waveloop by radmars

[raw]
made by radmars for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

waveloop-screen.png

Match the waveforms to break out of the loop!

Controls: * left/right (or A/D) to switch between sounds on the selected track * up/down (or W/S) to change the selected track * spacebar to check correctness. if correct, you may proceed * ESC to exit

Credits: * @adhesion: programming, music * @Ninjavitis: programming * @steakzzz: design

Ratings

Overall 644th 3.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 832th 3.321⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 64th 4.161⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 292th 4.054⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1000th 3.339⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 16th 4.482⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1134th 2.152⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 310th 3.865⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 30🗨️

Feedback

Ree Rolph
06. Oct 2020 · 03:46 UTC
Not entirely sure what to say about this one. I was a bit confused about what I was doing during the game, but it seems like it's basically about layering on different loops in a multi-track song? I guess that fits the theme, but I'm not entirely sure how it's a game. It felt more like a sort of experimental toy. Interesting to play with though.
Spotline
09. Oct 2020 · 08:38 UTC
Very original and enjoyable entry ! The construction of the song really drives you to continue to discover. I wished there was more to the gameplay though, as waveform matching wasn't very thrilling after a while. Maybe some other waveform manipulations to spice things a bit ?
Richard Ortiz
11. Oct 2020 · 19:58 UTC
At first I thought the mechanics were too simple, but when I understood by like Stage 3/4 that you were slowly adding in more complexity, I started to like it a lot more. Its a stark but stunning-looking game, so great job on the art. The music is awesome and literally makes the game. The simple matching system works for how short it is, but if you were to add more stages (recommended if you are continuing development) or songs, I would like to see a little more to the variance. Overall, I liked the game a lot.
Capt.Theo
11. Oct 2020 · 20:07 UTC
Awesome game, I've started without reading controls, with some noice, and was impressed by what it builds up to. Nice job.
niterich
12. Oct 2020 · 20:34 UTC
I like the music track itself, and how the gameplay integrates itself to make a song that naturally builds tension before releasing it by breaking the loop. Unfortunately, I didn't really like the core gameplay itself. I honestly didn't know what exactly the game wanted from me. Did I have to match the waveforms based on shape? Frequency? Are some of the instruments out of tune? Or was it just the track arbitrarily chosen to be the 'right' one?
jk5000
13. Oct 2020 · 20:21 UTC
I can't say I totally understand this game, but I lover the music. I should perhaps understand this game better because in some way it looks and plays a bit like my one LD game. But okay I had fun trying your game, and I love you tried to make something new and interesting. Good Job.
Johnsensei
13. Oct 2020 · 21:28 UTC
The Resident Evil 2 Remake has a mechanic similar to this near the end. I love analogue synthesis and liked the idea. But I swear I've matched the wave, hit space, but can't proceed. Maybe some additional feedback for the player would be helpful.

And thanks for having a Mac version. With something this simple in Unity I would think a web version playable in the browser would be pretty easy to build. The game would get more plays that way.
adhesion
15. Oct 2020 · 00:03 UTC
@johnsensei Thanks for the feedback - the audio matching in the later stages can get pretty subtle, also in some of the last stages you have to turn them back to silence. In retrospect I think that may not be very obvious, so maybe you were running into that.

Also, I was planning on doing a Unity web build primarily, but at the last minute I found out that a bunch of the audio APIs I relied on to do the waveform calculation just straight-up don't work on the Unity webGL platform so I had to switch to desktop builds :(
blobo
15. Oct 2020 · 01:02 UTC
Wow! This is such an amazing concept. I'm genuinely in awe! One of the coolest games I've played the entire Jam, and I've almost hit my goal of playing two hundred. The music is incredibly well made, and I love how, not only does this game have dynamic music, but it's the entire focus of the game! One of the very few 5 star ratings I've given in audio, and it absolutely deserves it. Bravo! Incredible work all around.
Blue Pin Studio
15. Oct 2020 · 01:11 UTC
At first i didnt understand what was going on or what to do, but then i fell in love! such an amazing entry. I love how the different tracks play such an important role in the the overall sound. Its very cool that you had me go back to previous tracks and change them. Very good!

My only suggestion is to find a more graceful way to end the loop, when i only had 1 track left and i had to silence it, switching between the different tracks sounded very abrupt and kind of brought me out the immersion. Very good submission tho
MayChant
16. Oct 2020 · 02:45 UTC
This is very unique. I like the way the music develops through the level progression. It's nice that the entire game just loops back to the first level, too since it's like looping back to the start of the music. It's not immediately when the tracks are supposed to be turned back to silence though and I only realized they're wrong when I checked correctness.
Lychee
16. Oct 2020 · 07:03 UTC
The graphics and music were both really pretty. The way the instruments built on each other was really cool and creative, very artistic. I'd love to see what more you could do with this concept!
tammukka
17. Oct 2020 · 15:39 UTC
A very interesting game, I was discovering new things throughout the run. Loved the atmosphere, I hope to see more of this!
Jezzamon
17. Oct 2020 · 16:31 UTC
Really well done!

I think this game could use a little bit of work on the UI, as parts of it were a bit confusing at first, I had to go back and re-read the instructions to understand what was happening. I also wonder if it'd be easier to understand if the tracks weren't overlaid on each other but shown above each other?

But yes, the music was great! I was sort of disappointed that there weren't more stages, I feel like I would've had fun playing with those other track variations :)
Palemek
17. Oct 2020 · 16:44 UTC
Graphic simplicity was great(thou a little blurry at moments), and discovering a song was really innovative, but in gameplay i was feeling more like i was testing each of the waves, instead of trying to adjust them.
In the terms of being a musical experience, it was awesome!
Emperor Eagle
20. Oct 2020 · 02:53 UTC
Original idea! I liked how you interpreted the theme! I was confused as I thought I had matched the tracks and wavelengths correctly but it wouldn't let me advance (that's just me not really getting how to play the game). I liked how the audio worked with the gameplay and quite liked your splash screen. The audio and dark backgrounds created a good mood so I have given you good marks there. Overall, good effort (just some more instruction, even a tutorial, would be nice). :)
hijomo
21. Oct 2020 · 00:55 UTC
That was an experience. I really enjoyed it. Great use of the theme.
hijomo
21. Oct 2020 · 00:55 UTC
That was an experience. I really enjoyed it. Great use of the theme.
Jonathan Lorenz
22. Oct 2020 · 15:18 UTC
I don't really know if it is a game, but I definitively had fun. I would have loved to have a way to go back to previously completed "rounds", so the player could make his "mix" of the music. Good job!
TolMera
25. Oct 2020 · 02:13 UTC
Any chance of an HTML Version? I know it's pretty close to the deadline, but I only have my work Mac and I can't install stuff on that.
imod
26. Oct 2020 · 19:02 UTC
Very interesting! Sounds very nice!
adhesion
26. Oct 2020 · 23:38 UTC
@tolmera Unfortunately the audio APIs we need to do the waveform drawing just don't work on Unity webGL builds :(