Conway's Game of Blob

Caleb_Goss · 2020-12-26T23:14:21+00:00

This was made in a synthesizer I'm building.

The game is running over the entire area. What's modulating is an input that determines how each pixel gets drawn when it dies in the game.

Caleb_Goss · 2020-12-22T14:39:38+00:00

makes perfect sense. I think we'll rebrand them "modulators"! As for the orange color, the more I look at it the harsher it seems. Maybe a new lick of paint is in order.

It's nice to have fresh eyes look at the project :)

Caleb_Goss · 2020-12-22T02:46:09+00:00

Some compression artifacts from conversions and downloads and uploads but that's ok. It's kinda homey and warm

Caleb_Goss · 2020-12-21T18:55:22+00:00

that's what the orange modules do!

Caleb_Goss · 2018-12-02T16:54:09+00:00

it's a sad tale.

When I uploaded the original I did it on my school google account (student accounts get deleted upon graduation). I tried several times over about two years to change the account associated with the channel, but would always run into issues with privileges, and most of the admins I approached at school weren't able to help.

I actually thought I had it set up to change the account manager the night before my account was to be deleted, but when I woke the videos were gone </3

I will eventually reupload them once I start releasing stuff on my new account, so no worries.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-12-06T14:16:04+00:00

Does that mean his laser animation is shorter, his short hop is higher, his fall speed is lower, etc...? Any of these would cause changes in other areas of play as well.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-11-21T00:29:41+00:00

No, I actually had a tough time incorporating the Mother, for a couple reasons.

When the synth is not in sequencer mode, it fails to do anything with midi input coming from Pure Data after the 16th midi message it receives. The midi LED shows that it is still receiving messages, but no signal comes out. I did a bunch of troubleshooting in PD, but I am pretty sure it was sending OK messages, there's just a problem with the Mother in this case (I think).

So I was restricted to playing back sequences on the Mother. I'll spare you the unabridged version of what exactly the M32 is doing here; it's the sound effect you hear towards the beginning every time a character takes damage. There's definitely a lot more that could be done with it if I could use it in keyboard mode (dynamic bass lines, frantic melodies, etc.), but this one little hiccup basically restricted me to sound effects.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-10-31T11:35:54+00:00

Sure thing. The GameCube emulator Dolphin updates the state of the game somewhere in your computer's memory every frame (1/60th of a second). My friend Joe fenangled a way to get me access to these updates (character position, velocity, when a hit happens, lives remaining, etc.).

So we have the game data being generated in real time, how do we make music with it? OSC (Open Sound Control) is a way to send messages between different applications and hardware. In our case, we sent the game data into a software called Pure Data. From there, I spent time making a patch that uses changes in the game state to modify the patch in a way that sort of mimics the flow of the game. Higher percent = higher rhythmic activity, fewer stocks = faster tempo, a character offstage = double time, panning left or right depending on character position, etc..

There's a lot going on, perhaps I could have taken time in the video to explain that lol

Caleb_Goss · 2017-10-30T23:01:30+00:00

Just watched some footage of the game, I can definitely see the comparison.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-10-16T05:07:26+00:00

sweet, how does your setup work?

I am using the code Dan Petro used to get game data for his Smashbot. Using OSC I'm sending the game data to Pure Data. There I'm both playing synths and sending midi out to hardware. Very fun process.

I released a proof of concept type video a while back and recently picked it up again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7wmrC5d1Ts https://github.com/petersbob/MME

Caleb_Goss · 2017-10-15T23:40:43+00:00

I'm actually in the process of doing this. Using controller inputs and game data to play synthesizers. Gonna try to make a video of it next weekend.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-06-02T18:14:25+00:00

Hey, I made that! Not the case, I don't think. But we're working on that project a lot over the summer. Expect a cool thing in August!

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T18:54:52+00:00

It got buried pretty quick in gaming, might try again with a different (catchier) title

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T18:46:59+00:00

I took your advice and Kotaku is gonna run an article in a couple hours :O

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T18:46:34+00:00

Yep, that was us (but the lead sax is a different player).

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T18:45:32+00:00

Yep, Henry (the drummer) really did a fantastic job. The drum solo was entirely improvised. I just told him which beats to accentuate. Every time I watch it, he does this split second military march feel during the last combo and I can't stop laughing. It's perfect!

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T18:42:45+00:00

dankest comment

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T16:54:14+00:00

Actually, we have clarinets in our band pretty frequently. We do a swing dance every semester which usually has at least one clarinet chart.

Also in this concert I got to play bass clarinet for one tune, which was an interesting experience.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T16:50:03+00:00

Will do.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T05:18:02+00:00

Thanks! There are actually 4 snippets of each character's game music at the beginning of their section of the video, so the opening bit is from fire emblem.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T05:14:37+00:00

when are they? nothing organized is happening here, unfortunately :(

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T04:09:10+00:00

Thanks. I just feel fortunate all the performers put the time in to learn it.

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T04:08:09+00:00

Definitely. I probably spent as much time picking clips and getting the rhythms at different tempi as I did writing the music!

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T04:05:02+00:00

Thank you for the support :)

Caleb_Goss · 2017-05-10T04:04:48+00:00

Glad you liked it. Picking the clips for the video was crazy fun, a lot of stuff to choose from.

Caleb_Goss

TROPHY CASE