Awesome idea. It could make for an awesome game with a little polish.

Very clever way to use the theme, I enjoyed it a lot.

This was awesome. It got very hard, and would probably be a great tool to help learning notes! Perhaps you could also associate the squares with the notes they play?

Awesome concept but it gets sooo hard! I thought this game used a similar skill to what you need when programming melodies which I do quite a lot, but then the mutation was so fast and large that I couldn't keep up.

I still enjoyed it though, definitely one of the more innovative entries I've played :)

Thanks for the comments so far. I really struggled to balance this one, since the exponential growth makes it difficult, although it is possible to win (destroy the whole colony) if you're lucky.

I was thinking of adding in powerups of some kind to level the curve out a bit (e.g. after 10 successful matches you get a powerup that inhibits any reproduction for some number of seconds). For now, you can also tweak the difficulty in the options screen.

awsome idea but it got super hard super fast but other then that its probaly the most clever idea ive seen for the theme so far.

A really neat meachanic, totally love it, but the game is nightmarishly hard!

The concept is brillant! With a little polish, I'm sure it would be awesome!

Very cool concept. My tone deaf ears play this game well at all but it was really, pretty neat.

nice idea, but at some point the mutation got out of control. I would suggest to add some color to each cell based on the pattern, or just assign any random color and make it mutate with the melody. That way you would know what kind of bacteria are the most dominant and what are the bacteria you need to kill.

What am I missing:

user@hermes:~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_26"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_26-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 20.1-b02, mixed mode)
henry@hermes:~$ java -jar Downloads/tonality-desktop.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Application requires MIDI
at com.xlr3.tonality.desktop.MidiPlayer.<init>(MidiPlayer.java:22)
at com.xlr3.tonality.desktop.Main.main(Main.java:38)
Caused by: javax.sound.midi.MidiUnavailableException
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getDefaultDeviceWrapper(MidiSystem.java:1078)
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getReceiver(MidiSystem.java:240)
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getSequencer(MidiSystem.java:442)
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getSequencer(MidiSystem.java:348)
at com.xlr3.tonality.desktop.MidiPlayer.<init>(MidiPlayer.java:20)
... 1 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Requested device not installed
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getDefaultDevice(MidiSystem.java:1130)
at javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.getDefaultDeviceWrapper(MidiSystem.java:1076)
... 5 more
user@hermes:~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_26"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_26-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 20.1-b02, mixed mode)

@hnjslater - sorry you encountered a problem running the game. Java is failing to find a midi sequencer on your system. What platform are you on? - For Mac and Windows, this should 'just work' (both include a sequencer that's configured by default with a software synthersizer), unless you've changed the config yourself. I'm not sure about Linux, I'm afraid...

Very cool game !
It can be very difficult if you don't have memory of sounds XD
You could make the game easier if you play the note you check, instead of verifying each time what you checked with "go".
And also, I do agree with Zelen3D, it's hard to know how many kind of bacteria are left, maybe change the color/shape as they evolve :)

Holy mackerel that is an awesome concept.

Get defficult a bit too fast and it could use some better graphics. But other than that fun to play and nice that you have to learn to copy the sound that they make.

Great game!
In fact I enjoyed the exponantial difficulty because with that the result of the game really represents your skill.
What would have been nice though would be two different game over screens (one for winning and one for losing).

Despite that little thing this is the best game that I've played so far.

Worked fine for me. Amazing idea, very original. I found it a bit too difficult (even changing the settings as you suggest) but making the tutorial interactive was an excellent touch and helped a lot. Nicely done.

Points for theme and innovation. Very clever. Real bacteria, though, have DNA much more similar; two randomly selected bacteria from the population have DNA that's nothing alike, which makes the game very hard, especially for people like me who have no musical talent. It'd be nice to win once in a while, is all I'm saying. ;)

awesome idea, it´s not so hard than looks like(if U try 6 or 7 times, hehe) and of course, I love play this game a little more balanced, please send me a link... congrats

I like the concept. The game is relay changing. With a litle bit of polishing, eyecandy and a slightly smaller growth rate it would make an excellent party game.

I love this idea - it's super fun just to play with the music-maker.

It needs to be a little easier, though, in my opinion. Perhaps some kind of way to see the note sequence for each bacteria visually? I guess it'd be difficult to do it without giving away the answer!

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I definitely appreciate that the difficulty curve needs leveling out, and I have several ideas for this of my own, from the comments above and from other people. I also agree about differentiating the bacteria visually based on their sequence, although this would need a bit of care to get right.

> Real bacteria, though, have DNA much more similar; two randomly selected bacteria from the population have DNA that's nothing alike, which makes the game very hard

Actually, each mutation only adds or alters one note in the sequence. However, because the rate of mutation is very high, the sequences can diverge very quickly, so it's not obvious that this is the case. It might be covered by addressing the other issues above though (visually differentiating bacteria, and balancing out the growth/mutation rate somehow).

I adore the concept. I'd love to see this made into a full fledged game.

Fun to play, good graphics, but very well used sound, nice and easy to use gui, creative interpretation of the theme:
Good job!

Awesome idea! Extremely innovative and true to the theme.
Good job!
It just needs that extra bit of gameplay-balancing polish.

This is fantastic - great concept.

I would like to see this get polished a little more. And maybe you could draw an outline around the bacteria so that they're more easy to distinguish?

Wow, this game makes me feel things, not just for the music and the possibilities of the game itself,but this summer I've been through infection by bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and I know how important it is to find an efficient cure by sequencing it, because it is one of the worst things that can happen in the body of a human being.
You make my bad feelings smoother about bacterias, thanks.
The game is hard if you have a bad ear like mine XD ,grows so fast! and sometimes the sound is buggy.
J.

This. Is. Wonderful.

Please make this a full featured game!

...and, try colouring the bacterias differently :)

That's a great idea! I had a really tough time playing it because I am completely unmusical, but this is quite good.

Original take on the theme. I would have liked to hear a sound when I destroyed a bacterium. And it is a bit hard for me, but if balance is all you have to fix . .

The sound wasn't really working for me (Linux x64). It played the click sound when I clicked on something, but it never played any of the notes.

Amazing concept! Addictive! =O

Wow.... the idea is EXCELLENT!!! The current version is too hard but the mechanic has a huge potential. I would add an "easy" mode: when you select the note in the pad it plays the associated tone so it is easier to sequence the DNA. Congratulations!!!