I/O Disco + House Hero
I/O Disco is a giant arcade system that plays the House Hero game, both created by Project Wonder. For this project I designed the audio systems of the game in Ableton Live and Max for Live, the sound fx for the game using various synthesizers, the game controller software in Arduino, the lighting design in Touch Designer and the LED lighting control system.
House Hero's game software works in tandem with Ableton Live, which supplies the audio and musical timing for the game. This coordination happens with OSC messages signaling game events and synchronizing the game with Lives clock. I designed a system using Max for Live to play loops of music and only progress to new loops when players reach higher levels in the game, all while maintaining an unbroken beat count. The goal is to make the player feel like the music is naturally elevating as they succeed in the game.
Power Up Appears
Player Death
Enemy Hit
Player Hit
I designed all the sound fx for House Hero using simple methods of FM synthesis, noise, bit reduction and analog synthesizers for some sounds. I did this to impart the essence of the era that the game is based in, the 1980s. I also used simple dyads, emulating game sound design of the 80s classic Super Mario Bros.
The I/O Disco structure has several rings of LED strips around its upper truss and more LED lights in and on the game controllers. I designed a light control system for all of this in Touch Designer that synchronizes with the music and gives visual feedback for the players actions.