The Ids | Sound and Color

In Influence, timbre corresponds to color.

Influence’s auditory world is one of pentatonic harmony and melody. We chose the pentatonic scale for its universal qualities and the way that layered pentatonic melodies blend together without uncomfortable intervals.

When a player chooses an identifying color, the ids they overtake will add notes to their melody. Melodies are four measures of eighth notes (and the occasional sixteenth note...) At the end of a game, the winner's melody plays alone, the dominant voice. The rise and fall of voices during a game creates a song, and players have the option to save it at the end of the game.

One of Influence’s experimental goals is for people to be able to understand the generated songs as if they are a language. A song should tell the story of a plane, start to finish, and in such a way that people can 'see' the game played out as they listen to its song. You should be able to hear when voices rise to power, when someone is only hanging on by a thread, or when a dominant voice is diminished, diminished, and silenced.