u/SamCkpris

Could a 2D top-down interactive music album work on the N64 with libdragon?

I've been thinking about making a rather unusual homebrew project for the Nintendo 64.

The idea is to create an interactive music album rather than a traditional game.

I've made an album that is around 19 tracks / ~35 minutes of music, and each track would correspond to a different 2D top-down world.

For example, one track could have a small beach, an umbrella and a bottle of orange juice ect . Another track could have a completely different environment and atmosphere.

The basic gameplay loop would be:

• Start in a strange empty space.
• Enter the first door.
• Explore the world associated with the first song.
• Find some objects hidden somewhere in the environment.
• Finding the objects unlocks the next door.
• Alternatively, the player can simply do nothing and listen to the song loop 3 times. This also unlocks the next door.
• Repeat this for all 19 tracks while Increasing the difficulty.
• The final area would be a long white corridor with the final track and credits.

There would be a few optional achievements for things like collecting every memory or listening to all the tracks without interacting.

Visually, I'm thinking very simple 2D top-down pixel art, with small characters and relatively large environments. Something atmospheric and dreamlike rather than a traditional RPG.

The reason I'm interested in the N64 specifically is that I want the project to feel like an actual strange N64 game that somehow never existed. I know the N64 is primarily associated with 3D, but I believe a 2D top-down game should technically be possible.

For development, I'm considering:

GameMaker to prototype the entire game while deliberately using N64-like constraints than rewrite/port the systems in C using libdragon.

For audio, I've been looking at libdragon's WAV64/Opus support so that the album doesn't have to be stored as raw PCM audio.

My questions are mainly:

1. How practical is a fully 2D top-down game like this on real N64 hardware using libdragon?

2. Would a tilemap/sprite-based approach be reasonable?

3. Are there any major limitations I should design around from the beginning?

4. Is WAV64/Opus a sensible solution for ~35 minutes of music?

5. Are there existing N64 homebrew projects using a similar 2D approach that I should study?

I'm not trying to make something technically impressive. The goal is to make a small, atmospheric interactive album that feels like an unusual lost N64 game.

Any technical advice or examples of existing projects would be greatly appreciated.

I've been thinking about making a rather unusual homebrew project for the Nintendo 64.

The idea is to create an interactive music album rather than a traditional game.

I've made an album that is around 19 tracks / ~35 minutes of music, and each track would correspond to a different 2D top-down world.

For example, one track could have a small beach. Another track could have a completely different environment and atmosphere.

The basic gameplay loop would be:

• Start in a strange empty space.
• Enter the first door.
• Explore the world associated with the first song.
• Find some objects hidden somewhere in the environment.
• Finding the objects unlocks the next door.
• Alternatively, the player can simply do nothing and listen to the song loop 3 times. This also unlocks the next door.
• Repeat this for all 19 tracks.
• The final area would be a long white corridor with the final track and credits.

There would be a few optional achievements for things like collecting every memory or listening to all the tracks without interacting.

Visually, I'm thinking very simple 2D top-down pixel art, with small characters and relatively large environments. Something atmospheric and dreamlike rather than a traditional RPG.

The reason I'm interested in the N64 specifically is that I want the project to feel like an actual strange N64 game that somehow never existed. I know the N64 is primarily associated with 3D, but I believe a 2D top-down game should technically be possible.

For development, I'm considering:

GameMaker to prototype the entire game while deliberately using N64-like constraints than rewrite/port the systems in C using libdragon.

For audio, I've been looking at libdragon's WAV64/Opus support so that the album doesn't have to be stored as raw PCM audio.

My questions are mainly:

1. How practical is a fully 2D top-down game like this on real N64 hardware using libdragon?
2. Would a tilemap/sprite-based approach be reasonable?
3. Are there any major limitations I should design around from the beginning?
4. Is WAV64/Opus a sensible solution for ~35 minutes of music?
5. Are there existing N64 homebrew projects using a similar 2D approach that I should study?

I'm not trying to make something technically impressive. The goal is to make a small, atmospheric interactive album that feels like an unusual lost N64 game.

Any technical advice or examples of existing projects would be greatly appreciated.

I want to make a song and the outro Will have a choral, how should I proceed?

Bonjour à tous.

Je poste ceci pour partager mon premier projet musical, « After Life... ».

C’est une cassette de beat, et je vous serais reconnaissant si vous pouviez l’écouter.

19 morceaux, 27 minutes, disponibles via ce lien sur SoundCloud :

https://soundcloud.com/samckpris0206/sets/after-life?si=187de03de5d34b7383cf603bba147ac7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

N’hésitez pas à laisser votre avis et à me dire comment je pourrais améliorer la musique – je ne fais de la musique que depuis neuf mois et j’ai encore beaucoup à apprendre.

Si vous aimez la bossa nova, le jazz, la musique cinématographique ou les ballades, je vous garantis que vous ne serez pas déçu.

Sur ce, j’espère que vous apprécierez l’écoute.

The core loop : you die, reality resets, you come back with your memory intact. The world rebuilds itself slightly differently each time. Some doors that were closed are now open. Some NPCs say something they didn't say before.

Combat is fast and aggressive. Guns create openings for melee rather than replacing it. There's a localized damage system — get hit in the leg and you slow down, get hit in the head and your perception distorts, revealing things normally hidden in the environment.

Weapons are built from two pieces — any blade combined with any handle, including firearms. A scythe on a gun stock. A massive sword with a revolver mechanism in the guard. A hammer on a chain. Every combination produces a different moveset. No weapon is designed to kill — they're all repurposed objects. That's visible in every item description.

Checkpoints are called reality anchors. Each one gives access to a research terminal where you can search for specific files. The deeper you go, the more files unlock. Some files point to coordinates of an anchor that doesn't appear on any map.

There's a Consciousness stat that goes from 0 to 30. It doesn't come from combat — only from completing quests. At level 30, you see things others can't. The final boss has two phases. Without max Consciousness you can brute-force through it. With it, you can actually read what it's doing.

Three endings. You don't choose them at the end — you earn them through how you play from the start.

Solo dev, early concept. What mechanic would you cut first ?