How about some form of 'hovercraft' form of transport along 'roads', where the sound being played by the vehicle (which would, perhaps, be some sort of flat platform) caused the 'road' to resonate and propel the vehicle along? By varying the pitch, one could cause different parts of the road to resonate slightly more or less, thus allowing steering. A doppler-like effect could cause the road to only resonate behind the vehicle, thus propelling it forward.

Probably that wouldn't actually work, of course, but we can imagine and the concept is grounded in reality.

In for the $9.99 game only, please.

How about a harp-ballista which is adjusted by tuning the harp strings which the bolt will pass over/through when it is fired, playing the harp in the process. Thus to check your settings you just strum the harp, and different settings will produce different sounds when checked or fired. Something similar could be used for bows too.

Thanks for the giveaway and good luck with your project.

I like the idea of the setting, and I'm a fan of adventure games, so would love to see you finish it one day.

I'd like to suggest the idea of snake powered devices, a development of snake charming. (From what I've read snake charming doesn't really use music, which the snakes can't hear, but it's presented as such and would be good enough in the context of a game, IMO, especially of its cartoonish.)

Snakes could be used in place of transmissions or tires for example, to activate switches by biting on them, or simply as weapons by themselves, all controlled by music.

Edit: I'm not sure if I'm in. If I am, it's only for the $9.99 game.

Resonance triggers and fuses.

For an example of the former, you have an artillery battery laying in ambush by the road, waiting for a caravan to pass. To maximize the damage of the first volley, and to ensure surprise, the cannons fire when a certain note is played, causing resonance in its trigger system. The artillery officer - or, better still, the forward observer - has a whistle, a string instrument, a tuning fork or whatever, connected to the guns via wires and an amplifier system, thereby firing all the guns simultaneously. I'll leave the details open to you, but one way this could work is if the heat required to fire the gunpowder is provided by two chemicals, contained in separate vials that are broken by the resonance, that produce heat when mixed (that's one way of lighting a Molotov cocktail, by the way, so it's certainly within the realm of plausibility).

Similarly, you could have a landmine or similar trap that reacts to, say, something being ridden over it: the fuse only reacts to certain frequencies, so you could be quite specific about what you want to blow up. It's less reliable and harder to set up than a pressure fuse, of course, but it doesn't require the target to hit the mine, and you can still hide it without leaving tripwires or such hanging around. It would even work as a naval mine since different engines would have different acoustic signatures.

So there we go. I'm opting out of the Desura games because I can't be bothered to set up an account there.

EDIT: how do i grammar

Thinking about this, I'm not sure how to make stringpunk feel cohesive. Steampunk makes some sense because steam really was a power which could be used for many things (in particular engines), and it could be extrapolated to work with more complex technology. Music never had that role. If the direction is rather a cultural one, that technology needs to make music because people want it that way, then I think it's possible to come up with a setting that will feel more complete, because technology can work regardless of sound but can have sound components added to it.

What a lot of weapons, torture and restraint devices ;D. If my game didn't feature a violent sadistic king, I'd be a bit worried right now!

While music itself doesn't have that role, and sound didn't really either on a large scale, there's no reason it couldn't, right? I mean, sound is a form of energy, and you have concepts like thermoacoustics and resonance that lend themselves to such ideas.

I'll just get in for the $10 GOG.

The idea of opening a lock with a played sequence of notes brings to mind the Anne McCaffrey novel Killashandra, where that was used on the planet Optheria for the titular character and her lover cum freedom fighting partner Lars Dahl to gain access to (and sabotage) a subliminal conditioning unit. In their case, the lock was linked to an organ.

Your mention of a "guitar gun" in the opening post gave me the idea to try coming up with a string-based weapon. My hypothetical weapon would have the basic form of a Japanese naginata, with two harp-like devices where you would grip it. The idea is for you to play the two harps in concord as you fight, most likely using your thumbs, and the music causes the blade to resonate, which helps the blade cut when you slash with it. Same basic idea as a Star Wars vibroblade, which use ultrasonic vibrations to allow them to cut more effectively.

Sound maybe, but I don't think music really can. Still, it depends on how fantastic the setting is. It's possible to take for example the assumption that music can help plants grow, and speed growth up significantly (to realtime growth) to create interesting effects.

Nice idea, too bad I don't have the imagination to assist you.

Still, +1 for you. Not in.

I figured "music" as mostly the "programming code" or the "binary signal" to the sound. As gbaz mentioned in his first post here, sound has all these different properties, and changing those according to the need could produce different results. At the very least, you could say that they use music instead of generic sounds because it sounds better!


Oh, I'm not complaining, all ideas are useful!

Seems your not trying to make a really violent or combat focused game.
Which is a good idea for a story drivin game.

Another idea, different ways to produce music :D Not everyone can have a 16 piece orchestra!
Besides the string powered ipod/speakers, can't think of anything else.


How about a travern song, that makes people buy more drinks (think casino manipulation type stuff)
or makes them less drunk so the patrons need to drink more to get drunk.

Have that one crazy person in town.. 1man band jones. http://www.fanmusic.com/displaystory.jsp?id=294373

Now a big think, lyrics, it will take time for you to gather lyrics.. and specilly new songs.
I debated trying to make a game, but I'm no sound engineer, I would have to get outside help to make music.


You can have a dream sequenece, where you are in a new pixelated world, filled with bit-tunes! :D would love that.

ps. now I want your game.

A musical vehicle comes to mind. I think of things like trains as particularly rhythmic. I would imagine the driving force being drums.

Listen to this to see what I mean about trains being great for music:
http://youtu.be/JZ9U4Cbb4wg

I can't use Desura or Steam keys, just in for GOG games.

Indeed. Instead of an action game, rather, it would be an explory, puzzly adventure game (although it might feature an action minigame or two). But since it has a bloodthirsty king, with guards and soldiers and weapons, some amount of violent stuff works.

I'll definitely show it off here when (if :P) it s done!

And hudfree, that train song was hilarious :D. Reminds me of a bit from Spaced (the Simon Pegg tv show), but I can't find that on youtube...

Just a reminder, only 1 week left!