Chord Run

wildcard 2018-04-24 08:32

Nice idea. I noticed that moving place while jumping doesn't play any sound (perhaps jumping could play a different sound?). The spawn point when respawning is also a bit too close to the obstacles when you respawn. I would also want more of a top down view to give a clearer view of the level itself, but that's just my opinion.

On the more positive side it felt like I was playing piano the whole way through. The ability to change to the lane you want instantly instead of having to press left two times to get two steps to the left is brilliant and with more lanes you could make the player play complicated music pieces (hard mode maybe? :D). It was fun to play to the end!

saturn007 2018-04-26 00:34

It was meant for jumping to be a rest, because I needed a platform element and I figured I'd put rests in the game somehow. Some ideas I had for it is playing two different notes played at once for the left hand and right hand and a level set for the minor keys. I do play a bit of piano myself so that's where the inspiration of the game comes from. I do really like the top down idea, though. Thanks for the positive feedback @wildcard!

nicksmaddog 2018-04-26 01:00

I like how you just fall of the end after you win haha. I enjoyed the concept, and the control scheme. I do agree that it needs to give you more space after a respawn, as it would get kind of stuck in a loop of colliding and respawning until you can get the timing of the first note.

Overall, good job!

aplite 2018-04-26 01:15

Good job on the difficulty curve as I think it was set to a good pace.

Echoing what was previously said, when you reset there is very little time to react. A slight pause to give the player more time to orient themselves would help.

themonsterfromthedeep 2018-04-26 01:55

I liked this, although I'm a sucker for any game that lets you play music. :slight_smile:

It feels a little slow in the beginning, but is certainly fast enough by the end. The only complaint I have is that, especially in the beginning, it's really hard to jump over the platforms -- it's really easy to land on them.

I think this game would be especially neat with background music that complemented the player -- although I suppose that might be difficult, as the player's timing is not as exact as in pure music-playing games.

saturn007 2018-04-26 23:55

Yeah I agree with you. I was thinking of maybe adding a beat in the background. I do agree about the resetting, respawning problem, but I was strapped for time and I'd have to redesign the level as the checkpoint to get you to the level you were on would just slide you over to the next key without being on the right level. @TheMonsterFromTheDeep

p-r 2018-04-28 15:06

I can see this being used as a piano teaching tool or even some guitar hero like game, very nice

krasse 2018-04-28 20:30

I agree with some of the comments above that it should have included some background beat or something. It would have been cool to actually use real voice lines from a song as well and the player completes the voice leading, such as the melody or bass.

ddolgov 2018-04-28 20:34

completed) rBH8mbo4SZGzj81slN2K2Q.png want more levels:smile: Nice work, man, thumb up!

tsjost 2018-04-29 01:11

Interesting concept, guitar hero with platforming! Nice touch having level names with notes. The gameplay is a tad slow and having the same distance between the things makes it a bit repetetive and non-dynamic.

It's unfortunate that you're not actual playing any melody, just random notes, it would improve the feel dramatically. Instead of referring to the description being a requirement it would be nice to have the controls presented in-game, e.g. maybe having the numbers 1 through 4 laid out on the tracks, and up arrow on the side of the short blocks, inside keycaps icons.

saturn007 2018-04-29 03:30

@tsjost Thanks for the constructive criticism! Having the controls integrated in the game is a great idea! I made sure the notes were actually part of a major chord. All of the notes in the first level are from the C Major chord (Middle C, E, G, and High C). They could probably make a better melody though.

yellowlime 2018-04-30 11:26

Interesting and good execution on the gameplay. A couple gripes: The 4th note on some levels gives an unpleasant spike in my audio. The other problem is that I feel the jump is a bit too tight, especially at the slow speeds of the first levels. It was a great choice to allow immediate respawns and seamless checkpoints, the 1-4 keys are a simple and comfortable control scheme, and it's very peaceful to play the piano while avoiding obstacles. Great job :ok_hand:

saturn007 2018-05-01 01:02

@yellowlime I noticed the spike too. It was probably because I was using a MacBook Pro default microphone for that. I probably could have leveled it out more in audacity.

nilstastic 2018-05-06 15:47

Nice little game, I especially liked that it got harder after a while, the difficulty level was well balanced. Good job!

quadtree 2018-05-10 04:11

Nice job! I especially liked the difficulty scaling, it started out seeming pretty simplistic, but moved into a frenetic pace pretty smoothly. I did find it a little odd that there weren't any chords, though.

zombie-virals 2018-05-11 01:12

I enjoyed it, I had an idea somewhat similar awhile back but 2d platform style instead, you did a really good job and as a musician I really enjoyed "running" through the scales, lol, get it!!? Gawd, that was a terrible pun. :)

joshyoshkenoshi 2018-05-11 23:10

I enjoyed playing this, and I must confess that it's one of only a few games from this jam that I've actually completed! I must say, though, that although the gradual speed increase is clearly meant to make the game harder, I actually found it kind-of helped, especially with the jumps - I really struggled with that first jump, as I was running so slowly that I had to time it perfectly, yet for the subsequent jumps I was moving fast enough to clear them quite easily.

paveldlouhy 2018-05-12 15:57

Simple and nice game. I managed to finish it! :-)