Otocky
Encyclopedia
Otocky is a videogame released in 1987 for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan. Developed by SEDIC and published by ASCII Corporation, the game was conceived and designed by Toshio Iwai
.
side-scrolling shoot 'em up
. The player's spaceship has a ball for a weapon, which can be fired in eight directions; each direction corresponds to a different musical note. The note plays when the player presses the fire button, and is also quantized
in time so that it matches the beat playing in the background. By using the weapon selectively the player can improvise music while playing.
The ball is used to destroy enemies by touching them, and also to catch various types of objects:
The ball gets smaller when the player is touched by an enemy, until the player loses a life.
Completing a certain number of levels unlocks a music editor which makes it possible for the player to freely compose their own melodies.
.
Otocky is a precursor of Rez
, Tetsuya Mizuguchi
's 2002 Dreamcast and PlayStation 2
game exploring similar themes of player action and musical evolution. Jake Kazdal, the only North-American member of United Game Artists, has confirmed that while the team did become acquainted with the Disk System game during the process of creating Rez
, it has not been much of an influence in fact.
Toshio Iwai
is a Japanese interactive media and installation artist who has also created a number of commercial video games. In addition he has worked in television, music performance, museum design and digital musical instrument design.-Education and early work:...
.
Gameplay
Otocky can be described as a musicalMusic video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
side-scrolling shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
. The player's spaceship has a ball for a weapon, which can be fired in eight directions; each direction corresponds to a different musical note. The note plays when the player presses the fire button, and is also quantized
Quantization (music)
In digital music processing technology, quantization is the process of transforming performed musical notes to an underlying musical representation that eliminates this imprecision. The process results in notes being set on beats and on exact fractions of beats...
in time so that it matches the beat playing in the background. By using the weapon selectively the player can improvise music while playing.
The ball is used to destroy enemies by touching them, and also to catch various types of objects:
- Musical Notes which must be collected to finish the level
- Letter 'A's which change the musical instrument sound produced by the ball
- Letter 'B's which provide a secondary weapon
The ball gets smaller when the player is touched by an enemy, until the player loses a life.
Completing a certain number of levels unlocks a music editor which makes it possible for the player to freely compose their own melodies.
Notability
Otocky is notable for being the first game to include creative/procedural generative musicGenerative music
Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system.- Theory :There are four primary perspectives on "Generative Music" Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different...
.
Otocky is a precursor of Rez
Rez
Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...
, Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Tetsuya Mizuguchi
is a video game designer and founder of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega were he eventually became the head of their United Game Artists division...
's 2002 Dreamcast and PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
game exploring similar themes of player action and musical evolution. Jake Kazdal, the only North-American member of United Game Artists, has confirmed that while the team did become acquainted with the Disk System game during the process of creating Rez
Rez
Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...
, it has not been much of an influence in fact.
See also
- List of Family Computer Disk System games
- Sound FantasySound FantasySound Fantasy also titled Sound Factory during production, is an unreleased video game for the Super NES/Super Famicom.-Summary:Interactive media artist Toshio Iwai designed the game in the early 1990s using concepts from the installation art piece Music Insects, which he created during his time as...
- SimTunesSimTunesSimTunes is a children's software toy designed by Toshio Iwai and released by Maxis in 1996. It involves painting a picture with dots , where each color represents a musical note...
- ElectroplanktonElectroplanktonElectroplankton is an interactive music video game developed by Toshio Iwai and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America and Europe. This game allows the player to interact with animated plankton...
- RezRezRez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...