Thanks for playing! That’s good feedback too.

Thanks for the feedback! Sounds like it’s a good thing I never got around to designing level 1-2, hah

Thanks for the feedback!

Thank you so much for the video!

Very cool, thank you!

Wow this is hard as nails but really good. Really forces you to twist your brain to fit the game’s logic. And such an original idea! Congrats

So adorable! I love the art style and Bruce's sad little whines.

This is a really cool tech demo!  It took me a few minutes but I did manage to sort Space Turtle's socks. This makes me want to try using a physics engine in my next game, I'd love to know how you integrated the two. I don't suppose you'd consider releasing the source code?

Thank you! More to come soon hopefully :-)

Thanks! I still need to finish v2 of the game, it has refined graphics and a level editor.

Sorry, the source code is private! The Itch app is a great way to download the game to play offline, I recommend that.

Hi John! Are you looking to download to play offline? The Itch app makes it easy to do that with HTML5 games, I believe. Or are you interested in reading the source code?

You managed to pack a lot into a small package, both in terms of gameplay and the UI. Congrats!

I had high expectations because the preview GIFs looked great, and it met those! That opening sequence gave me chills and the pace is super fun. The most stylish game of the jam!

What a game! I loved the melding of turn-based battles with matching puzzles. And there was even a deck-building aspect too. Not to mention the fantastic art and total jam of a soundtrack. My only complaint would be that it took a few rounds until strategy became important. I wonder how the game would play if the board didn't clear between turns.

Ps. The web build worked great on Chrome, FWIW!

This is totally charming, I'd love to see more of it. The art was great and the platforming felt solid, I really like the idea of being able to jump on any flat surface. And combat was satisfying, though perhaps a dodge or parry mechanic would have added more depth and made it feel a little fairer. The difficulty level felt cranked a little high too, it took me a few moments to work out what to do in the first room and I couldn't even beat the second room's gang of cats. Still I think it has lots of potential :-)

I like the mechanic, it feels strangely satisfying to throw Koto at the candy to grow him(?). Seems like it has great opportunities for puzzles, but that potential wasn't really explored  — at least in the early levels (I got stuck on 'Gooey Candy Center'). Also for some reason sprites would "shimmer", perhaps because they didn't quite match the resolution. Overall I think it's a promising idea but needs a little work! :-)

😄

Thanks for the kind words! It’s a remake of Gitaroo Man, which was on PS2 and PSP but is hard to get hold of (legally) these days. You’re the first person to describe the game as too easy, must be a seasoned music game player 😂

Thank you ☺️  Who knows, anything could happen...

Haha! Thank you!!

Oh man what a great question! I could write an entire blog post on it. Maybe I will.

My biggest learnings were:

• Use the audio file as your single source of truth. Animate everything else based on the position of the audio file. That way you’re guaranteed to keep everything in sync.
• Use MIDI files to store note plans. It requires setting up a conversion script/pipeline but makes writing  and editing the level design really straightforward. I was even able to adapt MRKL’s original midi files directly.
• Give players as much feedback as possible whether they get a note wrong or right. I was surprised how much of a difference it made when I added the “great/good/ok/miss” graphic.
• I never did work out how to make the graphics “dance” to the beat, like New Super Mario Bros. That would be cool.

I have a pretty robust engine built now so... who knows, maybe there will be more in the future!

Thanks for playing! Were you able to beat track 2? I would have adjusted the difficulty but I ran out of time 😅

Hi pixel_trash, when the notes without lines come at you in the “defend” phase, you have to press the corresponding arrow keys! See the gif below.

There is also a bug where some red notes will appear before their lines come in, that might be what you’re referring to?

Hope that helps!

I’m glad you got it! I was worried the game would be too tricky to pick up without a tutorial. Worth spending the extra time on those gifs 🙏

thank you!

Gitaroo Man (PS2/PSP) is one of my favourite games ever and I've always wanted to make a tribute/sequel. Would any composers be interested in collaborating on a low-rez version of Gitaroo Man with original music? I think it'd be fun to come up with original characters and story too!

I can handle the programming side, I even have a tech demo working already. If any artists are interested, that would be cool too! Otherwise I can take a stab at the pixel art.

Ps. If you’ve never played Gitaroo Man, it’s a story-driven rhythm-action game released like 15 years ago. Each song is a “battle” between two characters and is structured with a call-and-response pattern. Sadly I don’t think it’s available on any modern platforms.

I didn't really understand this game. The gameplay seemed to be just moving to a point on the platform and sometimes clicking the flag to prevent it from moving. Maybe I was missing something.

Short but sweet. I liked the hybrid turn-based/real-time mechanics; in the third fourth level, I was able to prevent the fires from overtaking me by waiting for the moving blocks to get in the way. Has potential, keep going!

Love the presentation, from the physical Game Boy to the hand-written notes to the Misingno-style glitches. Only 90s kids will understand ;-)

It took me a while to get my head around the gameplay, but even when I did, it was a bit fiddly and repetitive. I was impressed by how much you packed in though. Sharper level design (i.e. two gates versus five in single level) might have helped the idea shine through.

Love the concept. Beautiful presentation, especially the dynamic music! Way too hard for me though. I wish there was a way to reduce your madness meter, perhaps just by standing still for a bit.

This game made me laugh! And it creeped me out a little bit too. But, y'know, in a good way. The art is adorable and the number of branches is impressive for a 48-hour game (assuming it's actually branching and not all predetermined??). I would play a longer version of this, if it had just a little less randomness.

Adorable twist on Missile Command / Space Invaders, love the graphics and animation. Impressive that you managed to get an upgrade system implemented within 48 hours too, it's a clever way to keep the player engaged!

This was surprisingly tense considering the cutesy graphics and vocal SFX! The randomness creates a fun risk-vs-reward dynamic, especially when it comes to the detergent packs tucked between boxes.

Lives up to the hype! You found an incredible mechanic and played it super straight. It's challenging as hell without being unfair, although I wasn't able to make it to the end. Not sure my heart could take a full game at this difficulty level but I would gladly watch a livestream of someone acing it.

Thanks for playing! Sadly it looks like you hit the same bug as lots of other players, sorry about that.

The collision bug claims another victim! Sorry about that. Fix coming as soon as the rating window is over! I hope you still enjoyed it.

oh no! The bug claims another victim 😓