VR Rhythm Harmony – hit, clap, shoot to the beat!
VR Rhythm Harmony is a suite of silly, yet entertaining rhythm games in VR for a single player. Each game offers a unique way to interact in VR with the surrounding following musical cues. The user has to listen carefully to a song and to hit objects at the correct moment (beat). The different mini games set different environments and props. The game mechanic remains the same.
Hit with a golf club balls thrown by the cute apes, shoot a pin at rolling blocks to the conveyor belt, or clap the tiger's paws to the beat.
The VR app's core features:
- Cross-platform VR
- Three mini-games with an interactive pick-up and play menu
- Unique interactions in each game, hitting, shooting, clapping
- Each is a fully unique rhythm game
- Scoring system and saving high scores persistently
- Sound effects and animations for tight user feedback
- Customized rigs and animations for charming cute animal characters
- Custom terrain and design for each scene
- Three mini-games with an interactive pick-up and play menu
- Unique interactions in each game, hitting, shooting, clapping
- Each is a fully unique rhythm game
- Scoring system and saving high scores persistently
- Sound effects and animations for tight user feedback
- Customized rigs and animations for charming cute animal characters
- Custom terrain and design for each scene
- MIDI input
Timeline: cross-platform MVP developed within 2 weeks by a 3 persons team
Development Details
Scoring System:
We implemented a three star scoring system based on how well the user did
3 stars, almost all Ace hits
2 stars, ok. Many ace hits, few misses
1 star, you played the level. Many misses
The score is calculated per game, with Ace for a note being the best, close being next best, and too slow/fast/miss as the worst.
The highscore shows up as filled in stars above the toys in the selection menu.
Song Engine
Implementation of a rhythm engine that supports the following:
- Multiple “lanes”, which represent the different input locations, spawn locations, or note types
- Each game has lanes, but what a lane represents is different.
- Play a song during a level
- Support delaying start when the player is ready to begin
- Timing system (SFX applies to each of these)
- Ace - the user hit the note within the timing window. A perfect hit.
- Close - still counts as a hit, but was slightly off. Would not count as a perfect, but suitable for passing a song
- Too Slow/Too Fast- Counts as a miss, but with extra feedback that you were too fast or slow
- Miss - You did not hit the note at all or input was completely missed.
Tech Stack
- Unity 2021.3.11
- OpenXR
- AutoHand Physics XR framework
- Unity Rig Builder
- DryWetMidi
- CySharp/UniTask (async for Unity) https://github.com/Cysharp/UniTask
Our team started prototyping in ShapesXR and decided on a color palette:
Screenshots of the most recent app version:
Recordings of the single games:
