I am exploring new approaches to ancient problems.
You ever feel like spinning the wheel as a cat? no? Well if you ever do, you can play this game.
Hold X to charge up for a spin. Move around and interact with the few NPCs. Try for a high score. House head man will give you a free spin or reset for you if you scratch him enough.
Very much a work in progress, the plan is to have unique events for each pie slice, more NPCs and some progression as you're able to get better scores.
Thought I'd share this early version in case anyone wanted an example of a spin-the-wheel mechanic. It was not trivial for me to implement! Most of my attempts blew the CPU through the roof and 60 fps was just a dream. Simply drawing lines from a center point out in a circle leaves many holes and jaggies and is slow. TLINEs are even slower sadly. Had to fill a whole square and mask it with CIRCs but I'm very happy with the performance now!
Anyways, Feedback and suggestions very much appreciated!
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kind of like a little Zelda ocarina thing but it's pure audio synthesis (PCM) so you can really go crazy bending the sound
Virtual tarot cards. The cards are arranged in a 3D sphere that can be manipulated. Because of the way the sphere works, the cards are naturally arranged into 'spreads' for readings. Basic linear paths, crosses and multi dimensional timelines are all possible. There's some help text in the pause menu that I'll put it here, too.
spin⬆️⬇️⬅️➡️ cards
around and stop❎
when it feels right.
hold❎ to reveal the
glowing card.
spirits speak through
the symbols.
twist/align🅾️+⬅️/➡️ to
change spreads, explore
different paths.
🅾️+❎ to shuffle and
start a new query.
push/pull🅾️+⬆️/⬇️ to
to look close up or far
away.
Use the arrow keys to sail. Blue star is you.
Experimenting with a new background for charlie, I've developed this fractal viewer.
Move around with arrows. Hold Z and left/right to rotate or up/down to zoom. X will rotate the pallette.
Special thanks to @freds72 for his fast sprite rotation function, which this is largely based upon
Enjoy!
Here's another strange music machine. Grab nodes with Z(o) change them with X(x) while grabbing. Changing to the same type will enter 'connecting' mode to merge with another node. Pause with Enter and select a preset patch.
Charlie is back from the research lab! Now he can lock the brain into keys and scales. He will still have to teach his neural network (music brain) how to make musical sounds.
When he starts the machine for the first time, it will make a random sound or maybe nothing at all. To hear the sound of this brain again he can press the green PLAY button in the upper left. To reward the machine for playing something sort of musical, he can press the red LEARN button. This will modify the brain and a new sound will play, usually similar to the first but not always. If the new sound is still "musical," he can press LEARN again to get more creative. To save this brain to the cartdata, he can press the gray SAVE button. To randomly reset the brain's concept of music, he can press the blue RESET button.
The current sequence is visualized at the bottom of the screen. If Charlie approaches it, controls will slide up to change the behavior of the current sequence.
Charlie can control the sequence's speed and length by changing the HEART (low for fast) and HOURGLASS values. The two hourglass values represent the beginning and end of the loop, which is highlighted in red on the sequence.
Charlie has researched the twelve tones and developed a set of keys and scales that can be selected by changing the MUSIC NOTE value. Changing this value will not have an immediate effect, rather, all notes produced afterwards will be in the selected key.
The SPIRAL value is a chaos control that affects the randomness of the brain's impulses on the next play (no immediate effect).
Charlie can add and remove sequences with the +/- control in the bottom left. More than 4 creates 'custom instruments' which get used by the current sequence.
If the brain is not making musical sounds, he can modify any node directly by moving on top of it, pushing the value up or down with the buttons. If he presses both buttons on a node, it will change randomly. The weights of the nodes and edges are represented by color patterns. The first column of nodes are input nodes associated with instruments, pitches, envelopes, and volumes respectively. Modify them and press play to get a new sound from the machine using the current brain, without changing any connections. The middle columns are learning nodes. Modify them and press learn for chaotic, unpredictable behavior. The right column are output nodes mirroring the input nodes. Modify these and press learn to train the brain to produce those outputs when given the current inputs. (left column)
The brain is answering a simple question, "what note should come next?" The input (left) being the 'current' note and the output (right) being the next note. When Charlie presses play, the brain answers that question for what is currently on the left, producing an output. It takes that output, and puts it back in as input, and repeats to generate a sequence of notes. The sequence of notes that it has generated are visualized at the bottom of the screen and highlighted as they are played. If Charlie moves on top of it he can access a control to add and remove sequences.
Good luck have fun!
Charlie needs help. He doesn't understand music. To learn about it, he has built a machine that can make sounds. He will have to teach his neural network (music brain) how to make musical sounds.
When he starts the machine for the first time, it will make a random sound. To hear this sound again he can press the green PLAY button. To reward the machine for playing something sort of musical, he can press the red LEARN button. This will modify the brain and a new sound will play, usually similar to the first but not always. If the new sound is still "musical," he can press LEARN again to get more creative. To save this brain to the cartdata, he can press the gray SAVE button.
If the brain is not making musical sounds, he can modify any node directly by moving on top of it, pushing the value up or down with the buttons. The weights of the nodes and edges are represented by color patterns. The first column of nodes are input nodes. Modify them and press play to get a new sound from the machine using the current brain, without changing any connections. The middle column are learning nodes. Modify them and press learn for chaotic, unpredictable behavior. Pressing play will reset them. The right column are output nodes associated with instruments, pitches, envelopes, volumes, speed, and loop length, respectively. Modify these to be what you believe they should be and press learn to train the brain to produce those outputs when given the current inputs. (left column)
Good luck have fun!
