Ghostwriter

Ghostwriter was an experiment in linking gameplay with music. It was named after the song that inspired the game.

The prototype presents a simple missile defense challenge, based on the lovely Flash game Red. The twist is that the player can only shoot once in every time interval. These intervals are synced with the chosen background music and change in length at different points in the song.

This is different from how rhythm games work; rather than trying to hit certain instants, you’re just limited to a certain tempo, which changes only occasionally. I often felt that certain moments in a song really pump me up, while others chill me out. This game was an attempt to tap into those feelings. It worked well enough, and I’d someday like to graft this mechanic onto another type of base game.

Unfortunately, the prototype contains all copyrighted music, and it has syncing problems with other computers besides, so I can’t share it freely.