LudumData

Downbeat by AgentParsec

[raw]
made by AgentParsec for LD32 (COMPO)
Music is your weapon!

WASD to move, Arrow Keys to match the patterns

The more accurate your rhythm, the stronger the attacks are! Reach the goal to win!

(Note: The enemy spawning is very randomized, and as a result, once and a while the game has a LOT of enemies in it, while other times it's possible to make it to the exit without seeing a single enemy. Try playing again if it seems too easy or too difficult.)

(*EDIT* Decided not to embed it here. For some reason it tends to freeze the browser, but not if you load it separately from the LD page.)

(*EDIT* There's been some confusion about what to do for the center position in patterns; that means not to press any note. Since it's always 100% accurate as long as you don't touch anything, the note's strength is determined by the strongest of the other notes.)
Web http://www.parsecproductions.net/games/downbeat_web.html
Source https://www.dropbox.com/s/7d8oxmo1nymbw7u/downbeat_source.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=12468

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 3.72 129
Audio 4.33 12
Fun 3.54 201
Graphics 2.73 741
Humor 2.30 770
Innovation 4.15 28
Mood 3.23 309
Theme 4.08 65

Feedback

ManicMiner
20. Apr 2015 路 02:36 UTC
Says it is an invalid web file?
Havacore
20. Apr 2015 路 02:37 UTC
I love rhythm games, and the concept of this is really awesome. It mentions that your attacks get stronger the more patterns you match, but I don't notice any sort of attacks.

I do like the idea of trying to keep a rhythm while paying attention to something else at the same time, really neat
馃帳 AgentParsec
20. Apr 2015 路 02:40 UTC
@Havacore: Not at the more patterns you match, but how accurate your rhythm is. Green is perfect, blue is good, yellow is poor, and red is bad. The notes last longer and move faster, as well as do more damage, the better you hit the notes directly on-beat.
ZQMony
20. Apr 2015 路 02:52 UTC
Really unique concept. I enjoyed the game a lot.
ViKing Games
20. Apr 2015 路 02:55 UTC
The weapon in the game is fun, fits the theme well, AND does a good job in the audio department. The multitasking needed for the game was pretty cool, and surprisingly addictive.
Birke
20. Apr 2015 路 02:55 UTC
Novel idea but I would remove the center (or do nothing) direction. It was quite confusing to figure out it meant to not press anything and was hard to time to get right. I would suggest to also place the arrows as an overlay on the actual game so you can keep your eyes both on the notes you need to match and the enemies you need to flee from.
zzForrest
20. Apr 2015 路 19:55 UTC
I suck at rhythm games so I didn't get to see very much. I like the art, but simply put having good music in your game wins me over pretty much instantly. That's amazing. Music notes as a weapon? Pretty cool! Although it was pretty hard to get the rhythm down as sometimes my piano started going off immediately, making me miss the first note.
Riccardo
20. Apr 2015 路 20:01 UTC
I found the game very cool, and I particularly like the way your game uses the classic rhythm game-like gameplay. The only problem I had was that I initially did not understand how I could "match" the center command, in my opinion it could be stated better in the game description. Good job!
馃帳 AgentParsec
20. Apr 2015 路 20:03 UTC
@Birke & @Riccardo: Yeah, it's too late to change it in-game but I can at least update the instructions on the entry page.
ObscenelyTrue
20. Apr 2015 路 20:04 UTC
Your fighting rythm game is nicely done.
berkano
20. Apr 2015 路 20:31 UTC
Incredible! Such a creative idea. Took a while to get the hang of it, then was in the groove. Bit weird playing on PC where I had to press ENTER for the middle button. Nice job!!
馃帳 AgentParsec
20. Apr 2015 路 20:43 UTC
@berkano: You don't have to press anything for the middle button, it plays by itself as long as you're not pressing any arrow keys.
maunovaha
21. Apr 2015 路 18:52 UTC
Fun concept. Would like to see how much better this could be if you could have more time to make graphics? I also suffered with similar problem :B
UltraRat
21. Apr 2015 路 18:53 UTC
Fun, and the procedural rooms work well for the game.

Wish I had usb dance pad controller like Crypt of the Necrodancer demo videos.
hypp
21. Apr 2015 路 18:54 UTC
I really liked this one. Great idea and well executed!
rantt
21. Apr 2015 路 19:03 UTC
Cool concept, once you knew where the notes were it got a lot easier to move around and repeat the rhythm. Fun game, I enjoyed it :)
Zener
22. Apr 2015 路 18:30 UTC
The idea is very good. At first it is a bit difficult to sync movement and pattern matching. Music is great!
SmilingCat
24. Apr 2015 路 17:49 UTC
Very nice! Great use of music as a weapon, and pretty awesome music too.
lamogui
24. Apr 2015 路 17:51 UTC
Another Music compo, IMPRESSIVE AND AMAZING !, Very cool !
Andrea
24. Apr 2015 路 20:54 UTC
The game could use a better UI but the idea is great and I can't wait to see what comes out of it if there's further development!
Great job!
Jupiter_Hadley
24. Apr 2015 路 21:29 UTC
Really neat game! Great entry. I included it in part 5 of my Ludum Dare 32 compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/esXlcAnzqGA
Gunzil
25. Apr 2015 路 06:04 UTC
A bit too hard to get the hang of, with too many things to track. There are three different points on the screen that require focus at the same time! Overlaying the directions to copy over gameplay would have helped a lot.

Moving freely while also pressing buttons to copy beats is still a lot of things to do at once, though. Limiting your available inputs when doing a rhythm game is a good idea because it lets the user focus more on their timing. Crypt of the Necrodancer does a good job with only having movement available, which occurs on the beat, forcing the user to make decisions on the beat.

But beside that, this is a nice prototype, and it's always great to see people experimenting with rhythm games! :)
SimianLogic
27. Apr 2015 路 20:09 UTC
I'm not musically inclined, so I had to watch the simon prompts visually instead of listening for them. Keeping an eye on the prompts and moving around the space is really challenging, though I was able to survive for quite awhile.

I have no idea what the "center" tone was for -- there are only 4 arrow keys. After reading the comments here I realize it was "do nothing for a beat" -- but I never would've figured that out from the game.
Plustech
28. Apr 2015 路 19:04 UTC
Really nice idea dude. Really enjoyed it. I struggle a little bit though, the center sound is not that intuitive, at first glance I thought I didnt have enough keys to play it. The dungeon was a little too much I believe. Maybe focusing in a small room with less options could make the exp of the music better. A personal opinion. Nonetheless, great compo entry.
Cheers
Omiya Games
01. May 2015 路 03:11 UTC
Very hectic that required a lot of concentration. While the game felt fair with its difficulty, I thought that the UI was implemented poorly. It was really hard to concentrate on two things at once, and I thing serious improvements can be made on the musical notes. Also add some juice (explosions, particle effects, camera shakes, etc.)!
Alistesios
09. May 2015 路 21:40 UTC
Outstanding.
Really, one of the best games i've played so far in this LD. The game and its idea are really interesting, however the game is really hard.
Well done !
sorlok
11. May 2015 路 23:08 UTC
Neat take on the theme! Really enjoyed this, although tracking the tune and the screen movement was tough. Cool concept!