Power up system, music style, background art

Today Jeff and I met at the game dev club to work on the power up system and later meet up with Dhruv, the Berklee student working with us.

Jeff and I pitched ideas back and forth on how the power-up system should work, and though we need approval from Sam & Ryan we came to an agreement on how it would work:

A  single power-up will spawn after semi-random amount of time. It will spawn in a random X position (in-bounds) at the highest Y position (in-bounds). The power-up will move in a “falling leaf” pattern, swinging from side to side and slowly falling down. If the power-up reaches the court floor, it disappears and respawns after a semi-random amount of time.

In order to actually acquire the power-up, players must hit the ball into the power-up, requiring some skill and planning to get the power-up.

This might of course change depending on input from Sam & Ryan. However I went ahead and implemented a basic system of power-up spawning and movement, and also added some background art Ryan did. In the screenshot below, the orange ball is the power up.

As for our meeting with Dhurv, we met up with him at Wired Puppy on Newbury St. We introduced ourselves and backgrounds, then dove right in to discussing the music style we wanted.

Dhruv really seems to understand exactly the kind of game we're going for and knows how to tailor music to it. We ended up agreeing on a music track that would have 3 different speeds (tempos). The slowest tempo (speed 1) is the base track that plays at the start of each round. Then, as the players complete more rallies, the tempo picks up. 

For example, after say 6 volleys back and fourth, the music will change to speed 2; then after 12 volleys it could change to speed 3. This will make each point more intense the longer the rallies go on, increasing both the nerves, anxiety, competitive spirit, and excitement of both players. Once a point is finally scored a sound effect will play, the round will reset, and a 3/2/1 timer will count down. From there the music will return to speed 1, bringing players temporarily down from the excitement of the previous point.

Additionally, we thought it would add even more to the excitement of the game if we layered in an extra track when a power-up is obtained. For example, if the tempo is currently at speed 2 when a player gets a power up, a percussion instrument playing at speed 2 will be layered in, adding more to the excitement and intensity of the match.

The overall goal is to do a music track like the one described above for each of the 4 courts, but the initial goal is to just get 1 great track that stimulates excitement and competition and go from there.