next »

[NiallM]

I'm not sure this really came out right.

I was trying to make a music game that was a bit more meaningful than the guitar hero/hit-the-buttons-in-time-to-the-music-style games.  The idea was that, in playing the game, the player would also be playing a kind of musical instrument, able to create their own melodies etc. rather than being forced down a proscribed path.  So each play-through would be an actual musical performance, only controlled with a keyboard/gamepad rather than a guitar, violin etc.

In practice though, I don't think it really works as either a musical instrument or a game.  So, before I chuck it on the pile of things that sounded good in my head but didn't work out in reality, I thought I'd throw it open to the good folk of TIGForums.  What could I do to make it work better?

Download (Windows only, I'm afraid).


Oh, btw all the sounds in the game are synthesized in-game, no samples here.
(and yeah, the score is entirely arbitrary and pointless...)

[ortoslon]

In practice though, I don't think it really works as either a musical instrument or a game.  

i enjoyed it, i think it's a nice musical toy. maybe let the player control the beat (several buttons to toggle each drum)

[leonsulivan]

I really like the style of the game, not only the graphics but also the way to play.

There is two thing i less like however.

The first thing is the "Red Level", it hurt my eyes to see all this red ^^.
Maybe the range between the dark red and the light red isn't enough.

The other thing I don't really like is the sound made by the little enemies. No matter what I do the sound produced is really bad (maybe I'm just a bad musician :-°)

So in summary it's nice, I enjoyed it

[NiallM]

Thanks for the comments

i enjoyed it, i think it's a nice musical toy. maybe let the player control the beat (several buttons to toggle each drum)

Yeah, I might experiment with different input schemes, see if I can create a stronger connection between the player's actions and the result.  Once the crash and the clap bullets come on they tend to hit everything on the screen, regardless of what the player does.

The first thing is the "Red Level", it hurt my eyes to see all this red ^^.
Maybe the range between the dark red and the light red isn't enough.

The other thing I don't really like is the sound made by the little enemies. No matter what I do the sound produced is really bad (maybe I'm just a bad musician :-°)

The colour scaling's a bit off, I do need to fix that.  Assuming the sound of the wee enemies isn't buggy (it should be a kind of distorted whistling) I should probably change that.  I didn't have any particular sonic 'scheme' in mind when I made the game, and I'm not sure the sounds exactly work together.  I should maybe replace that sound with more of a synthesized string sound.