Echoes of the Masquerade
Once a prominent town, Solvanni di Luma now stands as a testament to its former glory, having been known as the Capital of Art. This vibrant town was renowned for the Masks of the Commedia dell'Arte, which captivated audiences from around the world. However, a curse silenced its musical heritage and driven its inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere. As the Last Musician, you possess the unique opportunity to restore the sounds and artistry of this town, will you manage to overcome the curse, or will you succumb to it?
The Project
Role
Game Director
Lead Game Designer
Music Composer
Lead Sound Designer
Lead Narrative Designer
Softwares
Unity - C#
FL Studio
Audacity
Tags
Roguelike
Hack & Slash
Dungeon Crawler
Team
8 members
Duration
10 weeks
What did I work on?
Echoes of the Masquerade has been my first project as director. I've guided a team of 8 people into a project with the objective of telling the story of an abandoned italian town where music and battle cohexist.
As a team, we've managed to develop the game in the time limit we had implementing all the features we designed and i've ensured we kept an optimal workflow where everyone's opinion mattered and decisions were taken together.
As Lead Game Designer, I wanted to create an experience that would allow players to enjoy the game multiple times while exploring the abandoned town and its bright and colorful environments and that's why we decided to create a roguelike experience where players could enjoy various playthrough thanks to a varied set of items that could be used to make tons of different builds.
The game's combat styles focuses on music, alterning major and minor scales attacks and parries that could be used on enemies to deal increased damage.
As Composer, I wanted to make sure that the game music could communicate the culture and folklore of southern italy, Sicily to be specific.
Through the instruments of the sicilian culture such as the mandolin, the marranzano (jaw-harp) and the tamburine, I've created expressful traditional songs belonging to the tarantella genre mixing them with strong and aggressive epic rhythms that could add a sense of epicness.
When playing the game, the player can shape the music playing thourgh their weapon by acquiring music points and adding layers to the song playing in that moment, creating a dynamic connection between gameplay and music.
As Lead Sound Designer, my main scope was to create sounds that could accompany the players through their journey by emphasizing on the feedback they would obtain by hitting enemies, blocking attacks or using abilities.
To add a deeper layer of connection between gameplay and music, I've created a system that creates melodies using different music scales when chaining attacks, sharpening the players' feel of control over the music.
To reach our goals even furtherly, as Lead Narrative Designer, I've created a story that could keep the players engaged with their exploration and the various encounters.
As I wanted to portray the story of the italian theatre, specifically the world of the masks in the Commedia Dell'Arte, I've written a story that features masks as main characters and companions, recruiting a team of italian voice actors that could play the main speaking characters in the game, establishing a deeper connection between the story and the players.