Nine men's morris

Collaboration
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1

Hello Playdate creators!

I'm working on Nine Men's Morris for Playdate. I've got the game mechanics and images done, and I could use some help with audio. I'm open to graphics and fonts, as well. If you are interested in providing even just one thing, I would appreciate it!

Audio

  1. Main menu
    Change selection
    Make selection
    Background music
  2. Game
    1. Entrance
      Board sliding onto table
      Pieces sliding onto table
    2. Play
      Moving the space selector
      Invalid space selector move
      Selecting a space to move a piece to
      Invalid space selection
      Selecting a piece from the board to move
      Unselecting a piece
      Invalid piece selection
      Forming a mill
      Pounding a piece
      Having only 3 pieces left
      Win celebration
      Background music

Graphics
Pound

For context, here is an example game.
ninemorris

All feedback is welcome and appreciated; I'm doing this project to practice making a delightful experience.

6 Likes
2

Very cool! I could make some sfx and celebration fanfares for you

1 Like
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Thanks! I look forward to hearing them.

4

I can point you to some great royalty free music. What kind of vibe were you thinking for menu and game? Just list some words the describe your thoughts, will be enough.

1 Like
5

Nimbushead-sfx.zip (2.0 MB)

@nimbushead Here are some sound effects for everything you listed under "2. Game". (I completely missed the items you had under "1. Main Menu" ).

Take a listen and let me know if you need anything else or want some additional options for an item :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

Just some calm background music that's typical for board game lobby music. Maybe jazz?

1 Like
7

Thanks for the audio! The board slide, piece selection, mill, pound, 3 pieces left, and win fanfare sounds are all great. I'll be sure to credit you.

The audio for moving pieces worked really well for the pound sound. That means that any time a pound happens, one of three sounds can be randomly chosen, and I think the variety is nice.

I've updated my original post with checkboxes, I checked the boxes that are done, and I made some changes.

Invalid action

I forgot to mention that a player could attempt to move the selector off the board, select an unavailable piece, or select an unavailable space. Audible feedback might improve the experience when the player performs an invalid action.

Moving pieces

Instead of two distinct sound effects for moving a piece from one place to another, just one sound effect for selecting a space is good. I imagine something like selecting a menu option.

Selector

The sound for moving the space selector works, but seems a little harsh. Something a little smoother(?) might be better. The length is good.

Pieces slide

The audio for pieces sliding sounded more like pieces being dumped on a table. Something more like the board slide (higher pitch and shorter?) might be better.

Again, I really appreciate the sounds effects! I'd love to hear what you come up with for the main menu, if you can spare the time.

8

Thanks for the feedback - I'll try to get you some new sounds tomorrow!

Also - here's a little tip if you haven't played around with it at all, checkout the sample player's playAt method: Inside Playdate

sampleplayer:playAt(when, [vol], [rightvol], [rate])

Often times I use subtle changes in rate for sounds that will be repeated often so they don't become annoying over time. Similar to what you did with the POUND sfx, you could actually get this with any sound you have. For example, try randomizing the piece selection sfx between rate 0.8 - 1.2 for a bit of variety.

1 Like
9

Oh, I hadn't tried playing with sample rates. Thanks for the suggestion!

10

Nimbushead-sfx 2.zip (3.0 MB)

Here are some additional sounds for the menu, the invalid sounds, and your other requests. I tried to provide some options for each so hopefully you can find a good fit for whats there. The new sounds should all be prefixed with 2023-12-Nimbushead-take2-*

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Awesome! The new sounds work well. I've added them, put the game on Itch, and posted it in the Games category. Thanks a bunch!

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In game music

Menu music

Let me know your thoughts and I'll prepare them for use in your game.

1 Like
13

Those are both great! I like "Pops up the mind wings" (00:49 track at https://musmus.main.jp/jazz_02.html), too. Can we squeeze that one in?

1 Like
14

nice. what type of graphics do you want I can contribute.

15

Thanks! I could probably use the most help with the POUND graphic. I'm happy with the WINNER and flying graphics, but if you feel like making those better, I'm all for it. The flying graphic is the wing that appears in the upper-right and upper-left corners when the player only has 3 pieces left.

16

Music!

  • the short one was a loop already
  • the long ones I have used PyMusicLooper to extract good loops, as long as possible (not the default loops it finds)
  • audio is normalised to -6 dB to allow room for sounds in the mix and prevent distortion
  • zip contains stereo and mono ADPCM versions, encoded with adpcm-xq

ADPCM.zip (2.9 MB)

you'll need to credit "MusMus"

sorry about the delay! yesterday's activity reminded me

17

hey for "pound" how about a fist pounding graphic? would that match up?

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That would be great! It'll remind of Golden Sun, one of my favorite games.

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Thanks! How shall I credit you?

I didn't realize there was an activity yesterday. What was it?

20

zartan's reply above brought this thread to the top and reminded me.

Matt Sephton as my credit, thanks would be enough