I’d like to start a thread on games that can be used for making music!
This can be any games that have some functionality for creating sounds or sequencing them.
Some examples for this I can think of are Electroplankton and Korg DS-10 on the DS, or Fluid and Music 2000 on the PS1.
Which of these games can you all think of?
Have you recorded any music with them or have some favorite recordings you’d like to share?
The KORG Gadget for the Nintendo Switch comes to mind for me. I kinda like the idea but I’m not sure if it would be fun to control these synths on the Switch.
Also I never looked too deeply into it myself but I’m fairly certain that somebody’s youth was spent entirely covering songs with Minecraft note blocks.
Mario Paint and the Game Boy Camera both have music making modes. Jam Session used the DS touch screen to play guitar.
Does Otocky count? It’s similar to Fluid that the gameplay is directly correlated to musical pitches, so playing as the character feels abstractly similar to playing an instrument. The difference is that it doesn’t have a more pure DAW-style music-building mode the way Fluid does. Not sure which of these things qualifies Fluid and if it would disqualify Otocky.
EDIT - I totally forgot it does have a music sequencing mode! Put 'er on the list!!
one i remember digging was fract osc.
it’s an abstract walking sim/puzzle game where you’re basically put into a giant synthesizer and have to get it working again. as you do, the environment fills up with music and you unlock more instrumental tracks and effects you can use to compose in the game’s central hub. i never finished it, but it’s a really striking game.
The music making mode of Groove Jikoku V is great. The fact that the nonsense minigames are played with the end purpose of spending money in gatchas to unlock different samples makes all of the time wasting somewhat fruitful.
The actual music-making element is quite engaging and smooth to control, I find myself pretty easily getting into a groove and having fun. There is an imaginary world with massive troves of songs people recorded with it.
Really bummed the music maker aspect was lost on the psp version.
There were a few of these under the MTV Music Generator series.
my kids are always making music in dreams.
Just finished a song/demo using samples from the Fluid game (+ my dishwasher):
I may try to make a whole EP using samples from the game!!