Were in for LD41 Lets try and get a great theme this time... Ha, who am I kidding :) Good luck everyone.

This music is insane, haha, I love this game!! Which one of you did the music? or was it a group effort?

That's pretty amazing, feels so good once you get into the beat and just move and shoot. It's little bit too hard for me, I guess I am not musical enough, but I had a lot of fun. Also very polished graphics and obviously awesome music.

Groovyyy

I think the only way to describe this and my time playing it was 'entrancing'. I have a soft spot for rhythm games and this one hit it in spades. Controls magnificently!!

Mesmerizing experience and a ton of fun to play!

Oh my god! Best thing I've played tonight! I love it. Are all these songs custom made for the game? If so who by?
Great soundtrack. Great concept! Great theme! I love it. Honestly 5s all round. I found that even after i died I'd end up sitting there on the death screen nodding my head to the music. That last song was my favourite! Who is it by? I must know. I looked forward to each new level simply for the song. The concept was brilliant. I mean it. best one tonight so far.

All music in the game was custom made by John Ryan https://ldjam.com/users/johnryanaudio

Thanks for all the love everyone! This was definitely one the most fun game jams to compose music for, and I was very happy to crank out 4 tracks (I think the most I've done in one jam?).

Since everyone is showing their appreciation, I'm going to release the *full* tracks on bandcamp; **free for download**. So check back for a link by the end of the week. I promise!

And thanks again for all the kind words
:heart: :musical_note: :guitar: :japanese_ogre:

@johnryanaudio Honestly that last track gave me shivers. The zombie themed lyrics and brilliant instrumental had me getting too into the music to focus. I tip my hat to you sir. 4 brilliant tracks in less time than it takes some big artists to write one semi-decent one!

just got done playing it. im hooked! wanting to get 3 stars on all levels!

PROs:
bad ass music(best part) so TURN IT UP/
clean UI and pretty graphics/
FUN game play/
perfectly challenging, it didn't feel too easy or difficult/
ability to calibrate(a very well thought out feature) so latency doesn't ruin your fun/
i've never been so scared of hexagons/

CONs:
will get stuck in the wall sometimes if you're not careful(that's it tho!)

Two things I really noted.

1. Personally, I haven't seen any games using the Necrodancer mechanic. It's a really cool one and I'm glad to see someone take it and run with it in a different genre like twinstick.

2. I feel like I've played a decent amount of games but I also haven't seen your hp representation before, when enemies just lose sides as they weaken. Super succinct visuals and representing meaning.

Awesome job overall. Obviously you have some real polish here but those 2 things were pretty unique.

"congratulations you died" why thank you! ^_^ Great game. So clean.

Awesome concept! Timing the shooting with the rhythm was tough. Soundtracks were awesome! Would've preferred the synchonization with the music to be a little more leniant.

I guess you were inspired by Necrodancer? :D "Congratulations You Died" is the reason you get 5 in "Humor". I think the idea of decreasing vertices of enemies when they lose HP is awesome.

Got some real Necrodancer vibes here! It's that I'm so bad at rhythm games that I had to drop it a little earlier than I'd like ): I think the main issue is the leniancy to mistakes.

It's a great game overall, looking very satisfying and of course with great audio! I also really like the little calibration option, it saved me a lot of trouble.

Good job overall, best game I've played so far!

Awesome game! I love rythm games in particular, and shooters for that matter. Especially when combined with great music, awesome visuals and smooth gameplay (which reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer!). Loved the music as well, so catchy and fitting!

Great job guys!

Dude this is pretty awesome, my only 2 complains are:

#1 the power-ups seem to be off the grid where you move which makes it hard to pick them up as it's never clear if i'm gonna be close enough to pick it up or not and I just end up dancing around the power-up (which i guess fits the game :p).
#2 the power up that shoots 3 bullets in a stream seems to be a hindrance rather than a power-up, specially on the last level where the, let's call it "shoot cool down" can end up leaving you in an "off beat"position and so you just lose your chain and can make it so you end up in a bad spot while you try to pick up the rhythm again.

Other than that really cool stuff, the last song is pretty awesome :D.

duudes, your game is soo polish, the idea of the zombies showing their health with sides of the polygons is great, the music is awesome, and its sooo fun to play, i really want to see more of this, congrats, my fav so far

@Q-ro Great feedback. We know about the dancing around powerups issue, and there is a fix coming in a few minutes along with a fix to clipping in walls. Though number 2 I never really noticed so thank you for that I'll certainly look into it for a post judging fix, though that seems more like a gameplay issue and not a "bug" so i won't fix that during the judging time.

everyone else, thanks for all the positive feedback. We are super proud of this game.

Wow this is such an amazing entry! The visuals were basic but very cute and fitting and great! The music was cool, the rhythm is catchy, and the beat plays really well with the gameplay. You also managed to make the game fun! Great job on a solid entry!

I liked the concept but I'm afraid that the Post-Jam version doesn't go further than the tutorial, that's the only thing I could play /: please let me know when it gets fixed to give you a propper rating :)

@Kichex I fixed the post jam version. Sorry about that.

@Archimagus great! I played it now! great job man! I loved it!, there goes the rating :D

The neon style looks great and as @TwinGhosts already said it reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer.

Good job man. Lovely art style.

Great job guys! Awesome music + visuals! :thumbsup:

Solid concept, really well executed. Clearly a lot of thought went into presentation.

Very good feelings with that! Nice musics/tempo! Beautifull neon graphics ! Excellent Game design ! GG.

I loved your game man ! Remind me a lot of Necrodancer
The score system is really juicy and rewarding, and the musics are awesome (as a music designer myself, i thumb up the music)

I think you can improve the score system but putting some more Score variety, like having some "Perfect/Good/MEH/Bad timing on each bullet, which multiply the score and combo. For example you could chain Perfect and have X1 multiplier on each hit etc etc


Here's our game :
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/blocksnblaster-1
A mix between Platformer/Shooter and a famouse puzzle game *whistle*

amazing game and all but the third levels music was in eights but you still had to do stuff in fourths..
Sorry for my english...

> @HPMNK "I think you can improve the score system but putting some more Score variety, like having some “Perfect/Good/MEH/Bad timing on each bullet, which multiply the score and combo"

Good idea, I'll put that one in the list of updates we want to make to the game.

Amazing game with really great soundtrack and great gameplay mechanics.

I loved the game, even though I do not usually play rhythm games, I found this to be very cool. My favorite song was the 4th, so good job on allowing people to "skip" levels after playing them 1 time. That is a great thing to have in a LD entry.

Loved the entry, always enjoy good rhythm games, and this was definitely that! I was very impressed by just how polished it was! Even a super functional menu! The graphics were simple yet lovely, the rhythm system was super tight and the music and audio was spot on. Killing loads of dudes with the super was very satisfying, and the different weapons were all fun too. Only gripe is the potentially offbeat part I mentioned on stream for the last level. But great job, definitely continue development!

it would be great to have arrow keys as well, because it is problematic when you don't have qwerty keyboard.

The game is of very good quality, enjoyable and with neat visuals and fitting music.
Also, always nice to be able to control volume etc.
Theme is respected, good job :)

MAN! This game is so much better than I expected (no offense) I found it to be a little bit frustrating at times, and The Infectioning (or level 2) was cheap in difficulty compared to others.

As for the music, all I can say is HOLY JEEBUS! THE last thing I was expecting from this was a song with LYRICS, in an LD game! Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, this game is a perfect example of a question I've had with games like this: How do you manage to get objects to 'react' to the music, let alone making that a core gameplay mechanic!

I think this is a mindblowing game music-wise for an LD game. Game-wise however, I think it's an okay game. Rhythm games aren't exactly my cup of tea (I don't even like tea) but still, great job!

Ooh, this is pretty neat! I did find that you could double move sometimes on the beat. Really neat concept, I love rhythm games (my entry also is a rhythm game, but a reallly basic attempt at a bare bones rhythm game, first one I've made).

Also, it congratulated me for dying! I found that pretty funny! :D

Awesome concept! Reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer :)

Easily one of the most creative and enjoyable rhythm games I've played! Great music, good art, and solid game-play. High marks all around! Well done!

Absolutely rad game, I love how the music tempo rising from level to level not only makes the game harder but also makes the player stronger, raising the skill ceiling at the same time.
Really nice!

Completely addictive! I definitely plan to play some more later ^_^
I love the increasing intensity og the levels, very well balanced which is rare for a Jam game. I think it has a lot of room for growth and even commercial prospects.

This was ridiculous. You guys know it was awesome. What can say; little more rhythm visualization and we would be rock solid. Very tite game.

Feedback via twitch stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/255427387?t=00h09m58s

@tigerj I just watched the stream. A lot of good feedback in there for us to consider. I appreciate you playing our game and thanks for all the great feedback!

Sorry it took so long, but I finally just published the music at https://johnryanaudio.bandcamp.com/album/elite-beat-zombygons

When I have the time, I will also upload music from past jams, as well as future jams.

And thanks again for the kind words! :loudspeaker: :raised_hands: :sushi: :musical_note:

Beautiful presentation. I think everything here is very well done, and to a high standard.

I have no rhythm, apparently, because I found I could NOT get the hang of the beat, even in the calibration room I would hit 3-4 in a row, and then miss 3-4 in a row. I think maybe in addition to calibration, you should include an error tolerance, so that sloppy drummers such as myself stand a chance.

That was great. The soundtrack was really well done and the gameplay was simple but fun. I wasn't really able to hit the beat too well in the two later songs, which made it a bit frustrating, but when it worked the satisfaction of moving and shooting right in time with the music was superb. I appreciate the calibration that you can do at the beginning, but perhaps a settable difficulty would be nice which would just be that you can control the whole range of when in a beat you can take an action. Great job, I really enjoyed it!

One of the better rhytm games mashups in the LD till now! :smile:

Onto the feedback:

**Overall**
Overall congratulations on your entry, it's well executed entry, good music, graphics worked good in favor.

**Theme**
Good combination of incompatible genres and well executed!

**Graphics**
Graphics are simple but work well. Maybe add some more color variation, there's alot of green. For example, change the color when the enemey loses sides. Add maybe an interesting background, something that would not overwhelm the player though.

**Audio**
As for audio, the rhytm audio in each level is great, nothing that I really can give feedback too. Now the level select audio and the main menu audio are meh in comparison. Make it more rhytm like just like in-game. Have fun with the letters also going on the beat sometimes.
The audio effects are good and fit well for the game, but the shooting and moving audio effects feel too overwhelming as it happens each beat. Make it a more simpler sound that would go almost unnoticed. Or make it so that it feels as an instrument of the music track.

**Gameplay**
Gameplay wise it's nice! Was quite challenging. Took me 3x to complete the last level. The way that the player needs to move on the beat and shoot on the beat feels a bit too much. Especially cause u need to do it with both hands at the same time. Maybe only make the shooting on the beat, or only moving on the beat. Nonetheless, I sugges u add a small indicator/line of the shooting so that it's easier to udnerstand it's trajectory. Cause now many times I missed the enemies because I didn't know where it would shoot, especially cause u normally move at each beat so it changes fast.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the minutes I played the game for, and we understand the hard work needed to create something like this! 😊 Our team also worked hard to create a game for the jam. You can check it out [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/wizsnooks)! 🐳

It looked and sounded wonderful. I didn't have trouble with moving and shooting on the beat, I thought it worked very well, but I can see how that kind of multitasking can be difficult for people with my own game. Really great job!

I really like the concept of this, but it's SOOO difficult. On the first level (after the tutorial) I would be doomed as soon as a couple of hexagons appeared. They would always be so close that they can reach me even if I land all my shots perfectly.
Anyway, I still had fun and would like to see it expanded on. Nice graphics too :smile:

@bunnybreaker Just FYI, you can move. You need to run away from them.

@Archimagus Yeah I know, but it was impossible to outrun them forever. Each step I move, they move too, so I can either run forever or... well that's it, each step I shoot they get closer. It's probably RNGesus screwing me with their spawn positions.

Awesome! But a little too hard :D

Wow, what a ride! Had a grand old time playing it, despite completely forgetting about the option to trigger the special with the right-mouse button. In the tutorial, I completely missed that info, as I was so focused on moving to the beat, that I had no resources left to read ;)

If you want to watch me survive against all odds, then check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUjvukr54GQ

Hey @PhilStrahl Great video, as usual. And thanks so much for playing our game. Also, good feedback. To the full screen/windowed question. Like just about any full screen program Alt+Enter will switch to windowed mode, of course, we should have that in the options menu, but well, Game Jam time :) Also, if you hold shift while launching it, you can get the unity settings launcher thing that will let you chose windowed mode.

I think you are the first person I've seen get to the end of Surely You Will Die. Or, if not the first, then one of very few. It's a hard song, and you didn't even use the super.

@Archimagus Ah, I always forget about the good old Alt+Enter. I guess I am just too used to Unity games always starting with their little launcher. And frankly, I don't know how I made it ~~Through The Fire and the Flames~~ Surely You Will Die but I am quite certain that I'll never be so lucky again ;)

Fantastic rhythm game.

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witchs-escape

I know I have a soft spot for rhythm games with good music and gameplay, but this one really got me. I loved it! The gameplay feels polished and fun, the audio compliments the artistic aesthetic and syncs really nice with the rhythm mechanics!

All around a really solid game!

What a great experience! the beat detection felt really tight, and I really appreciate the effort that went in to give people the chance to callibrate the offset incase there was some audio delay for whichever reason. The sounds used we great, personally I found the movement sound added to the music and I couldnt stop tapping my leg as I was playing. The visuals were relatively simple with the retro / polygon approach, but they were executed well and the glow shader gave it a nice vibe. Great effort <3

It's a really polished entry! I've played other rhythm games in this LD, but I thought this was one of the most finely tuned and synchronized (without delays / laggy input). I had the easiest time on the third (bottom left) stage, I thought the second stage was a little slow.

Some comments, I thought it was sometimes a little unfair when a bunch of enemies spawned right next to you, cutting off all escape routes, its pretty much a sure death. Also, it might be nice if multiple power up pickups could level up your weapon.

@jusw85 Thanks for the comments. Yeah, the spawning is our biggest thing we wish we were able to tune better before the end of the jam. It would be easy to fix, but not for the jam. And yeah, stacking powerups would be great but that was certainly a cut feature for times sake.

Boy I'm glad I'm not epileptic XD. Great game, 10 seizures out of 10

Gameplay-wise I'm getting some strong Necrodancer vibes and does it play great! :heart_eyes:
The amounts of polish is outta this world and the settings, especially the calibration are such a luzury in a jam game. The music is killer, I especially like the Chaos track. I also lover the enemy HP visualisation, although it took me a while to realise the multiplier affected the damage I dealt. I might have been interesting if the multiplier affected piercing instead of damage.

As others mentioned, the spawning is a mark against the game, but other than that it's great.