TIANHAO ZHANG

COMPOSER, PROGRAMMER, MUSIC THEORIST

"A man in a wheelchair revisits his childhood home to find a gift from his father—a gift that carries memory, dream, and love."

Nominated for Best XR Game in MWU (Made With Unity) List China 2021

Powered by Wwise.

Father and Son is a VR game featuring puzzle-solving elements, fragmented narratives, and environmental storytelling. I experimented with different types of interactive musical design. The music system can collaborate with the game mechanics and respond to the players’ input.

0. Menu Page

The game program starts in a white space of consciousness, which is actually the main menu. The players have to learn to move with the wheelchair here because they need to get into the door. The music here is a loopable piano solo. This melody works as the main theme of the game which will be reused at the end. The music stops when the player enters the door and starts the game.

1. Exploration

As the game starts, the player is teleported into the apartment. The player can explore the room freely.

There are 3 versions of exploration music with the same length. All of them are piano solos. They are played randomly to create variety. Sometimes the music stops for approximately 40 seconds, leaving only the environmental sound effects.

2. Dissonance

As the player explores the rooms, they will find two key items, the photo and the textbook. Each one is linked to an unpleasant childhood memory of our character. A non-loopable track called “dissonance” will be used to accompany the flashbacks. The players can choose to pick up whichever item earlier, but in the video playthrough, let’s assume that the player picks up the photo first. This flashback is related to a quarrel between Xia Yu and his father.

Free exploration music stops at the next bar line after receiving the signal. “Dissonance” music will start. As the name suggests, the dissonance track features unstable rhythm and dissonant harmony. This music segment is not a loop, so the music will later automatically switch back to free exploration.

Here is the second dissonance. After picking up the textbook, free exploration music stops at the next bar line. This flashback is about discrimination. When in primary school, Xia Yu's classmates bullied him because of his disability.

The ambiance sound of the school will be played after teleport. There will be no music at the beginning of the flashback. The second version of dissonance will be played when the player sees the text “Xia Yu is a no-leg loser!”. This second version is played with some low-frequency synth pads, so it sounds darker and more depressed. Of course, if the player picks up the textbook before the photo, this darker version will be used for the photo. This logic is programmed in the Wwise project. 

Again, when “dissonance” ends, it switches back to free exploration music.

3. Broken Dream

The player needs to pick up the key and open the door of the shop.

When picking up the paper plane placed in the shop, free exploration music exits at the next bar line, and “Broken Dream” starts.

The music goes from fondly Hopeful to more depressive. It is hopeful when the text shows that Xia Yu wanted to become a pilot and fly in the sky. It becomes depressive when the text and sound effects tell the player what happened to his legs and break his dreams.

When “broken dream” music ends, the music stops completely (without free exploration music) until the player opens the light of the next room.

4. Paraglider

Now the player finds a way to get into the workshop. The paraglider music starts when turning on the light. Here the player sees the blueprint, which is the gift. They need to modify the wheelchair to a paraglider. The music here is again a loop. Every time a part is installed properly (including the frame, wheel, left connector, and right connector), a new vertical layer will be added to the music.

Starting as a piano solo, the music will evolve into a positive and rhythmic one.

5. Flying

After the completion of the wheelchair, the player is teleported to the final scene. The music starts with only the solo piano. The volumes of all other instruments start from 0 and they are controlled by the distance between the player and the edge of the cliff, where the player starts flying.

When the player moves forward, the music slowly builds up the tension and forecasts the final outbreak. It will evolve from a piano solo to a big orchestral piece. This part is what I call the pre-flying music.

When the player reaches the edge and starts flying, the program will turn the pre-flying music into orchestral flying music, featuring the melody we heard before on the menu page.

Read more about this project on the director's website HERE.

A playable build may be downloaded HERE.

The Wwise Project of this game may be downloaded HERE.