diff --git a/_posts/2018-04-11-sonagraphic.md b/_posts/2018-04-11-sonagraphic.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b98152c --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2018-04-11-sonagraphic.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: Sonagraphic +date: 2018-04-11 +categories: + - Major-Project +description: Proof-of-concept game demo that uses audio analysis to affect gameplay. Learned how to use Unreal, in particular its visual coding "Blueprints", as well as basic concepts of audiovisualization. +image: https://imgur.com/9geUqRp +image-sm: https://imgur.com/ApFXb5t +author: Nicholas Mercadante +author-image: https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/25127906?s=460&v=4 +author-bio: 2nd Year Game Design & Development Student at the Rochester Institute of Technology +author-email: nvm6501@rit.edu +author-social: + github: https://github.com/dantayy + linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mercadante/ +--- + +#Summary +Sonagraphic is proof of concept for a twin-stick shooter that utilizes audio analysis to affect gameplay +based on the music being played. I did a lot of research for this project over winter break, +then spent a couple hours each week on average working on it from the end of winter break until submission. +During that time I learned a lot about visual coding with Unreal 4's blueprint system, +as well as the fundamentals of audio visualization, specifically what to look at in an audio file to extract a beat. +The current build analyzes a manually input wav file as it's played for beats and allows the player to fire +a special beam that deals instantaneous damage to all enemies in its path if they hit the special fire button on those beats. +Consecutive beats hit on time widen the beam, and misses jam the special fire temporarily. +My main issue ended up being the platform I was working on; time would've been better spent +had I realized how nonexistant documentation is on implementing external C++ plugins into an Unreal project. +If I were to do this again, I'd probably do it in Unity. There's a well documented audio analysis tool available +on their storefront that was used to develop AudioShield (which was my original inspiration for this project). +Especially now that I have a better understanding of what's going on behind the scenes to grab beats from a song, +I can focus more of my efforts on making the gameplay fun and adding features like song importing. +The project currently can be viewed and cloned [here](https://github.com/dantayy/Sonagraphic). \ No newline at end of file