I feel like a few of the beats were a little off, maybe not as tight as they could have been. Otherwise this is a really cute little, quick game with an interesting concept. Nice little time killer. :3
Hey! Thanks so much for making a video of the game! (I like the thumbnail you made btw) It's always really helpful to see people play. Sorry the game was stressful, the idea was to create a relaxed atmosphere, but I think the difficulty is still too high for that. I'm still working on ways to improve that :).
Although I was screaming through the whole video, I did enjoy the game haha! I'm guessing my video of your game is the only one that wasn't relaxing :p Keep making sick beats though, can't wait to see more!
Hi, thank you so much for playing the game and making a video! It's sooo cool you did a vocal arrangement of track! :) I enjoyed the use of the sound effects in there. Did you extract the individual tracks from the game files, or did you build the different sections in the game itself? Thanks for the kind feedback too, I'm currently on the busy side but I'm hoping to expand/ refine the game soon.
I took what I could from my finished gameplay vid and created loops. No effects were used on the instrumental, 'cause I loved it the way it was. Thanks for listening, it was so fun to sing over it! I'll definitely be on the lookout for future updates!
I did those afterwords, just a 50% opacity PNG with a border. I had trouble recording finding the drum sticks so I thought why not just show locations if people couldn't find one or the other.
Hi thank you for the feedback and suggestion :) I agree that hitting the first note is tricky and can be frustrating, especially as you have to wait the whole bar to try again if you miss it. I'm planning on changing the game, so instead of the bar moving, the notes would fall down the screen instead (like in most rhythm games, guitar hero etc...) so players should have more time to anticipate the first note. Hopefully that should address that problem.
I was thinking that might be a more elegant solution, after I had posted that earlier comment! It sounds like a fine idea, at least in theory. I hope it can be implemented easily and to your satisfaction! Thank you for the response and consideration. c:
Can't do. The bar moves in sync with the whole music, it can't pause. Try not to look at the bar, but listen to the music or the clicks and press keys in the rythm of the music.
Hi thanks for the feedback :) I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I agree about the difficulty of hitting the first note, however as the other commentor said adding space to the start of the track might not be optimal. Instead I am planning to have the notes move down the screen rather than the bar move up (similar to guitar hero or other rhythm games), that way you should always be able to see the upcoming notes, rather than having this big jump back to the start of the section.
Hi I know it's been a long while since you commented but I finally got around to updating the game and uploading the track onto soundcloud. If you're still interested you can find the track here
Hi, thanks for playing and your feedback :) is the problem you mention on the web, windows or android version? Also is it when the full song plays or also for just one completed loop? I'm not currently able to work on the game, but when I have time to look at it again I'll take a look at that problem. Thanks~
Hi if you're interested, I made some time this week to make some improvements to the game. It should be a lot easier for you to hit the first notes if you want to give it another go. :)
i just played it! your game is really cute so far and im def looking forward to any new updates :))
Hi, thanks so much for playing the game and the positive feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Hi wonderful game!! Feel like Jonas' constructive feedback weren't very good. And I noticed so many things when playing it sorry.
In the first level. When you play the instruments with few notes. Like this one
You can get away with just timing, and then pressing Q, W, E and R. I like how the system is forgiving, but I think it is too forgiving in instruments with fewer notes
You could make it so that in instruments with fewer notes, you are allowed to do less mistakes. (Than the standard 4?)
Second, instead of exiting the Rhythm Panel when the last correct note is played; just allow the player to finish the last note. It'll make the player happier.
Third, when you play a note the entire screen bounces as positive feedback. I Instead of bouncing the entire screen just bounce the background. Bouncing the Rhythm Panel disturbs the player a little. <_>
Also since it's a positive feedback, I don't think the screen should bounce when you are playing transparent notes.
It's only because the game is so nice, that you notice these things. :)
Hey, no need to say sorry, thanks so much for taking the time to play the game and giving such detailed feedback!
I iterated on the rhythm panel quite a lot as I wanted to try and make this part of the game feel as good as possible, so I'm grateful for your suggestions to help improve this.
Regarding the points you raised:
1. I'll think about this, I want it to be easy for the player to internalize how many misses it takes before the notes reset, rather than have this vary too much between instruments. I'm also ok with the first few instruments being quite easy and forgiving, so I might not change this too much.
2. I'm on board with this one. In your suggestion do you mean that it should wait until the end of the section before switching or just that the last note should finish playing before switching? The reason I did it like this is that I thought the player would not realize they had completed the section and continue to try and input notes. However I think it would be better to do as you suggest and also think of a way of showing visually that the instrument is completed after hitting the last note.
3. I'm with you on this one too. I will try doing the screen bounce with just the background, I can definitely see how the rhythm bar moving makes things awkward for the player. Maybe I'll also experiment with smaller bouncing for the transparent notes, as I still want it to feel somewhat good to hit these.
Thanks for the suggestions, they were very helpful :)
Of course! There is no secret formula to a good game, it's about testing the game and trying out what feels right! The things I noticed are just suggestions.
1. I totally understand you wanting it to be forgiving. It is only the instruments with the least notes. It felt like it accepted me spamming the keys. If someone starts with one of the easy instruments, and their spamming is accepted they might think about it.
If the player thinks too much about it, it might disturb the flow of the game. I'm thinking about the overanalyzing-type of players. But it is difficult to make a game that pleases everyone so don't pay too much attention to that. :)
2. Yes! Exactly! Don't wait until the section has finished playing, but just wait a half second before the Rhythm Panel closes, and show the player some positive visual feedback.
I wanted to finish the note before the the Rhythm Panel closed. It felt more like the game played the note, and not the me.
3. I agree. ^^
I'm glad you could use my suggestions, or at least thought about them! Your game already is a masterpiece. Short, cute and with an attention to detail. My favourite type of game. c:
Great, thanks for getting back to me! I didn't think about players just spamming keys too much, so I'll think about how to handle that behaviour a bit more. Thanks again for the feedback and the kind words, I really appreciate it :)
Hi, I made some of the adjustments you suggested along with adding another level, feel free to try it out if you like :) I'd be interested to get your feedback!
Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for giving detailed feedback! :)
So regarding your points:
1. I actually moved the bridge up recently to make it more clear when to hit the notes, but I might look at adjusting this more in the future.
2. That's a really helpful observation, I showed the game at an event last weekend and what I noticed was some people could very easily complete levels once they understood the mechanics. However, some people found it really difficult to complete some of the tracks, even once they got the hang of the basics. I'm going to try and think more about how to balance the game difficulty for different players, as ideally I'd like to have a way for both sets of people to feel satisfied with the game.
Thanks :)
Hi, thanks for trying the game again and thanks for your suggestions. :)
Regarding your points:
1. Like I said to the previous commenter, I'm going to spend some time to think about how to handle difficulty. From my observations some people still find it too challenging and some people can complete things rather quickly, so I'm going to try and think of a way that works for both sets of people.
2. Will do!
Thanks~
Hi, thanks for letting me know about this issue.
I looked into it and this seems to be a problem that Unity web games have in Brave Browser in general. I found this post on the Brave Browser Reddit and the solution they recommend is to set 'All device recognition attempts allowed' in your (advanced) shield settings. I tried it out myself and it worked for me.
Hey, thanks so much :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm still working on improvements, mainly on the game feel and getting the core of the game as good as possible. However, I am planning on building the game into a longer experience in the future. I'm not sure how that full game will be released yet, but I'll put up any announcements on this page~
Hey, greetings! Thanks so much :) I'm really glad to hear it. I'm going to be working on the gameplay systems a bit more first, and I'll upload those changes on here for sure. In the long term I'm going to be building it into a full, longer game (I'm aiming for at least 1h of gameplay), but I don't know how I will be releasing that yet. I'll post progress updates on this page though :) I'm hoping to get it all done by the end of 2020...
Hey, thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you think you would enjoy the game in the beginning? I'm trying to get the presentation of the game as good as possible, so I'd be interested on getting feedback to help improve that :) If you have any insights, they might help me out~
Well hidden object kind games always tend to get me bored pretty quick. When I read what type of game it was, I started with low expectations other than the fact that I love lo-fi songs.
The presentation of the game is really aesthetic and I love that. I'm a really laid back guy and it is hard to come across casual games like these.
On things that might improve on, I am not too sure! Me personally I think you are on the right track and I would love to see more work from you soon!
Good Luck!
Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to give such detailed feedback!
I agree that the main thing the game needs is new levels, (that's the most fun part of making the game for me). I have the story more or less planned out, and some completed tracks and art for some levels. What I want to figure out beforehand though is making the levels last longer, so I'm going to start working on that first. I have some ideas I want to try out.
The final plan is to build it into a game of around ~20 levels with over 1h of gameplay. But I haven't decided yet how I'm going to release this version. The plan is to finish it by the end of this year though!
Regarding the presentation, I was mainly interested in how people viewed the game before playing it, as I'm not sure how appealing/understandable the game is from the just screenshots videos. But I appreciate your thoughts on the in game presentation :)
Thanks again for your encouragement and I really appreciate you taking the time to give your feedback :)
Hi, thanks for letting me know. I'm not sure what could be causing that problem. Could you let me know what platform you're playing the game on? Also which level instruments is it happening on for you? And finally what kind of computer are you playing it on (doesn't have to be super detailed, like how old it is, the manufacturer...)? I'll see if that can help me figure out what is happening
Haha thanks, I'm afraid not at the moment, I have other priorities in getting the game finished right now. But it's a cool idea and I'll consider doing something like that at some point!
Hey thanks so much for making a video covering the game! It's super cool you take the time to cover indie games on itch.io. :)
I thought you might be interested but I initially made the first version of the game as a game jam game at the end of 2018 in 2 weeks, and I've been updating it since then whenever I have time. The ultimate goal is to build a ~20 level 'full' version of the game by the end of this year.
that's interesting and cool to hear! can't wait for the full game. good luck with the development!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :) I'm working on a longer version of the game (~20 levels). I'm planning to finish it by the end of this year, I'm not sure how it'll be released, but I'll announce it on this page when I know~
Hey, glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks for the suggestion. I'm working on a full version of the game at the moment, so level selection should be in there.
Hey, glad you enjoyed the game so much! I'm working on a full version of the game. I'm aiming to get it finished by the end of this year :)
Thank you for the info~
I've seen the notes moving backwards. Specifically, on the first instrument when starting the game. I haven't seen notes getting stuck on the bottom line before though.
To help me figure out what the problem is, could you maybe let me know:
Thanks~
1. Web Version
2. The notes moving backwards happened on random levels and instrument. The notes getting stuck happened on the last level.
3. The backwards notes happened most of the time. I've only gotten the notes getting stuck a few times on the last level
4. 8 GB RAM, 144 GB free Storage, 238 GB total Storage (I'm using a Dell laptop)
I feel like this didn't help.
Hmmm ok, thanks for helping out~ I appreciate it :) Yeah it's a little tricky to figure it out from that. Could you also maybe let me know which browser you are using please? I'm going to be doing some larger scale testing sometime soon, so I might be able to figure out what is happening when I do that.
Maybe! Thanks :)
I haven't tried it on Edge before. I'll try it on Edge if I can get hold of a windows computer. I had some problems with Edge for another web game I built, so it could be due to that. If you wanted to play the game again, I'd recommend doing it on chrome, if you have that installed.
Hello! Thanks for taking the effort to make an account and give your suggestion, I appreciate it :)
The main thing I'm focusing on at the moment is building new levels, but I'm also thinking about adding stuff that lets the player play the rhythm sections for longer. It's a little tricky balancing for people who play rhythm games and newer people, but I have something in mind that should hopefully deal with that!
Hey, thank you :) I'm working on a full version at the moment, I'm aiming to get it finished around the end of this year~
Hey, I'm glad you liked it! :)
I was curious, did you manage to finish the game or did you find it too hard?
Hi, glad you had a good time with the game!
Thanks for the feedback, I've been working on the menu screen recently so that should be resolved soon :)
Hi, I know it's been a while, but I was just scrolling through the comments and realized I'd missed yours. So I just wanted to say thanks :)
Hi, glad you liked the game and thanks for taking the time to give feedback :)
I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean, would you mind clarifying a couple of things?
What do you mean by key track? Do you mean the rhythm game for every instrument or do you mean a specific keyboard instrument in the game? Also I'm not sure what you mean end in the hitbox? Do you mean that the track keeps loops so the end of the track is also the start of the track?
Thanks~
Sorry, I meant this part of the track :P
Feels kind of off that you have to hit right at the end
Hi thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you found the game so inspiring :)
So in terms of making this into a commercial game, I'm working to do this at the moment. I'm trying to build it into ~15/20 level game by the end of this year. I'm a solo developer who does this in their free time so progress can be a little slow, but I'll get there in the end. :)
Hey, thank you :)
I'm glad you were so impressed by the game! I'm working on building more levels at the moment (I've also updated the 3 level version today). Next week (from the 26th) a 6 level version should be available for 2 weeks as part of this, so if you get a chance feel free to check that out :)
That's so nice.
I was amazed, because I was looking for some south korean games, and bumped into your game.
I was not expecting something so beautiful and entertaining without IAP or multiplayer, or something similar that is common nowadays.
I am glad the game is still being created.
Will keep an eye on this!
Hi, just so you know the extra levels should be available now if you follow the instructions here
Hi, thank you :)
I'm glad you liked the game, I'm building a longer version of the game at the moment (~15 levels).
Also, from the 26th, a 6 level version of the game should be available for 2 weeks as part of this.
Hey, thank you :) I'm happy to say more is coming, (albeit a bit slowly). Actually from tomorrow there is going to be 3 more levels available for 2 weeks as part of this event.
Hi, just so you know the extra levels should be available now if you follow the instructions here
Hey, thanks that's super cool! So the new levels will be available temporarily as part of Bitsummit. If you follow the instructions here: https://www.utomik.com/events/bitsummit-2020 you can try it out :)
Hey, awesome! Thank you :)
To be honest, I'm also a bit basic at digital art (I do all the lines on paper still).
I'm glad you got the feeling of making music from it :) That was one of the main things I was trying to do~
Oh also, I don't know if you saw. But if you're interested, I have a 6 level demo available here until July 11th~
Hey thank you, that’s great to hear! :)
So I’m not sure at which stage you are at making lo-fi music, but first things first, I think it’s best to start with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). I have a Mac so I use Garageband. I’ve tried a few other things over the years but that was the easiest for me to use ( it’s free and included with the computer). If you have windows I think Ableton live lite is probably the best option, you can get that for free here :)
If you decide to use Garageband, I found this tutorial video super, super helpful. I used it to help me build my first lo-fi tracks~
After you have a DAW, I would recommend getting a midi controller (basically a mini piano you can plug into your computer). I have this one. I think it's one of the cheapest options. If you want something with a bit more features, I've heard this one is good. Or if you decide to use Ableton, this one is made to work well together with that.
If you don’t have access to a computer, you can use Garageband on iOS. (I haven’t had much experience with that though). I’m not sure there’s a good option for Android yet.
In terms of learning how to make music itself. I'm not sure what the best way of doing that would be. I think probably the best way is to first make a drum beat (try to recreate a similar one to a track you like), they are usually fairly simple to figure out, just listen to where the kick drum, snares and hi-hats appear. Then adding 3 or 4 chords over that (I'd stick to just the white keys to start with) then loop melody ideas over the top with different instruments, again just using the white keys. That is kind of a simplified version of the process I go through.
I would say it helps to listen to what is happening in songs you like, like drum patterns or instrumentation and trying to add these elements to your tracks~ Or maybe even trying to rebuild tracks in order to practice.
I know a lot of people use samples to build beats, I haven't had much experience with that, but that could also be a good way to get started. Also in general there is a lot of good information on youtube, so I'd recommend looking stuff up there frequently.
Hope this is of some help to you :)
Hey, thanks very much :) I'm glad you're able to keep playing it! I'm working on a longer version of the game at the moment. This version most likely won't get any new levels but I will keep it up to date with gameplay updates. I'm hoping to get the full version finished around the end of this year~
Hi, thank you for the feedback~
Could I ask you a few questions to help me improve the game please? I'd like the game to be accessible as possible, so I'd like to know whether some things are unclear in the game, or where there might be problems for newer players.
The rhythm part is a really important part of the game, so I don't think it would work with it being skippable. But I'd like to make sure it's still easy enough for new players.
Hey, thanks so much! :)
Thanks for letting me know about the bass, when I have time I'll try to mix everything so that you can hear the bass well too, it might be tricky to balance it for headphones and speakers but I'll see if I can find a way.
In my experience people tended to find the bell and the guitar difficult in level 3, but I haven't heard that much feedback on the drums. Was it the drums on the first level that were difficult, or all of them? Also by difficult, do you mean difficult to find or to play? Thanks for your feedback~ :)
I meant to play and I found it a bit harder than the rest compared to the other instruments on each level, not only on level 1. Level 3 I did find that the difficulty went up by a bunch, but seeing that it's only the three levels for now, I think it's very much okay. I would put a level or two when adding the new ones between the actual Level 2 and Level 3 that exist right now, or tone the Level 3 difficulty down a bit (haha get it? tone down? sorry).
Also, about the bass, just a bit louder should be fine (or its frequencies enhanced and the other instruments lowered on those freqs when the bass appears). My speakers are usually okay with low frequencies and I could hear it, but it just got overridden by any other instrument very easily.
Thanks for getting back to me :) Ah ok that's interesting about the drums. I have some ideas for improving the difficulty curve slightly, so hopefully that should be resolved soon :)
I know what you mean about the bass, I'm not that experienced with mixing so I would like to spend some time on that when the game is a bit further along in development.
(also thanks for the pun, was much appreciated~)
Hey thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)
Thanks for the feedback on the bell, that's really useful to know. I'm thinking of ways to smooth out the difficulty a bit more. I have an idea for dealing with it so hopefully I'll be able to get that done soon~
Great! I'm happy to see this game's getting bigger. I missed the event where the newest level was showcased, So I'll just wait .
Oh, by the way. You probably saw a reply on one of my comments but I speak both english and brazillian portuguese. So if you want the game to be translated I could maybe help!~
Hi, thank you so much! :)
That's all very kind of you to say, I'm glad you appreciated it! It's a bit of long term project, but I'm slowly but surely making progress on the full version~
Hey, thank you that's great to hear! :)
I'm trying to get a bit more feedback from first time rhythm game players. What did you think of the difficulty? What was the reason you would score it a 7/10? What would you like to see changed to score it higher?
Don't worry about giving in depth answers or anything, I was just curious to get a bit more feedback to help me with development~
oh, I only gave it a 7/10 because it wasn't the best game ever, it was just very good.
Hi, thank you! I'm not quite sure how to answer that, but I am working on a beat making mode at the moment, so you'll hopefully be able to try making some music yourself :)
I would like to publish the songs, the plan is that I will arrange all the tracks and publish them when the full game comes out (around the end of next year).
Hi, sorry to hear you're having problems with the key mapping. I believe if you use the Azerty mapping, you should be able to play the rhythm game using AZER instead of QWER (even though the key images don't change). Let me know if that works out for you. If not, I'm planning to work on adjustable key bindings in the near future, so I'll reply to this post once that's added to the game.
Hello again!
Sorry… If I play with a QWERTY mapping, only E and R are responsive (Q and W don’t work).
And, if I try with an AZERTY mapping, nothing works :(
There are no issues in game. If u want a tester u can dm me on discord. my id and # is Alphanaplys#6233
Hi, thanks! I'm glad you liked it :) The music won't be available for a while, but I have one track from room 3 full arranged available here. I'm working on a ~15 level version of the game for the end of next year, I'm planning to release all the tracks at the same time as that.
yes, i tried it. i didn't put it in the video because i'm really bad at it. but i still try it sometimes for fun.
Hi, thanks so much! That's very nice of you~ I'm glad you found so much you liked in the game :)
oh yay!! It got filtered into spam but I see it now -_-;
Gameplay video coming your way :)
