Posted on 10/29/2009 by Neversoft

Dev Blog: Vocal Updates in Guitar Hero 5

Hey everybody, my name is Anthony Campos (GHDevAnthony) and I work as a Note Tracker here at Neversoft.  With all of the GH5 information being released, information about the vocals in the game has been pretty sparse. Well, today I’m gonna fill you in on everything you need to know about singing in GH5.

A lot of changes and tweaks have gone into vocals since Guitar Hero World Tour. Some changes are aesthetic, such as the overall look of the pitches in the highway (which are much cleaner and easier to read). There are also some minor changes to earning and maintaining your multiplier. Earning an “Excellent” rating still increases the multiplier by one, but if the player has a 4x multiplier and earns a “Solid” rating, the multiplier will drop to 2x (earning another “Solid” rating consecutively will drop the multiplier back to 1x).

One thing that has changed (that I’m sure competitive singers will be happy about) is that freeform sections no longer affect the players score. Gone are the days of lopsided scoring and exploiting these sections for points. Players are now awarded with a boost to their rock meter. This makes it so freeform sections feel less mandatory, and turns them into something the player can enjoy if they so choose (and possibly help them out in a tight spot if they’re struggling).

Another welcome addition to vocals is the inclusion of Star Power (SP) phrases. Up to this point, SP was awarded to the player based on their performance in each phrase, with an “Excellent” rating giving the player the highest amount of SP available for any given phrase. As a result, this made SP available at any given point since it was awarded after every phrase, removing a lot of the strategy and difficulty from vocals. We now assign SP to individual phrases. These phrases require an “Excellent” rating for SP to be awarded to the player.

One of the new features that I am most excited for is the inclusion of a phrase progress meter. This meter essentially tells the player how well they are currently doing in any given phrase. As a player sings through a phrase, the meter will change color to indicate what rating they will earn or how close they are to earning a particular rating. While it may seem like a rather hum-drum addition, this progress meter is the foundation to how vocals are now scored.

Scoring is handled completely different than how it was handled in previous games. To start off, players will no longer earn a base score per phrase. Phrases are now scored based on the amount of time they stay on pitch. Think of it in terms of how sustains continuously score points on guitar and you have the basic idea. So to put it simply, the more pitches you nail within a phrase, the more points you get! As a result of this new system of scoring, the length of a phrase is directly related to how many points you will earn from a phrase. So if you have two phrases, one short with many short notes, and one very long with long sustained notes, the longer phrase will inherently award more points since you are spending more time singing in that phrase than the shorter one.

So where does the progress meter fit into all of this? Well, in order to earn an “Excellent” rating on a phrase, the player is required to hit 80% of the pitches within that phrase. The progress meter reflects this by changing to the color green when the player crosses that threshold (pictured below). However, even though the meter has turned green, the meter will show the remaining 20%, be that what the player missed or what they have yet to hit. This 20% is where players can squeeze more points out of a phrase even after they’ve earned an “Excellent” rating.

The same concept applies to SP phrases as well. If the player barely crosses the “Excellent” threshold of a SP phrase, they will be awarded the standard 1/4 of the star power meter. However, if they begin to push into the extra 20% of the progress meter, the player will be awarded extra SP relative to how much of the meter is filled. Think of it like whammying SP for vocals. This new system really makes vocals much more dynamic and reflective of the player’s ability. To put it all in perspective, I have passed the same song multiple times with 100% (FC), and I have never earned the same score twice. For all of you competitive score hunters out there, I’m sure this is just what the doctor ordered. 

So there you have it. You are now up to date with everything you need to know about vocals in Guitar Hero 5. Keep on rockin’, and I’ll see you guys online soon!    \m/

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Filed under – Neversoft