The Fantasia: Music Evolved (Xbox One/360) Thread

[Monkey Man]

*Please note: This thread is no longer being updated, if you wish to take over the thread then please pm a mod*

Disney Interactive and Harmonix are excited to announce Fantasia: Music Evolved for Kinect on Xbox 360 and Xbox One!

Become the new apprentice of legendary sorcerer Yen Sid, and explore and transform magical worlds by unleashing your musical creativity when Fantasia: Music Evolved releases in 2014.

For the latest updates on Fantasia: Music Evolved, "Like" our official Facebook page (facebook.com/fantasiagame) and "Follow" us on Twitter (twitter.com/fantasiagame).

Please note: This is not one of the 15 MS published exclusives. Also will not be shown at MS's E3 conference. Gameplay videos soon on Gametrailers/CBS and then next week at E3.

Harmonix — the studio best known for its work on the Rock Band and Dance Central series — is working on a motion-controlled, rhythmic music game for Xbox One and Kinect for Xbox 360 that is a modern interpretation of Walt Disney's Fantasia.

Fantasia: Music Evolved was recently shown at a pre-E3 event where Disney Interactive's executive producer, Chris Nicholls, explained that the game is about putting "the power and magic of music in the player's hands ... so rather than sit quietly in a dark theater and admire the creativity of others, now we allow you to step into Mickey's shoes and learn to wield the power of music."

Players take on the role of the sorcerer's apprentice, who has been tasked to perform and transform songs in order to bring life to worlds created by the sorcerer Yen Sid. In one of the levels Polygon played, we were taken under the sea into a quiet and abandoned ocean environment devoid of music. It was our job to unlock musical interactions by using gestures and, in doing so, bring life and music back to the environment.

Within each environment is a number of songs, which range from Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to Bruno Mars' 'Locked out of Heaven'. At launch, the game will feature tracks from more than 25 musicians, each featuring two unique remixes in addition to the original recording. The other three songs that have been announced include Avicii's 'Levels', Fun's 'Some Nights' and Kimbra's 'Settle Down'.

Where games like Rock Band and Dance Central require players to try to match what they see on screen as closely as possible in order to maximize their score, Fantasia gives players more creative control — there is no right or wrong way, only the player's way. When we entered the portals for these songs, we had to perform gestures to the rhythm of the music by tracing arrows with our body, but we were also able to use a kaleidoscope to decide if we wanted to add a rock, orchestral or brass influence to the song, and use music manipulators to bend, stretch and distort parts of the music.

Speaking to Polygon, Fantasia: Music Evolved creative director Matt Boch said the team at Harmonix asked itself how it could bring Walt Disney's vision of Fantasia into a contemporary setting. With the studio's wealth of experience from Rock Band and Dance Central, it decided to help people build a relationship with music through physical movement.

"Through our experience with Dance Central, we thought it was really awesome to have people moving along with the music, and that rhythmic connection was really strong," Boch said. "So we decided it has to be about the player's body, it has to be a game where they're actually moving around space and exploring music through their body."

Boch said the game is an avenue for people to express themselves through music and movement. When arrows appear on the screen to tell players which direction to swipe, the Kinect can pick up subtle hand flicks and the biggest arm movements. It's up to the player how much energy and enthusiasm they want to bring to the game and, judging by how the player moves, the art and animation on screen will change accordingly.

"In building a gesture system we wanted to give a lot of freedom to people, so it's not this 'copy what you see on screen' thing, which is what we did with Dance Central. Here, you're moving rhythmically, and we wanted to give players the sense of freedom of expression.

"With your body, you can choose which hand you're going to use and how big your gestures are going to be."

According to Boch, the Harmonix team has competitions within the office to see who can come up with the craziest way to do well in the song and, often, people will design their own dance routines or hold their arms in front of them and spin full circle to perform a simple swiping left or right gesture.

But aside from the game being a physical form of self-expression, Boch believes Fantasia is an opportunity for players to step into the role of the creator by mixing and manipulating well-known songs into something unique, something that is their own and something that is just as valid as traditionally composed music. Boch said that everyone at Harmonix is a musician to some extent, so the studio wanted to build a set of tools that can let players experience something close to what they experience as music makers.

"My personal musical practice is multiple," he said. "So I have an indie pop band and we have a thing we do every couple of years where we'll do a cover. Our most recent cover was a mash-up of an Imogen Heap song, a Jason Derulo song and a Hot Chip song; we rewrote all the parts, I sang all the different vocal parts and stitched them together to create this strange, amalgamated cover.

"These are the things I love to do, and I think it's a really contemporary notion of what music is. I adore it."

Once a player completes a song, parts of the music will be brought out from the portal into the world. In the case of the underwater level, a school of fish swam through the level singing parts of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. When we moved the cursor over a group of crabs, they started singing the melody from the song that we'd manipulated earlier. When a song is successfully completed, the level takes on a life filled with vibrance, sound and music.

"When Walt Disney first made Fantasia, there were no music videos, there was no notion of syncing sound and images together," Boch said. "They've done a couple of symphonies and had the notion of animation plus music as a really cool thing, but Fantasia was the first large music video years before that notion happened.

"We need to take that same level of innovation, that same creative spirit and bring it to what we're doing. I think we have. I think it shows."

http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/4/4384732 ... nouncement

Another preview - http://www.destructoid.com/harmonix-s-n ... .phtml#ext

[Skippy]

Takes me back to the first time I heard the dubstep drop in the original Fantasia

[jiggles]

Some things:

1. Why not "from the creators of Dance Central"?
2. No footage.
3. Is this one of the much-lauded 15 exclusives?

[Monkey Man]

Some things:

3. Is this one of the much-lauded 15 exclusives?

They were MS Studios published games. I assume this is published by Disney, maybe.

[Buffalo]

Fantasia with extra Bruno Mars. Right ok. Harmonix what the hell man?

[BID0]

I'd rather have more Rock Band DLC that Microsoft won't let me carry over to the next Xbox plz.

[Harry Bizzle]

*Trailer* *Screenshots*



uw0tm9

[Venom]

Those screenshots look beautiful but it seems as if it has Child of Eden style gameplay. I wonder if those models in the video will be doing a live demo at Microsoft's E3 conference...?

[Monkey Man]

Won't be shown at MS's E3 conference:-

@johntdrake (Harmonix PR guy) Is Microsoft getting Bruno Mars for E3 Conference?

@bosjbug we're not in their briefing.

Gameplay soon/E3:-

@FantasiaGame @johntdrake @Harmonix gameplay footage would likely quell the naysayers.

@Benson111 @FantasiaGame @Harmonix some coming soon from GameTrailers, CBS and then next week at E3...patience...

Fantasia: Music Evolved is a music motion game, but it's not a *dance* game. You've not really seen/played a game like this before. Promise.

@sinisterdesign there's classical music in it. We just haven't announced what tracks yet.

[Eighthours]

Harmonix is increasingly reminding me of Robert De Niro's recent career regression.

[Skippy]

Well it doesn't appeal to me exactly but I like the idea of a Kinect-style rhythm game being more than just a dancing silhouette on screen and despite the choice of music (obviously the most popular acts are announced first though) there could still be a little Disney magic

[Alvin Flummux]

Why the hell is the Fantasia name slapped on this?

Oh wait, money.

[KK]

Ah, Fantasia. The film that bored entire generations of kids worldwide.

[SchminkyPinky]

Ah Fantasia... A music game with a western classical music soundtrack? Interesting

*Watches trailer*

[Trelliz]

strawberry float this, give me "Orchestra Hero" using Kinect 2.0, conduct orchestras with Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and of course:



Now THAT would be a Fantasia game worth playing.

[Monkey Man]

@geoffkeighley: Lots of talk about the new Fantasia game from Harmonix. We will show you the first actual gameplay Thursday night on GTTV's Pre-E3 special.

[Monkey Man]

A few minutes of gameplay and chat from 7 min 40:-

[gametrailers]http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/2vq0cf/gt-tv-e3-first-look-special[/gametrailers]

http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episod ... ok-special

Also from Gametrailers E3 schedule -

MONDAY, JUNE 10

12.15am - 1am – PETER MOORE, NEED FOR SPEED, BATTLEFIELD 4, AND FANTASIA
Harmonix arrives with the first-ever live demonstration of FANTASIA: MUSIC EVOLVED running live on Xbox One.

[Monkey Man]

Gameplay and interview -

[Mafro]

Harmonix used to be one of my favourite devs.