LudumData

Federal Bureau of Dance by LDJam user 342640

[raw]
made by LDJam user 342640 for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

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They come in Peace... and also Love, Unity, and Respect...

Federal Bureau of Dance is a first-person action game where you mix beats on the fly to satisfy a horde of alien ravers. Use your FLX 9000 to load, sync, and signal process tracks together into a killer set!

Use WASD to move, and the LMB or RMB buttons + a number key to load a track into the Left or Right bays respectively. Use the scroll wheel to sync them up, and then point those good vibrations at some aliens!

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This was a whirlwind! The entire game was predicated on whether or not we could make the music syncing system sound good, and while its definitely not perfect (some combos are a little rough to be honest), we're happy with where we got it given the amount of headache it took. We hope you enjoy!

CREDITS:

Max 'drainkid' Stucker - Design, Programming, Music

Ashley 'awr' Rohan - Design, Programming, Art, UI

Maeve 'maeve-walls' Walls - Design, Art, Music

Uses Nhlaha's GODOT-MIDI library: https://github.com/nlaha/godot-midi

Link https://drainkid.itch.io/federal-bureau-of-dance
Link https://drainkid.itch.io/federal-bureau-of-dance
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/federal-bureau-of-dance

Ratings

Overall 39th 4.204⭐ 83🧑‍⚖️
Fun 24th 4.195⭐ 84🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 23th 4.299⭐ 84🧑‍⚖️
Theme 226th 4.069⭐ 82🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 199th 4.171⭐ 84🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1th 4.605⭐ 83🧑‍⚖️
Humor 52th 4.128⭐ 80🧑‍⚖️
Mood 73th 4.259⭐ 81🧑‍⚖️
Given 122🗳️ 202🗨️

Feedback

Sirplop
Apr 20th · 23:02 UTC
Fantastic entry! I really enjoyed giving the silly little aliens the music they so desired, though it is a lot of keys to juggle.
Jack Maxwell
Apr 20th · 23:06 UTC
This is really great. I love the idea and the music and mechanics come together in a really fun and good sounding experience. I like how you have to manage multiple aspects of the mix and dodging in the 3d space. It almost reminds me of sunset overdrive in the way how you are almost combo-ing the aliens with your mix. I would love if it was less focused on moving/aiming and instead almost snapped you to your targets when you hit a good combo. Great game!
FLOWERFIELD Games
Apr 20th · 23:32 UTC
Hello! FIY, I can't execute the MACOS build. Here is the error message:
“Federal Bureau of Dance” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software"
mantaraii
Apr 20th · 23:33 UTC
I really love how the sound design works together with the visuals—it’s super fun and full of style and creativity! That said, I couldn’t help but keep staring at the bald heads at the bottom… their facial expressions hit my sense of humor for some reason 😭
awr
Apr 20th · 23:38 UTC
@flowerfield-games as with basically all Ludum Dare games on MacOS the executable is unsigned and you have to bypass Gatekeeper if you want to run it. right+click the app and click open instead of double-clicking it directly, it should give you a different dialog box that you can click "open" on. Hope this helps
awr
Apr 20th · 23:41 UTC
FYI it may also take a couple of seconds before the window opens on MacOS due to shader compilation
DariZz
Apr 20th · 23:45 UTC
I had an incredible time playing this game!
My dream of being a DJ has finally come true. The controls were a bit tricky at first, but the text-based tutorial completely solved that problem. 10 alien party animals out of 10
thedudeman45
Apr 21st · 01:48 UTC
Excellent
4farandbeyond
Apr 21st · 02:02 UTC
What an absolute fever dream of a game (in the best way possible), I love the concept of mixing music tracks, the aliens are very cute, the story is ridiculously funny, absolute 10/10 game jam game!
LDJam user 372231
Apr 21st · 03:08 UTC
Great minds think alike:D
breadstick
Apr 21st · 03:11 UTC
Love the art and music--how was I going to pass up on a title with a thumbnail featuring a government agent with cat-ear headphones?

This game appeals to Lucio mains who crave the added layer of simultaneously mixing their music mid battle
mattlevonian
Apr 21st · 06:31 UTC
This was a very good entry! Fun gameplay, loads of polish. Full, effective tutorial. Innovative mechanic. My only complaints are that there isn't more! I want a full game! Different enemies, more mechanical complexity in the beatmatching, etc.

Overall, loads of fun to play, great job!
takanoro
Apr 21st · 07:02 UTC
Even if they were trying to kill me HARD they are absolutely adorable :alien:
Sariiger
Apr 21st · 07:33 UTC
Great job on this incredible entry! The art style and the music were both top-notch, like genuinely, and the gameplay itself was super unique and creative too, loved everything about this game!

So far easily the highest quality game on this jam I've played so far.
🎤 LDJam user 342640
Apr 21st · 07:54 UTC
Thanks everyone for the kind words so far!!! With how much of a blitz this ended up being towards the end, I'm glad things apparently seem to have worked out!
wexelsdev
Apr 21st · 07:55 UTC
Great job! You guys did awesome, I really enjoyed playing it. It was a bit tough at first, but once I got the hang of it, it became much more fun. It did freeze on me once, which was a bit of a bummer, but that's probably on my end. It would be really cool to have a Linux build too!
🎤 LDJam user 342640
Apr 21st · 07:57 UTC
@mattlevonian To be honest with you - I was tempted to add a few more enemy waves before the boss, but I was too worried about overstaying our welcome and decided to keep it short & sweet :sweat_smile:
🎤 LDJam user 342640
Apr 21st · 08:03 UTC
@wexelsdev ah - sorry about that! glad you still enjoyed the game though. were you running it through a compatibility layer? sadly none of us have linux machines atm so we werent able to make a native build
wexelsdev
Apr 21st · 08:08 UTC
@drainkid Yeah, I was running it through Proton on Arch, so that might have caused the freeze. Totally understand about the native build though-testing without the hardware is tricky! Still, the game is solid, great job again.
MuzzLove
Apr 21st · 08:50 UTC
great game!
LDJam user 424326
Apr 21st · 08:55 UTC
I was really glad to see a pause menu and a tutorial
The sound design and artwork are incredible
Jo Bettaque
Apr 21st · 10:52 UTC
Really unique and creative entry, Also works well, although in the beginning i got mobbed by aliens :D
Crusader
Apr 21st · 11:10 UTC
Great game. Liked the innovative gameplay, fun music and pleasant graphics. All 5's
Archaeognathus
Apr 21st · 13:58 UTC
The thumbnail alone is gold. And it's a super fun and unique concept... but I fear I know too much now.
alexey_bobrovskiy
Apr 21st · 13:59 UTC
Unfortunately, it freezes when I combine two tracks, but from the first impressions it’s something grandiose
500
Apr 21st · 14:06 UTC
A classic FPS, the artistic tricks are so fun
metalgear
Apr 21st · 14:15 UTC
Wow, FBD was a good game.
Raivk
Apr 21st · 14:52 UTC
Absolutely freaking cool! That's a really nice entry!
Tanjou
Apr 21st · 14:54 UTC
Really cool entry! But just like in real life, I think this game requires a lot of motor coordination, which I unfortunately do not have lol
Pentagrammal
Apr 21st · 16:21 UTC
Is that you, Game Jam winner?)
Dywanix
Apr 21st · 16:41 UTC
I love the artstyle!
🎤 LDJam user 342640
Apr 21st · 17:18 UTC
@alexey-bobrovskiy Hmm, strange - was this a one time thing or repeated? Also, what OS are you on? Somebody else reported issues running this on Linux through a compatibility layer, so if you're also on Linux I may look into trying to bake a native build.
HDVR02
Apr 21st · 17:20 UTC
A very solid visual style - great work!
LDJam user 280189
Apr 21st · 18:23 UTC
The DJ mechanic was really awesome! Solid work, good job!

FYI I was playing it on Fedora Linux and it was running fine for me.
HadMatter00
Apr 21st · 22:25 UTC
This was awesome! The music and art were great, and the gameplay was super satisfying once I got used to it.
Oraclefish
Apr 21st · 22:30 UTC
Really well done! The DJ mechanic was so well done. I loved the graphics, and the game was pretty challenging. Loved it!
LDJam user 424632
Apr 21st · 22:35 UTC
The game is really cool! The visual design is simply incredible!
steinhks
Apr 21st · 23:15 UTC
Cool idea, not bad sound design, and the “YAPPIE” sound is really funny when the alien dies
kanhao
Apr 21st · 23:33 UTC
This idea is so much fun! I only struggled a bit with the scroll wheel at the very beginning, but once I got used to it, it was really enjoyable.Using a filter gives such strong positive feedback the moment you adjust to the correct speed.It might be even more interesting if the scroll wheel were linearly linked to the filter cutoff, BPM, and loudness all at once!
svalski
Apr 22nd · 01:28 UTC
cool gui
kayrum
Apr 22nd · 03:04 UTC
When I saw the portrait I instandly thought doom, but the challenge of managing samples is a fun twist for an fps.
Blue Pin Studio
Apr 22nd · 04:04 UTC
Really cool entry! you managed to make a pretty complicated gameplay interaction managable by the thoughtful tutorial and hud elements. Really cool!
MaruMari
Apr 22nd · 04:15 UTC
Unique game idea liked it alot
Gecko64
Apr 22nd · 04:39 UTC
Super fun game to play. I loved almost everything about it with the combination of the music and highpass lowpasses along with the artstyle alone of the cute aliens and ever cooler FBD agent. Very good job a great game! :)
babyfoodstudios
Apr 22nd · 06:41 UTC
Fulfilled my DJ dreams
Mekuire
Apr 22nd · 06:42 UTC
A well-made game! Though you have to go through too many steps to satisfy the alien's musical preferences.
poboy
Apr 22nd · 07:23 UTC
This game has such pizazz and style I love it so much. The high/low pass filter idea is brilliant. Did y'all make the music too? That's some serious talent
Jastrzebska
Apr 22nd · 08:19 UTC
I enjoyed playing this game! It's really fun!
Tetracold
Apr 22nd · 08:58 UTC
Loved it!

The concept is both very funny and well executed. I really like the music centric mechanics, they are the highlight for me, I think it came together really good!

It took me a bit to get used to the flow of the gameplay, some of the combos are quite difficult but I get the general idea of what it's going for
Brainoid
Apr 22nd · 12:20 UTC
![Screenshot 2026-04-22 141837.png](///raw/6a8/d/z/72434.png)

Cool idea!
A little bit overlayered for my taste.
I felt like I could enjoy the game without the "BPM changing" and a bit balance of the enemies.
Music and visuals got me going though. So, thanks for the entry!
Allax
Apr 22nd · 15:45 UTC
Good game, I liked it
LDJam user 423872
Apr 22nd · 16:29 UTC
I think this is the most unusual thing I've seen here! It's funny. 🎵
FireFish
Apr 22nd · 19:21 UTC
An absolutely brilliant game! The concept of combining music with gunplay is always a great idea, and using a gun to mix tracks is just ridiculously cool! It was a bit on the difficult side for me, but I still had an absolute blast playing it, and it fits the 'signal' theme perfectly.

I also really love the game's sense of humor—the federal agents wearing earmuffs cracked me up! It's a game packed with so much flavor and charm. Great job, you guys are awesome!
LDJam user 304226
Apr 23rd · 00:37 UTC
![Screenshot_13.png](///raw/264/a4/z/72652.png)
Woooooo!! Really really really kewl, jammy and fun to play! Loved it all, the alien designs, the music, the gameplay, it's all really cool and fun, thanks for the very cool game ^^
YurisCat
Apr 23rd · 06:14 UTC
I've seen you in so many comment sections! The alien designs are really adorable, and I love the filter rhythm and visual effects!!
eklender
Apr 23rd · 18:20 UTC
How do you even come up with such ideas? Very creative and fun! I’m really impressed with how well these tracks work together
oeueGHa
Apr 23rd · 20:20 UTC
Very decent work, maybe I'd like to see more challenge
Alex de la Cour
Apr 23rd · 20:47 UTC
This was so much fun! Super unique and interesting, charming as hell and funny. My brain hurts thinking about how you managed to get all those combinations of tunes working together but the audio was just mind-blowing. Great job!
LDJam user 428140
Apr 25th · 13:20 UTC
This is one of the most original entries I've played! The idea of mixing tracks mid-combat is such a clever twist on the FPS formula, and the fact that all the combinations actually sound good is seriously impressive. Juggling the filters, BPM, and aiming was a lot at first, but the tutorial eased me in nicely. The aliens are adorable and hilarious. Fantastic job!
HerzogVonWiesel
Apr 25th · 16:00 UTC
Really fun and unique game idea, loved to be a little DJ for the aliens!
christina-antoinette-neofotistou
Apr 25th · 16:43 UTC
this is like elite beat agents, crypt of the necrodancer and doom all at once. WOW. Super original, sounds *amazing* and I'm so surprised that you had time for a tutorial!

Amazing work! One of my favorites!
PanDuplan
Apr 26th · 12:29 UTC
Super creative idea, mixing tracks like this is really impressive!! Feels very unique and just fun to play. The audio is awesome, everything somehow blends really well which is kinda crazy. Aliens are super cute too! Took a bit to get used to all the controls, but once it clicks it feels really satisfying. Could maybe use a bit more challenge, but overall awesome entry!!
GuitarBro
Apr 28th · 02:52 UTC
This is a really novel idea! It's a bit difficult to do everything in time since there are so many controls, but the concept is quite straightforward once you get the hang of it. Nice that you managed to fit in 4 tracks and were able to figure out how to tempo sync them well. The art also has quite a lot of personality and works pretty well, even if it's a bit minimal. The 2D-in-3D kinda reminded me of some early playstation/n64 games that did a similar technique. Overall, a pretty solid entry!
picross
May 01st · 02:33 UTC
Hilarious idea! I liked mixing the tracks a lot. Very funny character designs overall as well. The movement felt pretty good and it made me want a little more feedback on the shooting (and maybe an aiming reticle perhaps) - feels like it needs a little bit more game juice. Really nice work!
pickens-inc
May 04th · 18:27 UTC
My favourite entry I've played so far, this was an absolute delight!! I love love love rhythm combat, and I respect the hell out of however you managed to get that audio code working in the jam time. I found it really fun and intuitive, and I adored the doom-style portrait looking around as I moved, but with the cat ear headphones.

The only thing that was missing was chunky game-feel. Nice sounds when you're "hurting" the enemies, chunky tape deck noises when you switch out tracks, etc. But it was a fantastic entry. I was literally just saying out loud when fighting the boss "This is getting pretty easy, it would be cool for the difficulty if this boss guy switched up what he wanted whilst I fought him", and then he did! Amazing stuff, it lasted the perfect amount of time too.
AO-85
May 04th · 21:03 UTC
Really cool entry! you managed to make a pretty complicated gameplay interaction managable by the thoughtful tutorial and hud elements. Really cool!
GuyUnger
May 08th · 16:30 UTC
super cool game, i love the aesthetics and getting music synced up is satisfying:)