A bard's Journey by Kanonix

[raw]
made by Kanonix for Ludum Dare 45 (COMPO)

A Bard's Journey mixes Typing Game with RPG elements. Play as a Bard during his initiatory trip to become a professional.

Follow the rythm and convince people to be fan of your music !

You'll find music sheets on your way. Collect them to master your music and make it even more convincing !

This game was done in less than 48h for the Ludum Dare 45.

Additional Informations : - This game is an APK file, so it's for ANDROID only. - Some features that I really wanted to add are missing because of the time, but the main mechanics are here.

I hope you'll enjoy playing the game as much as I enjoyed making it !

GameTitle.PNG

GameScreenEnemies.PNG

TutoScreen.PNG

Ratings

Overall 293th 3.303⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Fun 227th 3.262⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 292th 3.117⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Theme 439th 2.708⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 338th 3.016⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Audio 145th 3.402⭐ 63🧑‍⚖️
Humor 96th 3.246⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Mood 207th 3.254⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 91🗨️

Feedback

NachtWitch
07. Oct 2019 · 00:50 UTC
love the graphics and communication
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 05:51 UTC
@nachtwitch Aha thank you ! I had fun writing them :)
And am not an artist at first, so doing the graphics took most of my time ^^
ROBOWARRIOR1982
07. Oct 2019 · 06:11 UTC
A very good idea, the game is addictive and it have a good ambiant ! i like the "fight phase" (and his sound effect). Congratulation !
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 06:24 UTC
@robowarrior1982 Aha thank you ! I had a lot of fun making them :)
0xkalle
07. Oct 2019 · 06:42 UTC
I love the anti fans :D
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 08:16 UTC
@0xkalle Thank you ! When I had this idea I was like "Oh my god this is so cool" :D
W0lfEnstein
07. Oct 2019 · 09:27 UTC
Funny experience and sweet music :D
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 09:59 UTC
@w0lfenstein It stays in your head for a while after that, right ? ;)
Hcursino
07. Oct 2019 · 10:48 UTC
Oh no, that song will be stuck in my head for days now hahahaha I love all the hazards you managed to add to increase the challenge, very creative. Good job.
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 10:49 UTC
@hcursino Thanks a lot for this kind feedback ! I took some time writing down the GDD before actually making the game :)
coachsisyphus
07. Oct 2019 · 11:03 UTC
I intend to steal an android device to play this; looks awesome!
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 11:53 UTC
@coachsisyphus Ahaha go ahead ! I really did my best to make the game experience as smooth as possible. In theory, there isn't much bugs or whatever. + I worked hard on a difficulty progression algorythm to give you a possible long run experience if you're quite good with rythm games :D
J0ye
07. Oct 2019 · 12:16 UTC
That was awesome. The gameplay loop is a lot of fun. Particularly on short breaks. Extra points for making it an app. Now I always have the game with me.
![face.png](///raw/99c/61/z/26fca.png)
blint6
07. Oct 2019 · 12:19 UTC
I love music games :) I've been completely fine with the graphics but I just didn't find much how the rythm had to be followed. For me it was more a _tap things on the right spot_ rather than _tap in rythm_ experience. Last criticism would go to where notes should be tapped: it wasn't convenient (for me) to tap on the left, I would have preferred tapping at the bottom of the screen or both left and right (for both my thumbs!)

But overall it does look and feel like a finished game, which is awesome. Good job!
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 12:37 UTC
@j0ye Aha I love to know that somebody in this world will carry on playing the game, though you have to know that there are some of my ideas that I didn't put in this game yet ! Maybe it will come out one day :)

@blint6 Very nice criticism, thanks a lot for this ! I agree that it's more of a typing game, though the rythm to follow was the different parameters from the notes : Speed, instance speed, "wave" degree, ...
Maybe the term rythm was inappropriate. Thanks again for this kind feedback !
Hajden
07. Oct 2019 · 12:53 UTC
Thanks for the ear worm, I'll keep whistling this through out the day. The mentor is very fun, gave me a few good chuckles.

It seemed too easy at first, but it picks up, though I do find the progression a bit slow.
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 13:11 UTC
@hajden Yeah I had a hard time balancing it, though I worked on the difficulty progression algorythm for about 5 hours :D
If the game pleases to a lot of people (like it seems to be the case) I'll take time to rework it a bit ^^
DragonsBeardGames
07. Oct 2019 · 14:53 UTC
Very fun game, amazing music, 10/10
kristinamay
07. Oct 2019 · 15:34 UTC
This was so fun! At first I was like, "oh this is so easy, whatever" but you kept introducing mechanics that made it tougher and tougher. I share the criticism about rhythm not really feeling... rhythmic? but I loved the mean fan "bosses" and the bombs were a nice touch. I was surprised to lose though, I didn't realize that I'd lose when I still had like 6 fans left. Also, sometimes the music note would be to the left of the staff when the staff moved right for a boss, and I missed the note through no fault of my own.

All that to say, this is really great! Does it have an end that I wasn't good enough to get to? :D
Webus
07. Oct 2019 · 15:55 UTC
WOW) Great)
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 16:12 UTC
@kristinamay Hey thanks a lot for your kind feedback ! The reason why you lost is because as you progress through the level, the fans become more and more demanding. By this manner, failing a note causes you to loose more and more fans at once. So at a certain point you can loose 6 fans by missing only one note : That may explain why you lost ^^
Moreover, you can't win the game, it's an endless runner. However I must admit that there is some mechanics that I didn't have time to implement, but it will come in a future version probably :)
Finally, I know the issue about the line moving and causing the player to loose points no matter what. This is a design question that I didn't have time to fix, but I'll probably look into it since everyone is enjoying the game, I might polish it and release it, I'll see :)

@webus Fast and simple ! Thanks a lot mate !
Kirbloid
07. Oct 2019 · 16:25 UTC
Worthwhile to get it running on the android and a great idea for future jams. Being about a bard the music was going to need to be stellar and you nailed it. A lot to check out in one game.
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 17:03 UTC
@kirbloid Oooooh that's such a nice comment :O Thank you very much kind sir ! (Or ma'am, dunno :D )
Skalex
07. Oct 2019 · 20:32 UTC
Nice game! Now i can play it whenever I want. I like the song btw but maybe improve the graphics.
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 20:48 UTC
@skalex Aha yeah I may do that. I'm not an artist in the first place and it was clearly the hardest part for me. So much time for such little things :( But thanks a lot for feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game !
Skalex
07. Oct 2019 · 20:54 UTC
@kanonix don't worry i'm not an artist either!
Ktao
07. Oct 2019 · 21:14 UTC
Pretty fun! I really like the main tune. While it's pretty unforgiving if you mess up a note I still like the gameplay. Good job!
kruemelkeksfan
07. Oct 2019 · 21:37 UTC
Does not work on Lineage OS :/
("There was a problem while parsing the package" after tapping the APK to install)
🎤 Kanonix
07. Oct 2019 · 21:42 UTC
@ktao it's unforgiving if you're playing for quite some time ^^ the difficulty is progressive, you loose more points if you fail late in the stage. I'm glad you loved the game beside that point :D

@kruemelkeksfan Oh I couldn't check that, I only have an Android so I could not run tests on other devices, really sorry :(
kruemelkeksfan
07. Oct 2019 · 22:18 UTC
@kanonix Apologies accepted, sry that I can't test :(
simXple
07. Oct 2019 · 23:19 UTC
Great take on the theme, the melody will be in my head for ever lol xD
Eifersuuucht
08. Oct 2019 · 08:48 UTC
Cool idea, and fascinating music. Good game for Google play)
BOOtak
08. Oct 2019 · 08:57 UTC
I love it! Som simple and nice! Made me laugh when haters turned into a fans!
🎤 Kanonix
08. Oct 2019 · 09:26 UTC
@simxple Aha thanks for the kind comment ! The melody is done so it stays in your head :D Glad that it works, I didn't want to be the only one !

@eifersuuucht Thank you ! With all the comments, maybe I'll finish it, I still didn't decide yet :)

@bootak Aha thanks ! I kind of laughed too when I made the animations :D Quite hard for me since am not an artist, but very entertaining !
PurpledArtFrog
08. Oct 2019 · 10:13 UTC
Actually considering if I should do an Android game for LD46.... let's see how it goes...
Is it difficult to get to the 20 rating mark?

Great entry - congrats on the achievement :thumbsup_tone1:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
Igoreshka
08. Oct 2019 · 10:37 UTC
@purpledartfrog, challenge accepted :smile:
Igoreshka
08. Oct 2019 · 10:39 UTC
Good gameplay and programmer-art :wink:
PurpledArtFrog
08. Oct 2019 · 10:43 UTC
Actually do have a game om Google Play.. so know the process :rofl: @igoreshka

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
🎤 Kanonix
08. Oct 2019 · 10:58 UTC
@purpledartfrog well I worked very hard for this jam, as you might have understood I was alone for this project ! After all, every game requires more or less work, but if you want to know how I achieved this, then let me tell you that I used Unity for the Engine, it provides nice tools to help export to apk file :)

But other than that, getting the 20 ratings required me to try a lot of Games. It's my first Time at Ludum Dare so I wanted to get things done right ! :)

@igoreshka thank you for the kind comment ^^
benjames171
08. Oct 2019 · 11:10 UTC
Liking the simple, brightly coloured graphics sounds great as well but quite hard, I found. Good job, all round.
Igoreshka
08. Oct 2019 · 11:14 UTC
@kanonix, try [Godot engine](https://godotengine.org/) too) Solo-develop is easier with it I think.
🎤 Kanonix
08. Oct 2019 · 11:17 UTC
@benjames171 thank you :) You're the first one to Say it's hard, others tend to say it's easy at the beginning before getting harder, which was my intention ^^

@igoreshka I'll definitely try Godot ! But I work on Unity since 5 years now so am pretty fine with it :) And pretty effective apparently :D
Vaibho
08. Oct 2019 · 17:09 UTC
The audio was awesome and the game was simple but enjoying. The game made me feel that I have a good knowledge of music which I don't. The graphics were nice and simple. The audio was relaxing and I liked and enjoyed it. Nice work.
🎤 Kanonix
08. Oct 2019 · 17:40 UTC
@vaibho thanks a lot for this kind comment :)
Vaibho
08. Oct 2019 · 17:47 UTC
@kanonix Btw, its my first game jam too and I am also a solo developer making games with Unity. Are you enjoying the jam? because I got to learn many things in this jam and am enjoying it.
🎤 Kanonix
08. Oct 2019 · 17:54 UTC
@vaibho oh this is not my first jam, only my first Ludum Dare :)
But yeah of course I enjoyed it, I love the mood of participants around hère, it Can Do us only good !
Vaibho
08. Oct 2019 · 18:02 UTC
@kanonix Yes, it is really awesome to play others games and share feedbacks and improve.
Esben Jensen
08. Oct 2019 · 21:46 UTC
What a catchy tune. :) The sound effects are also really nice. It took me a while to figure out what to do, but when I did I thought it was fun. Great graphics too. I think I'll keep it on my phone for a while. At first I thought it was an odd choice to release as an apk, but it is a very suitable mobile game.
Brallex
09. Oct 2019 · 04:26 UTC
Haha cute little game:)
🎤 Kanonix
09. Oct 2019 · 06:39 UTC
@esben-jensen Aha thanks a lot for this kind comment ! To be honest it's my first Ludum Dare and when I saw that a lot of games were in WebGl, I was like "Oh my God I hope people would still want to try my game" and yeah, they did ! But yeah, it was definitely an Android game. I made a PC Build too but it was clearly not as fun so I decided not to show it :)

@brallex Thank you ^^ It may be a little game but I worked really hard and didn't sleep a lot :p
Furano
09. Oct 2019 · 10:02 UTC
Impressive for a first entry!

I like your music ^^

I just have a question : is the black bars where you're supposed to tap intended or is the graphic bugging on my device (since it look totally different than the art style of everything else)?
![Screenshot_20191009_120018.jpg](///raw/4ae/82/z/2915a.jpg)
🎤 Kanonix
09. Oct 2019 · 11:40 UTC
@furano it's where you're supposed to tap ^^ I must admit that I didn't really know how to represent them. I wanted to make them look like musics strings ^^ I'll probably update it :)
WhoMakeWorse
09. Oct 2019 · 12:41 UTC
Good little game
WhatNameGames
09. Oct 2019 · 16:13 UTC
Has an impressive amount of replayability in short bursts, and nice audio, the art is cute too.
🎤 Kanonix
09. Oct 2019 · 16:17 UTC
@whatnamegames Thanks ! I worked a lot on replayability :) I appreciate that comment ^^
Solah
12. Oct 2019 · 07:34 UTC
Very good game! The music is good, graphics are great, the soud design is really fun. Great entry!
egos
12. Oct 2019 · 14:18 UTC
really well made
i love art style, music and UI design , good job !