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A jam submission

Step OutView game page

A rhythm game where rhythm doesn't matter
Submitted by Itooh — 12 days, 16 hours before the deadline
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Step Out's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#43.9583.958
Innovation#54.1674.167
Fun#63.7923.792
Music#123.7503.750
Visuals#363.2083.208

Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Please list any pre-made art/music/other assets you used.
Bungee font by David Jonathan Ross
LdcBlackRound font by lagdotcom
Vibraphone and Rhodes soundfont from bandshed.net
Spanish Classical Guitar soundfont from FreePats

How many members in your team?

Team of 1

List your team's social media / website links!
https://twitter.com/Itooh_

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Comments

Neat game! I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum dare 42 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look

Submitted

I love the music. Having the blues melody develop has you fill and complete the bars of the different colors was really satisfying. Even if I wasn't very good at maintaining combos, it was a lot of fun.

Submitted

Although it's pretty hard, but it's fun and addicting!

Submitted

Great game! I like that the sounds fit together and are in harmony with each other (despite the fact that they are so different and so many). It's a positive and fun game, kept me engaged. 

However, the rules of the game are not intuitive. I read the instruction but the rules vanished from my memory immediately when I started to play :) In the more polished version the instructions could be part of a game (an onboarding).

Developer

The thing is, I find those rules to be confusing when explained verbally. It makes more sense in game than it does with words. That's why the ideal player experience I tried to reach is playing the game without reading its rules, experimenting, and figuring it out step by step. It might requires some trial and error, but that's part of the puzzle! Seeing a ball lighnting up and a bar filling up is in my opinion clearer than having those concepts explained. That's why I really want to avoid describing rules inside this game: I feel it adds confusion and makes the player believe in a complexity that doesn't exist.

However, there are indeed two aspects of the rules that I believe could be communicated more clearly: it is not necessary to hit every notes (as it is best to focus on one color and ignore inactive notes when we're juggling with too many), and more active notes makes the bar fills faster. I still am not sure how to encourage the player to play this way through visuals and auditive feed-backs. For the first one, maybe I could add an effect on an "active" bar, or somehow emphasis active notes that are "part of the current combo"... But for the second one, it's trickier. Having an effect on the bar that intensify maybe, or displaying a number somewhere (like it's the case once the bar is filled)... Again, the difficulty is that too much information brings confusion!

Anyway, thank you for your feedback! I'm glad that you enjoyed the game.

Submitted

Hey! I just wanted to let you know that a video of one of my playthrough/reviews is up and you're a part of it!
Take a look here:

Submitted

Chaotic fun! Could be a mobile game too.

Developer

Sometimes the best way to appreciate games is to embrace their chaos! Thank you for your comment.

As for a mobile version, I might try to port it. I need to experiment with mouse and touch controls. I think it might even make the game a bit easier.

Submitted

That was really cool.  The first anti rhythm game that wasn't too cheesy and was really fun to play.  Don't really have any notes on this one, it was solid!

Awesome work!

Developer(+1)

I say, you're pretty good at it! You're the first player I see who did not struggle with the controls! Even I am impressed.

Thank you for your comment and your videos! I'm glad that you liked the game. (and also appreciate that you remember my Meta GameJjam entry!)

Submitted

"Bing -  Boog  - Bzz" 

That resume well my experience !

The game is awesome (and maybe too hard for me) and the music is really good.

In overall it's quite a good concept is really great ! 

Developer

Yup, that's the experience a lot of people seem to have too! It's definitely a hard game. But I'm glad that you stil enjoyed it and appreciated the music! Thank you for your feedback.

Submitted (1 edit)

Awesome game. Figuring out how the game worked was pretty smooth and the music you make along the way is equally so!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I enjoy designing those king of "figuring out rules" puzzles, so I'm happy learn that they work!

Submitted (2 edits)

LOVED IT! the musics awesome , the ideas great, the way the notes randomly hit eachother to generate different melodies definitely gets me :D its not hard at all if  you use two hands! finished it in a few minutes  great job! (edit:Ok so i played it again and the secret technique to it is u have to nod your head while playing)

Developer

I wouldn't have thought of that technique! I'm happy to learn that you enjoyed the game and its music. Thank you!

Submitted

Nice idea! I liked the concept and the visualss but it was a bit too hard for me.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for your comment! The game can be really difficult indeed. I tried my best to balance it, but reducing the difficulty was just making it too easy. So I focused on making it fun even when losing. I hope your experience wasn't too frustrating!

Submitted

Nice game, but it was a bit too hard for my preference (5 buttons on a row and wasn't able to fill a bar)

Developer

Yeah,  the controls definitely makes the game quite hard, even when focusing on one color. Thank you for your feedback!

Submitted

Good game, but I'm really bad with five buttons...

Developer

Don't worry, everyone is! Those controls are not usually seen in games, and the game itself is not easy. Happy that you still liked it!

Submitted

Love the idea, very innovative. I did have to "cheat" and read the description before I realised what the objective was though. Loved it when I filled up that first bar, and the tune began to fill out. Favourite game of the jam so far!

Developer

Thank you for your feed-back! I'm glad that you still managed to fill the bars.

Submitted (1 edit)

Good idea! Any thoughts of making the motions of the spheres synchronized to some rhythm or some modifications in physics so to snap the landing positions on to the keys?
=============================
Update: The audio design works well for this game. It might sounds better if there is a internal compressor for all those sound effects, since one can easily stack a lot of the spheres on stage.

Developer

Thanks! Actually, I want the game to be a bit chaotic (kind of like a pinball), so I prefer to keep the physics of the spheres untouched. However, using a compressor is a good idea! I rarely use those, but it seems indeed appropriate for this game. I might try to implement that.