FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD33 → DRUMSTER

DRUMSTER

By soulgame

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Audio64.49
Coolness369
Fun743.83
Overall823.89
Mood1673.64
Graphics1804.10
Humor3943.03
Innovation6992.78
Theme8632.95

Comments

nurbs 2015-08-25 01:11

I'm so bad at these kinds of games, took some real effort to get through to see what happened. But the slow transition was enough to make me want to. Great job!

glerikud 2015-08-25 01:20

The music was pleasant,but I hope for a bit more variety

gfm 2015-08-25 01:33

Wow! Amazing animations and songs!

As soon as I saw a GIF on the home page, I was sure I wanted to play this game. It lived through the expectations!

Also, great use of the theme! This is the only game, so far, that I saw the use of "monster" like that. Really nice!

Congrats!!

soulgame 2015-08-25 01:37

@Nurbs: Thanks for making the efforts!

@glerikud: Glad you liked the music. There are other music style when you complete the first one!

@GFM: Thanks :) I hope the game worth the expectations

burgerdare 2015-08-25 01:47

A well polished rhythm game. It's difficult to do anything particularly special or unique in this genre, so it's tough to fault this game for feeling a bit vanilla. I'm generally awful at rhythm based games, so I didn't get to see much of this, but I did enjoy the brief time I spent with it.

tweedle 2015-08-25 02:33

Really enjoyed the concept! Fantastic use of music as well. The game was a little loose on the theme side of things, but great job overall!

josearias 2015-08-25 03:17

Very good game. The graphics are very good and how is connected with the theme is original. Very fun.

JRedbeard 2015-08-25 03:22

I liked the different genres of music and thought the instrumental tracks were well done. Not much gameplay variety, but what was there felt well put together!

kakureta 2015-08-25 03:26

I enjoyed this one. It was difficult but fun. The music is great and the graphics are simple but good. The game makes an interesting connection with the theme but it's not really involved.

hippolyta 2015-08-25 03:28

Really like it
Remembers me on my Guitar Hero times
Great Job!

voider 2015-08-25 03:41

This is awesome!!
I had a really good time playing it. The graphics and the music are perfect, as well as the coordination. I think it's hard to innovate with this type of game, but the result you had is in a high level.
I will continue trying to increase my score.. Great job!

pnkthrepwood 2015-08-25 03:46

Cool pixelated guitar hero!
Tricky timing sometimes. Fun.

Shina69 2015-08-25 04:19

This surely is a keeper! I will try to dominate the third song some day, but it is so damn sick! I loved it! The rhythm, the hardcore songs, the animation... it really took the meaning of monster to another level \m/

zillix 2015-08-25 04:24

fun and polished! the music was great, and I loved the presentation. well done!

chabuduo 2015-08-25 04:29

Incredible work!
the difficulty progression is great, the content is great the final song is pure awesome.
And very cool take on the theme!

aflatminerstudios 2015-08-25 06:48

Great idea, nice implementation, good ramping up of the rhythms. I still can't coordinate playing any more than two instruments at a time, just like real life...

dickpoelen 2015-08-25 07:27

Smooth. Love the animations

los-pixelados 2015-08-25 08:28

Nice game.
You should have increased the difficulty more slowly, to give time to player to get used to the gameplay first.

Cheers,
Morco (of Los Pixelados team)

yakka 2015-08-25 08:39

Really too hard for me, but it's a really good work!

caspila 2015-08-25 08:41

huh, interesting take on the theme. wasn't expecting a monster in that sense.

Thought i was gonna play for 10 seconds but went all the way to the end. Really solid entry, amazing art, animation, particles. The sound was really in sync with game notes most of the time.

Good job!

vaida 2015-08-25 09:21

Great game! You put together a very nice rhythm game in only three days. The music works well, the feedback system is rewarding, I had a blast even though I was very bad at it. Interesting take on the theme. :p

leafthief 2015-08-25 11:13

SO MUCH FUN - thanks for making this. Really impressive!

gdquest 2015-08-25 11:48

Great job! With a qwerty keyboard, the controls feel a bit uncomfortable. But apart from that, the game both looks and feels good! <3

risingpixel 2015-08-25 12:10

Very cool! :)
The graphics and music are great. Sometimes the game lags a little, and that can be pretty annoying in a rythm game like this. But apart from that, good job!

kikaz 2015-08-25 12:13

Good job, addictive but a little exhausting, I can't feel my wrists anymore after just 5 minutes of playing ^^
I love your pixel art graphics so much too !

soulgame 2015-08-25 13:08

THEME : For those who don't see the Theme relation, it's because it's a bit later in the game! Those who reached that point understand it I think :)

Thanks a lot everyone for your very nice reviews, greatly appreciated here. Sorry for those struggling with the difficulty, it is hardcore indeed and could have benefit for a smoother difficulty curve (no time left to balance)...

m43c0 2015-08-25 13:25

Very nice take on the theme!!
Liked a a lot the pixelart too.
A bit tricky but I think it's part of the fun, isn't it? :)

quetzakol 2015-08-25 14:10

Nice entry ! It's really hard and bit repetitive sometimes but well done !

ultravisitor 2015-08-25 14:29

I am so bad at these sorts of games! This is really well put together and an entertaining use of the theme. I hope someone makes a video so I can see what its like to be able to do three things at once ;)

kerdelos 2015-08-25 15:23

Wow the graphics and the music are gorgeous. I love the way every riff loop until we succeed it and progress on to the next part of the song ! It allowed me to enjoy the songs even though I'm bad at drummer hero.

BearDroidGames 2015-08-25 15:34

Really cool one!! Music and graphism are really cool. Great work!

soulgame 2015-08-25 15:43

I'm so glad you liked our games guys, thanks for playing! For those who are stuck, if you wanna see the end, I just made a quick video: https://youtu.be/nXihe66Wbnc Enjoy ;)

superpatch 2015-08-25 16:24

I love the animations! The game reminded me Guitar Hero but i never expected playing the drums with the keyboard to be this fun! Really good job, need more songs now!

tau7153 2015-08-25 16:27

Nifty game, nice art and concept although I can't really see the theme. Still a good job, all-around.

01101101 2015-08-25 16:55

So good! :D
I love rythm games so obviously I enjoyed this.
Great work all around: the music is excellent, the animations are amazing and fun, really puts you in the mood to be a badass drummer!
Probably the most fun I had testing LD games for now :)

chrisfagan 2015-08-25 17:33

Really nice looking game! It was a lot of fun (even though I sucked at it). Great work!

ariake81 2015-08-25 17:34

Cool music game, nice animation, great interpretation of the brief

romaing 2015-08-25 18:09

Good game, nice anim !

bombjack 2015-08-25 18:27

amazing entry! I love this game! great job!

johnhackworth 2015-08-25 18:39

this is the game from this edition that I have spent more time playing

kpapageorge 2015-08-25 19:03

Amazing game
This you can play this game for a long time without getting bored.
The music as also amazing.

conormn 2015-08-25 19:05

The animation is really slick. Really well done overall!

tagliatl 2015-08-25 19:20

Awesome pixel art and music, but in the end I was so bad, the song is actually really hard to play, maybe a difficulty level would have been good for noobs like me :D

Anyway, this is great.

seconddimension 2015-08-25 19:32

Great game with fantastic graphics and animation. A little hard for me but very enjoyable.

code-medicine 2015-08-25 23:36

Wow this is incredible! Definitely my favorite in the jam thus far. Thanks for the youtube video, I was really bad at this. The game is soooo badass when you get to the metal parts.

daydalus 2015-08-26 03:52

Very impressive rock band drum game! However, I suck at these kind of things ;) But was fun to learn the song as it went along - interesting how you let the song continue until you master it. Overall, very nice work!

djfariel 2015-08-26 11:52

1st Thought:
"How am I the Monster?"

Pros:
I liked seeing a rhythm game thrown into the mix :D
Art/ Music were good

Cons:
Very loose fit for the theme
I feel like allowing players to set the 4 keys to their liking would have been a good option.

Overall:
I wish I could have played more, but the DFJK keys made it difficult to progress for me, lol.

headmade 2015-08-26 18:39

The WebGL build threw an error and refused to work (Chrome).
The windows build ran fine.

Really nice Art and music but I don't see the connection to the theme.
Other than that it was a fun rhythm game though it became to difficult for me rather quickly. The key bindings don't seem to be optimal.

headmade 2015-08-26 22:26

@SoulGame
Thanks a ton for your super detailed feedback on my game.

And also thanks for posting the youtube link. That third song. It's killer!
I played your game again to get to the song myself but just could not get past the second stage. I'm simply to clumsy. So I've listened to it on youtube a couple more times :) It's really great, a shame it's hidden behind a barrier some just will not get past.

That said it would be great if there was a noob mode, where you would progress even though you did not master a section (maybe after 3-5 failed attempts?).

The connection to the theme became apparent, too. I guess I should have read the description, then I would have got it right the first time around.

I did correct my ratings quite a bit, though I don't feel comfortable making my ratings public as you did. I think it's fairer if it's hidden as it might influence others. "What? He gave how many stars in innovation? Scandalous! Let me correct that." Something like this may or may not happen, I just prefer not to risk it.

And to answer your question on my game. Yes I did compose the music myself. Actually it's the first time I composed anything. Personally I hate that piece I made, so it really surprised me that you didn't :)

soulgame 2015-08-26 22:55

@HeadMade

Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and update your rating ^^. No worries, I usually don't mention the rating neither.

I wish we had the time to balance the song in Drumster, or add an easy mode like you suggested, it's a shame the difficulty ruins the experience for most players.

Regarding your music, it's quite impressive how well it fits the weirdness of the scene, for a first compo, well done!

dydx 2015-08-27 01:02

Really well executed! The drumming felt nice and the difficulty curve was perfect for anyone already familiar with guitar hero. Great length too - short and sweet.

jackrugile 2015-08-27 07:06

The music rules! Thanks for keeping it varied. I love the look of the whoosh of the drumstick also. Well done, you guys.

designernap 2015-08-27 09:29

Loved this. great work! Very good fun. I want to play them all again!

insality 2015-08-27 19:06

Awesome pixel art guitar hero! got 788/878 from first time
Love any music game, and your game is perfect one;D

qkerguelen 2015-08-27 19:09

Very great music! Andthe third song was god dawn hard! But I really liked it!

soulgame 2015-08-27 19:13

@Insality : Damn, that's a better score than my third try :D Congrats.

Thanks all again for the nice comment! Really glad you enjoyed it.

rougerogue 2015-08-27 19:21

One of the best games I've seen so far! Brought out my inner metalhead and rhythm gamer!

balticseamonster 2015-08-27 19:24

I loathe rhythm games, but cause I'm a drummer(drumster?), couldn't pass up trying out this one. Nice job on the graphics and animations!

leom 2015-08-27 19:24

I watch the video. :o
Guitar Hero easy mode is to hard for me ! ^^
Good realization here anyway ! (and it's nice to have make a video for those like me ;) )

scumbly 2015-08-27 19:26

Hits the spot! Well done

gamepopper 2015-08-27 19:30

Awesome music-rythem game! Would've been nice if there was gamepad support but I just about managed the keyboard.

Music and sprite animations were great, brilliant work!

ghostbomb 2015-08-27 19:30

Very cool rhythm game. Controls feel pretty awkward. Using two hand makes it especially hard to multitask though I guess that's supposed to add to the experience. Audio is superb and graphics are great as well.

ithildin 2015-08-27 19:35

Wow...the browser window is moving now @_@

You made an insane game, I love the progression in the styles and the way the difficulty ramps up. Of course, on a music game music is vital, and you nailed it, too.

One of the best entries I've seen so far, awesome job!

ghostbomb 2015-08-27 19:37

I forgot to say I loved how each key was linked to a different drum piece and the distinct rhythm style that brought different gameplay with the different genres.

maniulo 2015-08-27 19:42

Oh man, I love drumming games although I'm infinitely bad at them. Great art and music!

azokal 2015-08-27 19:44

Nice Game! Good sound, good mapping! Good job!

silentlamb 2015-08-27 20:12

I tried to beat this, but to me it's impossible. I'm wondering if the game would be easier if played with drums from guitar hero. Anyway, awesome entry!

sojabird 2015-08-27 20:14

Haha that was super hard but really fun.

Good job and pretty neat you can take your time to learn eat section since it loops :)

Sweet entry

cbstegeman 2015-08-27 20:22

Wow! Love how you picked this idea for the theme. I was terrible at it, beyond the first level. But it was really fun.

someone 2015-08-27 20:38

Great game. Makes me wish I had a rockband drum kit again. Playing on the keyboard was really hard in the last section.

leekanarchism 2015-08-27 20:46

Ahhhh my eyesss everything's warped 0_0

On the other hand, this is an excellent game! It felt really polished, and the rhythms I had to bust out on the keyboard were quite interesting. If only there was a way to stop my eyes going weird from staring at the moving dots >_<

orangeez 2015-08-27 21:16

If it wasn't for youtube video I would've never understood how does it even relate to the theme. Graphics/sounds are pretty nice though.

alexpgilbert 2015-08-27 21:32

Nice game!

klianc09 2015-08-27 21:37

Really awesome and well polished, only thing I would add are custom keybinds, as the default DFJK is VERY awkward and unpleasant for me...
Other than that: awesome job guys.

koneke 2015-08-27 22:06

Music was great, and the animations were amazing! I didn't find it all that hard, but I'm pretty used to rhythm games. I kept getting stuttering issues though where the screen and the music would freeze up for a moment, which made me drop the combo, so that was a bit annoying :/ Overall, nice twist on the theme, and congratulations on managing to create a pretty well polished rhythm game with so little time!

stending 2015-08-27 22:14

That's an awesome work, as always!
The feedbacks and the animations are great, that make the game so fun to play!
And the music is really cool, that's nice to see you try new game's style :)

spotco 2015-08-28 09:00

Fun, though they weren't kidding when they say hard. Felt like the songs were long, and not that much feedback when "messed up".

soulgame 2015-08-28 15:36

Thanks for you comments guys! A few answers:

@klianc09: Yes you're absolutely right. DF JK was a first try for the controls scheme. But it was too late when we wanted to change them (all the buttons should have been remade) :(

@Koneke: Sorry for the little lags, we couldn't find a way t fix it during the short time we had left... Which version were you playing? For me, the WebGL version is way more reliable than others (including windows)

@spotco: I'm not 100% satisfied with the feedback either. Especially the lack of feedback when you let pass a note without hitting any key.

mach60kas 2015-08-28 22:05

Short and sweet, apparently I did well even though it felt like I was having trouble keeping coordinated on the heavy metal level. It had a lot of character and I had fun watching my drummer embrace his inner darkness - Ludum Dare needs more metal and I'm glad you guys made it happen. :P

Great effort, well done!

hotboxgames 2015-08-28 23:51

Fun but also really hard! It probably doesn't help that my keyboard doesn't hit every key either :D Stopped at 1000/4200 but watched the vid and it looks good! Very polished & unique... great job!

metalchouchen 2015-08-29 02:00

I'm really too bad to go further than the second level. But the game is solid and have really nice pixel art :) Congrats!

digiman572 2015-08-29 04:11

Excellent--I mean-- Righteous game dudes!!! Close to the end I started to actually bounce back and forth in my chair as I banged my head! I gave you like all fives, peace out.

nomand 2015-08-29 05:39

Loved it. Nothing particularly new, but nice tunes, difficult rhythms and got me playing till the end. I got Drumbo on my first play! 866:757:109 was fund :D

GreyShock 2015-08-29 15:17

DRUMSTER!!! 744:722:22. That was fun and nicely executed.

onionblitz 2015-08-30 10:53

Man, that last part was really hard ahaha. Love the music. The pixel art was great also, though I couldn't look at it much since I was so focused in the rhythm part. :P Great job!

sunflower 2015-08-30 13:52

Not shown: other band members revealing their inner demons as well.

(also, after a few tries I managed to get 715/793 with a "Drumbo!" rank, and I didn't need to repeat any section!)

The yay:
- really cool music
- original take on rhythm games - repeat a section until you get it right enough
- good effects
- graphics/animation

The nay:
- I felt like it was a bit too intense at times, especially with those triple key presses
- could really use restart option
- ability to redefine keyboard keys would be very welcome
- had to use mouse to PLAY/AGAIN in otherwise entirely keyboard-controlled game (plus in that kind of game you want to have your fingers prepared)
- just after launching, pressing DFJK gives me bad notes

One of my favourite entries overall! :3

inbetweengames 2015-08-30 16:09

Haha! Love your approach to the theme :)
Outstanding audio and amazing pixel art! (especially animations and special effects were spot on).

I would suggest moving the "progress bar" somewhere else (i.e. bottom right corner). It's red circular thing (bottom of the thermometer-bar) close to red circular thing ('D' notes). I found myself confused at times (especially in the last level)...

Great entry! :)

sunflower 2015-08-30 20:45

Aaaalright, played a bit more, even reached DRUMSTER! rank with 744/726/18 notes after quite a few attempts (and even managed to perfect second level several times; I perfect the first level on regular basis). Once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite captivating, inducing "one more time" syndrome. :3

Also, one thing I've noticed is a bit of lagging, probably caused by soundtrack decompression (you probably use MP3 or other compressed format for tracks, don't you?) as it happened between different sections. I'd probably load the relevant and the next part directly into memory, as plain samples sequence (I used that trick in a WIP looping soundtrack player of mine, so that loops would be really seamless), or include WAVs if there wasn't easy way to do that.

Also, there isn't any rank beyond DRUMSTER!, is there?

soulgame 2015-08-31 00:50

Many thanks for the double feedback.

I entirely agree with all the nay you mentioned. Mostly lack of time...
It's very cool that, as a rhythm game player, you enjoyed the game. Congrats for reaching the Drumster VIP club! Not many of us around :D

Your insight on the lag was super helpful. I did notice that when I played "Again" after succeeding, the game didn't lag anymore. I just tested and checked all boxes "Load in Backgrounds" for mp3 and now it does seems better on transitions but still some "random" lags :/ Will work more on that. Thanks!

Rest assured, "Drumster" is the best rank. That said, you can still try to beat my personal best which is 8 bad notes ^^

steboots 2015-09-01 02:05

1012 good notes! Guitar hero started kicking in near the end, and then it got nuts. Was a really tight game, I enjoyed the theme and the transition. Nice take on it!

sunflower 2015-09-01 17:20

http://youtu.be/GfIfjItk6PM

In hindsight, one additional rank for one particular score wouldn't hurt. ^^"

disperse 2015-09-01 19:05

Awesome, great job!

soulgame 2015-09-01 21:14

Thanks guys!

@Sunflower : I bow before you, great Drumster!

colmiyveul 2015-09-01 22:21

I'm a big fan of rhythm games, so you had me pretty easily :D 765/822 on my first play, I may play a whole lot more util I get a perfect score. Congrats !

soulgame 2015-09-01 23:49

@ColmiYeul: Cool! Good luck with your perfect :)

radmars 2015-09-03 04:31

Awesome! I love seeing rhythm games in LD, and the music is solid. Pretty tough but I managed to get 720/741. Keyboard is a bit awkward for controlling rhythm games like this but I suppose it's tough to support much else under these circumstances. Could use a smoother difficulty curve but otherwise this is great. Nice work! FYI I got this error trying the webGL version: http://pastebin.com/mryFpp7t on both firefox & chrome, but the unity player one worked.

jupiter_hadley 2015-09-05 15:29

Challenging, lovely game. I included it in part 16 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/aXZw1Jpw2JA

devark 2015-09-07 12:48

Really well polished game. Looks, sounds and feels great. Especially loved the animations of the drummers. Good job on syncing it all.

MattHartley 2015-09-07 19:17

Loved it!

ddrkirbyisq 2015-09-07 22:45

Haha, it was fun! I suffered from a bit of intermittent skips and choppiness but I'm sure that wasn't your guys' fault. Things were getting kind of fun near the end there! :)

draft 2015-09-09 08:24

Really cool. Nice jobs.

vladirien 2015-09-13 12:53

Nice graphics and music. Too bad I suck at this kind of game to fully enjoy it :(

fanatrick 2015-09-13 13:14

I kinda miss the point of the theme in this game. It's just another rhythm game. Overall well rated but I had to go low on the theme part, I didn't get to the 3rd song but I watched the video and I guess it was very cheap.

crucknuk 2015-09-13 13:48

Well done! it is really really hard, i couldn't get my hand on it properly, but i enjoyed it very much!
i felt like a monster of rock that's for sur!
good job!

erkberg 2015-09-13 15:02

I really suck at rhythm games, so I did not play it for too long, but it was fun nonetheless. I watched the walkthrough video to see how the game progresses and stage 3 looks totally badass. :)
Cool music, decent gameplay and nicely animated, good job overall!

chromebookbob 2015-09-13 16:46

Great music, very challenging gameplay, good rhythm

pixzleone 2015-09-13 17:05

Really cool.
Even as someone who plays the drums this was very difficult.
It has to be said tho, I'm preeeettyyy bad at rithem games. :)
Good job!

egor-idiot 2015-09-14 07:26

Crazy game %)

adrenalinechallenger 2015-09-14 18:23

Too style ! I smile playing this game.

fanatrick 2015-09-14 19:54

For my previous comment I don't want you to take it the wrong way, I rate this game high 4s and 5s across almost every aspect, I just realized with the positive feedback you got you would actually benefit more if I pointed out what I thought was negative.

To clarify, the game is focused on rhythm, which I find lackluster in this sort of theme. I said it was cheap because only the last level has anything to do with being a monster, sure you could say it was the drummers adventure of becoming one but I just think it was lackluster and some other setting would easily net this 5s :)