Them's Fightin' Herds - An innovative take on Fighting Games

[Progenitor]

WARNING:  THIS POST IS REALLY LONG BECAUSE I'M GIVING INTO HYPE AND AM EXPLAINING A BUNCH OF CRAP ABOUT THE IDEAS OF THE GAME.  PLEASE READ EVERYTHING IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL THIS GAME IS, AS MOST OF WHAT I SAY IS KINDA IMPORTANT.
 
So what's most important in a fighting game?  The roster?  Tight controls?  Variety in gameplay?  Yes, yes, and yes.
But what about something rarely discussed:  The music.  Whether you appreciate it or not, music in fighting games is all about keeping the mood.  Making sure the hype at least stays status quo so that you don't get bored slapping each other to the same bassline repeated a zillion times on a 15 second loop.  But that's it right?  Surely the Music is just there for ambiance; to simply sit it the background and keep the masses happy?
 
Well the good old guys at ManeSix have decided you are stupid.  Allow me to introduce:  Them's Fightin' Herds - A fighting game whose primary "gimmick" if you will is what they are calling a "Dynamic Music System"
 
Yes these are the guys who tried to make a My Little Pony fighter and got jabroni slapped by Hasbro for it.  BUT WAIT HUMBLE VIEWER!  Why leave now at that simple fact before I even explain just WHAT this "Dynamic Music System" is?!  Eh?  Curious now ain't ya?  Wanna see where this is going?  Well certainly.  Lets get started.
 
So just what the hell is a "Dynamic Music System".  Well my friends, this is the entire premise behind the game, and it's funking BRILLIANT.  Essentially, the music in this game is in no way set in stone.  Not even close.  Sure every stage has it's theme, but everything you do as a player will influence the track as you play.  And I mean literally EVERYTHING.  Stage, who's winning, who's losing, being idle funking WHO IS PLAYER 1 AND PLAYER 2.  EVERYTHING will change the music.  Sometimes dramatically, sometimes subtly.
 
Can you even imagine?  When coding the very first demo prototype for this game, there were over 600 paths the stage music could take over the course of a match with only 2 characters and 1 stage.  So when I say everything, I mean everything.
 
Not only that, but Mike Z and Lab Zero offered to let them develop the game on the Skullgirls engine.  You know, the game that has super tight controls and is based as a hybrid between MvC 2 and 3, both of which are considered to be some of the greatest fighters of their generation.  So not only is this game gonna have tasty as funk music, but it's going to play extraordinarily well.
 
So you want some examples of all this music crap?  Sure, ManeSix has got you covered.  Just today they have released 4 demo music swap situations.  Lets go over them.
 
Before you watch any of these, you should know 1 thing: Every character in this game has their own "Music Preference".  This is exactly what it sounds like.  One character on the roster may have a preference for 8-Bit style tunes, while another might like 80s Techno.  These preferences determine how each stage's music evolves.  For these demonstrations, Arizona likes 8-Bit tunes, while Velvet likes 80s music.  Additionally, all quotes are from the ManeSix Dev team on how each transition will work.
 
[spoiler Custom Intros based on Characters present, stage, and who is player 1/ player 2]

 
 

The intro to the stage themes will be enhanced by melodies that depend on player 1 and player 2’s character choices. As the track starts, player 1’s character will be represented by a short musical cue, followed by a cue representing player 2’s character choice. Each character will have custom player 1 and player 2 intros for each stage. The same goes for stage outros and transition themes that play between rounds.

 

 
[spoiler What if you two refuse to play and just camp?]

 
 

Having high energy is fantastic, but what about when you don’t feel like diving right in to a fight? If both players are standing idle for long enough then the music will drop down to a nice relaxing version of the stage theme to fit the mood. Pointless? Yes. Silly? Most definitely, but pointless and silly things like this are a great way to add a nice little bit of flavour to a games soundtrack.

 

 
[spoiler Dominating your opponent]

Here are some character domination variations. Say Character A happens to love 8-bit music. Whenever that character is dominating the match you will be treated to a sweet 8-bit flavoured version of the stage theme. Character B loves rad 80s tunes? If she is dominating then you can expect the music to get pretty cheesy. Each character will have a custom version of every stage theme in the game, which can drop in and out whenever they are kicking the most ungulate arse.

[spoiler Arizona's Domination]

 

[spoiler Velvet's Domination]

 

 

So there you have it.  Definately one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a very long time.  If you want to know more about this game, or if you wish to donate toward's their upcoming crowdfunder, their website has everything you could ask for: http://www.mane6.com/
 
What do y'all think?

[.Rai]

Dynamic music is really cool. Not exactly groundbreaking, and there's probably even more intricate examples out there like Fez, but sticking it into a fighting game is a nice idea. Seems like a huge amount of resources with a large roster, but probably doable.

 

Of course, if the fighting gameplay isn't good, the gimmick won't save it. And the music has to be good for the gimmick to be worthwhile. But, that's just things to ensure.

[Progenitor]

Dynamic music is really cool. Not exactly groundbreaking, and there's probably even more intricate examples out there like Fez, but sticking it into a fighting game is a nice idea. Seems like a huge amount of resources with a large roster, but probably doable.

 

Of course, if the fighting gameplay isn't good, the gimmick won't save it. And the music has to be good for the gimmick to be worthwhile. But, that's just things to ensure.

 

Indeed.  The musical director on the team was just stating how he instantly regretted how he made the first demo since every new character or stage would exponentiate the workload since their interaction with the stage them and the other characters needs to occur with each new one.  What's difficult about integrating this system into a fighting game is that the changes can occur at any time, and for any period of time.  Therefore, not only does he have to create every stage theme, he has to record the stage theme ​in its entirety in the theme of one character, then chop both into bits, and lay them side-by-side, with the game using triggers for when to float into one character's section and when to go back to default.  Not only that, but the bits have to be small enough that changes can happen rapidly, and seamlessly as tides can turn in an instant.  So once he finally has those two tracts down, he has to repeat the process for every other character on the roster. and that's only for that one stage.  With a cast of 10 characters every stage would need 11 versions of the stage them for one stage that can be seamlessly called back and forth into existence during the heat of battle and not get caught up between rapid transitions.  With 10 characters AND 10 stages, that's 110 individual themes coded into the game, while only 3-4 or so being called upon for any one battle.

 

As for the gameplay, I'm fairly certain they did indeed take up Mike Z's generous offer to build the game under the Skullgirls engine (which is absolutely fantastic.  Mike Z said "the game shouldn't be hard to play.  How precisely you can execute a Quartercircle within the game's limitations should not ever be a deciding factor" So his engine is extremely lenient with inputs so that anyone can do decent combos once they get the hang of it).  Even for a demo the animation in the clips are extraordinarily clean, and even these two default placeholder characters seem to have some depth to them (Arizona looks like your standard heavy hitting rusher, while Velvet appears to be more stationary; using projectiles to continue combos from a distance rather than continuing to approach a la Glacius from the new Killer Instinct).

 

So all the pieces are totally in place for this to be a really cool game.  All they need is proper funding and, like you said, some tasty tunes and they're good to go.

[Toffee.]

I've been well aware of all the changes/progress/etc to this game.

Just been waiting to see the end result.

 

Glad to know it's finally finished.

[mitchermitcher]

I really dig the idea of the game influencing the music being played, but it would be even cooler if the music influenced the tides of the match.

[Progenitor]

 

Just some gameplay in trailer form.  Combos look short and sweet.  Like I thought Velvet is literally Glacius from KI.  He was always my favorite cuz when good people play him his combos just look straight up unfair.