Party Spirit by 7ko

[raw]
made by 7ko for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Despite being dead, you bring life to the party - you are the party spirit. Not every party rocks as much as it should. Luckily for some of these dead parties you are there to liven them up. Use your rhythm-based spirit powers to bring the right people together; and turn a dumpster fire of a party, into a party that involves dumpster fires.

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This game is made together with HB0SS. Although we've got the core of the game running, key-features are still missing, as well as a balancing of the levels and stereotyped NPC characters. This means that the game now mostly functions as a toy-box - seeing how mechanics based on bringing together NPCs (and our particular implementations of the behavior of the NPCs) play out. Most of the fun stems from seeing interacting systems; not from playing a tight 'rhythm action puzzler', which is what the game should (have) become.

Feedback is appreciated both on how to improve on the systems themselves, as well as providing ideas on ways forward for turning these systems into more tight gameplay experiences.

We are quite happy with the results of our first Ludum Dare, on to the next game jam!!!partyspiritcover.png

Ratings

Given 5🗳️ 0🗨️

Feedback

skico
22. Apr 2020 · 11:22 UTC
its a party on the dance floor, but only after i got involved ;) hahaha fun little game, had no idea what to do to begin with but i don't read tutorials, i dive in :P was a fun little game!
kjscott
22. Apr 2020 · 16:18 UTC
The music was good but the speed of the beat was difficult for me as someone who has always found rhythm and shmup games particularly difficult, it felt like there was only a frame or two in order to get the right keyboard input in. At times I would spend ages just simply not moving because I couldn't seem to find the exact right time to hit the key.

Instead of maybe not moving, just cause it to release a person from the list but still allow you to move around so at least it makes you feel like you're doing something other than failing.

One weird thing my person managed to go underneath the stage? I was busy looking at the success/failure of my inputs and by the time I looked back I had disappeared.

When I got something going it was fun, rewarding, and a good atmosphere to the game. The graphics were really great alongside the lighting effects.

For those people who can play a game like this, probably going to be a really great and novel experience on the genre. Would definitely like to see more put into it.
MrArc
25. Apr 2020 · 22:39 UTC
I didn't get how to do anything, other than move around on the beat.

One technical question though: What game engine did you use and how did you get the controls and music to stay in sync? Last LD we did a rhythm game and had trouble getting it working in HTML5. We used Phaser for that one.
MiggyG
25. Apr 2020 · 22:46 UTC
Liked the art style and sfx, the music was good too. The game was difficult to get a grasp of. It took a while to be able to get the right rhythm and have the others fall into your spell, but once it came together it was enjoyable and fun.. Perhaps slowly building the rhythm or allowing a bit of more a tolerance.
dingotime
25. Apr 2020 · 22:52 UTC
Nice graphics and music. The main problem that I had was missing the beat - I think a sound latency calibration is usually necessary for this type of game - unfortunately not the kind of the thing we have time to do in a game jam! I could tell that on my computer I was better off rushing the beat - then it would always register. In any case, good job! I've been thinking about making a rhythm game, so I love playing other people's rhythm games.
Steffo
26. Apr 2020 · 00:32 UTC
Nice! The controls remind me a bit of [Crypt of the Necrodancer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/Crypt_of_the_NecroDancer/)... Good job!