Indie dev explains why that viral trombone game makes you sound so bad
Trombone Champ seemed to appear from nowhere to become the indie hit of the month last week. The rhythm game, which puts players behind the mouthpiece of every orchestra conductor's worst nightmare, was released to viral social media acclaim thanks to a deliberately janky control scheme leading to some hilarious renditions of some famous classical music.
Trombone Champ is the best game ever made pic.twitter.com/GH58eHGXHVSeptember 21, 2022
Clips like those were crucial to Trombone Champ's dominance of social media in the days following its launch, but according to indie developer Hafiz Azman, who specializes in rhythm games, they were also the result of a bunch of brilliant design decisions.
Asman says that using songs you already know - anthems like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or the William Tell Overture - is key to why Trombone Champ works. Much like the deliberately terrible recorder or melodica covers of songs like the Jurassic Park theme or 'My Heart Will Go On' from Titanic, subverting your expectations helps make Trombone Champ much funnier than if it was relying on its own soundtrack.
But that's just the start. Azman then points to games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band as an example of 'Quantization'. In music, that's the practice of ironing out the natural imprecision of an instrument, but in those games, it gives you a little extra leeway regarding your inputs. Because "[Rock Band's] goal is to let you feel like a competent musician," it'll account for any button-presses that are just a little too slow, or simply not play anything if you're way off.
2. No quantization. In e.g. Rock Band, being milliseconds off will keep your guitar on time because it's just playing a pre-made guitar track. When you miss, the
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