Music Fall

[Jcoffey]

Hey!

My name is Joshua Coffey. I've been working on a flash rhythm game for a while, but it's quite different from all those other games!

Instead of pushing buttons monotonously in effort to gain combos etc., you're flicking your wrist, trying to catch notes falling down according to the music.



Instead of telling you what kind of criticism I WANT, I'll tell you what I don't want.

I don't want:
"X song isn't synced!": I know.

"There are only four songs!": Those are only the confirmed songs. More will be added.

"X song stopped halfway": I know. It's not done being synced. In the words of Linus Torvalds(Not exact Quote):Release often, release early, something something...

"Add keyboard controls!": ................

"The UI and graphics suck!": I'm looking for an artist. However, do feel free to politely tell me what kind of graphics you think should go with the game. UI as well.



Here's a (somewhat old) development video. It doesn't include achievements or the tutorial, which have been put in place.



I haven't been working on this game in the past few weeks for a few reasons.

Mainly, I was promoted to Indie Games Editor at Gamersinfo.net. That takes up a bit of my time.

Also, my syncer, "Kynosaur"(Amazing at it as well!) has been busy.

A few pictures:




And, without further adieu, here is the game! Coincidentally, you just lost it.

[Dyno Kid]

Just watched the video, it gets pretty intense near the end i'm not sure i could keep up with that speed lol

Will have a pay later and edit post.

Darren.

[Karja]

The graphics/UI needs work, but I think the main gameplay will work great. In fact, I was planning on having the same mechanism for boss battles in my last game (but with GH-like background scrolling). I skipped that approach due to problems getting good music/synching everything/'cause I'm a lazy bum.

However, apart from the graphics and UI there's one major thing missing: sound cues when you miss a note! Flashing the screen red is good, but you need sound effects too (IMO).

[JGOware]

hmm... moving the mouse back and forth to catch something isn't exactly a very engaging experience. I'm 100% big on simple games, but this is basically "kaboom" with circles as bombs and a "y" instead of water buckets.

I think you're going to need a major revamp of graphics and play mechanic for viral success. Technically it's cool that you're able to do this in sync with the music but you need more engaging game play to keep them interested beyond that.

[Karja]

You think so? I actually found it pretty fun as it is, even though I'd like some powerups or variations in the falling things. I might be sleep-deprived and easily amused, though.

[HDL]

For a music based game you really need some sort of sound feedback to make the game enjoyable, whether it's making the notes sound as you catch them, or making noises when you miss them. I found it rather one dimensional and didn't enjoy it.

That said I've played quite a few of this sort of game on kongregate lately, mostly for the badges as opposed to for fun mind you so it's not really a game mechanic I enjoy.

I found this one rather boring. It might be because you've yet to implement all of the bells and whistles. It might be because I don't enjoy the mechanic. It might be because it's just boring.

[electronicStar]

The gameplay is okay, works, but you could make it a bit more complex, with for example a reason to click at some times.

I had only one problem but a big one. On the songs where I had to do fast left-right movements, the mouse cursor kept getting out of the play area and stopped responding for 1-2 seconds. So I lost a lot because of that.
This is very annoying and you should find a way to fix that.

[Jcoffey]

Unfortunately there's no way to force the mouse to do anything. I cannot read it while it's outside the game window, either. Sad face.