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[tesselode]

AetherBeats is a unique blend of interactive music and challenging shooting action. Sort of like Rez. You shoot enemies; they make noises. Just don't die too much, otherwise the music ends. Forever. (Until you start a new game.)

Download! (only 3.17 MB!)

Any feedback is welcome; I just want to see what you guys think of it.

[ortoslon]

enjoyable but text (like "AWESOMENESS UNITS +1") appearing in the middle of the screen is jarringly distracting

[Almost]

Music is relaxing, and when I realized that I didn't have to aim and I could just hold shoot, it was pretty fun. Death is annoying.

[namre]

I like it! The song is really good it makes me wanna groove.

Want to give you a head-ups on though. When I press spacebar to fire, i can only move my player horizontally and vertically and not diagonally. But when I use z or ctrl. It moves fine. Then again it might be because of my keyboard.

Cheers!

[tesselode]

I like it! The song is really good it makes me wanna groove.

Want to give you a head-ups on though. When I press spacebar to fire, i can only move my player horizontally and vertically and not diagonally. But when I use z or ctrl. It moves fine. Then again it might be because of my keyboard.

Cheers!

It's your keyboard. And that happens with a lot of keyboards. That's why you can also use Z or control.

Thanks for the nice feedback, guys!

[chris_b]

This is really nice! I like how the tune progresses.

The graphics are easy to read and I like this abstract style, but they have a bit of a "programmer art" look about them.

[pixelatron]

Really, really like this. Like the BIT.TRIP games, it's almost hypnotic once you're absorbed in the rhythm. Could you make the player a different colour from the bullets and enemies though? My eyes will put you on their Christmas card list if you do.

[namre]

It's your keyboard. And that happens with a lot of keyboards. That's why you can also use Z or control.

I thought so. Hahaha.

Oh and congrats on being featured on the IndieGames weblog. http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/08/freeware_game_pick_aetherbeats.html

W00t!

[AuthenticKaizen]

nice game

ways to improve it:
having more levels and backgrounds...
and consider to exchange the harsh crash sound with a gentler one.

[namre]

Yeah, I too find the dying sound to be quite ear-jarring.

[porousnapkin]

I like the pacing of the difficulty quite a bit. It's not too difficult up front but it ramps up quick enough that on replays it's not boring. I also felt like I was getting better at the game as I played it.

My only complaint is that opponents are the same color as bullets which makes it harder to distinguish opponents charging at you later in the game with the hundreds of bullets flying around. Still, I don't think this got in the way that much

[torahhorse]

Nice, tesselode! The audio draws the whole thing together, I didn't mind the death sound but it couldn't hurt to lower it a bit. Graphically, I think the colours could use some tweaking to be more consistent. Bullet colours especially, maybe mute the red bullets so that they sit on the same visual plane as the others. Also maybe a more modern font? Other than that, it plays really well, the difficulty ramps nicely.

[tesselode]

Interesting font choice, but it looks a little too happy or jungle-y or something.

[tesselode]

So I've been having trouble coming up with a better death sound (it took me a long time to come up with the first one). So if anyone wants to make a 2 second death sound and a game over sound then go right ahead.

[Nix]

Very enjoyable, though I will say that I found myself losing the player circle quite often, and I had a hard time distinguishing between effects and things that could kill me. Other than that, I think it's a great game with great potential for long-lasting addicted-ness. And ditto on the "hypnotizing" bit.

[jazmeister]

I think there are terrible design and control choices betraying your enormously endearing central mechanic. Cut the three lives thing and just let me play (put in an arcade mode if you're married to the high score table). Let me control the guy with the mouse.

All the music stuff is great, very entertaining. You want to keep the player enjoying that as much as possible - easier modes, some sort of rudimentary instruction (press Z in time!!!1)

As for the death noise, i like that you've tried to keep the rhythm going during death. Why not drop all the sound and have some sort of quiet, bassy thing ticking over while your player regenerates? That way it almost sounds like the player meant to die.

[tesselode]

Without any goal or challenge, the game would probably get dull pretty quick. And mouse control would probably feel either jumpy or sluggish (and it might unbalance the game).

By the way, you can just hold down Z; you don't have to press it "in time."

With that said...v1.05 is out! It's got an autofire option and some player/bullet color options now! That should be good for those of you who were having trouble distinguishing between the player and the enemies.

[speeder]

Later I can try to make a death sound (if someone show up with one first, no problem...)

First, the graphics are really cool, except for the main menu...


And the game is... what I wanted to do with the sound on mine, except I failed... I really wonder how you made the music have a sense of rythm (the bullets kill only in specific times?), and how the notes are chosen.

My only real complaing is the "orange" level, that is TOO evil, it is the ONLY level that made me lose lifes (And eventually game over), because of the 4 ships that come aligned and shooting, forcing you to move to the botton, or weave between their bullets, and when you go to the bottom you get small round enemies pouncing you (from before you can even react...) and if you try to weave between their bullets, you get shot by the star enemies...

But other than that, the game is really nice

[gmlion]

Hey,

I realized only today we had a very similar idea more or less in the same time! (heck even the name!) Neat ;-)

Your game is very nice