Songwriter's Block

wheybags 2020-10-05 21:33

Music and SFX are great, of course. I've played a bunch of breakout clones before but I've never seen one where the ball can spin :D

The main problem to me was that sometimes the ball loses its momentum and then it will move very slowly. There's two ways I can see that this could be solved:

1: Don't use a physics engine. Just use collisions, and do your own movement code that just pushes the item in a direction at a constant speed.

2: Keep using physics, but detect when the brain's velocity is under some threshold, and give it a boost.

samuel-hollywood-summers 2020-10-06 15:35

Thanks, @wheybags I agree! This is my first game as the sole developer, and so I didn't solve all of the problems I ran into (limited time and lack of experience). I quite enjoy the chaos of the ball, but the slow speeds are frustrating, true. I thought about adding an additional mechanic for the player to inject some more momentum into the ball in these moments, but having a failsafe coded in might also work (and more simply, in terms of gameplay). Thanks for taking the time to play and to provide feedback. :)

dan-flockhart 2020-10-06 17:13

Similar to the previous comment the SFX and music worked well. I like the idea of a "Creative block" and is something I definitely faced in the making of my ludum are entry. I also agree with the previous comment about velocity etc.

Perhaps it would be nice to see a little more variation on the breakout theme but overall its a good start!

samuel-hollywood-summers 2020-10-06 17:30

Thanks @dan-flockhart I would have loved to have added more gameplay mechanics and variation, but in the end I scoped down to make sure I would have a working build. Lots of lessons learned for my next solo jam!

noah-kuhn 2020-10-06 21:27

Hey, this was a pretty neat spin on breakout! I agree that the brain loses momentum a bit too quickly, but that's just something to learn from-- and game jams are all about learning. Good job! :smile:

error-ff 2020-10-06 21:30

Yeah my brain stuck on a procrastionation wall. As usual. Even in a game. I like the color palette. Art and music grant a pleasant mood. Feels nice!

samuel-hollywood-summers 2020-10-07 10:20

Thanks @noah-kuhn it was a great learning opportunity for sure.

Thanks for the kind words, @error-ff Whatever you're putting off, you'll get it done when the time is right ;)

nocity 2020-10-07 12:34

Love the music and the satisfying sound of my squishy brain hitting multiple blocks in rhythmic succession. This got to be the most atmospheric version of Breakout I played so far :thumbsup:

rmonthil 2020-10-07 13:32

As the others comments, I realy liked music and sounds. Also it very very very VERY pleasant to break these blocks because of what they represent, and as creators, I think we all have faced them (especially procrastination) :smile: The gameplay could be more interesting, adding some more mechanics to the classic breakout and of course there is this problem of ball (I mean brain) losing momentum but especially if it is your first time as sole developer, nice job. :thumbsup:

codeforjoycaro 2020-10-07 13:32

Nice little game, but I had the feeling the music and pace was a bit too relaxing. However, its a proper first solo LD entry :)

nablaz 2020-10-07 13:41

I have always been a breakout fan, so I obviously enjoyed this game! Plus, as a musician/composer/producer, I can totally relate to the mood and feelings you portrayed. As for the mechanics, I think you sould limit the lateral angle at which your brain-ball can travel, as well as the momentum shifts: it can be frustrating to observe your ball travel super-slowly in an almost horizontal direction without having any chance to do anything about it... Also, be careful when mixing/mastering for games, as some of the sounds were pretty loud and kind of overshadowed the others. But overall, good job with the game!

untitled-studios 2020-10-07 18:44

More of a musician/artist than programmer I see, haha! Nonetheless, it always makes me happy to see someone make something great with what they've got, and I especially love to see the metaphor in mechanics. The sound and art were great, and I'm excited to see what you'll make in coming jams!

keyurrana 2020-10-07 18:53

Fun game. But the ball speed was very random. Sometimes it was too fast to catch it (really annoying when that happened in the beginning) and sometimes it gets too slow. It would be really cool if breaking the anxiety blocks played some kind of a melody instead of a scale.

guimoliveira 2020-10-07 19:26

Nice game, but the ball stopped :(

samuel-hollywood-summers 2020-10-07 21:01

@nocity Thanks for the kind words. Atmospheric is an adjective I can get behind! @rmonthil Glad to provide some catharsis where it is needed! I'll probably keep tweaking the project once the rating period ends to learn more and improve the variety of gameplay, not to mention fixing the slow brain issue (another metaphor, though, perhaps?) @untitled-studios You hit the nail on the head there! Thanks for your kind words. @keyurrana I thought about choosing a sequence of notes to form melodies, or a random note of a scale, but chose the ascending scale for a feeling of forward motion or upward progress. Definitely something to toy with in future. @guimoliveira Recurring theme! Definitely the first bug to fix...

bitdecay 2020-10-08 03:22

Cool entry with a good atmosphere! I overcame my creative blocks (I see what you did there). The "ball" having a rectangular collider made for some very strange situations, some good, some bad. At one point I had the ball allllllmost stop and had to wait about 30 seconds for it to get to the guitar so I could hit it again.

I like the little touches (like the sfx when the guitar gets to the edges).

guaranteedtrainwreck 2020-10-08 15:22

Hey @samuel-hollywood-summers !

Very nice job for a first time !

I read some of your responses to comments and it seems like you understood right away the need to scope down which is in my opinion one of the hardest things when starting out ! So I would say you're head is in the right direction !

One thing I like about this is how by wanting to mirror a breakout type game you ended up trying out ways to do it with the physics engine and landed with a spinning ball ! I am a ferm believer in this type of hands-on technique, as it often creates unexpected results that make your game unique !

Keep up the good work !

Feel free to check out and give me your opinions on my entry, feedback is always welcome

Cheers

Damien

Ps: by the way if this is your real name, I would say you are definitely destined to do great things !

lumue 2020-10-08 15:48

The odd shape of your brain lets it bounce off things in unpredictable angles und rotations, which due to the uncontrollability and unpredictability makes it unsatisfyingly harder. Also the brain at times loses speed and becomes VERY slow (first run, I had to restart the game, because it was so slow, i couldn't see it move anymore at all).

Would be a fun feature, if the soundtrack would grow, enhance and develop in between the levels to show the musical writing progress ;-)

I liked the colourful fonts!

abregado 2020-10-08 16:40

nice first entry! I had a moment of self doubt on the self doubt level as the brain went slower and slower until, after missing the final brick by mere pixels, stopped moving completely. The game has taught me something today.

samuel-hollywood-summers 2020-10-08 17:54

@lumue Your 'fun feature' suggestion was my exact plan for the game! I actually set up the adaptive music system in FMOD, but my lack of experience on the game development/coding/engine side of things meant that other features took more of the limited time and I never got the updated variables sent to FMOD from the game engine. In the end, my adaptive score got stuck in the first 8 bars, and this feature was sacrificed to the gods of down-scoping.

The full track can be heard here https://soundcloud.com/samuelhollywoodsummers/songwriters-block-ld47-game-soundtrack

I do plan on fixing the slow brain issue, implementing the adaptive music properly and adding some variety to the gameplay in levels 2 and 3, but I want to wait until after the rating period of the jam.

@abregado What a poetic experience. Sometimes it pays to ship the bug as a feature...

gonzalol 2020-10-09 12:36

It's a beautiful metaphor

ms-annotation-x 2020-10-10 21:10

Acceptable entry! It made me feel dizzy.

What I liked? - Nice music. - The visuals look fine.

What I disliked? - I can't restart the game by pressing "R". - I didn't enjoy playing.

Bugs: - The ball slows down. - The guitar has a buggy collision with the walls. - The ball keeps rotating on its place. - Only restart the game if it goes all the way down.

Suggestions - Maybe, animate "Press Start to continue". - Make the ability to restart the game by pressing "R".

bocchi-dev 2020-10-13 08:23

I found this game kind of okay. The brain was the main problem for me because at the start of the level it's so fast that I'm caught off guard and sometimes had trouble catching it but when I do catch it it loses so much momentum that it becomes a drag to watch the brain slowly go around the screen and wait for it to get low enough for me to hit it again. I would also like for a way to restart the level, as sometimes the brain is so slow I'd rather restart than wait for it to come back. What I did enjoy was the music and sound effects. It gave a nice sort of arcade feel for me.