LudumData

Don't Stress that Beat! by JoskerDu

[raw]
made by JoskerDu for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

About the Game

A frantic race against the clock... erm... well... IN THE CLOCK!!! Ever feel like every day is a loop of Zoom meetings, Snacking, (never enough) time with Family, and finally catching some sleep?! This is especially true in pandemic times. How far into the month can you get before your heart explodes due to STRESS?! DontStressThatBeat.gif

How to Play

Press the arrow keys on your keyboard to complete each of the tasks as they loop around the hamster wheel clock. Every day/loop things get faster and more complex. Miss too many tasks and GAME OVER! controltooltip.png

  • LEFT - FAMILY
  • RIGHT - WORK
  • UP - EAT
  • DOWN - SLEEP

Credits

Please note that while we did not opt out of the graphics category some of the graphics used free asset packs. Other graphics and models were created by us in Photoshop, Illustrator, Unity and Blender.

Third Party Assets

Youtube https://www.jrvisuals.com/games/ld47/
Youtube Coming soon
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/dont-stress-that-beat

Ratings

Overall 1086th 3.314⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1160th 3.035⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 669th 3.452⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 305th 4.047⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1161th 3.159⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Audio 835th 3.058⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 611th 2.946⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 990th 3.213⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 47🗳️ 64🗨️

Feedback

rhoff95
05. Oct 2020 · 15:37 UTC
Cool game! I would have liked some on screen indication of what key to press, I had to keep tabbing back to the LD page to check.
🎤 JoskerDu
05. Oct 2020 · 15:41 UTC
@rhoff95 Thank you! Yeah we went back and forth about having that in there permanently... or even starting off with "tips" for each of the icons for the first few times they come up. Given more time we would do something like that.
Dogmann
05. Oct 2020 · 16:02 UTC
really interesting idea. This game just needs to be a little bit more polish. You can adjust the stress bar with your mouse and it would be cool if you would get a bigger penalty because I was just fine when spamming all the keys. It Seems like a really cool game if you dusted it up!
🎤 JoskerDu
05. Oct 2020 · 16:07 UTC
@dogman Oh man. Thanks for pointing that out. Yeah we used the slider component as a shortcut. LOL
Thank you for the feedback.
jamesor
05. Oct 2020 · 16:39 UTC
@dogman DOH, we'll fix that. Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad to hear you liked it. I look forward to polishing it up more in the days to come.
🎤 JoskerDu
05. Oct 2020 · 18:58 UTC
Some last minute updates. No more cheating by moving the slider and permanent instructions on which icon goes with each arrow key!
IronWood777
06. Oct 2020 · 00:59 UTC
Good idea! however I feel like after the start the game just spams the objects at you with no cooldown. Overall pretty good idea!
jamesor
06. Oct 2020 · 01:28 UTC
Hmm, cool down is an interesting idea @ironwood777. It would probably give the player a bit of stress relief. Something we toyed with was the notion of entering a "sleep" phase between days. The sleep phase would be a dream sequence as a bonus level, but also meant to relax the user before tackling the next big day. We're talking about the possibility of posting the game on itch.io and continuing to develop it further after. This is definitely an area worth exploring. Thanks for the feedback!
Lychee
06. Oct 2020 · 04:21 UTC
I love the concept and graphics, it certainly stressed me out and I think that was the point xD

I could see this working as some kind of weird stress-themed rhythm game if the song was more in sync with the actions. Great job!
Tad
06. Oct 2020 · 05:23 UTC
Very cool concept! It would have been great if you could speed up the pace of your own accord, but this is a great job for a game jam. Well done!
Marc-Antoine Girard
06. Oct 2020 · 05:25 UTC
Good game, didn't expect to play in a clock! I see you said you fixed the slider, but as of right now, the bug is still there :P
Rustywolf
06. Oct 2020 · 05:44 UTC
Good introductory curve into the buttons, made it a lot easier.
Abiral
06. Oct 2020 · 08:47 UTC
I really liked the concept of this game. At first I couldn't understand how it works but eventually I got it...I tried moving the slider with mouse and it's not fixed yet. Overall a solid game for Game Jam.
WitekWitek
06. Oct 2020 · 13:25 UTC
Interesting and unique Game! The only problem i had with the character is the character, Instead of an low-poly charcter, maybe it could be a person? The rest of the game is fine.
Daoz
06. Oct 2020 · 13:33 UTC
Good job! i think thats a very good idea, it kinda feels like your going to burnout after a week of work :)
I think u could add a punishment not only when a player doesn't press the right button on contact, but when he presses a button outside the collide time.
Maybe a little bit faster at the beginning.
Papasucre
06. Oct 2020 · 13:34 UTC
Cool idea, but the sound design is a little stressfull, Overall nice job!!
jamesor
06. Oct 2020 · 14:12 UTC
LOL, @papasucre yes, that was our intent. ;) I'm glad you liked it.
jamesor
06. Oct 2020 · 14:20 UTC
@daoz, agreed, it would be good if we tweaked the balance a little. We ultimately want to have a cadence of satisfaction, fulfillment and stress. We want to stress you out. The game is a commentary on the current stressful cycle many of us working at home trying to manage a good work-life balance. However, like you mention the balance still needs a little tweaking.
jamesor
06. Oct 2020 · 14:23 UTC
Thanks @witekwitek, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm not entirely happy with the character either. I thought maybe having a person in a dress shirt and boxers might be funny seeing how many people only get dressed for what coworkers can see in Zoom meetings. Thanks for the feedback.
Echo GameWorks
07. Oct 2020 · 01:30 UTC
Definitely got my blood pressure up after a couple days in! Solid execution on the theme and I got some chuckles with the sound effects. Great work!
printablealice
07. Oct 2020 · 02:37 UTC
I aggree with @lychee on the rhythm game idea! I was expecting the percussive sounds, if initiated at the correct time, to combine with the background sounds to make a song!
Raphiell
07. Oct 2020 · 03:15 UTC
Hoooo boy. I found out you can just spam hit all the buttons, I got to Friday the 27th before my arm got tired and I stopped. Interesting though! Well done on completing a game for the jam
etrealjunior
07. Oct 2020 · 10:42 UTC
I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection
sanojian
07. Oct 2020 · 10:46 UTC
That stress sound legit stressed me out. Solid graphics, nice job
🎤 JoskerDu
07. Oct 2020 · 13:18 UTC
@raphiell good catch - haha always something that slips by - thanks for playing
🎤 JoskerDu
07. Oct 2020 · 13:20 UTC
@lychee & @printablealice totally agree - that's what we were going for but we ran out of time before we could sort out how to get the music and animation timing just right - might be something we go back and tweak because it really was about 50% of the concept. Thank you for playing and for the feedback!
🎤 JoskerDu
07. Oct 2020 · 13:20 UTC
@echo-gameworks thanks for playing glad you got a laugh! I'd love to do a second pass at the music and sound per the previous comment
🎤 JoskerDu
07. Oct 2020 · 13:28 UTC
@etrealjunior Just played your game and left a comment. Good stuff.
Noah Kuhn
07. Oct 2020 · 16:46 UTC
A fun game and definitely worth the play. So simple, but gets out of hand easily, which adds to the charm-- personally, my game could've used a difficulty curve more like yours! Good job :)
Eugenik
09. Oct 2020 · 01:24 UTC
Astounding!!!
ShootingStaa
09. Oct 2020 · 04:54 UTC
The theme of your game is very nice. We all stuck in life and it's getting more busy and stressful. Maybe this game is a 'sad ending'? :(
Misterm
09. Oct 2020 · 06:36 UTC
Nice game, after a little bit I started to mixup my finger to press the button.. I was quite stressfull.. good job.
Budaniel
09. Oct 2020 · 23:55 UTC
I'm soooo bad at pattern/rhythm games! lol I got to day four but kept on screwing up and that record scratch noise was unnerving so I kept panicking and missing more, causing more record scratch noises... rinse and repeat.

The controls were easy to learn and the basic mechanic well executed, but I couldn't tell if the icons synced with the music at all. If so, it was could have been my lack of rhythm that caused me to miss it.
roboshamit
10. Oct 2020 · 09:43 UTC
Well polished game. The concept itself is amazing!
Toulou
10. Oct 2020 · 10:31 UTC
Nice interpretation of the theme ahah! I like rythm game with a catch, it's quite hard to get it, and even though it's tuff to stay focused. Good job!
MikoziQ
10. Oct 2020 · 23:18 UTC
Very addictive and finger-breaking gameplay! I love the theme taken almost to the word of timeloop. Managed to get to Friday 13th, which is instadeath I guess (Kappa). Liked the music a lot and visuals only elevated a good execution of the title. Job well done!
Robonaut121
11. Oct 2020 · 17:07 UTC
Great game! My only complaint is that accidentally pressing the wrong key and that sound effect when the stress bar goes up is very unsatisfying. In fact, there isn't much satisfaction in the game at all. However, I loved the idea of each task playing a drum beat - it really fitted in with the title!