230:, where the player must maneuver their ship across the bottom of the screen to evade enemy ships and fire, while firing on the enemies to destroy them and "protect" their music. Points are scored for defeating enemies and the player can earn a scoring multiplier by keeping a chain of destruction going. If the ship is hit, parts of it will fall off, but the player can collect notes left behind by destroyed ships to restore the ship. Should the ship take too much damage, the ship will respawn after a few moments, but the player's score will be penalized. The player is also penalized for allowing certain ships from remaining on screen for too long, affecting their music. Certain target scores are pre-determined for each song, with the player's goal to surpass these levels. When the song is completed, they then gain in-game currency and the opportunity to buy a new weapon for their ship.
237:, where the regular attacking ships are replaced by a single, difficult-to-kill enemy. There are a total of six bosses, reflecting the six difficulty levels in the game. Defeating three bosses at one difficulty level will allow the player to access the next highest difficulty level, and the kinds of rewards that the player can earn for completing songs. Once at the sixth level, defeating the sixth boss will effectively win the game for the player.
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The player is then given the option to select a song using a set of simple filters, or to have the game randomly select a song. The game will process the song to create the patterns of attack that the player will face. Prior to starting the actual game, the player can customize their ship in the game
252:
is the product of the two-man development team of Empty Clip
Studios, Francois Bertand and Matt Shores. The game has been in development since 2008, and had an initial planned 2010 release, but subsequent development pushed the game back into 2012. One of the goals of their game was to develop their
416:
A common initial complaint of the game was an input lag that slowed down the player's movements and affected their performance. The Empty Clip team was able to address this lag issue and others within the first week of its release.
412:
considered the weapon upgrade system to be a differentiation from these other games, as the randomness of such upgrades keeps the game interesting, though manipulating the upgrades can be difficult for large music libraries.
240:
Players can opt to have their scores tracked on external servers based on the song name and artist. This creates global leaderboards so the player can compare their abilities with friends and other players.
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207:, the user is given the opportunity to add existing music on their computer to the songs that ship with the game; by default this includes common locations such as the directory for
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199:, players maneuver their ship (orange, bottom right) and shoot down attacking enemies (blue and red) as to defend their music at the top of the screen.
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263:; "Technical Achievement" (which included a $ 2,500 prize) and "GameStop PC Digital Download Award". On May 27, 2014,
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402:, two other games that procedurally generate gameplay based on the player's choice of music track. Marc Saltzman of
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215:. Additional folders can be added at a later time, and existing folders rescanned for new songs.
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music analysis engine as to "capture range of emotions that's uniquely present in every song".
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called the title "fun and frantic" but commented that it becomes repetitive. Leif
Johnson of
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765:
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539:"Music-Powered Shooter Symphony Brings Out the Best (and Worst) in Your Song Collection"
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received generally positive feedback from journalists who compared it positively to
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was included in a Humble Bundle in which the Linux and Mac OS X versions debuted.
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Certain songs from the player's library will randomly be selected as
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The game received positive reviews from critics, and a sequel named
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472:"Apple Arcade has 5 new games to play on its $ 5 gaming service"
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with any equipment earned and purchased from completing songs.
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222:The core game is otherwise like most arcade
869:Video games with custom soundtrack support
859:Video games developed in the United States
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21:
679:"2012 Indie Game Challenge Award Winners"
864:Video games using procedural generation
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772:from the original on December 22, 2017
649:"Symphony: Your Music Makes The Game"
579:"Your music becomes a battlefield in
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659:from the original on January 9, 2015
628:from the original on August 22, 2012
595:from the original on August 14, 2012
549:from the original on August 12, 2012
515:from the original on August 17, 2012
308:
283:
764:Peeples, Jeremy (August 14, 2012).
577:Saltzmann, Marc (August 12, 2012).
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259:was awarded two prizes at the 2012
470:Brown, Shelby (October 11, 2019).
14:
733:Neigher, Eric (August 30, 2012).
647:Fahey, Mike (November 13, 2009).
503:Johnson, Leif (August 13, 2012).
361:
375:
370:
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435:"Humble Bundle PC, Android 10:
537:Fahey, Mike (August 9, 2012).
1:
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854:Single-player video games
709:"Symphony for PC Reviews"
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167:was released in 2019 for
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819:Empty Clip Studios games
152:in August 2012, and for
144:video game produced by
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148:. It was released for
839:Music generated games
203:Upon first launch of
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745:on September 1, 2012
683:Indie Game Challenge
622:Indie Game Challenge
437:Skulls of the Shogun
261:Indie Game Challenge
213:Windows Media Player
306:
281:
849:Scrolling shooters
768:. Hardcore Gamer.
766:"Review: Symphony"
689:on August 26, 2012
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146:Empty Clip Studios
56:Empty Clip Studios
45:Empty Clip Studios
844:Music video games
735:"Symphony Review"
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150:Microsoft Windows
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814:2012 video games
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797:Official website
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741:. Archived from
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685:. Archived from
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789:External links
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451:. May 28, 2014
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481:September 17,
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165:Mind Symphony
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160:in May 2014.
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128:Single-player
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776:December 21,
774:. Retrieved
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749:December 21,
747:. Retrieved
743:the original
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718:December 21,
716:. Retrieved
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691:. Retrieved
687:the original
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104:May 28, 2014
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52:Publisher(s)
40:Developer(s)
834:MacOS games
829:Linux games
824:Indie games
393:Beat Hazard
310:Publication
245:Development
235:boss levels
142:shoot-em-up
118:Shoot-em-up
62:Platform(s)
808:Categories
713:Metacritic
693:August 17,
663:August 17,
632:August 17,
618:"Symphony"
599:August 14,
553:August 14,
519:August 17,
505:"Symphony"
421:References
294:Metacritic
285:Aggregator
588:USA Today
455:August 8,
405:USA Today
399:Audiosurf
354:USA Today
276:Reception
271:Reception
770:Archived
657:Archived
626:Archived
593:Archived
581:Symphony
547:Archived
513:Archived
509:GameSpot
448:Engadget
441:Symphony
410:GameSpot
388:Symphony
320:GameSpot
265:Symphony
257:Symphony
250:Symphony
205:Symphony
197:Symphony
187:Gameplay
179:through
158:Mac OS X
137:Symphony
113:Genre(s)
25:Symphony
124:Mode(s)
88:Windows
81:Release
67:Windows
653:Kotaku
543:Kotaku
298:75/100
228:Galaga
209:iTunes
313:Score
288:Score
226:like
173:macOS
154:Linux
140:is a
96:Linux
71:Linux
778:2017
751:2017
720:2017
695:2012
665:2012
634:2012
601:2012
555:2012
521:2012
483:2024
476:CNET
457:2024
396:and
337:7/10
325:8/10
211:and
177:tvOS
175:and
156:and
100:OS X
75:OS X
739:IGN
347:4/5
332:IGN
195:In
169:iOS
810::
737:.
711:.
681:.
655:.
651:.
624:.
620:.
609:^
591:.
585:.
563:^
545:.
541:.
529:^
511:.
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491:^
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183:.
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780:.
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697:.
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603:.
583:"
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485:.
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443:"
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
