In Echofish, you control, using only your voice, a small fish tasked with defeating legions of enemies. You move up or down by increasing the pitch of the voice, respectively, up or down. This game is meant to provide access to health/wellness sources, specifically to provide rehabilitating entertainment to patients with vocal difficulties.
I've always wanted to be a singer, but I never had the opportunity to receive any formal training. I grew up with video games and had always wondered if there were other ways to train the voice than just singing songs. Thus, Echofish is the marriage of those two realms: singing and gaming. My background in Electrical Engineering and software development, combined with musical studies, allowed me to turn this idea into a reality.
At the very beginning, the target user was myself. I've since expanded that demographic to include speech therapy patients for which this game is most beneficial for. Difference aspects of the game exercise different aspects of the voice, complete with tracking performance over time in order to record progress. The key features that I'm most proud of include:
1) The variety of tools the player can use to defeat enemies. Four are at your disposal: basic bullets that fire as long as you are vocalize, bubbles that grow bigger the longer you are able to sustain a note, orbs that shoot more frequently the more syllables you are able to speak faster, and a powerful laser that can overheat, which requires conscious and strategic management of breath.
2) Different enemies have different movement patterns that seek to develop flexibility and control of the voice, keeping the game-play novel and challenging.
3) The music is carefully synced to the pace of the game-play. The rhythm and behavior of the enemies correspond to the beat of the music, resulting in a unique and harmonious experience.
4) An online dashboard (www.echofish.org) provides an interface to track, analyze, and visualize patient progress with the game.
Samples of my vocal ability, which has undoubtedly been improved by testing and playing the game repeatedly, can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/euphonialabs
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