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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Independent Games Summit: Hitting the Right Notes: Tying Gameplay to Music in 'Soundfall'
Speaker(s): Nick Cooper
Company Name(s): Drastic Games
Track / Format: Independent Games Summit

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Overview: Soundfall is a rhythmic top-down looter shooter where the entire world moves in time with the music, and each level is procedurally generated from a songincluding support for player-imported tracks. This session will cover how everything in the game was synced to the beat: animations, SFX, VFX, enemy behaviors, input, abilities, and more; how this worked across a wide range of BPMs and even through mid-song tempo changes; and the tricks behind getting this all feeling smooth and seamless in online co-op. It will also go into the procedural generation of levels based on audio analysis of songs, and how the resulting data was leveraged in biome selection, level generation, encounter generation, enemy generation, and the loot system. Finally, this session will discuss ideas for expanding on these concepts in future games and experiences.

Game Developers Conference 2023

Nick Cooper

Drastic Games

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Independent Games Summit

Independent Games