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The "instruments" are conch shells, turtles, and coconuts. I'm sure you found plenty! Just walk up to one, hit the Action key (down arrow or A button) and you'll pick it up. Then you can use A/down arrow to play random notes on it or hang it up on something from the environment (Windy Trees, Drippy Branches, or Bubbling Brooks) to make it play on loop (it will make a different type of sound depending on what you put it on) or hit Y to go into Music Mode. In music mode, all the keys on your controller face or WASD and up down left right arrows will control the music, and TAB or SELECT will escape. 

I hope you try it again with that knowledge, and now you'll be able to enjoy it a million times more! I will be adding a tutorial mode after the jam to make sure everyone can fully enjoy Merlin's Musickal Machine!

This was so much fun I kept playing even though I only have a laptop trackpad and no mouse. Super hard that way, let me tell you...

My first game didn't even have graphics, so you're already ahead of me!

This was neat, and a very innovative idea, even though I'm terrible at it!

This was certainly a lovely looking game! The level progression was VERY interesting and unique, to say the least!

Thanks so much!

Tell me some of the mechanics you might be interested to see!

Lovely, thank you so much! I hope the lack of tutorial didn't detract from the experience... Once the voting period is over I definitely plan on expanding this, and a tutorial is top priority!

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! Keep an eye out because I'm really looking forward to expanding this.

Thanks for trying it! I hope you save it to a list and check back, because I definitely plan on adding the tutorial and expanding with more instruments. There's nothing to do but create music and enjoy the island! You can either play instruments or attach them to the environment to play loops. If more than two are playing at once, the birds will join you!

I was trying, but I ran out of time, so I posted all over the page and the comments about the controls. I know that's not sufficient and it would benefit from a tutorial, and I absolutely plan on expanding this, not just with a tutorial, but I really enjoyed this and I think it deserves to get made into a full, real game. I hope you save it so you can come back and check it out, because everyone who has figured it out has really enjoyed it! There is no goal outside to make music and relax!

You must have hit the Music Mode button. Once you pick up an instrument you can carry it around and play random notes with the Action key or you can hit the Music Mode/Whistle button to enter Music Mode, where you use all the controller buttons to play music or hit select/Tab to go back to walkabout mode. You can also attach items to the environment (Windy Trees, Drippy Branches, or Bubbling Brooks) to play a loop unique to that particular combination!

What a great game! I would love to see this get bigger.

Yup! Every item you can pick up can be attached to Windy Trees, Drippy Branches, or Bubbling Brooks to make its own musical loop!

I really wish I'd  had time to add a tutorial!

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

The bird reacts if you have two or more items attached to environmental objects playing automatically, at which point they will start to sing along.

Opera.

This was really fun, I'm not sure how many levels there are, or where I was when I quit, but I was mad about not making it all the way to the end. My poor brain started getting tired!

This was pretty cool! A great idea, I played it until I realized I was in the "hundreds of points" range and it was time to quit.

I enjoyed this a lot, but it kept freezing at the start of the second race.

This has been my highest rated game of the jam so far! This is a really great idea. I kept running into not hooking things up properly so my drone would fall apart right away, which was funny until it wasn't, but I figured out how to stop it from happening and had a blast!

Literally!

This was an awesome idea all around! I had to play it with a trackpad, as my mouse is broken and i couldn't get my tablet pen to work with it, but that in no way detracted from how much I enjoyed it.

I've never played a Vampire Survivors-like, I had no idea what to expect. I enjoyed it so much I want to make my own now.

Is there ever a way to place more electrical towers, or is your max number of utility towers always three? Also, you may want to consider scrollbars for the inventory, I had bought a bunch of parts but I couldn't use any of them because the first thing in line was the drone, which is the biggest and took up the whole window. Also, I couldn't start any more waves after five. Regardless, I really enjoyed it, and I hope you plan on expanding it. I would definitely enjoy this as a larger concept, the inventory management system on the towers was a great mechanic.

This was a pretty decent idea for a game,. and I learned something interesting, and honestly kind of beautiful in the process.

Glad you liked the art style! There's not much to say about what you're supposed to do... Just walk around making and enjoying music! I was trying to add a tutorial mode but I didn't have enough time. I hope once that goes up you'll come give it another look!

Thank you so much! I'm happy to have been part of what turned out to be a pretty musical jam, with yourself included!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I plan on adding instruments and environmental objects to make it so you can have a whole orchestra on your island, plus the ability to record and loop instrumental performances. I hope you keep an eye on it!

Interesting, I would think a shorter name would work better, since the name is the seed randomizer. I'm not sure why the achievements don't work on Wavedash... some of them do, and some don't, and for the life of me I can't tell which ones work without actively trying to get them all (there's 40!). 

And I was hoping to add some control indicators in-game, but ran out of time. I will certainly be adding them as soon as I get a chance. The notes in free Music Mode are probably the most difficult... it's S, A, D, W, down, left, right, up, or on controller down, left, right, up, A, X, B, Y in order from the root note to the octave. Triggers change key, bumpers change tempo. I hope that helps!

Thanks for trying it out, and for the encouraging words! I wanted to add some on-screen controller help, but I failed to get it finished on time... I will certainly be adding to it in the future though! And, as far as the controls go when you're in music mode... think about WASD as the d-pad on a controller, and Up, Down, Left, and Right as the face buttons (unless you're using a controller, in which case, picture the d-pad as the d-pad and the face buttons as the face buttons). The left side is your lower four notes, and the right side is your upper four notes. In order, the notes go bottom to top, left to right, so the bottom button is the lowest note, then left, then right, then up. So, on keyboard, a full octave is S, A, D, W, Down, Left, Right, Up, and on a controller it's Down, Left, Right, Up, A, X, B, Y. The triggers change octave, and the bumpers change tempo.

I hope that helps you enjoy it a bit more, and in the future I'll definitely be adding on-screen control indicators!

Simple game, but really nice opening intro and some good thought put into it. The returning scene threw me off, and then warding off the pirates with the asteroids made that probably the most innovative thing I've seen in a space shmup in a while.

This is a really nice entry! The art and intro is great, and I can't believe you voiced it! It was a lot of fun both to play and to look at too. My main gripes would be twofold: One, I'm not sure how best to torture and there isn't much feedback besides earnings, and Two, it would be nine thousand percent better if the animations were better timed, so the little soul reacts to being stabbed AS he's being stabbed.

I really like this! My main problem is the difficulty after the first match, but I'm saving it so I can play more when I have time.

This looks and sounds amazing but I don't think I can afford the time it would take to learn it. Still, I'm going to save it for later so I can give it a more thorough look later.

This was fun for a bit, and it looks and sounds nice. I'm a bit confused as to what happens when "AI" appears on the screen and it starts going faster. I was able to do really well with my graphics tablet pen!

My mouse is broken so I couldn't really play very well, but as far as I was able to get into it on a trackpad, this was really great! The art and sound was tops, and it controlled fairly well, except throwing was a little confusing... sometimes I just dropped the box, sometimes it teleported on top of another box... nevertheless, extremely fun and good entry despite my mouse limitations!

Man... this was great in every way except gameplay, unfortunately. I couldn't do anything but die, usually within five seconds.

This is pretty fun, but was I supposed to be doing more than just killing people? And can you NOT kill the rich people or the giants?

What! This is the most simple game I've ever enjoyed this thoroughly! Great idea!

I played this for way too long. The only issue I ran into seemed to be that you can't get MUCH more than 40 sugarcubes. I get 40, then it just fluctuates between 40 and 43 no matter how many I get. Fun times though apart from that minor gripe!