TIGSource Forums

This is a game I'm finishing off development for XBox360, but I made a build of the first 10 levels for PC as well.

What is Battle Beat?
Battle Beat is an instrument-driven defense game. You use the beats of the game's music to activate your defending units. Both keeping the beat and strategically choosing what defenders will attack provides the main challenge and amusement of the game. Although instrument-driven, I know most people don't have the XBox controller adapters so they can use a guitar hero/RB guitar or drums on their PC, so I've also included keyboard support in this build (number keys 1,2,3,4, and spacebar are the primary keys used). Keep in mind, I didn't jump for mouse controls or strong PC menu navigation because this is primarily being built for the consoles. Beyond that I hope you enjoy the game and perhaps share with me your opinions on it.

Screenshots
(http://battlebeat.com/images/screenshots/BattleBeatScreen1mini.jpg)
(http://battlebeat.com/images/screenshots/BattleBeatScreen2mini.jpg)
(http://battlebeat.com/images/screenshots/BattleBeatScreen3mini.jpg)

Download installer
Download here (http://www.stegersaurus.com/battlebeattest/BattleBeatPubPlaytest1.zip)

Website
http://www.battlebeat.com/ (http://www.battlebeat.com/)

Erk.... the only the thing that worries me more than hating a game is extreme disinterest. :-\

Even if you don't want to check out the game itself, if you've got an opinions on why it didn't draw your eye when you first saw it, that feedback would be appreciated as well.

Also if you're interested, there's a video trailer online (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1K_SKnQE2Q) which I submitted when I sent this game to the IGF

As well, here's the box art I intend to use for the game on the XBLIG service. Trying to put emphasis on guitar and drum controllers.
(http://battlebeat.com/images/misc/cover.jpg)

Hello!  Aw, sorry about the lack of feedback, I know that can be frustrating so I'll be your first comment!  I watched your sample video when I was checking out the IGF entries, and I thought the art style was cool.  I like the Taurus-robot-guy charging at you.  How does the gameplay work in the part where your character is flying through the sky?

The reason is that I rarely visit Feedback.

This looks pretty swell, however.

Really like the static visuals and checked out the trailer video too!  Looks pretty cool.  I like how your line of defense dances to the music and the art style is right up my alley.  Having just finished playing Plants vs. Zombies I've been particularly fond of a more comic-cartoony aesthetic. 

Ah, that's funny you should say that because I was thinking the same thing.  I've been into more 2D cartoony styles lately as a result of Plants vs. Zombies (I did the music for that game).  It's cute how the stick figure robot guys bounce along with the music :)

Oh nice!  Loved the music in that game.  Congrats on being involved with such an awesome project! 

Don't wanna hijack this thread though away from this game so let me just say one other thing I thought of when looking at the video: 

It wasn't clear to me in watching how it worked (without seeing the # of players or the controllers in action) what was happening with the timing line below the play area.  Is this video of a 1 player or 2 player game mode?

I've just started playing and I'm not sure I totally get it.
The 'music' is just a 4/4 beat and I don't have to tap any specific notes, just 1 note 50 times until the end of the level.

Gonna keep playing though.

Played a bit more, on hard this time.
it seems the rhythm part of it isn't fine-tuned enough.
it might be a good action game but the rhythm game part seems tacked-on and more of an annoyance than a feature.

Woah, I totally didn't expect responses showing up this time. I guess persistence pays off! :)

First thanks all commenting on the art. It seems to be one of the stronger points of the game and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about it, including sooo many comparisons to Plants Vs Zombies. PvsZ was an awesome game (once people started making the comparison, I bought it on Steam and plowed through that game and its extra modes) and I know mine bears a few particular similarities, particularly in the row-based defense and enemy progressions. I probably learned a few design ideas from it too!

supershigi: The jetpack minigame is odd and needs to be "felt". It's pretty much your first fret/drum speeds your jetpack up (to get further distances faster), while the other 3 frets transition you between top, bottom, and middle of the screen height. Beyond that it's just an avoidance game. I may need to add color indicators to help show which buttons move the character to which locations. Did I mention PvsZ is awesome and I've listened to that music video like 50 times? :)

Hideous: I regret to admit I'm guilty of that too. Now I feel bad :(

HybridMind: It's single player. The timing line pretty much maps to if dots converge, that's a beat (as Ryx mentions, it's mostly a 4/4 tempo). There are colored pads below each column of units, where hitting that colored pad on the beat will activate that column's weapons (if recharged).

Ryx: Glad to hear you played it. Most of the game stays on that 4/4 beat (with certain sections having pauses). This is definitely a concern I have. The game is paced such that it does start off fairly easy, if you can just maintain that rhythm. Later on comes more challenge in which units you use but it really needs to be more compelling from the get go. The big issues I see are for one, I need to introduce new weapons at a pace that the player can understand the gameplay and weapon strengths, and secondly I can't map the beats like GH or RB would because it causes too much of a disconnect in players' visual focus. In that respect I go with the 4/4 beats, kinda like Patapon. This is something I've been wrestling with for a while (nearly since the start), so I'm honestly unsure if I'll be able to come up with an adequate solution to this problem :/.

Thanks for the opinions everyone! I keep feeling like I need to wrap this project up (6 months full time is too long for my projects!) but I really want things to "feel" right for players when it finally comes out.

Oh man I didn't even see that you had a PC download link!  I guess I speed read the part about xbox360 and thought that was it.

So I downloaded it and gave it a try.. much better than just watching a video! ;)

Some general impressions in no particular order:

1) The dialogue from the 'trainer' was humorous and kept things informative and interesting.  I felt that you had a good balance of game vs text and instructions between play.

2) The beginning level lengths seemed good.  On first play through I made it all the way to where the charging bull enemies appear and failed there.  I'm a bit tired right now and my evening is wrapping up so I can't give it another go right now but I've kept it to try again later hopefully.  Oh also I felt that the levels before that were a pretty good balance of being easy and teaching the player too.  Just when I was starting too think it was going to be too easy that damn charging bull level came along and smacked down my hubris... ;)

3) I can see the challenge you were mentioning with taking things off of 4/4! You would have the player just basically watching the pulses then and unable to really watch what the rest of the game was doing!  :)  Very interesting design challenge. 

4) I never really got that whole spacebar to move a line thing.  I saw it work in the tutorial but when my defenses started crumbling in a row I wasn't able to use it to repair my row.  Maybe it wasn't intended like that.

5) It is interesting and fun to strategize the lineup of your forces.  I enjoyed that but some kind of tips or guidance may be helpful though likely it is just trial and error.

6) Controls seemed pretty easy for me to pick up and get into the swing of.  I feel I wasn't being very efficient though.

7) The art was even more lovely with everything wiggling around to the music.  The lasers beams and blue lightning are some of my favorite touches as they are just rendered so nicely.

Weird.. when I was playing this last night I thought one of the main battle tracks sounded familiar and amazingly I remember which flash game I had heard it in already.  Not sure that it matters but here is the game which uses your music:

Polygonal Fury (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/498566)

Yea, Kevin MacLeod's music is used in a lot of games because his licensing is fairly permissive. I know a lot of the XNA community use his stuff since there was a post about it made on their forums.