Rhythm Rogue by bowlercaptain

[raw]
made by bowlercaptain for LD26 (JAM)
The second Ludum Dare game made by ZX Programming. Enjoy!

It's a roguelike, controlled with WASD and the arrow keys or a configurable gamepad. Unlike the average roguelike, however, motion only happens on the down-beats of the rhythm, and the music of the room controls the way that the enemies and your attacks behave, applying bonuses to certain attacks on certain beats or against certain enemy types.

Designed, programmed, arted, and Bfxred by Gidaio and Bowlercaptain. Two drum samples from drumhits.biz.

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.84 387
Audio(Jam) 2.96 257
Fun(Jam) 2.45 421
Graphics(Jam) 2.61 432
Innovation(Jam) 3.70 62
Mood(Jam) 2.52 408
Theme(Jam) 3.27 269

Feedback

LizEngland
30. Apr 2013 · 03:56 UTC
I love everything about this game concept. You got all of the elements of a rhythm roguelike wrapped up in minimalism. Nice job
TehSkull
30. Apr 2013 · 04:50 UTC
I don't really understand how to kill anything on this game. I'm supposed to deal damage somehow but it's not really working. Also the slow pacing of the game was a real turn-off.
Cybearg
30. Apr 2013 · 04:51 UTC
Very clever concept! I love the innovation there!

It isn't really used to much effect, though. Attacking and moving on the down-beat is a cool idea, but the enemies are just unavoidable swarms with no real variety and, so far as I could tell, weren't much of a threat. I never came across any items or anything interesting to find, meaning that, as a Roguelike, it doesn't really have any of what makes a Roguelike fun. Instead I was just holding down keys to move and trying to tap space to the down-beat. It's a neat idea, but I feel like it needs a purpose and was lacking one.

Still, kudos for the neat ideas!
ethankennerly
30. Apr 2013 · 04:56 UTC
The beats during a fight entertained me! Clever. If you continue to develop this, have you considered giving an indication when I'm off the beat how much I'm off the beat by and whether I was early or late?
ChuiGum
30. Apr 2013 · 05:00 UTC
I'm not sure at what I'm supposed to do... ?
🎤 bowlercaptain
30. Apr 2013 · 05:32 UTC
We seem to have missed mentioning that you attack with the arrow keys or joypad buttons - space only begins the game or goes down a floor.
Also, if you'll suffer through the first floor, I think your pacing worries will be resolved.
Msquirrel
30. Apr 2013 · 06:29 UTC
Really clever concept, nicely done, difficult to avoid or kill the enemies though :S
triplefox
30. Apr 2013 · 06:33 UTC
This is very cool and I got into it more when I figured out the details of the controls(tapping the arrows to the beat, not holding them down), however the balance and other mechanics need work for it to shine. Please work on it more, it has potential!
Frosnite
30. Apr 2013 · 16:37 UTC
Quite cool! Took me some time to understand until I read the description, but once I got started, it was really cool :D. Cheers!
The4thCircle
30. Apr 2013 · 20:53 UTC
Found it a bit hard to get on with, but really liked the concept. Reminds me of the dungeon subgame in rhythm tengoku. Less minimalistic than most rhythm games I've played, such as the aformentioned rhythm tengoku and beat sneak bandit, which are based around one touch controls. Liked it though.
Beldarak
30. Apr 2013 · 20:56 UTC
Nice concept but the controls definitely feels wrong. Don't know if it's a bug or the same for everyone but I need to hold the key some time to move.
Purplescape
30. Apr 2013 · 23:01 UTC
Very interesting concept, I like it. Hard to get the controls though.
sP0CkEr2
01. May 2013 · 01:31 UTC
too slow for me -- but was a very interesting idea so hi points for innovation -- nice effort
GranaDa
02. May 2013 · 15:36 UTC
"It's not a Win32 valid application". I'm using WinXP 32-bit.
SuperDisk
04. May 2013 · 03:22 UTC
Great idea! I play an instrument so this kind of makes sense. (up/downbeats)
SuperlevelSebastian
05. May 2013 · 20:35 UTC
Sadly it seems there's no Win32-version of the game, so I can't play it. :( (WinXP, 32-bit)
KHANanaphone
06. May 2013 · 07:40 UTC
I'm impress by the AI for some reason...they know which side to attack from.