How Features in Symphonia were Designed with Speed Runners in Mind

From its inception, Symphonia was envisioned as a sport that rewarded management and timing mastery. Initially designed as a sport to deliver classical music to the world, it shortly grew to become obvious that its fluid mechanics and open-ended degree design additionally made it a pure match for the speedrunning neighborhood. After many hours spent perfecting the optimum character controls, our aim was clearly set on making a sport that may really feel rewarding whether or not performed casually or competitively, with further layers of depth for these keen to discover them. This imaginative and prescient grew to become the muse for Symphonia’s mechanics and collectibles.

There are some things in Symphonia that we baked in, to up the ante of the problem for many who take pleasure in it. The protagonist, Philemon, is a violinist who traverses the world of the quiet and sleeping Symphonia with one aim: to reunite the prodigies of all orchestral sections. His biggest instrument in the sport is his violin bow. As you play by way of the sport, you unlock mechanics that will let you bounce by way of ranges in other ways. The bow can be utilized as a pogo stick, a catapult, or a grapple, and this sense of transferring by way of the air at simply the correct time is troublesome to grasp however extraordinarily satisfying when you do. Precision in the timing to make each pixel depend is one thing that lends itself very effectively to the speedrunning mindset of pushing your self body by body.

A few of our crew members have their very own private historical past with speedrunning, starting from having fun with being a spectator, all the way in which to finishing their very own runs for Celeste and Katana Zero. Even in Symphonia’s earlier iteration as a scholar undertaking again in 2020, our crew would speedrun the sport, evaluate instances and a few people even hid glitches they discovered to make use of them as a bonus! This enthusiasm additionally reached members of the general public. We launched a free small demo on-line which acquired 500,000 downloads and noticed some gamers submitting entries on speedrun.internet.  We knew that we were onto one thing particular with this undertaking so after college we determined to start out a studio and pitch to work on the total imaginative and prescient of our sport. It took us one other 4 years to deliver the sport to full launch. 

It wasn’t simply the precision platforming subgenre that attracted velocity runners, we additionally intentionally needed to maintain the speedrunning spirit in thoughts when creating new options and even in the extent design. Generally transferring a block or a collider by just some pixels can create a wholly new path with some creativity. One other sport characteristic is the collectible music notes which might be positioned in hard-to-reach areas of the platforming problem, rewarding you for threat, experimentation and unlocking totally different areas in the sport. An in depth comparability could be the strawberries in Celeste. When you full a complete playthrough of the degrees, you unlock a Shadow Philemon. It is a copy of your character who trails carefully behind you with a small delay, ready so that you can slip up and be caught. The participant can also be in a position to tinker with unlockable talents like double leaping, remodeling all surfaces into cushions or sport velocity. These talents were initially designed to be accessibility choices, however some have proved helpful in permitting gamers to experiment and create new challenges.

When the sport launched in December, we were actually thrilled to see a sustained degree of curiosity with velocity runners and made positive to facilitate discussions and brainstorming with a devoted channel in our neighborhood Discord.

On the whole, it’s superb to see how speedrunning has grown from a distinct segment interest into a worldwide phenomenon. Over the past twenty years, we’ve watched speedruns of first-person shooters, platformers and even in genres the place one would least anticipate it, corresponding to roleplaying or technique video games. Due to the accessibility of platforms like Twitch and YouTube, speedrunning has been in a position to have interaction hundreds of thousands of gamers and lift hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for charity by way of Video games Executed Fast (GDQ). GDQ hosts two massive charity occasions a yr, and weekly Hotfix episodes to maintain viewers engaged. 

It’s clear to see the eagerness driving the creation of such experiences, once I requested Queuety, showrunner of GDQ, why speedrunning is significant to him, he answered, 

“Speedrunning turns any sport into each a puzzle and a aggressive efficiency, one thing which fascinates me and retains me coming again.”

Our writer has been enthusiastic in regards to the speedrunning parts of the sport, with the CEO Dieter Schoeller coming from a speedrunning background himself with Quake 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog in the Nineties.  Dieter says he loves speedrunning as a result of “the particular person to beat is nobody however your self.” Resulting from this shared ardour, and visual neighborhood engagement, our publishing companions reached out to GDQ for a collaboration. We’re all tremendous completely happy that the showrunners were drawn in by the visuals and premise of Symphonia. We then organized to take part in a section of the latest GDQ Hotfix episode. This was actually rewarding and a reminiscence we’ll always remember. I personally bought to supply commentary, and the devoted members of our neighborhood supported us by operating the sport dwell. You possibly can take a look at the episode here. 

If this text has given you a speedrunning itch, the neighborhood remains to be comparatively new so you may add rather a lot simply by making an attempt it out or by conversing with different runners and builders. We’d delighted in case you needed to offer Symphonia a run and take a look at our Discord speedrunning discussions. 

Speedrunner or not, we hope you’ll take an opportunity on us and benefit from the superb world of Symphonia in your personal approach.

Symphonia 𝄞

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Within the realm of Symphonia, music acts as a supply of life and power. However because the founders and their orchestra vanished the inhabitants are divided, and the world slowly falls into silence. What if there was a method to collect a brand new orchestra? That is the query Philemon, the mysterious musician in Symphonia, should reply.

Embody a mysterious violinist, introduced again to life in a declining world. Your violin and bow are each your instrument and a way of transport. Catapult your self by way of the world, and full ranges by fixing thrilling platforming challenges whereas re-activating the equipment that brings life and power again to this world.

Uncover a musical world, primarily based on the symphonic orchestra, and crammed with vibrant characters. Every space in Symphonia has its personal distinct really feel and characters, and every room is hand-crafted. Meet prodigious musicians and attempt to persuade them to affix the orchestra.

A novel soundtrack, primarily based on the romantic musical interval, crafted by composer Olivier Esman. Benefit from the efficiency of the Scoring Orchestra Paris, recorded particularly for Symphonia and written by composer Olivier Esman and his companions Alexandre Bucas-Français and Lou Corroyer. Play engrossing concert events, every centred round one of many households of devices – Strings, Brass and Woodwinds.

Discover, navigate, play the violin, collect musicians. Awaken Symphonia.

Features
– Expertise and overcome nice platforming challenges with all of Philemon’s talents

– Uncover varied environments which mix music and equipment

– Play the violin to activate degree parts and convey life to the realm

-Collect musical Prodigies and play breathtaking concert events to deliver music, pleasure, and glory, again to the land