Unsung
Personal Project
In this wordless side-scrolling adventure, a small creature named Pip inherits a single note from its caretaker. In a basin drained of colour, Pip sings paths open and helps its neighbours find their voices.
- Project
- Solo project with AI assistance
- Engine
- Unity
- Focus
- Game design · Gameplay programming · Music
Gameplay
Tune
Hold the sing input and slide Pip’s pitch toward a Tunebud’s note. As the notes converge, the audible beating and the bud’s shaking slow down. Hold the match for about 0.6 seconds and the bud responds by growing a bridge or steps, or lowering a wall.
Sing
Hold the sing input near a Tunebud.
Match
Adjust pitch as the beating and shaking slow.
Cross
Use the path opened by the Tunebud.
Echo
An Echobud records one bar of Pip’s notes in eight half-beat slots and repeats it. Low and high notes drive different lifts. The notes snap to the beat so players can work out the sequence at their own pace.
Design focus
Tuning by feel
Beating, shaking and controller vibration give players three ways to follow the same pitch difference. A gentle pull toward the target helps them settle on a match.
A lullaby in layers
Bourdon’s lullaby is the shared theme. Cupback adds a wooden rhythm, Leafwing a sustained voice, and Tidespinner a bass part. The demo is planned around the first of those encounters.
World & story
The Basin
Bourdon once kept the Basin in tune and hummed a lullaby to Pip every night. When Bourdon falls silent, the creatures drift out of tune and the Basin loses its colour. Pip begins with the one note it remembers. The demo follows that note to Cupback, a creature with a shell that catches rain.
Level design
Prologue · Learning the first note
The planned opening gives Pip one note and introduces Tune at a single Tunebud. The first match should be readable through sound and motion alone, so players can discover what to do as they approach.
Cupback · Putting the note to work
The planned first chapter combines routes opened by Tune with one Echobud lift puzzle. Helping Cupback catch the rain earns Pip two new notes and a bounce for water drums and shells. Colour returning around the encounter marks the end of the demo’s main arc.
Puzzle breakdown
Turning two notes into a route
In the whitebox puzzle, a low note lifts one platform and a high note lifts the other. Players record a pattern into an Echobud, then use the repeating sequence to cross. The first demo puzzle will teach the link between what the player sings and when each platform moves.
Technical implementation
Side-scrolling through a 3D set
Camera Zones set the angle, distance and field of view per stretch of the route. The camera blends between zones while movement follows a straight side-scrolling axis. Foreground and background layers add depth as the view changes.
Live synthesis and a shared clock
The whitebox code synthesizes notes in real time. An 80 BPM clock gives Echo eight half-beat slots in a three-second bar. The planned separate audio tracks start on the same bar line so that new parts can enter in sync.
Development
Whitebox and demo scope
The Unity whitebox contains side-scrolling movement, three Tune interactions, one Echo lift puzzle, synthesized audio and Camera Zones. The first playtest will check whether players can discover how to tune, compare mouse, keyboard and stick input, understand what Echo recorded and read the depth of the scene.
The planned 10–15 minute demo covers the prologue and Cupback chapter. Colour restoration, the authored lullaby and a downloadable build are still ahead.
Unsung
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