the recording of the player with the high score should be added asap.

I know plenty of people that already play the piano (and play very well). I've told them about the game and they seem interested in the concept, but they don't seem very interested in playing it when I first show it to them, and I don't blame them. Almost all of my favorite video games in the past have been games where at first I didn't see the point, but I played because someone wanted to challenge me. After playing against someone I would want to get better so I could start to beat them, and then these games would turn into my all time favorites. I wouldn't have come across this game had I not been challenged to play guitar hero against some friends of mine, and while playing solo is addictive in its own way, I wouldn't have ever have gotten started or have wanted to get better were it not for being able to go head to head against someone in a face-off or pro face-off battle. It was only because of the multiplayer ability of guitar hero that I ever searched for a piano equivalent.

I know there are families like mine that already have multiple keyboards(although I only have 1 midi to usb chord) but many or even most people only have one. I think my brother and I would not just like to be able to play head-to head, but also it would be fun to play duets. The easiest feature would be to allow single piano for four hands songs that kept separate the scores for each track(hopefully along with the nickname selection feature if you can add that) which could also work for head-to-head on different octaves. The game need not have an option to allow the playing of a song an octave lower for the other person (although that would be a cool less important feature in the future), since this can be worked out in creating the midi file itself, and the tracks can just be selected as play as player 1 or play as player 2. I think playing duets can also be a fun thing to do with a girl especially if the two of you would rather work together to accomplish something than compete against each other.

For people who do have two pianos and the ability to connect them both up to one computer (I would definately go out and buy another midi-usb chord for this game if I could play multiplayer) it would be very awesome indeed to either compete playing the same tracks or to play different tracks. If different tracks then the score should be calculated differently than it is now, by still giving the multipliers for consecutive notes but dividing the point for a note by the total number of notes so that tracks with fewer notes are competitive with tracks with more notes.

Playing a duet is already possible for one piano, especially if you don't care to remember who did better, but what about playing a duet on two pianos (of which some parts of the song are played on the same note) This might be the most difficult of the multiplayer features to get right because it can be hard to show that each player should be playing the same note (currently if two tracks play the same note one color will overlap the other and only one color can be seen). Hopefully someone can come up with a solution that doesn't involve split screen since the keyboard is so long. If split screen then perhaps a zoom to a section of the keyboard would be helpful so the notes are not too small to distinguish.

The final thing which would be the most awesome would be to have some kind of competition over the network that would work in real time. There would be no display problem for a duet in which the same notes are played by different instruments since each player would have their own display. I imagine this being used by people who are in the same room since otherwise the more practical thing would be to just compare scores.

Oh and this is even more wishful thinking but thinking of another future feature maybe it wont be too hard: you will be able to have the song go at the players' pace if they want to play slower or faster, but the scoring system only deducts points for wrong notes and the two players being out of rhythm with one another.
Pabreetzio
Synthesia Multiple Donor!
Posts: 8

Post by Pabreetzio »

I think that allowing two people to play at once opens up possibilities for even more interesting aspects to be added to Synthesia. Everything I mentioned in my previous post was related to multiplayer features that can be made without really changing the essence of just straight up playing the piano. What if instead of only being able to merely outperform your opponent you were able to actually make attacks on your opponent?

Without any form of interaction between the two players its more of a competition than a true game. I don't myself have many ideas for how one could attack the opponent, but I think it would definately be something that would increase the fun factor by a lot. My best idea is a type of memory challenge, one that also incorporates the rhythm with which notes were played, and one in which each player takes turns adding one more note. A player might only win the point if after the other fails the other must play it a second time. Another idea is that maybe you would be competing in the right hand (playing the melody of a song) and the left hand would use power ups by playing chords that go with the melody notes (different types of chords give different types of power ups). The Power-up thing needs a lot of thought but it could be great.
ghostrr
Posts: 2

Post by ghostrr »

o2jam has multiplayer support, you can make your enemy's notes invisible, mirrored or even random, but I've never really tried that out
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Alright, let me try to tackle this: I agree with many parts of your request while at the same time I disagree with a few.

First, your statement that competition is critical to the success of the game. That is absolutely correct. However, I would probably follow a different time-line than you suggested before beefing up the competition aspects. I'm actually in no hurry and I believe the version numbering reflects a relative "percentage complete" I am with the project. (I.e., right now I'm only a little over half done at around 62%.) I think adding lots of competition elements would help attract a larger audience. I think that unless more of the game were complete and user-friendly, I would turn a lot of that larger audience away in frustration. If I finish more before I start marketing heavily and making the game attractive, I think I'll have a better chance at helping more users find, enjoy, get-hooked-on, and learn through using the game.

You'll also notice that while I've been mentioning competition, I haven't discussed it in the context of multiplayer. I can think of at least one other way to engender competition: using a shared scoreboard (via the game's website) that everyone can submit scores to. You'd use your forum login in the game and it would auto-post your scores to someplace visible here. Though, anything like that is still at least a year off and there are still plenty of details I haven't ironed out yet.

The reason I would choose score posting over a more interactive multiplayer experience (where you're either connected over a network or sitting next to each other) has to do with audience. Right now the barrier to entry to play Synthesia is large. You need a MIDI keyboard. It needs to be placed in front of your computer monitor. You need to successfully connect it to your computer -- possibly using additional hardware -- with an appropriate driver installed. In the end, only a small fraction of the usual gaming audience that might play something like this would actually be able to.

Extending that to require either an additional keyboard or special duet-style MIDI music where two can be seated at the same device, as well as the logistics to physically get two people seated in front of a keyboard that is in front of a computer, or the extra configuration overhead to set up two different devices (that both have a good view of the monitor), and you've cut the audience down to a fraction-of-a-fraction.

Finally, consider that I try to spend about 100 hours on each release but only really have the weekends to put any time in. You can imagine that I try to make every minute I work on the project count for as much as possible. When evaluating two features that would serve a similar competition-inducing purpose, I would probably lean heavily towards the one that will be used most often by the largest group of people. Right now, that seems like it'd be the scoreboard.

(Oh yeah, and network play is a big technical challenge with lots of little pitfalls and subtleties that are really hard to get right. Submitting a score to a web page is really easy. ;) )

The much shorter answer is that I'd really like to do those things (c'mon, network multiplayer with little penalties and attacks being sent to your opponent sounds really cool!), but it's going to be a long time before I get a chance. Those feel very much like a 0.9.x or even post-1.0 types of things. I even want to add the Simon-style game you mentioned, where you build up ever-longer sequences of notes going back and forth with an oppoonent. Though, again, that feels more like a mini-game that would be better completed closer to the end of the project.

To cover your specific numbered features, here are my thoughts:
  1. Nicknames are the most important thing on a scoreboard. I've been trying to avoid adding an ad-hoc "local" nickname system because I've wanted to tie-in to the forum from the beginning. But, you may be right. It's important to see your name next to a score and be able to distinguish between your friend that has been swapping places with you at the same computer/keyboard.
  2. Now, separate scores for each track is something I don't agree with as much. Playing two tracks at the same time is usually much harder than playing each individually. If they were scored individually, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between someone who worked much harder and played both at once, or a person that only played them one-at-a-time.
  3. Again, I think this would make the interface a lot more complicated than it needs to be. The remaining 0.6.x stuff is going to be adding complexity to track boxes, bit by bit, until I'm afraid they'll be bordering on difficult to understand. One of the major positives I've heard about the game is that it's very easy to figure out how to use. I'm trying very hard to keep things simple. Of course, there could be a nice graceful way to handle multiple devices, but I'd have to think about it more.
  4. It probably wouldn't have to be split. I mean, the input can't really overlap (unless you start bumping into the other player), so a simple line down the middle of screen would do.
  5. I'd love to do it, but there is a lot to do before I can.
I wish all of that didn't feel like saying "no". Those really are good ideas. Hopefully someday I'll get a chance to add them.
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