Vocal Improvisation Scoring in Music Video Games
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Solution Overview
Problem
Rhythm-action video games lack a feature that allows players to expressively sing improvised harmonies, limiting vocal gameplay variety and creativity, especially in repeated playthroughs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a vocal improvisation feature in music video games that uses a microphone controller to evaluate and score players' vocal performances, allowing them to sing improvised harmonies based on pre-authored or dynamically generated notes, with visual guidelines for permissible pitches and rhythms, and adjusting scores accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the game requires players to follow pre-authored melody tracks, then the game structure and scoring are simple and clear, but the vocal gameplay variety and creativity are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The scoring system is segmented into two independent components: melody scoring (for pre-authored tracks) and harmony scoring (for improvised harmonies). This allows the game to evaluate both structured and creative vocal inputs separately, increasing vocal gameplay variety while maintaining clear, manageable scoring rules for each component.
Solution Approach 2:
The vocal evaluation system is designed to handle multiple types of vocal input universally - both pre-authored melody singing and improvised harmony singing. The same microphone controller and pitch detection algorithms evaluate both structured and creative vocal performances, allowing players to switch between following notes and improvising without changing equipment or interface.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the game allows vocal improvisation, then player creativity and expressiveness are enhanced, but the difficulty of evaluating and scoring the performance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides real-time visual feedback through harmony guidelines displayed on screen, showing players whether their improvised vocal pitch falls within the acceptable harmony range. This immediate feedback loop allows players to adjust their improvisation in real-time, making the evaluation process transparent and the difficulty of measuring performance manageable through visual cues.
Solution Approach 2:
Harmony guidelines act as an intermediary between the player's improvised vocal input and the final scoring evaluation. Instead of directly evaluating complex improvised melodies, the system uses pre-calculated harmony ranges as a mediator - if the player's pitch falls within these guidelines, it is automatically scored as a successful harmony, simplifying the measurement of improvisation quality.
3Measurement precision
If the game provides strict pitch requirements, then scoring precision is high, but the player experience becomes more restrictive and less engaging
Solution Approach 1:
The pitch evaluation system dynamically adapts its precision requirements based on the type of vocal performance. For pre-authored melody tracks, the system uses strict pitch matching with narrow tolerance ranges. For improvised harmonies, the system uses broader harmony-based tolerance ranges that accommodate natural vocal variation while maintaining musical correctness, thereby preserving player freedom without sacrificing evaluation precision.
Solution Approach 2:
Different pitch evaluation criteria are applied to different vocal contexts. Melody notes have localized strict precision requirements to ensure accurate reproduction of the composed line, while harmony notes have localized flexible precision requirements that allow natural improvisational variation. This local differentiation of quality standards maintains both precision where needed and player freedom where appropriate.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure is directed at methods and systems for implementing and scoring a vocal improvisation feature in a music video game. This feature can allow players of music video games to sing improvised harmonies for a song using a microphone controller. The improvised harmonies can be musically consonant with a pre-authored melody track programmed into the music video game. The improvised harmonies can comprise pre-authored notes programmed into the pre-authored melody track, or can be generated by the music video game during run-time based on the pre-authored melody track. The music video game can also display guidelines visually showing permissible harmony tracks in relation to the pre-authored melody track.