HyperLydian is a Digital Instrument disguised as a top-down 2D space shooter. Every action the player takes has an influence on changing the game's soundtrack, such as adding rests or notes, changing the tempo, scale, and key, modulating the parameters of various effects (e.g., reverb or delay), and much more.

Explore different play styles to see how the music evolves: shoot enemies from up close or at a distance, swap between different weapons, focus on movement or rotation, constantly shoot or time your shots carefully. Different play styles will reward unique musical findings, so exploration is key in HyperLydian.

The basics of HyperLydian can be understood fairly quickly and the player receives immediate feedback on the core mechanics, but the player is encouraged to continue exploring in order to fully realize all of the game's capabilities. There is a motivation to try different strategies and play styles, both to increase the game score and to hear the effect on the music.

Gameplay-wise it is heavily inspired by the bullet hell genre in which the player is bombarded by projectiles and has to deal with an overload of visual information. Musically, it takes inspiration from generative music and Eurorack principles, particularly the idea of experiencing a unique piece of music on each iteration and the feeling of limitless exploration.

Designed in Python, Max/MSP, and Javascript.