Okay so this concept fucks hard.
I could absolutely see myself getting lost in this. The concept of zoning out to the music, losing myself in the simple, repetitive task of hitting notes, is maybe the best idea I've seen in this jam. And the pieces are almost there. The spirals are great and the music is bumping. Given a bit of love, this could legitimately be the most hypnotic game I've ever played.
The main thing that stops it, that could be changed, is the position of the dots.
I want so badly to stare into the center of the spiral, hit the notes on beat, and lose myself in the rhythm. But the notes force me to look away, and that takes me out of it.
Luckily, this seems like a simple problem to fix. Maybe instead of riding the rims of the spiral, the dots could grow brighter and brighter in the middle until they flash on beat? You could even add a little skill expression: four places for dots to show up, corresponding to WASD, so that we have to hit the right key to hit the note. That little bit of immersion, the demand for a little bit of brainpower, would do an excellent job at keeping my attention off of absolutely anything else.
The vertical flashes also take me out of it a little. Having them track our timing is great -- doing so by pulling my eyes away from the center is just unfortunate. Maybe instead of a vertical row, the whole screen flashes when you hit a note?
Even more -- maybe the whole screen flashes, and a subliminal pops up in the middle. The closer we are to the beat, the clearer the subliminal. The better you are at keeping beat, the stronger the subliminals become, which zones you out further, trapping you into focusing more, making the subliminals even stronger, which zones you out further, which...
...anyway >///>
Excellent concept. Excellent, excellent, excellent concept. You're on the brink of greatness here, and with a little more polish, I think you could legitimately make a hypno classic.
My three suggestions, so far as they matter, would be:
- Notes near the center of the spiral
- Whole screen flashes when we hit
- Subliminals get clearer/fainter depending on how far we are off beat
Maybe there could even be some progression throughout the song. Note streaks build up subliminals around the outside, maybe?
...man, this is a fun concept.