Faculty of Arts & Science

Digital Futures

Ryan Boyd

Holosonata - 2D Platformer Game

Quell the conflict of an AI civil war by using holographic music to uplift the inhabitants of Solar City and bring harmony between man and machine.The game takes place in a solar punk futuristic society where humanity has reached a symbiosis with machine and nature, but continues to act in juvenile ways towards the environment and each other (littering, overhunting, racism, etc). The main character is an AI Engineer who has invented the Holowave, a hybrid musical instrument that projects holograms alongside sound frequencies meant to stimulate emotion in AI, so that they can better understand humans.The conflict arises when the Solar City management AI mainframe known as Shepherd reaches a new level of sentience through the Holowave experiments, causing them to perceive that the world would be better off without humans. From the perspective of Shepherd, humans are destroying the same world that AI were programmed to protect, and they can thrive without them now that they have achieved emotional awareness. Shepherd reverse-engineers Holowave technology and uses it to infect all AI in the city with this homicidal ideology.Humans and AI start a war against each other, but the Engineer discovers a holosonata that can heal the minds of both humans and AI, bringing the world back into harmony via the uplifting motif. His goal is to access Shepherd’s Tower to access the giant holowave and project a massive uplifting holosonata for everyone to experience, humans and AI alike. To do this, he must find three clearance keys in Solar City, giving him access to the pneumatic elevator that leads to the Shepherd’s Tower.

“Team Members:Ryan: Coding, character/environment art, animation, lead design, narrative design, sound designJulia: Puzzle design, level design, asset creation, sound design, enemy design, character/environment artMack: Photoshop work, level design, UI elements, end screens, asset polishing, sound designGenre: 2d Platformer, Sci-Fi, SolarPunk, Side-Scrolling Shooter”