Drum`n`Ice by LDJam user 426774

[raw]
made by LDJam user 426774 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

— GAME VERSIONS —

Up to date there are 2 versions of the game: 1. Jam version - you can play it on Ludum Dare website, before the description, and there is a link to itch down below; 2. Post jam version - link to itch below description;

Both updates have there distinctive names in links and game name.

— SYNOPSIS —

Deep within the glacial mountains, towers the fabled Party Peak—a realm of endless beats, where gods come to rave.

— HOW TO PLAY —

This is a rhythm game!

Spellbook: Study your spellbook on the left and choose which spell you want to cast next. Important: You cannot use the same spell twice in a row.

Each battle takes place in several phases:

Preparation — Feel the beat and get ready for combat!

Player Turn — Perform one of your 4 spells.

Enemy Turn — The more beats you miss, the more damage you take from the Walrus Guardians. Stay on rhythm!

Controls:

move - G

Drum 1 - Q Drum 2 - W Drum 3 - E Drum 4 - R

Fire - Wind - River - Stone -

— STORY —

Victoria, a penguin shaman and master of the Sacred Rhythms, senses a powerful and unsettling pulse. A strange beat runs through the mountain’s atmosphere, echoing all the way down to its roots. Snow, snow, snow...

Play as a shaman and create rhythms to unleash powerful spells!

Use the elements to defeat the guardians of the mountain.

As you wander the streets, collect walrus tusks — your currency. Spend them on duct tape to repair your drums, or buy even more destructive spells.

— GAMEPLAY —

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFCINUvf6mc

thanks.png

Ratings

Overall 482th 3.5⭐ 174🧑‍⚖️
Fun 411th 3.39⭐ 174🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 342th 3.5⭐ 173🧑‍⚖️
Theme 694th 3.032⭐ 174🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 480th 3.652⭐ 173🧑‍⚖️
Audio 247th 3.705⭐ 173🧑‍⚖️
Humor 226th 3.365⭐ 165🧑‍⚖️
Mood 499th 3.512⭐ 169🧑‍⚖️
Given 451🗳️ 633🗨️

Feedback

PastMoments
Apr 21st · 10:39 UTC
Cool rhythm game! It's a cool concept to be able to cast spells like this. An continuation of this game would be really cool.
Rinzu
Apr 21st · 10:43 UTC
The game won't open on the web; it gets stuck on the Unity screen
Yanruyi
Apr 21st · 11:17 UTC
it gets stuck on the Unity screen
LDJam user 427605
Apr 21st · 14:36 UTC
Attention everyone who can't launch the game!
Try a different browser.

Also in the description, under the "Story" block, there is a link to itch

We'll be releasing the game archive for download in a couple of hours.

Sincerely, the developer.
🎤 LDJam user 426774
Apr 21st · 15:20 UTC
Hey guys! If you can’t play the game on the Ludum Dare site, sorry about that. You can play it on itch.io (https://venomousmouse.itch.io/drum-n-ice), or download the PC build

P.S. It works for me in Mozilla Firefox, so you may want to try that browser.
WeirdBitGames
Apr 21st · 16:28 UTC
It took me a hot minute realise I had to press 1 cursor key first before entering QWER keys. I got there eventually. I do love rhythm games and this is a nice example!
anku
Apr 21st · 20:23 UTC
A great rhythm game with cohesive gameplay, and both the audio and visuals are at a strong level. It would be really interesting to see this prototype taken further and polished even more.
Pastry chef
Apr 21st · 21:16 UTC
Fun game! Since each action takes 6 beats, could I suggest using a song in 6/4 rather than 4/4? I think that would make the rhythm a bit more intuitive.
Mamboman
Apr 21st · 21:25 UTC
Nice entry! i love the way the spell symbols appear on the drums!
Liomio
Apr 22nd · 08:00 UTC
Nice job guys. Interesting mechanic with drums. I like it.
Rémy Lopez
Apr 22nd · 08:20 UTC
Really cool game !
Loved it !
The beat is cool but the beats could have been more in sync or more prononced with the rest of the game but I know it rather difficult to do it properly ;) !
FLOWERFIELD Games
Apr 22nd · 08:20 UTC
Hey! The game is difficult to play for me due to keybindings on the keyboard that are not qwerty. Do you still use the legacy input manager of Unity? Otherwise, the new input system should detect the keycode and replace "W" by any key that takes this position on a foreign keyboard.

Great interpretation of the signal theme otherwise. I like the progression system!
🎤 LDJam user 426774
Apr 22nd · 08:57 UTC
@flowerfield-games I just did not have enough time to add the settings. I even made a placeholder for them — by the way, the settings in the main menu are bait, so do not trust them, and I did not manage to add an in-game menu either. I am sorry your experience suffered because of that! For you, it was probably more of a rhythm-soulslike game :D
NikaZ
Apr 22nd · 09:20 UTC
Nice game! A little difficult for me. Good job!
oxnh
Apr 22nd · 09:24 UTC
Nice game but I did find it difficult to find the beat. For expansion it would be interesting to have to play two drums in the same beat, or have to play off beat notes.
DmitriyCI
Apr 22nd · 10:15 UTC
A bit of a tough game.

Unusual graphics and cool voice acting.

I think it lacks a signal for when exactly the player should attack.

Overall, it's fun to play for a certain amount of time.
BigDippers
Apr 22nd · 10:59 UTC
A bit difficult but overall super fun. Cool idea and cool amount for just 3 days
LDJam user 49756
Apr 22nd · 11:03 UTC
It takes a bit of time to get used to controls (as others said, having a feedback on when we can drum would have been nice) but once it's done the game is fun. Graphics and audio are great (nice voice acting) !
Accelerate0814
Apr 22nd · 11:15 UTC
Cool!!!
Eden_Zorro
Apr 22nd · 11:24 UTC
Good game, good graphics.
The music, the art, the voice acting, remind me of the Crash Bandicoot series.

In other words, there's a lot of quality involved.

PS: I had to play the PC version - ZIP because on both sites, here and on Itch.io, there's a problem with FullScreen (and without fullscreen I couldn't read any of the text and game commands).

Fortunately, the Windows executable version works perfectly.

Again, great game, great visuals and good mechanics.
oeueGHa
Apr 22nd · 11:35 UTC
Fine, but lacks a signal for when exactly the player should attack.
anaastaska
Apr 22nd · 11:41 UTC
it was fuuuun! I spent some time to get used to controls but after that it was cool, great visual and audio. Enjoy it, great game!
HexStart
Apr 22nd · 12:43 UTC
I liked how the game moves along a path through a level as you win encounters, made me curious about what comes next. I didn't get to the end despite a couple of tries (watched the ending in the video though). I'm usually not great at rhythm games mind you. Here, I mostly alternated between two highest-damage spells in my disposal at any given time, only paid attention to keys and not really to elements themselves. I found that I'm doing worse when I'm trying to focus on the beat icons, and better when I'm just trying to listen to the beat. Not sure what to make of it, but thought I'll let you know. Congrats on your game, an icy rave party is a pretty cool idea!
nicardo
Apr 22nd · 13:05 UTC
Fun to play, but didnt understand if how the combo works , i am not able to always make the full drum sequence. It worked sometime and not always.
rainot
Apr 22nd · 13:11 UTC
I really enjoyed the game, concept is fun and I would gladly play it again if the mechanic were expanded.

Here's some feedback:
Really cool that you marked the last used spell, without that it would be a hell.
I noticed that upgrades stay after death and I guess it wasn't supposed to work like this.
In my opinion boss could've been a bit more challanging.
As someone mentioned before, it would work better if you used a song with the same meter as the number of elements in a spell (or at least a multiplier of it). That way. the first key the player presses in a spell would always land on a strong beat. It would allow the player to time the start of ther turn just by listening to music, without focusing on the indicator (which I found anoying because I would rather look at spell inputs).

As others said it would also benefit from some additional indicator that it is players turn now.
Overall I think this is a really strong prototype with a fun mechanic and a big potential for expansion.

Also, I was getting really flustrated because the beat was really off, but then I realised I've been using wireless heaphones that got a pretty noticible delay xd Played without them and turns out everything was on beat xd
VerttiXPertti
Apr 22nd · 13:19 UTC
The rhythm didn't feel correct most of the time in my opinion. That soured my playthrough but other than that the game was fun and unique for sure!
Karenchik
Apr 22nd · 13:56 UTC
Cool game! The voice acting and graphics are cool, and the gameplay mechanics are very interesting. The only thing is, it's a bit hard to keep track of when the player is attacking versus when the villain is.
Nathanial
Apr 22nd · 14:20 UTC
Nice rhythm game, nice art. The timing could be more obvious. I also didn't realize at first that I was buying a new spell and replacing one instead of just buying a damage upgrade. I liked that stronger spells had more difficult sequences.
JoeGreen
Apr 22nd · 14:39 UTC
Cool intro!

If you could add 1–2 bars of pause between the player's attacks and the enemies' attacks (as a preparation before each new enemy), it would be absolutely fire!
Purrseus
Apr 22nd · 14:59 UTC
Props to your voice acting!

The style is unusual and that makes your game really stand out :sunglasses:

I found your game quite hard and wasn't able to get too far. But I love the mechanic of integrating the upgrades as additional inputs to your spells!
LDJam user 346943
Apr 22nd · 15:03 UTC
I tried the web build but its broken and doesnt load for me and I went ahead and tried the windows build.
I really liked the low poly aesthetic and the funny kind of not so serious setup of it all and the combination could also really land really well imo!
The big issue for me was: I only had to look at the spell list and couldnt look at the metronome/beat preview thingy in the nmiddle and it wasnt even synced for me, I had to click whenever I was in between these blue parts to get it working but it felt quite off and it was really frustrating to get a mistake in the beginning because there was no indicator apart from the one red key and no indicator that I was not allowed to still try and get the rest of the spell done. Due to that I often sat there missing things and not knowing when the beat was actually on sync and I got one run where I even got past the first right turn where it goes up a bit but I died there then.
I liked the Idea of buying other spells but maybe one should only start with one easy spell and small damage to begin with and get bigger more damage spells with more inputs later on because right now it was a no brainer to just buy the 12 damage spell from what I could figure out because I just had to input other keys but not more ore anything which made that spell just as easy to input as a 6 damage spell and by that made the other spells useless (except for if the elements did anything like more damage to certain enemy types, but I didnt figure out that there was such a system!)
Cool idea and a nice humorous take I think! A bit more polish and this could already be really goo imo! :3
denikk
Apr 22nd · 15:07 UTC
The dub was amazing!

I like the style and simplicity of the art.
I bet it was hard to make a rythm game, but it feels good, when you undertand what to do(maybe a little explanation would be nice)
The concept is not new, but you summed up few ideas into a very nice game. Great job!
Andrian
Apr 22nd · 15:10 UTC
The game was a bit of a challenge for me because I have 'paws' instead of hands when it comes to rhythm games lol. But the gameplay feels really fun and engaging! Great job on this!
Grimslinger
Apr 22nd · 15:50 UTC
I couldn't get a hold of the controls but I love the concept. Would love a rythym game turn based rpg :D
Bambutcher
Apr 22nd · 16:00 UTC
Talk about immersion! This game literally brought the snow to my city in late April :D
MaitreRenard
Apr 22nd · 16:05 UTC
Really really cool game, I love rhythm games in general and I really got into this one! The merchant scared me the first time because the camera turned suddenly xD GG for the work!
Myezko
Apr 22nd · 16:06 UTC
very cool i like it <3
greedy_merchant
Apr 22nd · 16:08 UTC
I liked the setting and audio intro. But controls feel bad. Why not the WASD input? It would be easier to remember when keys are not in one line. And during enemy turn I didnt get any feedback if I succeeded or not. I wish I could enjoy this game, because lore and style really caught my interest! Good luck in future games!
Haln
Apr 22nd · 16:09 UTC
I love the concept!

The music and the beat was nice, but it didn't match the gameplay quite right, it always felt a little off.

Majority of the text was really hard to read.

It was pretty easy to mess up spells when I was thinking I was doing it to the beat. I also wished the spell legend was in the middle instead of in a corner.


Got to the boss, but couldn't get a single spell off and lost.
LDJam user 423872
Apr 22nd · 16:22 UTC
An unusual combination of rhythm game and card fighting. I would like to see a variety of enemies.
LDJam user 285197
Apr 22nd · 17:23 UTC
A very nicely designed game, I love the voice acting lol. I see the vision and I think this game and it's idea are creative and have potential. But I think in a game design perspective it falls under the dev is alot better at the game than the player, like everything to the dev will feel 10x easier than to a new player. What I mean by this is it is already hard enough to match the beat with the drums, that alone can prove to be a challenge. On top of having to match it I also have to do a series of correct inputs that are stringed to 5 long and with keys on the keybaord I don't have muscle memorized right off the bat????

This may had worked if weaker elements were like 2 or 3 keys, but 5 even for a basic spell is insane. On top of that q, w, e, r are such odd keys. For something like this it may have been far easier if you did something like WASD or Arrow keys, there are 4 drums so that would work perfectly! It does feel very nice when I hit the string of 5 it just doesn't feel too beginner friendly.

Overall, this has potential to be a great game but the design of just throwing me in, and everything I mentioned is holding the game back. This could really be fleshed into a great game if taken the proper steps!
JohnCoffee
Apr 22nd · 20:17 UTC
very hard game, timing detection was a bit off for me, which made it quite hard. but a very nice idea, with good effort in execution. Great Job.
Tyrannas
Apr 22nd · 22:47 UTC
It's a fun game, like many rhythm games made for Ludum, I always find it really hard to time my inputs just right, but it still works pretty well! The graphics are nice, and the dubbing is a really cool addition to the game ! Overall well played !
Kulfy
Apr 22nd · 22:50 UTC
I love rhythm games, but this did not click for me.
We have to wait waaaaay too much time between each attack IMO.
The button mashing doesn't work really well with the music beat.
Having an azerty keyboard for sure did not help !

Really nice dubbing at the beginning, though !
Zwi Zausch
Apr 23rd · 01:57 UTC
Hey thanks for giving us feedback too!
Checked out your game and I like rythm games, so a cool take. I like the grungey graphics punchy vibe. Didn't realy manage to do one attack, so I guess I need to practce. I think the timings for the buttonpresses could be a bit more forgiving, And it's a lot of information on screen to take in at first, kind of being thrown into the battle ^^

Cool Walrus man!
Link270
Apr 23rd · 02:08 UTC
Nice work! I liked the idea a lot, the execution was a little lacking, but I can feel the intention was there. If it could be a little smoother with a bit more polish that would help a lot. The hard thing about rhythm games if you really need to be able to FEEL the game in yourself while playing it so you can react with the audio naturally. Nice job overall though!
ursagames
Apr 23rd · 04:38 UTC
The voice acting and art are great! I agree with others feel like a 4 beat rhythm without starting with an arrow key would have made it a lot more accessible and feel more natural. I also think some tutorial enemies that don't hit back would be good to maybe require you to get a combo before moving forward to practice without getting punished while learning the timing and controls. Huge props for doing a rhythm game for a jam though! I've done those in the past and getting everything working is a giant task! Definitely one of the hardest genres to make in a jam!
YurisCat
Apr 23rd · 06:08 UTC
A rhythm game that keeps you on your toes, pretty fun!
nyxkn
Apr 23rd · 08:59 UTC
I feel like the overall idea is great! Art and atmosphere is great, and gameplay feels like it should be fun, but I feel like the rhythm aspect is rather off! Like it doesn't line up with the beat of the music, and gets really confusing. It's also not clear when you're allowed to start inputs, and whether it's your turn or the enemy's. It just felt a bit too challenging as it is now, but I think the premise is excellent and it just needs a bit of refinement of the gameplay.
matt2728
Apr 23rd · 11:44 UTC
Cool project. I got to what I think is final boss, but haven't beat them yet.
Is the music sync'd up with the beat? I have had to manually make my hum my own metronome to the pips popping up in order to land attacks, I think the music may be out of sync adding to difficulty? That got a little frustrating.

Overall cool project. Great job :)
Psevdonim
Apr 23rd · 13:43 UTC
It's a cool game, fun to play. At first, I spent about five minutes wondering what I was doing wrong. I tried just spamming a combo, but nothing worked. Then I realized it was a rhythm game and just started playing according to the rhythm, and it all went smoothly. Unfortunately, I died on the final boss; I didn't have enough health, which I lost before I realized how to play. Maybe I'll try to beat him again later. Well done!
eseniia_no
Apr 23rd · 14:42 UTC
Such a fun game, love the style and the mechanics choice, great job !
Erilhir
Apr 23rd · 14:53 UTC
Well, I’m not going to say anything particularly new compared to the other comments, but to sum it up:
- The game is cool; it’s a really creative take on the theme
- The rythm works well, and I know how hard it can be to get that right!
- I think there needs to be more feedback from the drums (and the same goes for signaling when it’s your turn)
- I had a hard time playing at first because of my azerty keyboard layout; changing the key bindings would really be a must-have for a post-jam version ;)
Overall, it’s a great game; the foundation is clearly there to keep polishing it :)
LDJam user 234567
Apr 23rd · 18:34 UTC
The sound effects are very well chosen :smile:
franklyn01
Apr 23rd · 18:48 UTC
Nice idea and quite well executed! I really like the 3D graphics. I struggled a bit with the controls as my keyboard is pretty bad :D Overall very nice entry!
Xaklor
Apr 23rd · 20:25 UTC
I've only played a few rhythm games but even still I can tell something feels... off about this one. someone above mentioned a mismatched time signature which could be it, but I think another big thing that's missing from it is an audio cue of some kind to indicate your turn. if there is one, it's too quiet and I didn't notice it. I was routinely thrown off by not realizing when my turn was going to begin until it had already started at which point it was too late to begin a spell. it might have helped if the prep phase appeared before each player turn instead of only appearing in the first one.
McBaker
Apr 23rd · 20:55 UTC
Pretty much similar feedback to others - I found the game a bit too difficult for me. I think it would be great if there was some indication when turns start. It feels a bit too punishing that the player turn is wasted on a single mistake I think. Perhaps some clicking/clacking sound on each bit, to help the player get into the rythm?
Nadan
Apr 23rd · 21:13 UTC
Haha, I had a lot of fun! Couldn´t beat the game the first time, so I had to get back to it and win properly! :laughing: I think the visual beats were throwing me off a little bit and when I really got aligned with the sound beats is when I stopped having trouble casting spells.
I haven´t seen many rhythm games in LD, it´s a great choice! I only wish I could upgrade the spells instead of changing them for stronger ones (by the end of the playtrough, I had 2 same spells I couldnt use in sequence).
Great job, hope I´ll see you next time again! :slight_smile:
Alex de la Cour
Apr 23rd · 21:16 UTC
This was cool, I felt the rhythm timings were generally quite forgiving which is good for someone such as myself who doesn't play rhythm games (although I am a drummer) or maybe it just felt forgiving because I've got a decent sense of time (because I've seen a few people saying how difficult it was!)...I found it was easy to get the timings if I just nodded my head along to the visual queue during the preparation phase.

Anyway I enjoyed myself here, although it did crash twice at the shop (the option to press 'g' to continue never showed up'
martinfernandezGD
Apr 23rd · 22:36 UTC
It's a very interesting idea. I found it quite difficult; from the beginning, it challenges you to execute the combinations correctly. There's not much room for error, and you don't realize when it's the player's turn and when it's the enemy's if you concentrate on reading the spells.
Custodi
Apr 24th · 00:21 UTC
I really liked the vibe & core mechanic of this game, but the entry barrier was very high.
I died several times(
It wasn't until the late game that I realized how spells worked.
frozenfire92
Apr 24th · 02:24 UTC
Absolutely loved the concept, music and vibes, but the difficulty was not forgiving at all :sweat_smile: Keep on making games
FadingDreamStories
Apr 24th · 03:37 UTC
Took me a few turns to get the hang of the timing, but really cool idea!
PokeyDem
Apr 24th · 04:37 UTC
Nice game! Love the idea of using rhythm game elements as a fighting mechanic.
Also, I would suggest adding the ability to change keybinds, cause it's a bit hard to press Q/W/E/R after the arrow keys on a 60% keyboard, but other than that - great job!
Zamizmi
Apr 24th · 06:48 UTC
I love the style of the game and the lore is fun!

The sound are great and the vibe. I struggled ALOT to get the timing correct, and felt the difficulty was due to input challenges: similarily as coyote time is for platformers, maybe something would be wanted here to give a small wiggle room for player.

i felt the different spells were not balanced; one did 10dmg while some did 3 dmg in the beginning. This gave the feeling I only want to play the strong spell. This got better after shop tho!
woona
Apr 24th · 08:31 UTC
Great job! I liked the visuals, music, sound effects and voice intro. But I found the gameplay a bit too repetitive, basically the same combat repeated over and over again until the boss encounter.

It would be cool if there was more strategy to your actions, for example different enemies can have different elemental weaknesses or some moves can protect you from enemy attacks.
Bumble
Apr 24th · 11:12 UTC
I saw your comment on our game and just now realized that you also created a rhythm game where you create something to the rhythm! Your way of preparing the player for the incoming rhythm is way better than ours though :smile:
I also liked how you actually created a full other element of game around it with the upgrades!
recursor
Apr 24th · 12:32 UTC
I think the gameplay should begin at lower tempo and slowly ramp up as the player gets used to the controls. More feedback between beats (such as smaller indicators between each one that lights up in rhythm with the beat) would also be helpful in helping the player to hit the drum with the correct timing.
Grummelchen
Apr 24th · 15:32 UTC
NO I LOST TO A BIG MEAN WALRUS! Love the vibe of the game, sadly I have no sense of rhythm, so I am struggling a bit, but it's still really fun! I think you could play around a bit more with stronger visual clues, for those of us witch are less rhythmically gifted....
Caelestial
Apr 24th · 16:03 UTC
Cool concept, nice jam game!
Echo Team
Apr 24th · 16:27 UTC
I found it difficult to figure it out exactly but I applaud the effort!
HordorSok
Apr 24th · 16:38 UTC
I had some trouble at the start and didn’t really get what to do, but once I realized we should press combinations in time with the beat, it clicked and I really enjoyed the game!
Timo5034
Apr 24th · 17:00 UTC
It took a bit but once I understood it was pretty fun! It's nice to see a rhythm game! I've only one small thing to critisize: The sound of a successful button press is played slightly delayed and is therefore off beat, which kinda threw me off.
noneegy
Apr 24th · 18:59 UTC
Cool game. After I got used to it, it was fun to play. I liked the art, and the music was nice too. Good job!
Dywanix
Apr 24th · 18:59 UTC
cool idea!
LDJam user 409682
Apr 24th · 21:41 UTC
Interesting implementation of a rhythm game. I liked it, although the controls are quite challenging. You need to watch several parts of the screen at the same time. But it feels rewarding when you get into the rhythm :)

The timing felt very strict to me.

I also made a kind of rhythm bullet hell game, I’d be happy if you check it out :)
bigfatgua
Apr 25th · 08:27 UTC
A rhythm-based RPG that captures that classic Patapon vibe. Such a brilliant design choice!
Abiral
Apr 25th · 09:20 UTC
I love the rhythm based concept of the game, My timing was a bit off at first, but I managed to get the hang of it over time.
Sovande8
Apr 25th · 11:13 UTC
OMG!!! so cool game! I like sounds, heroes and environment!
I wish you to get a win!
LDJam user 428140
Apr 25th · 12:15 UTC
Really cool entry. The rhythm + spellcasting combo is a fresh take, and the voice acting, art, and progression system give it tons of personality.

A few thoughts if you keep iterating:

* Turn signaling. Hard to tell when it's my turn vs. the enemy's. A quick visual or audio cue before each player phase would help a lot.
* Beat feel. (as others have said) Music and beat indicators felt slightly off to me.
* Rebindable keys would make it much more accessible.
* Difficulty ramp. A tutorial enemy or slower starting tempo would ease players in.
LDJam user 260720
Apr 25th · 17:51 UTC
very nice concept!
LDJam user 424326
Apr 26th · 02:40 UTC
I’d like the background music to help set the rhythm - it felt a bit out of sync at times, which made me lose the combinations quite often.
eXTeeGi
Apr 26th · 02:42 UTC
I like the concept! I would've gone with WASD instead of QWER, since I'm used to having my fingers on those keys in games. The game could've worked in 2D, but kudos for going all the way with a full 3D environment!
LDJam user 424632
Apr 26th · 08:52 UTC
A high-quality rhythm game. I really liked the creativity and innovative approach to everything.

I'd like more responsiveness when dealing damage to walruses (it's unclear whether damage has been dealt), and also more clear indication of who is about to attack or is currently attacking, since it's only differentiated by text. Perhaps at the end of a walrus attack, you could display "Get ready, 3 2 1, Attack!". Perhaps this hint would also help the player's first hit land with a strong note.
PanDuplan
Apr 26th · 10:54 UTC
5 stars for music, sick beats!!
--
![vibey cat.gif](///raw/bc8/76/z/72bf3.gif)
Loki Drams
Apr 26th · 13:24 UTC
Fun game!
Have a hard time at first, and I try to sync with the music, but it seems that the bits are slightly different.
I liked the setting button in the main menu :laughing:, but a sound/music setting could be good.

The game is good, good job!
Zathnic
Apr 26th · 16:20 UTC
A bit hard to keep track of both the spellbook and beat indicator at once, but other than that cool rhythm game with a nice style!
LDJam user 395656
Apr 26th · 21:18 UTC
Neat, I found some of the text a bit hard to read in the HTML version, and it took me a minute to figure out how the casting system worked, but otherwise cool idea. I think this could be fleshed out into a pretty fun game in the future. I love how the art looks as well, and the music is quite nice, and works well for a rhythm game.
Chaseplays
Apr 27th · 02:55 UTC
Great game! I got to the final boss and unfortunately lost there :pensive: - but before that point I was having a really good time!

The only big piece of feedback I have is that I think it would've been nice if you had to push 4 buttons per "spell", not 5. I'm pretty sure the music is in 4/4, and if it could've lined up more cleanly with that, it probably would've felt a lot better synced up.

But the graphics, the music, the gameplay, I enjoyed it all! Great work you guys!
GARYglhf
Apr 27th · 09:15 UTC
Здорово, мне очень понравилось. Единственное если заменить QWER на стрелки для меня было бы удобней, провой рукой вводить.
TurboLaser
Apr 27th · 09:51 UTC
To be honest, for me it feels almost impossibly hard to defeat even a single enemy.
DariZz
Apr 27th · 14:17 UTC
I didn't immediately understand the connection with the rhythm, but I liked the idea! I would have liked more visual feedback when casting spells on enemies. It was difficult at first, but then you quickly get used to it and can play with your eyes closed! GJ!
Itero Proto
Apr 27th · 17:29 UTC
It's kind of cool, but I don't get the rhythm or whatever.
nothingjustaworld
Apr 27th · 18:24 UTC
Love the concept of battling using rhythm and spells!
Avi
Apr 28th · 02:40 UTC
Omg this is such a cute game! I love the art style and details to things like the animations. Eg I'm a fan of the little wiggle if the walrus, I feel like it makes them feel so much more alive :) nice work!
Thomas Gelman
Apr 29th · 03:37 UTC
It took me a bit to really figure out how to play this game, but I had fun once I did! I think the idea of having to do rhythms for moves in a turn-based game has a lot of potential, in a sorta-similar way to undertale using bullet hell sequences for their RPG battles. Would totally be interested in seeing this concept a bit more fleshed out, but impressive amount of work done regardless for a jam!
VenomousMouse
Apr 29th · 07:17 UTC
## Good day everyone! Post-jam patch is here!
Thank you all so much for playing our game and for all your comments and support!
I'm glad to announce that we made a post-jam patch based on all your comments. Now we have tutorial, full settings to change ur keybindings, upgraded rythm engine and much more.
You can play the post jam version on itch using this link:
https://venomousmouse.itch.io/drum-n-ice-postjamupdate

## Great thanks to all of you:
@pastmoments, @rinzu, @yanruyi, @weirdbitgames, @anku, @pastry-chef, @mamboman, @liomio, @remy-lopez, @flowerfield-games, @nikaz, @oxnh, @dmitriyci, @bigdippers, @mortith, @accelerate0814, @eden-zorro, @oeuegha, @anaastaska, @hexstart, @nicardo, @rainot, @verttixpertti, @karenchik, @nathanial, @joegreen, @purrseus, @stealthorc, @denikk, @andrian, @grimslinger, @bambutcher, @maitrerenard, @myezko, @greedy-merchant, @haln, @indiepanda, @j4cko16, @johncoffee, @tyrannas, @kulfy, @zwi-zausch, @link270, @ursagames, @yuriscat, @nyxkn, @matt2728, @psevdonim, @eseniia-no, @erilhir, @fifut, @franklyn01, @xaklor, @mcbaker, @nadan, @alex-de-la-cour, @martinfernandezgd, @custodi, @frozenfire92, @fadingdreamstories, @pokeydem, @zamizmi, @woona, @bumble, @recursor, @grummelchen, @caelestial, @echo-team, @hordorsok, @timo5034, @noneegy, @dywanix, @fassenberg, @bigfatgua, @abiral, @sovande8, @jpat, @lastuck, @pipetto, @exteegi, @catanus, @panduplan, @loki-drams, @zathnic, @jungledorf, @chaseplays, @garyglhf, @turbolaser, @darizz, @itero-proto, @nothingjustaworld, @avi, @thomas-gelman.
LLlarsO
Apr 29th · 09:44 UTC
I like the implementation of voice lines and the overall look of the game is nice. It is cool, that you can see an umpcoming shop in the background. Really like that detail. :)

Like some other people already mentioned, I also found it a bit too difficult to know when I had to press. I felt that it was easier in the post-jam version, but I played it after the jam-version, so maybe I was just getting more used to it. Very nice that you listened to the feedback and added rebindable keys.

The character sprites look good and I also like the scenery you chose. The implementation of the power-ups is a good addition.
adam-gould
Apr 29th · 22:33 UTC
Very bold to do a music rhythm game for a jam like this - I remember adding a slight rhythm element to one of my old ones years ago and it was a real struggle. You pulled it off well! Definitely the visual feedback wasn't too great, it took me a few goes to figure out what I was doing, but once I got the hang of it it was really fun to flow through.

Great job.
Skleembof
May 01st · 19:22 UTC
Awesome idea and implementation, but the gameplay could use some tweaks to make it more intuitive. I think it would be better if you let the player create their own combos instead of having to pull off specific ones to do damage. That way, the player can start off by focusing on just getting the timing right instead of trying to memorize the combos. Later on when they get comfortable, they can learn the combos to do the special attacks for more damage.

I found myself struggling to pick up the rhythm while trying to memorize the combos, which made me look back and forth between the combo board and the rhythm indicator in the middle of the screen.

The music and graphics are awesome tho and voice acting in Ludum Dare is always a plus! Great work guys!
MajoMirez
May 01st · 21:21 UTC
I liked the game loop, like short rhythm battles with upgrades every now and then. The drums remind me a lot of Patapon tho, one of my fav rhythm games. I just think the QWER + arrow keys are too much for my brain, specially after upgrading spells. Also, I restarted after a game over and it keeps the upgrades, I don't think that's intentional..?
Ausstein
May 02nd · 10:59 UTC
I really like the concept, I also tried the post jam version but I am still not getting the hang of it.

I think what is missing is some sort of feedback "too early" or "too late" with visual and sound cues. I am trying to hit the butone to the beat but If I miss i am not sure why. Sometimes I manage and sometimes i dont and I don't know how to improve.

Another benifit of this is that it lets the player automatically adjust for things like input lag etc.

If you incorporate more feedback, i would love to come back and try again :)
MrTroy
May 02nd · 16:14 UTC
This game feels like it'd be great with a custom controller. I was feeling a little overwhelmed trying to remember which arrows to press before pressing the drum key. I was getting my health rocked by the time I got to the upgrades so I had to use my horns to heal. I've got to practice this more and hopefully I can get to the rave!
Tetracold
May 02nd · 22:12 UTC
it's a little difficult for me as I am not super good at this type of game usually. I eventually got the hang of it somewhat

I think the style is great and the idea is fun, from form a gameplay perspective and also the story/motivation
Scottyartt
May 04th · 09:16 UTC
this game is difficult for me haha but overall looks good for 3 days jam
CiaranW
May 04th · 13:20 UTC
I found this really difficult, but I definitely got better the more I played (it was helpful that upgrades stuck around when I died, even if that was unintentional). The 3d world, voicing and story are really nice elements on top of the core gameplay, which is really cool for a jam game! I think it could have done with more visual cues - and maybe it felt like the audio was desyncing with time (that might just be my lack of musical ability though). I also played your post-jam version a bit, and found the difficulty better, but I still sometimes would get into cycles where I kept missing the first beat of the player turn and then couldn't cast anything for a few turns which was quite frustrating xD Thats how I died on the boss :P

Overall, great entry, with an impressive amount to it, good job!
Wallted
May 04th · 19:19 UTC
This drum was.. n'Ice... XD I liked this game. Rhythm element is quite challenging for me but I managed to grasp this, I loved the aesthetic - spell book, pretty elements icons, robbed mage, silly voiceover (certainly great job on that - the silliness is easily a wonderful fit artistically) - really brings me Magicka vibes. I was excited to see what these beams at the end are having for me. Great work!

![drumnice.png](///raw/ff1/46/z/7317d.png)
SirRed
May 04th · 20:05 UTC
Cool game. I struggled at first with timing, since you need to input the first direction right after the preparation and enemy attack which was not that obvious and led to a lot of damage being taken early on. Once I got the hang of it I was blasting enemies with my sick beats. Great entry.
AO-85
May 04th · 20:59 UTC
I really liked the progression system where you move along a path after winning encounters it kept me curious about what was coming next. I didn’t manage to reach the end myself (though I did watch the ending video), mostly because rhythm games aren’t my strong suit. I found that I performed better when I just listened to the beat rather than focusing on the visual icons. My strategy was pretty simple: I just spammed the two highest damage spells available at any moment and ignored the elemental mechanics. Still, congrats on the game! The 'icy rave party' theme is super cool.
zhangzhimu
May 05th · 07:21 UTC
It's really interesting to create rhythms by hitting the drums. It's quite fun in this process.
Besides, the seal design is so cute, hahaha.
Rewzu
May 06th · 23:35 UTC
Very creative idea! It might be a bit tough at first but once it clicks, it's quite satisfying. The art is neat already but with some more polish it would make a great game! Good job! :D
CO5MONAUT
May 07th · 16:22 UTC
It's pretty addictive—I loved the art style and the music.
Definitely a thumbs-up!
Thanks for the wonderful game!
tetrapteryx
May 07th · 18:15 UTC
This is a crazy ambitious jam game! It took me an embarrassing amount of time to pull off my first spell... A short pause and/or audio cue (or even another preparation phase?) at the start of each player turn would've been super helpful for my brain to catch up with the action, but I did eventually get the hang of it and had fun even while failing horribly!
kayrum
May 07th · 19:14 UTC
Very fun game even for a non-rythm gamer could maybe use more player feedback (visual and sound)
RAFFE
May 07th · 19:56 UTC
Wow really nice game! Managed to beat it after a moment. The mechanics seem to work great, even though maybe it would be nice if there was perhaps an animation or pulse or something to indicate that its the player's turn to attack. The merchant was a great addition and this was surprisingly well balanced considering it's an LD entry! The artstyle was also cool and I liked the frosty/ice vibe of the game. A very nice entry overall, great job!
RubixNoob13
May 08th · 23:51 UTC
REALLY interesting take on a rhythm game! The controls took me a second to figure out, I think mostly because the embed on the Ludum Dare site made the arrows REALLY small, so I was having trouble seeing which one I needed for which spell.

Graphics were cute, the music and sound effects fit well. Overall, really solid entry!