Our little studio, MusicOasisOmni has made some major changes in our Strategy for the software we have been developing. This blog has primarily focused on the development of the myMusicOasis software development which was basically aimed at being a multiplayer, session based games where people could meet and have dance parties while listening to music and exploring DJ lighting. We haven’t blogged about the Studio’s other major efforts which have been primarily internal projects within the Sansar software for targeted events like the Halloween Build for 114 Harvest, working with Gallium Studios on the Proxi software development or working with Rhino XR Studios on the development of their software platform called Megaverus. The myMusicOasis software this dev blog has been covering up to this point had a lot of similarities to what the Megaverus platform was envisioned to be. Because of these similarities and the interest of Rhino XR Studios in a number of the features in myMusicOasis (myMO) we have decided that it was a good time to make some strategic decisions to inject some of the myMO software features into the Megaverus build. This last sprint we began doing this.
We cloned myMO back end Amazon Web Services (AWS) programming (API gateways & Lambda functions), mySQL database tables, views and queries, as well as, the actual C++ and Unreal Engine blueprints and maps to an independent clone that will be used as the basis of a next step of Megaverus software. The first steps after making and handing off this myMO clone is to upgrade the Unreal Engine software to use the UE 5.1.1 engine instead of the the current UE 4.27 engine that myMO is working on. The overall development of this clone will be done with a different development lead and team than the original myMusicOasis dev team. Since the development effort it is done by different people and managed differently these software efforts will probably start to diverge fairly quickly. Both teams will try to do enough coordination to take advantage of development work from each build that can be retrofitted into the other build where it is a useful feature for the other build. We have talked about trying to sync our approaches to use the same tools, pace and approach to make this communication better and allow us to be more coordinated. The Megaverus effort is currently looking at using the same sprint cycle approach and tools (Trello & this blog) for their efforts so that we can schedule and coordinate reusability of code and ideas. So expect to see some blogs about Megaverus in the future!
Since this is the myMusicOasis blog there is a lot of things that need to be revealed about our planned strategic direction of the myMO game. Since, we have cloned the software it will allow the myMO development to be focused on a much tighter, smaller scope game instead of what we were doing. We have decided that myMO is not going to primarily be what we would call a “Software Toy” and be a more traditional “Software Game”. To that end we must discuss the differences between Software Toys and Games.
A toy is something you play with. Toys are usually fun and good toys should give you pleasure as well as a few surprises. A software toy like the current myMO has elements that make it a toy. You play with exploring venues/worlds, dance your avatars, change your avatar look, play with DJ lights, share music via a media screen, play with weather, etc. This is often called an open ended world or even sometimes a sandbox game. This “toy” is a good starting point to develop the more serious software effort of building out a metaverse social platform hence our decision to clone myMO and begin applying it to developing Megaverus along with Rhino XR Studios.
A game is something you play and not something you play with. Going forward myMusicOasis is being designed as a game and not a toy. What are some of the characteristics of a game?
- Games have Goals
- Games have Conflict and Challenge
- Games have Rules
- Games can be Won and Lost
- Games are a closed, formal system
- It is clear what you can and cannot do in a game
- Games are all about problem solving
We are planning on moving myMO from a toy into a game by making it into a Music Venue Management & Party Sim type game. It will be at it’s heart be a tycoon type game where players build and manage music clubs and try to build an empire in the music business. It will also have some Role Playing features as we plan and eventually growing it into a number of different classes of player like a classic role playing game. But, instead of melee warrior, archer, mage, etc …. our classes will be Venue Owner, DJ, Lighting Directors, Label Owner, Talent Scout, Dancer, etc.
myMO will mostly be played as a stand alone game where the player interacts with the game and solves puzzles/challenges to succeed as a club owner. They will be able to unlock more and more tools to manage and build their club as they progress through the gameplay. Most of the elements in terms of avatar interaction will be using Non-Player Characters. We are now designing the game flow/story and the mechanics in terms of goals, challenges/puzzles and scoring. Expect to see much more of this in future sprints as they will be mostly planning sprints instead of software toy development like myMO has been over the last couple of years.
In addition to this simulation mode of the game, we still plan on having a sandbox mode where players can play with their software custom builds they unlocked in the sim mode as a toy. Basically a version of the what the myMO edit mode is today. If you have unlocked a map, you can go play in it after you have accomplished the goals of building it in the sim game.
Also we plan on having a “Party mode”. This is the co-op party we were developing as the software toy. This will be more social version of the game where you aren’t scoring points and advancing your career, but rather you hosting online virtual parties with groups of friends at your favorite venue builds from the Sim or Sandbox modes of the game. You can stream your own audio and instead of interacting in the game with NPCs you are interacting with your friends. It is basically the game as it existed today when we made the clone.
So, a big strategic move for the game myMusicOasis and the MusicOasisOmni development team. Wish us luck!
