Till the last spin by KiiroHanabi
Power comes from many sources. What if your life was put on the line because of it?
Hey everybody! This is my first gamejam and I'm really happy to show you the results!
This game was supposed to be submitted in the compo event but my computer decided not to let me upload it in time. So here I am in Jam!
Till the last spin is not finished yet. I didn't have enough time to integrate the whole story but if you're interested in, let me know!
Update!!
I got your feedback about the game and added arrow pressing feedback with score, which make it easier and more enjoyable! You can download it here :
(Windows) : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1FxiolnHcfhSWpGMDllM3VkbUk
But if you'd like to rate the original entry you should look at the link section!
Commands
- Press Enter to start the game.
- Press Space or Click to read text.
- Press Arrows to stay in rhythm!
Tools
- GameMaker-Studio
- 3MLE
- UTAU
- Audacity
- BFXR
- (Graphics done with the GMS sprite editor)
Notes
I think my answer to one of the comments below may help other people to understand some of my choices for this game so I'll just paste it here, you shouldn't read that if you haven't played the game yet :
The shifting causes confusion to the player so they need to stay on rhythm the best they can to avoid that. Even if it’s a cool visual and gameplay effect, it is a punishing one. More than just making a rhythm game and adding some difficulty by shifting arrows, I wanted to give a meaning to it :
“You’re in a dream, at the beginning of your journey towards death acceptance and you’re expressing denial. The dreams you’re gonna experience every night relate to some of your memories, but if you don’t stay on the right track (aka stay on rhythm ;)) during the process, your dreams may turn into nightmares.”
That’s how I implemented arrow shifting as a way to lose control over what you’re doing, like losing control in your life, your beliefs, your emotions, your faith, or anything that resonates for you. :D
TW : Death acceptance, Hospital, Nightmare
Executable size : 6MB
| Windows | https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1FxiolnHcfhQ0cwOVRlMGZJbDA |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/till-the-last-spin |
Ratings
| Overall | 591th | 3.104⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 620th | 2.833⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 137th | 3.604⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 722th | 2.915⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 649th | 2.894⭐ | 49🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 391th | 3.042⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 250th | 2.85⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 322th | 3.413⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 65🗳️ | 49🗨️ |
For what was supposed to be a compo entry, the game is really solid ! The narration is great and hits home (for personnal reasons). The DDR segment felt like a real chart and I cannot start to imagine how hard it was to compose the music and create the chart for it in so little time !
Overall a great demo for a neat idea, I hope too see a full fledged version in the future !
I agree with the others, some visual feedback on whether you pressed the key in time would be nice. I found the song fairly hard too (as a bit of a noob) so an easier level or just a slower start would have helped quite a bit.
It's a solid entry and I could easily see this becoming something more :)
I'll definitely complete the game later! I'm really glad that my first game jam entry has been well received and I'm motivated to do even more!
You're all right about the **indicator** and the **lack of feedback** when you hit the arrows. Some friends even told me before but it was too late to implement it for the game jam.
The **difficulty** of the song was intended to make the player feel **overwhelmed** the first night, not being able to control what's happening. Then, the player will understand and face death in the best way possible. But for the game jam realease it only looks hard, I agree.
I also planned a **directed graph** where the player would move towards different **death acceptance steps** each night and each step would be a different song.
I'll also improve my music and graphic skills!! The song I made here was a little crappy at some points :D
Thanks again!!
There's nice elements like the arrows shifting when you fail too many times, and the indication of a deeper storyline. Other than that, there's not that much else to say about it. Yet.
It's very short, and the gameplay is somewhat borked in the sense that it didn't seem to register my inputs at points when I had an arrow perfectly aligned. So as you go on about developing this, give some leeway on how exactly the arrow needs to be on top of the indicators to avoid input lag or other similar problems. Smooth gameplay is still the most crucial element, even with a good narrative. Also some clear visual feedback on when you've succeeded is a given.
With that, I wish you good luck and hope you finish what you've started!
@devastus I totally agree with you about the gameplay being not as smooth as it should've been. I already added some leeway to not make it frame perfect but I think the major issue is that GameMaker tends to slow down the game instead of dropping frames which is annoying for rhythm games. There's ways to drop frames and avoid the lag but I didn't have enough time to work on it. Not trying to make excuses here, but this is recurring in GM.
Visual feedbacks are essential and will be implemented.
We had almost the same idea at the stage of inventing the concept))
What I found harsh is that I don't get any feedback on the keys pressed correctly, I was never sure if I was doing it fine.
Maybe just adding an animation, or just making the arrow bigger and flashy during a few frames, in order to see that was hitted, would have improved the overall enjoyment. Or reusing the screenshake that you already did ;p
@emery Thank you very much!
@pnkthrepwood I will add more feedback!! Reusing the screenshake is not a bad idea at all, I'll think about what I can do with it, thanks for the suggestion!
Fun game!, I really enjoyed playing it.
I planned to add volume, audio delay (for the rhythm part) and language settings but didn't have the time to do so. I forgot the remove the button for the LD release but I guess I didn't sleep enough to think about this in time haha :D
Definitely add some feedback for hitting arrows correctly. Otherwise it feels empty. Otherwise, cool start!
I'm not good at rythm games so I failed miserably, but like others said, feedback for correct hits would greatly help. Hope you get to finish the game!
It's an interesting point of view about the voices. I did randomize the pitch like you guessed, the purpose was to give some Animal Crossing voice vibe here, I'm sorry you didn't like it. If I find out how to make it better one day, I will!
Still super polished, even if I had no idea what was going on.
EDIT: I suppose I should note, while I'm not a rhythm game expert, I'm also not bad at them by any stretch; I'm a Thumper veteran and used to play a lot of Bit. Trip Runner back in the day when Wiis were still a thing that people used.
@will-walters Thanks!! The shifting causes confusion to the player so they need to stay on rhythm the most they can to avoid that. Even if it's a cool visual and gameplay effect, it is a punishing one. More than just making a rhythm game and adding some difficulty by shifting arrows, I wanted to give a meaning to it :
> "You're in a dream, at the beginning of your journey towards death acceptance and you're expressing denial. The dreams you're gonna experience every night relate to some of your memories, but if you don't stay on the right track (aka stay on rhythm ;)) during the process, your dreams may turn into nightmares."
That's how I implemented arrow shifting as a way to lose control over what you're doing, like losing control in your life, your beliefs, your emotions, you faith, or anything that resonates for you. :D
Here is a question to think about: what is the point of a game without indicators of how good the player performed?
But I didn't want to use the same method, this is how DDR gives feedback but my game is setting quite a different atmosphere. To respect that atmosphere I wanted to give feedback based on feelings and pressure. And since I didn't want to rush that part, I haven't implemented it yet :D
When I'll find some tricks that please me and give quality feedback I'll definitely use them!
Anyway thank you for your feedback, it helps to how to improve my game in a better way! :D
But the idea is pretty cool. Quite a novelty.
As many already said, a bit more feedback would be cool. Maybe something like changing the arrow images to more distorted versions when you fail or something like that. But I guess you are creative enough to come up with something a bit more practical.
Might I propose that you read up on the "Five Stages of Grief and Loss"?
It is a (somewhat outdated, but practical to use) psychological model of how people try to cope with learning that they (or close friends etc.) will die. Denial is actually the first stage and acceptance the last one in this model, so it might suit your idea. (Unless that is where you got the idea from and this note is completely useless. Oh, well ;))
Actually...yes ^^' My game is based on these five stage and it is the core part of the narration. Feelings of the patient will be showing during dialogues and you'll be able to see the progression and the different stages. The score of the rhythm game determine which stage the patient will have to go on the next day.
But thank you very much for advising me that since it would have been really useful if I didn't have the idea already :D
@edwingamedev @shess Thank you so much, I suppose you're the kind of person that are in my targeted audience, so it is absolutely amazing to see your feedback, it means I achieved my goal, transmitting you this strong experience. And it's only the beginning! :D
8/10