Hi thank you so much for playing and providing such detailed feedback :) especially since you don't like rhythm games, so I really appreciate you giving it a try anyway.
I'll just address your negative points:
> Poor choice of keybinds
Yes this has been brought to my attention by a few people now, I will choose different controls for the final game and also make them rebindable.
> Bad button click feedback
I agree that there wasn't any good feedback for timing - though it really does affect your score (-10+ points depending on accuracy, per puck), and of course missing a puck / tapping nothing will drastically ruin your score by resetting your multiplier. I will definitely add some more prominent 'early'/'late' feedback, though it's not something I ever focus on too much when I play rhythm games.
> Level 2 was poorly mixed
Sorry, this is probably due to game maker automatically compressing the life out of audio files, and this is just a setting in the editor I can turn off. I personally don't notice these things because I have the cheapest set of speakers you'll find on the market, so thank you for the reminder! In the final version, it will be importing audio files externally rather than compiling them included, so this shouldn't be a problem (though maybe the track just is poorly mixed, as you didn't mention any issues with the other tracks, but it could also just be that particular track particularly doesn't like compression).
> Use of generative AI is prohibited for sound/music (and visuals/game assets in general)
So, the music is actually royalty free from carefully curated artists over at Envato Elements! Their signup process for creators was notoriously selective, but right now you can't even enroll as a creator, presumably due to an influx of generative AI assets in their signup portfolios. So I can only assume it's made by real humans, especially since the website existed way before AI became so prevalent.
You can find the tracks here:
- Changing seasons
- Jazzy Beat
- Falling cars (Strange laptop folk)
I think you were mainly referring to the music, but I'll also clarify that the artwork was drawn by me - though admittedly I relied very heavily on photo references for this particular game, especially for the vehicles in falling cars (you'll notice they suspiciously are in poses you'd find in normal car photos, maybe with a bit of rotation lol)
But yes, AI is prohibited and yet I also have noticed a couple of entries using it, so I guess it's not enforced. I think it resulted in 99% of the entries following this rule, so that's nice at least.