Early AccessAttract Mode
wfmag.cc \ 11LEARNING
BY DOING
The demo of One Hand
Clapping includes two
kinds of puzzles that are
already musical education in
disguise. In one, a character
appears and asks you to
repeat a sequence of notes
they’re singing. It’s a test of
your musical memory, and an
official part of examinations
by The Associated Board of
the Royal Schools of Music
in the UK. Another puzzle
shows you what notes chord
sequences are made of and
how they work, simply by
singing them yourself.to show off the work they were so proud of.
“We didn’t really think it would go anywhere,
but then big YouTubers like PewDiePie started
playing it. At first, I didn’t know what that meant,
or how to make the best of it, but we decided to
pitch the game to publishers,” he says. Not long
after, HandyGames, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic,
picked up One Hand Clapping’s publishing rights.
Throughout the interview, Wilson
acknowledges several times that players may
have to overcome their own embarrassment
when singing, and that he hopes One Hand
Clapping will help with that. But if it means the
game could have a potentially smaller audience
- well, he’s OK with that,
too. That isn’t to say
the team isn’t hard at
work making the game
accessible: “In the demo
right now we allow you
to just make noise for a bit at the beginning in
order to get used to the idea of creating sound
and influencing the world around you that way.
Throughout the game, you’ll also have a guide.
We’re still working on calibration options and
making it clearer how you can use your voice
and what pitch represents. Also, once you know
how it works, you’ll continue to get better, and
with that comes confidence.”
In addition to confidence, Wilson also
hopes to give players a musical education.
“In the finished game, information will pop
up sometimes; for example, what note you’re
singing, and what note you’re asked to sing.
Maybe we’ll show a staff with notes to help
with sight-reading. I also want players to learn
something about rhythm. The game doesn’t
need the human construct we placed around
music to make it legible, but it could help people
who are interested in that.”
Watching streamers play the demo, you
usually see people goof around quite a bit.
They’re obviously playing things up for an
audience, but it makes me ask if One Hand
Clapping could be one of those games in which
you overcome your fear of singing by having
someone there with you. Wilson gives a long
pause before he settles on this. “I mean, you can
do that?” he wonders.
“People like to play
together. When Braid
came out, there was
a video of Soulja Boy
playing it with his friends
and just rewinding over and over. It’s absolutely
not how the game is supposed to be played,
but they had fun. I think you can share games
pretty much no matter what the game is, and
that just harkens back to people going over to
their friends’ houses to watch them play as a kid.
But we want One Hand Clapping to be cerebral
and intimate. We want to create a calming
experience with a narrative that makes you
think. That’s what will make you feel good about
singing, and more besides.”Early AccessAttract Mode
“We want One Hand
Clapping to be cerebral
and intimate” One Hand Clapping is intended as
a calming experience, and the
imagery certainly underlines this. Challenges will take a variety of forms – here, you’ll need
to time your notes precisely to light up the rings.wfmag.cc \ 11 Social isolation and
shame are both themes
in One Hand Clapping’s
non-verbal narrative.