4farandbeyond 2026-04-21 02:40
Interesting concept, but it feels half baked. A ton of style, but little substance. Once you unlock the D key, the game kinda plays itself.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → AGENTS RHYTHM & RAID
By nadia-pixel and half-animal-half-beast
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 555 | 3.40 | 95 | |
| Fun | 545 | 3.21 | 95 | |
| Innovation | 619 | 3.03 | 92 | |
| Theme | 754 | 2.78 | 94 | |
| Graphics | 279 | 4.02 | 96 | |
| Audio | 308 | 3.57 | 94 | |
| Humor | 419 | 2.77 | 81 | |
| Mood | 455 | 3.58 | 88 |
Interesting concept, but it feels half baked. A ton of style, but little substance. Once you unlock the D key, the game kinda plays itself.
Art and music were super solid. Well done
Art and music were super solid. Well done. Err sorry Idk how I double posted
The animations are so natural! The pixel-style characters are beautifully designed! The game movements are also smooth and comfortable! But why is only half the screen visible? I can’t see the whole interface. Also, it gets stuck after defeating monsters and can’t quickly move on to the next level!
The colors and character expressions make the whole game feel lively and memorable. Really cute and appealing!
Really cute!I love it❤️❤️❤️❤️
Smooth and joyful
Love the animation!
THIS IS AWESOME i love the dash and shoot abilities also the pixel art is rly cute
nice, but the decoding sequance doesn't feel like it reacts to me?
6 seasons and a movie, please
well done
At first I was like what does this have to do with rhythm, then after the first couple of waves it all came together. I like the growth in abilities, and how you get them. Pretty cool mashup of ideas in this game. I like the art too. Very Y2K style. Got to say the S slash ability is hard to land a satisfying hit with. A very ambitious jam entry, good work!
I finally got to dance my life!
Animations and gameplay are awesome! One of my favorites so far
@4farandbeyond Yeah, you caught a real bug there! The D key cooldown was broken. Fixed now, thanks for pointing it out.
Appreciate the note on substance too. We're pushing the mechanics further next time.
@derek-glennon Haha thanks, appreciate it! And no worries, This site has its own mysterious ways
Nice game! The S mechanic is a bit sloppy, but the game starts to be entertaining after unlocking the dash. The art style is quite impressing and the mood is definitely unique!
@chusui77
Thank you, really glad you liked the animations and feel!
Yeah, there were issues with the HUD, partly because the game was running with two cameras at the same time. We fixed that, so it should display correctly now and not get stuck after fights (praying hands emoji)
@awr Thank you!! We really tried to make those abilities feel good to use, so I’m super happy it landed 🙏
@lizelive Could you describe what you did and what went wrong? Was the animation not responsive, or did nothing happen at all? When the ball matches the receiver, pressing the corresponding key (ASDF depending on the lane) should trigger a hit on the ball. If you don’t press in time, you should hear a sound cue. Your feedback would help a lot, thanks!
@drainkid That’s the dream! I’ll tag you here when we sign the Netflix deal haha
@muzzlove Thanks!!
@stalemeat Thanks a lot for such a detailed comment, really appreciate it! Glad the rhythm idea clicked after a bit and that you noticed the Y2K vibe, we were really aiming for that, so it’s great to hear it came through.
About the S slash.. I’ve seen that issue on fullscreen Web version on Mac (works fine on my PC/ Chrome). When not in fullscreen it seems fine on PC and Mac. Gonna dig into it after a short break. Thanks again!
@alexey-bobrovskiy Not sure I fully got what you mean, but I’m glad the game helped you to achieve your goals haha
@kaki @shivvvy @nouchi @torukaii @wakobu
Thank you all for the kind words about the visuals and animation! Another shiny gem straight from our genius pixel artist 😎😎😎
@wakobu Thanks a lot! Yeah, there was an issue with the slash in fullscreen, but in browser window it seems fine. Did you play in fullscreen? Would really appreciate your feedback!
@torukaii
Hearing that you enjoyed it this much makes all the effort worth it! Thank you!
the art is so awesome, i love how cohesive it is all the way through the UI! super stylish and cute characters. great progression and lots of mechanics, very impressive in a jam game! its the kind of game that makes it really easy to point out things that aren't perfect, because you can imagine a "fully realized" version easily and its really good already.
I was surprised at first that the action phase wasn't tile based or rhythm based, i expected something crypt of the necrodancer-ish.
Liked it, that there are essentialy 2 games in one and that abilites unlock one by one, and they are different, great experience. Music is cool too
Very very modern and god-styled game. Music is also very good.I killed a lot of mobs on level 2, and then got the level with the guy. I belive i should insert all the balls into holes with 'S" button, am i right? Anyway, the game is amasing and author/s have a very good taste!
Okay, I'll start by saying art and sound on this are absolutely awesome. Well done. The gameplay feels like something I really want to enjoy, but something just feels off. The S ability just doesn't want to land half the time, like the range on it is so low you practically need to stand inside an enemy for it to connect, which made the first stage frustrating with how the enemies moved in the stage. Then you unlock the A ability which just felt OP by comparison, but then one of the enemies in the stage just seemed like a random chance if he took damage or not, couldn't find a rhyme or reasons when he did. Then the D ability was just absurdly OP, but then that stage just broke. I cleared all the enemies and it just wouldn't move to the next thing. Overall, I say you have the start of something really cool here, but the balance of the attacks feels off and it's hard to get much to connect.
Excellent visuals and music. The gameplay feels smooth and intuitive, with the rhythm section adding a nice bit of variety. It feels fresh, and the game really pulled me in.
An excellent game， the music, art, and gameplay are all highly polished. Really impressive!
@half-animal-half-beast No Inwas not playing fullscreen. The game was still playable, but the hitbox struggled to hurt enemies :)
The movements of the pixel character are so good, and the little dancer next to it is super adorable! It definitely starts getting a bit challenging from the second level on. Really amazing work!
Beautiful pixel-art animations. Enjoyed a lot. Great work!
The game character's movements are so smooth! The sound effects are really dynamic! I love it!
Dang, so much content for a jam game! The concept of taking each enemy's attack was really cool and I loved the graphics. I unfortunately did run into a bug in the third(?) round where I had killed all the enemies, but it didn't move on to the next round, so I had to stop playing there, but I had a really good time for the levels I did play!
Normal rhythm game to dilute the main gameplay, but there are questions about the main gameplay: it's very difficult to figure out when enemies will hit, it's not clear how to kiting, and in the end it's just more profitable to spam (almost always). But it felt like a game overall, and I liked it. And it's cool that they added a survival mode at the end.
@val-ociraptor
thank you so much! yeah, the title kind of hints that the whole game could be rhythm-based. at some point i even wanted to sync attacks with the music, like giving bonus damage for hitting on beat, but that idea didn’t make it in the end.
thanks again for playing and for the thoughtful feedback!
@4farandbeyond @derek-glennon @chusui77 @kaki @shivvvy @neochar @nouchi @awr @lizelive @drainkid @muzzlove @stalemeat @alexey-bobrovskiy @torukaii @wakobu @val-ociraptor @bobanko @wraithind @anku @xiao-duye @shanyu-jin @roccay @rinnnzy @chaseplays Thank you all so much! Pixel art is truly my passion, so getting so much positive feedback makes me really happy 💖
@red-horde-games
thank you so much! really glad you enjoyed the progression and the abilities, and happy to hear the music worked for you too!
@bobanko thank you for the feedback!
you need to use A S D F to catch the balls, each lane has its own key. there is now a small tutorial image in the game that explains this. Your comment made me realize it was really needed, thank you for that!
@wraithind thank you for such a detailed comment!
i’ve fixed the issues you mentioned. the balance is still far from perfect, but it’s the best i could manage within the jam time. i already have some ideas on how to improve the balance further, just planning to take a short break first.
i’d really appreciate it if you could try the post-jam version on itch: nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid
thanks again, your feedback was super valuable, it helped me a lot!
@anku @xiao-duye @shanyu-jin @roccay @rinnnzy
thank you all! really glad you liked it!
@chaseplays thank you for the feedback!
sorry you didn't get to properly play the game. it’s been fixed now, and you can try the post-jam version. thanks again, really glad you had a good time with it!
nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid
I had fun playing it, the art is really nice and the music is cool. I liked the pixel art, especially the character designs are cool. All the mechanics are interesting. (There is a little cheat in the signal mode that I can just spam asdf and will get a pretty good result, but I think it's not a big problem.) Good job!
amazing artstyle!
I love the 2000s vibes that the visual and music give! Weirdly enough, the eyes who make cross pattern attack was fare more difficult to beat than the rugby boss (even the blue hp one)
Still, fun idea to mix two type of game to unlock new abilities!
At first I thought I needed to tap in rhythm during combat sections but no, I found ways to block enemies in a corner and spam S haha Even better, I did this in survival mode and now I can survive forever Graphics are really impressive, it's definitely by far the most polished aspect of the game. I has fun though, keep it up!corner_bug.png
Nice art and fun gameplay also i like impact of attacks. Well done!
Unfortunately, I couldn't beat Rugby Man. Is he the boss? But I tried for a long time. The game is really engaging. Overall, it was a fun gaming experience, thank you!
Loved it! Although the eyeball boss is a little bit difficult, still manageable to beat. Gorgeous graphics. Nice work <3
Very polished game with a lot of detail. I wish there was more balance between the techniques: the slash should be more rewarding (I'm sure I landed more hits than counted) and the follow-up techniques could be toned down a bit
Super fun mechanics art and vibe! Though I seem to be missing something. The players weapon hit box is really small, and enemies seem too fast to to effectively hit without getting hurt. Great Job overall though!
Hey loving the game! I confess that it got hard reaaal quick haha so you might wanna adjust that! Loved the rythm part. Congrats!
The music and pixel art are great, but it's a bit difficult in the early stages. Fun.
I love the vibe of this game. The art and music are great. I think S's hitbox is too small as multiple times it felt like I should hit the enemies, but nothing happened. I also think the asdf rhythm part should maybe match up to the music more instead of seemingly being just a pattern that slows or speeds up depending on how well you do? Maybe I'm just too used to rhythm games, but my immediate instinct is to try to match the beat. I do like the game though.
Very nice entry! I really like the art and the gameplay. It would be nice, if there was a sound effect, when one get hit by the enemys. i was sometimes surprised, that i already lost :D Overall very nice!
Very nice game, everything fits together very nicely. Character Art is super cool on this one. :dark_sunglasses:
I don't have arrow keys on my keyboard 😔
First of all I like the introduction levels with the dummies. Good way to teach the new abilities. :)
I would have liked more audio and visual feedback for hitting enemies, because I never knew when I hit someone. Louder sound effects during the decoding sequences (I think there was a drum in it when you successfully hit the buttons) would also help in this area.
I like the overall art of the game. The UI is stylised and fits very nicely to the game. The music was fitting too. It is cool that you implemented different enemies. I also dig the character designs. :)
The game is incredibly stylish. I found it pretty hard to play - I never really learned how to dodge effectively, so I only made progress when I got lucky and did not take too much damage. Despite my difficulties, the game left a strong impression on me.
@noneegy
thank you for the feedback! i honestly didn’t even think about spamming asdf in the signal mode, so i didn’t treat it as a miss. i’ve fixed it now, your comment really helped to improve the game, thank you!
@ribout-horace thank you!
glad you liked the vibe :) yeah, i’ve adjusted the balance a bit, hopefully it feels better now haha
@noneegy @aniretti @ribout-horace @oradimi @irkar @malumagic @tomas-poblete @agent-p @thomaspixelart @bling @bluntsam @mamboman @bjoernm @lllarso @turbolaser Thank you all so much for the incredibly kind words about our visuals! It truly means a lot to me. I am so happy to receive so much feedback, it is the best reward 💜
@oradimi
thank you for the comment!
i added a small cooldown to S, it’s still the main attack but you can’t spam it endlessly anymore. really appreciate you pointing that out!
also curious, how did you end up outside the map? i’ve never seen that happen 😄
@stepanoff
thank you! really glad you had fun!
yes, that’s the final boss. after beating him you unlock the last ability and can try to survive as long as possible in survival mode.
@malumagic
thank you! i’ve tweaked the balance a bit, it should feel a bit easier now :)
@tomas-poblete
thank you! i took your feedback into account, hopefully the balance feels a bit better now.
@agent-p
thank you! that’s fair, the hitbox was quite small. i’ve made some adjustments to the balance, so it should feel a bit more manageable now. really appreciate the feedback!
@thomaspixelart @bling
thank you! yeah, i’ve adjusted the balance a bit, it should feel a bit better now. really glad you liked music and visuals!
@thomaspixelart oh you are one of the authors of wi-fix it game, really like your game and style
@bluntsam
thanks! i actually tried syncing the rhythm part with the music at first, but it felt too easy with clear audio/visual cues. then i experimented with speeding things up, which meant speeding up the music too, and that started to sound weird, so i dropped that idea.
maybe i’ll find a way to make it work in a way that feels good and not forced. thanks again!
@mamboman
thank you for the feedback!
based on your comment, i added a hit sound effect :)
@steinhks
that’s unfortunate 😄 but at least the letter keys are there!
@lllarso
thank you for such detailed feedback!
really happy you mentioned the dummies, we’re kind of proud of them haha :)
about the audio, S has both hit and miss sounds, and the laser has its own too. but when combined with enemy death sounds it turned into a bit of a mess, so i removed some of it. probably needs better separation in audio design, just didn’t have enough time to polish it properly.
really appreciate you pointing this out, it’s important!
@turbolaser
thank you for the feedback!
yeah, the game was partly meant to feel a bit unforgiving, where you need skill and a bit of luck 😄
but your comment made me realize that an instant restart after death could’ve helped keep the flow instead of breaking it with a stats screen. definitely something to think about, thanks for that insight!
Amazing art! The rythm of the game and the music really fit well! The gameplay can be kind of confusing though, I couldn't get why enemies sometimes teleported right onto me or were dodging hits sometimes. Still great job!
I found a small bug in your game I think - after trying to clear the first arena, the red enemy remained on (not moving, not attacking, without a healthbar) after defeating it! Screenshot attached: gra.jpg
Another little piece of feedback is that I thought the dance sequence was an animation/cutscene at first, loading a new map/mode, because majority of the screen was taken by the screen that started with "Decoding..." (just felt to me like loading a new game!). I realized after a bit and started actually pushing the buttons :)
I really liked the dancing guy animation though, reminded me of Jet Set Radio!
Had fun with it! Visuals feel cohesive, lots of mechanics for a jam game. Was a bit difficult for me (who is notoriously bad at video games) so I appreciate having the option to skip levels to see more of the mechanics. I still tried my best!
Nice work, team.
Watching others play your game is some of the best feedback you can get, so here goes:
https://youtu.be/65hZqclL31Y
@lastuck
thank you for the feedback!
dodging hits is actually part of the enemy behavior. as for the teleport, some enemies have a dash attack where they quickly move to the player and deal damage.
but maybe i misunderstood your comment and something unintended happened. would be great if you could clarify what you meant!
@outstar thank you!
yeah, that little guy just really wanted the spotlight haha but you’re right, it’s a bug, he should’ve disappeared. thanks for catching it and for the screenshot!
about the dance sequence, there is a hint with arrows pointing to the other screen, but i totally agree it should be clearer right away, not only after reading everything. really helpful that you pointed this out!
and nice catch with jet set radio! i love the visual style, even though i’ve never actually played it — maybe it’s time to fix that!
@braktheman thanks!
really glad the skip option was useful! some players mentioned the difficulty, so i wanted to make sure people could still see more of the game without getting stuck for too long 😄
appreciate you giving it a try and sticking with it!
@alaah thanks for taking the time to record and share this!
just a heads up, the video is based on the original jam version, and a lot of the issues there have already been fixed. it was honestly a bit painful to watch knowing that laser cooldown was at 0 and the F ability wasn’t working at all back then 😄
Nice! This is a good and dynamic game.
It's a really interesting idea and the combat really clicked for me once all four attacks were unlocked.
Thank you for adding the stage skip so you can get the abilities to try out - there were sometimes in the earlier stages where it didn't feel quite as balanced or achievable as the latter stages.
Melody was simple but fitting, and it would be cool in later builds if the better you do, the better it builds the melody or something like that.
The pixel art, and the art in general was the highlight of this one imo. That and survival mode. The dash almost feels like it should be the 'main move' since you can teleport on the beat to an enemy.
Amazing that you got all this done in three days! Great job!
very interesting to use rhythm sections to decode signals and learn new abilities :) I personally found the attack hitbox a bit weird (maybe it's too small?), I'm glad you added the skip option because sometimes it was way too hard for me haha
The pixel art and animations were really nice :)
It's a cool combination of a fighting game with a rhythm game, I really liked how it was implemented, but you had an anchor on the UI (I have a 3440x1440 monitor) and the right column of the rhythm game was covered by the frame of the rhythm game itself
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Love the character design!
Overall, it turned out pretty well and looks very stylish. I also got the impression that the rhythm game reacts to the player—if you start hesitating, the tempo slows down, which is a nice touch.
However, it would be better if the rhythm controls were mapped more intuitively. For me, for example, arrow keys would work better than A / S / D / F.
Well done! This was a lot of fun, it was hard to keeptrack of my attacks at first but after a few tries I got into a good rhythm 😆. Loved the mini rhythm game as well, I kept misclicking the inputs because I was trying to play in time with the beat but that's not a huge problem. GG!
Graphic is extremely good, as usual for this author.
This looks very good! Also always love some rhythm games in my gamejams, good job on making this work with proper click detection (saw too many jame games with broken rhythm sections...) What could be done better in my opinion: - longer track! Especially noticeable in rhythm section, it was far too repetitive. I would even have fun in endless mode as simple as it is now, but the 6 seconds loop killed the fun for me unfortunately - pressing escape reset the game and I needed to start from the beginning. Was expecting a pause menu with some info/settings, and not resetting my progress :( - Couldn't beat "two tough guys" even after several attempts. Probably it's possible to outrun them and kill with the last ability, but it would take toooo much time
Otherwise, good game, keep it up!
Nice concept and art really, bad I think the "rhythm" part of the game isnt that complete (I mean its really difficult to make a rhythm game, especially in 72 hours!), I felt there should be more hit-to-the-beat thing in the second part of the game
Nice art and audio. The animation felt pretty snappy and responsive. Pretty challenging in some levels. Good job!
I think the visual presentation here is fantastic, all the amimations are super satisfying, I love how the aliens hop to the beat, and as difficult as they are, the attack telegraph of the purple beholder (when it works) is quite cool. I like the concept of getting the ability of the most powerful enemy in the previous round.
It does give me the impression that it was victim to a bit too broad a scope, though. As cool as the presentation of agent rhythm's section is, I think it would have been more compelling to just focus on the combat section and give it more polish. It took me a load of tries to beat the first level because I couldn't figure out why the slash wasn't hitting. Seems like the range is super short! As others have said, compared to the D attack, that makes things much more trivial. One thing I didn't see anyone talking about was I'm not sure what the F ability does? I couldn't get it to do anything. Was that intended?
This might all have been addressed in your post-jam version, so feel free to ignore it if that's the case! Well done on making everything that you did, and there's a solid concept here.
The sound effects are really dynamic! I love it!
I LOVE the art style! Super cute!
The combat section was fun, but the rhythm to catch the signal felt a bit incomplete, like not knowing how many I had missed/collected until the end, compared to something like a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game which gives immediate feedback to that.
Still, had a lot of fun playing this and would like to see a more polished version in the future!