Keyboard Kingdom
Rhythm-Based Adventure Game
This game is currently in production. Keyboard Kingdom is a rhythm-based adventure game that uses a MIDI keyboard to control the player. The player must follow the different chord progressions that appear on screen to move, interact, and defeat enemies to complete the story.
My Contribution
Game Design
I came up with the original concept for keyboard and have been the driving force behind its production. One of the objectives within the game is to teach the players, basic rhythm and note playing. As the game progresses, this will develop into playing simple chord progressions within the songs. I have worked closely with students in the Popular Music course at University of Gloucestershire, to create structured gameplay and engaging music.
Level Design
So far I have designed the first level. For the first level I wanted the player to go through a magic forest and allow them to feel comfortable playing a MIDI keyboard. The first two songs use the style of music ‘lofi’ to introduce the players to slow and simple melodies. The final part of the level has used ‘funky gnomes’ to introduce the player to harder gameplay with more notes to play. Players now can also lose the game by missing too many incorrect notes in a row and will have to restart the song.
Modelling & Texturing
To create the landscape, I have used the Unity terrain tool as this allows the game to take advantage of GPU instancing for objects like the grass, to make the game more efficient. Within the game, I have currently modelled and textured the grass, the trees, the rocks, the mushrooms, the fence, the MIDI Keyboard and a deer. The models were made within blender and I have textured them in a stylized art style. I have used a mixture of Blender and Adobe Substance Painter to texture the models. I have also created a cartoon shader, which can be adjusted to increase or decrease the bottom shadow and the brightness on the top. I have used this on the skulls, modelled by another artist.