Topaz's Music Player

[Quinn]

Is it a Cd player, or an Mp3 based?

Is it a key item, or is it part of a "Pokegear" radio like thingy? ()


Whichever it is, I was sparked with the idea last night at 10 . I think Ipods are overrated (yes, in the essentials, there is an Ipod), so I decided to create a different type of mp3. It is based off of the Creative Zen.

This is what I created. And yes, with the exception of the background, it is made from scratch.

Background:

pretend this is animating in the back of the following images. Also, look carfully...does that background look familiar

Music player:
















Backgrounds from PC backgrounds, Mail, Google (with changes of course) and the title screen.

As you can see, when a button is hit, it goes down. Not the D pad though.

Battery changes at random. Doesn't mean a thing.

You can change your players background. Along with the people who sell the CD's, or whatever, others sell backgrounds.

When you buy a song, it goes straight to the list.

----------------------
Very thought out controls.

Enter via key item/pokegear.

Takes you to list of songs. Using up and down, you scroll the list, and search for your wanting to listen. Use F5 to arrange them to your liking (like items in the bag).

Select a song using C and it plays.

To pause the song, push C again.

To stop the song, push Z

To return to the menu, push left.

To exit, push Z

When you wanna return to your music to stop it or change it, you enter the song menu and instead of pushing C (to select another song) ,push right. That takes you to your playing song, or stopped song.

Yeah, edits are easy, rehauls aren't. Like it or I will eat your face off!

[neon.Barnacle]

I like the interface, but I'd prefer it not to use too many keys. In a game like Pokemon, I don't think we should have keys exclusively assigned for a single item.


Before we can get further with the design, though, there are some logistical issues we need to sort out.

First and most important, what form of media will we use for the music player? CDs seem the most convenient, since then their item type will be similar to TMs. This is also a problem, though, since TMs are already CDs and we may be causing confusion by labeling them as such. Also, logic dictates that we'll need space in our backpack to store the CDs, which leads to hassles programming-wise.

The other option is to go full-digital. This way we'll only need an MP3 player key item like the one Quinn made. However, using this format means that it'll be impossible to have them as findable items on the ground. We'll probably need some sort of music store dedicated to selling music.

And that brings us to the next issue, where to find music. If we go with the CD format then it'll just be like obtaining TMs. For the MP3 format, like I said, we'll probably have one (or several) music vendors. Pieces should be available for sale only after you've heard them "naturally", i.e. as default BGM.

So really, everything depends on whether we want CD format or digital format. Personally I'm for digital, since I think going with CDs would make them too similar to TMs.

[ImmunityBow]

Not bad. I like the interface though I'm pretty sure Badara was going to implement it more like Pokegear. But this works too.

[Quinn]

I personally was thinking it would be part of the pokegear (if we are even having one). Thats why I made the little logo. In the essentials, its a radio, although it opens an Ipod. I thought that was dumb personally.

Key item works for me too...though I think it might clutter up our Key Items.

*Neon. The controls aren't "ONLY" for that item. Might I make a quote from our playtest?
"Arrow Keys: Moves the Character. Also used to choose various data headings.
C: Used to confirm a choice, check things, and talk to people.
X: Used to exit, cancel a choice or mode, and open the menu.
F5: Use this key to use a registered item
Z: As you advance in the game, you can use this key to run while moving. "

All keys are used except Z the most used will be up and down. C and X will be used often too. Right and left, not as much, but still.

I actually made this to be both the CD player/Mp3 Player. Thats why theres the bump at the top, that would be where the CD/SD/Whatever goes in.

Might be weird, but who said we can't find Songs on the ground for an mp3 player. Normally how when you find an item its kinda like "Quinn found Great Ball. Quinn put it in the items pocket. Instead, it would be kinda like, "Quinn found Cave Theme. Quinn imported Cave Theme to the Mp3/CD player".

[neon.Barnacle]

My bad Quinn. It just seemed like you used a lot of unnecessary buttons.

If Badara can make it so we can have multiple registered key items, I think it's better if the music player is a key item. With so many potential hotkeys, it'd be a lot more convenient just to hit one key to pop out the music player instead of going into the menu, accessing the Pokegear, and switching over to the song list.

[Quinn]

now that you say it...that sounds like a good idea. It would be nice to have 2 key items, like HGSS. Idk what its little icon would look like though :P

[neon.Barnacle]

From a programmer's perspective, we can have as many hotkeys as there are keys available on the keyboard. Really, the only limitation is how many hotkeys are viable in terms of gameplay. We could easily use the 1-9 keys for nine different registered slots.


Also, another thing regarding your design: it's not very Pokemon-esque. Gadgets in the Pokemon universe are all fairly bright and flashy. While your design is sleek and functional, I don't think it'll fit as well in the game.

[Cyndadile]

I like the design.

Also, just wanted to mention: I REALLY like the idea of multiple key items. That may require having on-screen icons to remember which key does what, though.

[Quinn]

anyone wanna make the suggestion bout key items...anyone?

I will state, the GBS player. of course you dont see it muc, but it is just red grey and black. With the animated background, an interface that actually does something, along with all the possible background designs, It should be flashy enough. I actually 1st thought of Topaz's logo on the top area above the buttons, but then it seemed a bit overhaul. Also remember, you dont even really see too many items in 3rd gen. 4th gen with itemsfinders and stuff...thats a different story. Yeah, the GS radio wasn't flashy. *though that didn't have much of a color range anyways.

[ImmunityBow]

Considering that we'd already have a store for Triple Triad cards, I find that maybe we could have secret computers stationed in secret areas. When you use them then you can download songs onto your MP3?

[Quinn]

what do you mean? I dont think seeing a PC at the end of a cave is a good idea myself. *though I dont think that is what you mean. Maybe the triad store could also have some music *mart themes, triad themes, just not "battle" themese. Maybe we could have secret houses for music. I was thinking when I can do maps again (whenever that will be), for one of the bigger towns, the little pokemart would have stairs going down, into a small tunnel. Emerge on the other side, and your in the triad house. *No entrance except the basement.

^maybe do the same for this.

[neon.Barnacle]

Jutting in with my opinion. I think we should just have a standalone store (like the bike shop) which sells music, located somewhere like Kalypso or Enechestra. Tracks become available for sale after you hear them as default background music. Frankly I don't think the music player is that important to warrant them being scavenge-able commodities, since many games simply have Sound Test as an unlockable feature.

[ImmunityBow]

Actually now that neon has clarified his idea, this would work. You could just make triggers at each area with new music that cause the music shop to update its store. It's simple and elegant, I like it.

[Quinn]

I was for that idea too. Then I started getting a bit blurry minded. But again, I am for that.

1 question I do have though....should we have it kinda "shiny"? Like windows, how they are shiny. Same here? If so...I actually dont really know how to do that :P

[ImmunityBow]

I still think it's an excellent base. Could you post it up without the background? I'd like to tinker with it a bit to see if I can get it bright and happy like neon suggests.

[Quinn]

Do you have photoshop? *It would make my life so much easier to send you the PSD.

[ImmunityBow]

I have Photoshop. PSDs make everyone happy!

[Quinn]

thank you!!! Let me shoot this to you. Give me half a sec.

you might wanna look at the different layers. I've got it pretty easy to know, but you gotta know which ones are where. It might look cluttered up at 1st.

[ImmunityBow]

Okay. You should see my layers after a piece of concept art I've done. Sometimes I just merge them all since I don't want to deal with 60+ layers any more.

[Quinn]

nice! Thats about 2/3's of what the title screen is :P

[ImmunityBow]

Let's see, I sketched up and coloured in a new piece of Ampure concept art for this express purpose


Making it smaller, you can apply it like a skin onto the player, examples:



I can make more concept art to apply as skins, if people like the idea.

[Quinn]

lol Totally serious, I had that same idea. I just thought no one else would like it :P. How Ironic. The light blue will look fine with the background, though right now on the Vanilla, it seems too bright.

I'm just throwing out a LOAD of possible thingies.

Venap
Echoice
Celsinge
All 3 ^ together.
Mogel (read his dex entry, and you might kinda see my view)
Cleffa line
Exploud (duuuhhhh!)
Benengil/Malduval
Purior
Kuranpu
Kipporok
Jirachi

[Merlin]

wow i like the way this thing is coming out...
and yes having skins would be nice although maybe we should have another feature on the mp3 thing---downloads
think about it people download stuff off the net all the time and here you can basically by the music off an online store while also being able to go to the store to buy some music though i would set it up for having certain music in the store and then certain music in the "online" store
course going to the store to buy the music would also allow you to buy the different skins...

although about the battery i think it could be useful if done right cause then you could go around and buy new batteries after the old one cant hold a charge anymore so i would probably have it die after so many days of gameplay esp. if it's been used a lot...
and i think the halfway point should be yellow that way it'll give you a heads up to charge it if it's got the red warning bar in it...

[Quinn]

I dont know about the online thingy. I actually dont really get what you mean by that.

I do think it would be kinda cool to listen to your own personal music *like paramore, slipknot, and my bands on my computer* in a saved folder. Make a link to the my music folder, or something. Lolz.

[Merlin]

some mp3s and ipods come with apps that allow you to download stuff off of an online store...
this would be useful in game if some music was in the online store and some was in a pokemart...
course in the pokemart (or whatever it is u sell the stuff in) would house the skins so you would have to go there anyway...
i think the music should be split up between the two stores if the online one was used, meaning like route 140 would be found in the store only and NeoBay would be found only in the online store

(btw don't complain about the route i just picked a number at random)

[Tyrannigon64]

It doesn't have to be completely realistic. You can make up some technological thing that doesn't exist in real life. Remember, the world of Pokemon is more advanced than ours (note how you can capture gigantic monsters in small metal balls)