TYG: Collaborative Music Creation in an Unreal Engine-Based Local Multiplayer Instrument

This paper sets the background for and then introduces TYG, a single-screen local multiplayer digital musical instrument (DMI) created by Payne and Dalgleish (2024) and developed in Unreal Engine 5. Noting the absence of specialised multiplayer instruments in the acoustic domain, we survey the NIME literature to introduce the general design challenges and opportunities brought about DMIs. Drawing on this body of literature and aspects of local multiplayer games design, we then discuss issues specific to multiplayer DMIs and the design of the TYG system. This includes composition and performance modes and a variety of key parameters for performance setup and customisation. We present a prototype level and share preliminary findings before proposing directions for future research.