FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → Keep The Beat Alive!

Keep The Beat Alive!

By willops

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall334.1498
Fun74.3198
Innovation1223.9198
Theme3233.8798
Graphics4403.5698
Audio24.4798

Comments

electric-blue 2020-04-20 03:28

I really enjoyed playing the game. It was very fun! Attacking with the beat to keep it alive is a clever use of the theme.

jetthesimon 2020-04-20 03:32

Had a really great time! Very good animations and super satisfying to shoot and move around to the beat! Great job man!

Only thing I would add is more particles and pretty stuff but you did a great job.

alex-chrome 2020-04-20 03:38

It was hard for me to feel the moment when you can fire, but its a very fun game! Great music!

splendiddog 2020-04-20 05:35

This game was very enjoyable! I love feeling you get when you time attacks to the beat perfectly, and overall the gameplay AND music was stunning!

courtmac 2020-04-20 15:18

Like Alex said, sometimes it was hard to get a feel for the moment of attack. But I had an absolute blast and the concept is very well executed!

willops 2020-04-20 16:38

@courtmac Ah yeah, I wish I made the pacemaker a bit better! It would have been an easy thing to implement and I'm kicking myself for not doing it, hope finding that attack time didn't disrupt gameplay too much!

willops 2020-04-20 18:29

Ahhhh! @courtmac @alex-chrome I figured out why you guys were having trouble firing! I accidentally forgot to make the game apply the difficulty to the shooting, so the shooting is permanently on normal. I updated the game's page with that bugfix. If you'd like you can give it a try again and see if you have a better time. Thanks for letting me know about this issue though!

courtmac 2020-04-20 18:43

@willops awesomesauce! I'll give it another go when I can :)

boltzmannsbud 2020-04-21 00:58

That was really fun! It took a minute to work out how the game works but once I got the hang of it I was really keeping the beat alive :)

bernard-bumblebutt 2020-04-21 01:04

Liked the game, the flashing was a bit too much though.

keanutah 2020-04-21 01:21

Had a great time with this, once I realized I had to use the mouse to aim. Really nice concept! Sorta like a twin-stick shooter version of Crypt of the Necrodancer. Great music!

nekoruma 2020-04-21 01:26

good music and great idea!!If I put a downside it is that in the menu the texts were not in the box .

willops 2020-04-21 01:29

@nekoruma You can fix that by making sure the game is fullscreen, probably

kirbloid 2020-04-21 01:29

The gameplay and music sync really well in this pretty creative take on keeping the beat alive. When the moving and shooting clicked in my head the gameplay really came together.

ukumeme 2020-04-21 01:52

As an avid Crypt of the Necrodancer fan, I loved this. Wish it had slightly better graphics though

willops 2020-04-21 01:54

@ukumeme Haha yeah, I love Crypt! I did fumble a little on the graphics but I hope that didn't detract from the gameplay experience

welliton 2020-04-21 01:55

bea.PNG

Not the greatest score, but I had a great fun playing your game! Awesome musics! Congratulations!

willops 2020-04-21 01:58

@welliton Thanks! glad you enjoyed it!

fallingflatstudios 2020-04-21 01:59

This is a really cool take on the theme, though the UI on the web version is off when it's not in fullscreen, overall it's a very enjoyable experience.

daichifob 2020-04-21 02:40

wow this is really creative and fun! It was a bit hard to figure out what was going on at first but after a while it becomes clear.

kr4sh3 2020-04-21 03:21

By far one of the most fun games in the jam! Great Job!

shaolin-dave 2020-04-21 03:22

Definitely a contender for "most innovative"

At first I thought I was suppose to be clicking the button at the bottom, so I didn't understand the movement mechanics. I found them out at the start of the second level, and had even more fun.

Might come back to this one later.

takayamushi 2020-04-21 03:23

Cool stuff pal! We also did a rhythm game hehe! Keep the beat alive!

bonyok77 2020-04-21 14:33

I usually don't like rhythm game, but this one really got me hooked man... I really like the concept of this one!

dugas 2020-04-21 14:46

I'm a big sucker for rhythm games, and even using my garbage mouse that only registered the right clicks half of the time this was really really fun! The only bug I found was in the main menu, where the text was really off the screen for some reason, maybe because I'm using a 1366x768 monitor. I think the game could use a better progression system though, after a while it gets old to use the same flawless tactic of "kiting" the enemies. More variations on how they shoot and get shot would really help keep the player's interest. Like an enemy that fires a giant laser to the player's direction every 4 beats or something. Spectacular music, simple and fun art, great gameplay.

willops 2020-04-21 16:00

@dugas Glad you liked it! I do agree that there's a lot of room for cool enemy design. Sometimes the game can get a little boring on the easy difficulty too once you've mastered it. I'll definitely have to think more about how I want to make the enemies if I expand this into a full title. Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!

almighty-games 2020-04-22 03:50

This game is very creative and fun. The graphics are somewhat minimalistic, but that's ok, because the game focuses on beat matching and the music. The music is also awesome by the way. Congrats on submitting a really good game into the jam. Best of luck!

likai 2020-04-22 18:16

Really awesome game! Theme is on point, audio is great, and gameplay is overall very satisfying. No issues to report other than just the UI scaling, which was non-issue during gameplay. Awesome work!

willops 2020-04-22 18:33

@likai Thanks so much! glad you liked it!

akusan 2020-04-22 21:13

I really love this game. I had a blast and it was fun. The beat movement and attack didn't limit the game at all which was pretty impressive. The minimal art was crips and the music was engaging. Thanks for making an awesome game!

crazyhomeboys 2020-04-23 06:20

Damn, I've had a lot of fun playing it. Very very cool, the music, the character design, the art itself, everything fits together perfectly and is very entertaining. My congrats fella! Very good work.

e27a2acb682151a8c6b25e183914114e.png

willops 2020-04-23 06:27

@crazyhomeboys Awesome! thanks for the kind words!

natethegreat 2020-04-23 07:28

I don't normally like rhythm games but this one was really fun and although I can't place it, brought something I enjoy to a genre I generally avoid! Nice job! (It probably would be a copyright issue but the song Staying Alive and corresponding scene from The Office definitely come to mind here)

manimal 2020-04-23 07:35

very well done my friend. The mechanic is properly executed especialy with the early levels where the music is slow. When music is faster the point ot the core mechanic is fading.

echo-team 2020-04-23 07:48

Very nice. I like how skipping a beat doesn't break your combo, lot of rhythm games are all about the BPM.

misterkeefe 2020-04-23 07:53

Fantastic entry. I really enjoyed little graphical touches like the ghosting. I wasn't sure if bumping into enemies hurt me or them more? Really nice use of rhythm, it was a very fresh take on the rhythm game. I fell into a kind of move-shoot, move-move-shoot pattern after a while. Nice balance with moving restoring more health than shooting (but also throwing off your aim...)

dextreon 2020-04-23 07:56

This game is awesome! I really loved how you can actually chain the beat! I loved the visuals and the movement, really well executed, congrats! :ok_hand:

willops 2020-04-23 08:20

@natethegreat @manimal @misterkeefe @dextreon Wow, thanks for the feedback you guys! I hope to make this into a full mobile game at some point so it's very helpful

thedoctoroftime 2020-04-23 08:28

Really fun and I love the sounds just amazing, the art is simple and cute so I stan it. thanks yo

magzh 2020-04-23 08:28

Fantastic game and the controls felt very natural throughout all levels and music rhythms. Haven't played on hard, as I am not great at rhythm games, but on normal difficulty last song allowed you to just spam commands, as whatever health you lost due to incorrect input was easily negated by increase in health after randomly getting in the rhythm. Maybe the penalty for getting the wrong input could block further input for a short period of time.

test.jpg

invader 2020-04-23 08:42

Wow! It is simply the best game I've played so far in this jam. It is fun and engaging. Really simple core mechanics, but still you can build some interesting rhythm-based strategies on how to move and shoot. On some levels I've developed a basic beat of [step-step-shot-shot, step-step-shot-shot-shot].

BTW, first time I've played on Mac. So, except for a couple of random shots, I didn't figure out how to destroy the enemies and managed to pass the whole game in a non-violent mode without a single kill! Then I've moved to my Linux machine and get the crap out of these beat moving bastards! ))) Screen Shot 2020-04-23 at 11.24.44 AM.png Screen Shot 2020-04-23 at 11.32.10 AM.png

willops 2020-04-23 08:51

@invader @thedoctoroftime @magzh Thanks for the plays you guys! glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback!

carlix 2020-04-23 09:10

I love it.

Web version didn't show the rythm bar for me, so I had to download it. The art is super clean and beautiful and the music is simply amazing. Went through the trhee levels, each of them was reasonably harder than the previous one, progression felt smooth.

Congrats for the game!

fazy 2020-04-23 16:58

This game rocks! I went through all 3 levels and I loved it. Pretty intense stuff. What I think could make it even better would be a small "hit/miss" text popping up to give more info to the player. It could also convey information on how accurate the hit was.

Keep it up, awesome stuff!

gama-11 2020-04-23 22:23

This reminded me quite a bit of some early rhythm-based Flash games such as Streamline or Music in Motion. A lot of fun!

neontropics 2020-04-23 23:07

This was really fun! Clever mix of shmup and rhythm means you have to think about the positioning a fair bit which is really fun.

When you miss a beat it's very hard to recover and I usually just spiral to death pretty quickly, it could maybe be a bit more lenient there.

willops 2020-04-24 00:36

@fazy Yeah! I totally want to implement something like that. Unfortunately I think it's too major of a change to be implemented post-jam, but definitely if I made this a full title

@gama-11 Thanks! I love old flash games, so many good memories...

@neontropics Thanks! I'm thinking of implementing something that Crypt of The Necrodancer does, where instead of instantly doxxing you when you get off beat, it has a small grace period where the game gives you a chance to get more on beat, then if you still don't recover it makes you start missing beats

masterpose 2020-04-24 02:41

It seems today I'm founding masterpieces, this game is entertaining and extremely hypnotizing. Make a full game out of this, you have a really great idea, and take in mind that I suck at music and rythm ss.png

adamcyounis 2020-04-24 03:32

Wow, this was so fun! Like, really. This game was so well balanced and just a joy to play, it had me grooving the whole time. I played it through twice (would have been three if i didn't have to move on). I thought the player mechanics and enemy designs were really inventive and well-suited to the core beat matching system. The music was excellent and overall, outside of a couple of UI issues with the menu and so-so background graphics/ colour scheme, it was really difficult for me to find much to dislike about this game. It's almost perfect. Thanks so much for submitting it!

lorwon 2020-04-24 20:06

Yeah I won !! The game is very fun and the music is great too. It will be very nice to have more than three songs. I love the gameplay of the game good job !

emmatw 2020-04-24 20:54

Very nice game! It was nice to see some different types of enemies, they added a lot of depth to the gameplay!

viet-toan-le 2020-04-24 21:12

Great game, simple but so fun ! Maybe it would be better if the sound of the kick drum used in the track and the one used when the square moves are not the same : when there is a misclick, I'd rather like wasting the music with an unfamiliar sound than wasting it with the same instrument. No matter, given that it's a game in which music is the main character, it's very cool !

yxmx-rsx 2020-04-24 21:31

The music got me grooving. I thought it would only be one song, but no here's a couple more to get you going! The pacing was fair and the overall game was nicely balanced. Even though there is no big power up the game knows how to keep you busy with enemy variations and the different beats. You get so into it that before you know it you already finished the game. That's one of my favorite entries. Thank you that was fun!

inacho 2020-04-25 01:10

Stunning! Probably the most fun I had playing and rating a LD game, so far.

willops 2020-04-25 01:33

@inacho Awesome, thank you so much!

cosmiccrystalgames 2020-04-25 12:31

This was a delightful game! Very good use of the theme. Incredibly fun and original gameplay, that is iterated on very cleverly through the use of new enemy designs and something as simple as increasing the tempo of the song. The accompanying audio design was fantastic considering the scope. With some flashier graphics and more content I could see this being a successful commercial title :D

ursagames 2020-04-26 20:42

Hello! Your game was played during my stream!

If you want to know the timestamp of when your game was played you can see it in this spreadsheet: https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn

And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends) https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos

willops 2020-04-26 20:48

@ursagames Awesome, thanks! I hope you liked it

nathan-wiles 2020-04-26 21:02

Such a cool idea. Saw your game played on @ursagames stream and had to try it myself. It's a great challenge and so satisfying once you get in the groove. The music sounds very good too. Awesome job on getting so much done in the compo!

kayahr 2020-04-26 21:38

Enjoyed playing the game. Great idea, great sound and nice graphics. But to be honest I had more success by clicking as fast as possible than trying to follow the beat. :)

geckoo1337 2020-04-26 21:39

Simple gameplay - addictive. Really good concept and great music. I had fun playing even I am not a big fan of this genre. Also movements are really smooth. A big amount of work on the tracks - we need more. Well done. I leave you 'cause I want to increase my score right now ++

frogravity 2020-04-26 21:45

Really nice game! It was very fun. I liked practically everything about it. A level indicator and more feedback when missing the beat would be nice, but other than that, great game!

jojopalambas 2020-04-26 21:47

Incredible game! I liked everything in it, and I loved how those animations made every action very satisfying!

blay09 2020-04-27 19:22

Audio was fitting the rhythm game aspects nicely. Only things that struck me are the lack of damage indicators on enemies with higher HP and maybe an indicator showing something like "too slow" or "too fast" to help me regulate the clicking speed. Good job!

ytaha 2020-04-29 13:32

Absolutely amazing game. I was hooked, finished both normal and hard mode. And musics really fits the game. The armored green enemies were hard but so satisfying to kill, great design. 10/10

jordgubben 2020-05-04 07:25

Adding rythm to anything is one of those underused mechanics. This kept me gonig for quite a while and it might be one of these games I come back to after the jam.

jordgubben 2020-05-04 07:29

Almost forgot: Your itch-page does not have a link back to this page, so I had to backwards engineer my self to his page via your handle to actually give you a rating. You seem to have a lot of ratings, so perhaps this is might not be a problem. Just thought I'd point it out in case you missed it.

thecrancher 2020-05-05 03:50

Hey there! This game was fun! The rhythm aspect of the game basically mesmerized me while I played. Once it clicks in your head it becomes addicting. Also the music was awesome! I feel like its going to be difficult to think of ways to make this game even better but I'm going to try!

-I think you could had different styles of shooting possibly. Maybe some sort of spread-shot or maybe even something that shoots 2 bullets one after another instead of one, or maybe a bullet that can pierce enemies.

-I think you could have more enemies -Bigger enemy -Has more hp(maybe 5 or 6?) than the rest of your enemies -Moves slower than the rest -Wall Enemy -Has 4 walls surrounding it, each wall could have maybe 2 health, and hitting the guy inside once kills it. -It rotates every beat making it harder for the player to get to the middle

-Pushing guy -His job is to push the player around, making it harder to navigate -Don't damage player when touching -Only one on the screen at once

-Wall Enemy -Basically an enemy that is a wall with a weak point on one side of it. -Possibly upgrades for the player between levels. Could be able to collect some type of currency and spend it on things like "Health", "Health Regain", "Damage", maybe the player could buy a shield you could start with and it could have 1 hit, but more if you upgrade it.

Well this was a really fun play. I really enjoyed it and I think you did really well! Good Work!!!

-Cranch