Requiem is a game about Mozart.
You fly a spaceship.
Premise
Requiem is a widescreen 3D Vertical shooter or Sh’mup based upon “Requiem”, Wolfgang Mozart’s last mass. The player plays as a retired military inventor commissioned to destroy the weapons he had spent his life creating. The narrative is based upon aspects of “Requiem” the mass as well as aspects of Wolfgang Mozart’s life. Each level in the game is based upon a different song from “Requiem”, and the events, attacks, flybys, etc. of the AI is all timed to the music.
Gameplay
Requiem uses the well developed practices of the shmup genre and makes this gameplay accessible beyond the hardcore audience. Since Mozart’s music brings in a wider audience, Requiem is built with five separate difficulty modes to allow beginners to play the whole game while still challenging the most hardened shmup vets. In addition, friends can play together in co-operative mode, working together to progress.
Game Loop
Requiem, unlike other shmups, implements a checkpoint and respawn system. One of the faults of shmups is making a player continuing the game from where they lost. Since shmups get progressively more and more difficult, this brings a player who has lost in a challenging section to an even more challenging section, often leading to frustration. Requiem will bring the player back to a checkpoint when the ship is destroyed. This gives the player a moment to gather their thoughts and attempt the section again. If the player continues to lose, they will eventually be forced to the beginning of the Act (a series of levels). In a normal shmup, a player would frequently put the controller down at this point. But, in Requiem, destroying enemies earns you points. Points that can be used to upgrade your ship.
Upgrade System
By using points players can upgrade over 30 aspects of their ship. This includes everything from homing rockets, flamethrower size, targeting radius, cannon number, movement speed, and just about any stat that could be tweaked on the ship. With the increased power, players are inspired to go back to the level and try again, frequently progressing much further than they had before. This loop removes player frustration and inspires players to keep at it as they are always either improving their own skills or the power of their ship. When the player does finally reach the end of the game, they have gained enough power to start tackling the next difficulty, extending their play experience.
Development
Requiem was started with Joel Pelletier and Dan Peavey, and myself. Since then we have added on four other members to our team. I serve the roles of Creative Director, Programmer, and Audio Engineer. My tasks include:
-Programming the game
-Building functions and pipelines for other team members
-Discussing with team members and making final decisions (including design, narrative, and presentation choices)
-Integrating and Creating sound effects
-Managing the creative vision of Requiem
-Scripting Boss level sequences
-Designing the game mechanics and systems
-Giving feedback and instruction to level designers on their level patterns
Requiem is being developed in the Unity Engine
Autodesk Maya and Adobe Photoshop are used to create the visual assets.
Music was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and others
Audio is created in Audacity
Documentation done with Microsoft Office
Project management organized through unfuddle
Requiem is to be released in May of 2010