Are rhythm games ready for a comeback?

[ad_1]

Azman’s experience is shocking. Publishers naturally need to be profitable; however, when those same entities determine what is worthwhile based solely on what has already been successful, the resulting feedback loop limits the collective imagination.

When”guitar hero, Rock Band, All these things are starting to go down, and I think a lot of publishers think…the rhythm game genre is going down…so we’re not going to release any rhythm games because it’s risky,” Azman said.

“It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The future of hybrid rhythm games

However, one might argue that rhythm games best suited to breaking genre expectations are now seeing renewed interest. Many rhythm games of the past decade have gained wider appeal by blending gameplay with other genres. Necrodancer’s Crypt (2015), Combining rogue-lite conventions with rhythm game-inspired action and combat, it’s a genre mashup that’s very successful Inspired Official Derivatives inside The Legend of Zelda universe.

Some recent rhythm games have also made other game design elements such as story and adventure central to their designs. hiking song (2018) Self-proclaimed “a musical platform adventure game with an emotional story”. Sayonara Wild Hearts It bills itself as a “fantastic arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dancing, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph”, and also relies on narrative and rhythm game conventions.

developer of incomparable, Another upcoming rhythm game and Notable Kickstarter Success, which does something similar. Some of its mechanics are familiar, classic “press the button and sync to the music” game.but The game also promises Tell an emotional story that relies heavily on world-building and narrative, with a complex dialogue system similar to a visual novel.

Developer RJ Lake didn’t find the mix of story and rhythm gameplay as unconventional as you might think. He believes that the rhythm game genre has always relied on the power of narrative. rapper palapa, It’s actually a story-driven game in itself, he said. “Since music is key to the emotional resonance of these stories, it makes sense to include music-based gameplay as a core aspect of narrative storytelling,” he said.

This era of new, smoother rhythm games, one that borrows from multiple genres and targets a wider player base, may hint at what’s to come: especially since recent games like Rhythm of Hyrule and rhythm doctor Saw a lot of commercial and fan reception.

Andrew Tsai, artist and developer incomparable, There’s another theory as to why this happened: People who grew up with rhythm games during the heyday of commercial power are now artists themselves.

“There are a lot of people who grow up playing rhythm games, even just casually,” he said. “Now they have this thought in their head, ‘Oh, I’m having a good time playing the music game…what if I make it myself?'”


More great Wired stories

[ad_2]

Source link