Final Fight MD developer Mauro Xavier has lifted the lid on his next project, and it's one that's likely to prove highly controversial.
Bullet Rhythm is a vertically-scrolling shmup for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive which will feature CD-quality music on a cartridge thanks to the MSU standard. As the title suggests, the action is based around shooting enemies to the rhythm of the music.
"Using the CD audio quality, I believe I achieved the desired goal, and today I did my first test with the MSU standard, which can also be used by those who have a SEGA CD, but, at the moment, the cartridge will be indispensable, as I am not programming natively for the SEGA CD, only using the audio tracks," explains Xavier.
"This experiment will automatically benefit future titles with optional audio tracks, including Final Fight MD (yes, finally, you can include the SEGA CD audio)," he adds.
However, he's also keen to point out that the music featured in the game will be made using Generative AI.
"Although I know some people don't like this, Bullet Rhythm will have its music tracks entirely made by AI (with complete or partial lyrics of my own authorship), and I want to make sure not to hide this fact."
This is unlikely to endear the project to a great many players, as GenAI is a thorny topic at the moment. GenAI music models have been largely trained on the work of human artists without permission or remuneration.
While Xavier clearly doesn't have the same budget as many other developers, it's fair to argue that, by using GenAI tools, he's also depriving real musicians working in the games industry of the chance to earn money and build a career.
Will the use of GenAI put you off supporting this project? Let us know with a comment.