How to do narration in a rythm game
Video of the three levels (Voice acting in french)
Rush Alpha is a level for the Beat Saber game which was made with the basic editor of the game.
The level is divided into 3 episodes (for reasons of variation of the BPM). We have used almost all the tools available in this game, apart from the 90 ° and 180 ° levels (mainly because this feature appeared in the middle of the production of the level). By playing through several levels of Beat Saber (and watching gameplay videos) we also identified some interesting patterns to use.
Intentions
Storytelling
Bringing Storytelling Into Beat Saber was our main Intention.
We found that Beat Saber's Story Mode didn't take enough advantage of its tools and could provide a true storytelling experience. This was the starting point for all the rest of our thinking.
Experience
The base game, Beat Saber, revolves mostly around scoring and repeating the same levels to master them.
It doesn't fit well with the principle of scripted levels. So we focused more on player feeling and that's why the level is played in No Fail mode. However, we have kept the masterisable dimension of the level (it's possible to "Perfect" it).
Progression
this intention was born for 2 reasons : First of all, a progression of the difficulty makes it possible to accentuate the tension of the narration. Then, the majority of our testers weren't very familiar with the game, so we wanted to make it available to as many people as possible by making a difficulty change within the scenario itself.
Story integration
Beat Saber doesn't offer a lot of flexibility in incorporating potential storytelling, we had to think outside the box. For the story, we took the problem backwards. Beat Saber already has a strong visual identity, we imagined a scenario and characters related to the Electro / Synthwave vibe.
The game only allows to alternate between 2 colors, then the best thing was to make 2 characters by setting a color code (blue for the ally and red for the enemy). For the integration of the dialogues, we used the functionality of the editor allowing to flash the lights. We reserved one of them for the dialogue phases. We even took this card precisely because of the triangle at the bottom which could serve as a visual cue for moments of dialogue (see image below).
Progression
The levels are drive by a progression curve. Like many other games, these curve goes up and have some more calm moments (like dialogues phases) to pause the player, specially in a game like beat saber.
The first level help the player to understand the game and the main patterns. The little off-peak are the dialogues phases. The end of the level 1 is a big difficulty gap, to make the player understand the easy part is over and he have an ennemy to fight.
The 2nd level is here to secure the new things he learned during the level 1.
The 3rd level is the accomplishment of the all thing. The difficulty is high, the lights are all red, even the dialogues don't slow the difficulty. The player will face all the final form's patterns he could see before.
The team
Luc Derain : https://www.linkedin.com/in/luc-derain-597009175/
Eliot Ringeval : https://www.linkedin.com/in/eringeval/
Myself