Tectonic Tunes

Inspiration

Our roommate, team member Tae Kim, spent his summers developing Roblox games and immersing himself in its documentation. Witnessing the simple organization of Roblox scripts and the intuitive interface between graphics and code, Michael and I were prompted to join forces with him and create a game that utilized the basic principles of Roblox and our love of music.

What it does

Tectonic Tunes takes a map, and maps music to different regions of the world. Players have the experience of delving into the numerous cultures of human history through the medium of music, both instrumental and vocal. By traveling the globe in the game, players can observe comparisons between different musical forms, and where they came from in the world

How we built it

Roblox was built using the Roblox IDE and Lua. We used several built-in assets from Roblox, as well as audio files to create a UI for the game. Then, we used Lua to create scripts that linked actions to all the graphical units on our map, creating numerous functions to track user interaction with our game.

Challenges we ran into

Our scripts were difficult to implement because we encountered a difficult learning curve from going through multiple Roblox tutorials. However, we eventually came to be better at connecting graphical assets and actions, and then tracking the behavior of functions to know when to throw errors and end the game. We also encountered logistical errors when trying to implement VR into our game, so we decided to leave out that technology and focus on gameplay.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of Tae. He taught us much of what we know about Roblox, and this project would truly have been impossible without his guidance and mentorship. We're also proud of the product we were able to create -- from whiteboard on Thursday to polished product Sunday morning, we're thankful for the opportunity Cal Hacks 3.0 gave us to learn, test our CS limits, and see we could do outside the classroom. Furthermore, we're proud of the fact that we pivoted quickly, realized that it would be a better idea to implement Roblox before VR, that we thought critically, that we used our prior experience to become a better team. I, Tae, Michael -- we're thankful for the Roblox community, for example source code, for giving us a taste of truly immersive gameplay that rivaled VR in its authenticity.

What we learned

We learned that with every new technology comes a very extensive learning curve. We learned that in order to act quickly and crank out product, we needed to think together, not necessarily agree all the time, but debate, argue, burn a ton of ink on our whiteboard, and eventually come to a consensus, with some lingering tension. That tension we used to push ourselves the status quo of Roblox. Roblox has stagnated -- no longer is it the premier development platform for indie developers and hobbyists. We hope that we can set an example, no matter how small, no matter how insignificant it appears right now. We learned that a group project works in the long-term; results may take time to develop, people take time to develop. Cal Hacks took 3 years to develop. Roblox, even longer. Ours, who knows? But as long as we keep caring about our project, keep doing research, keep grinding tutorials, re-typing codes, watching incomprehensible YouTube videos, I think we'll get there. I think we'll all get there. It's not a matter of time, or a matter of passion -- it's a matter of how all of us at Cal Hacks strive to push the boundaries of human innovation, beyond what big companies have created, beyond what startups strive to do, but to do what we want to do. To live life off the radar. To understand ourselves and the technology that shapes our lives to the utmost. That, my friends, is what it's like to truly live. That's what it means to be a Cal Hacker.

What's next for Tectonic Tunes

We plan to add more music based on more specific locations, as well as add a "Timeline" mode, which will allow players to go through different eras of musical development in history. We hope that one day, our game will be an integral part of the musical VR classroom experience, joining instruments and teachers in ushering in a new era of creativity and musical inspiration for budding youths. Additionally, we hope to add LeapMotion and other VR technologies to improve the user experience, as well as collaborate with top artists and production companies to improve the content available to music students worldwide.

Built With

• roblox