AGENTS RHYTHM & RAID by LDJam user 372231
https://nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid
How to Play
Move: Arrow Keys
Attack / Receive Signals: A / S / D / F
During battle, use A, S, D, and F to attack enemies.
When you enter Signal Mode, incoming signals will move toward the markers. Hit the matching key (A, S, D, or F) when the signal reaches it to learn a new attack technique.
AGENTS RHYTHM & RAID
Your mission is to defeat hostile aliens and collect their biomaterial. After each raid, the samples are sent to Agent Rhythm for analysis. He will process them and transmit new combat techniques back to you.
The game switches between two modes: fighting aliens as Agent Raid and decoding incoming signals as Agent Rhythm. Each successful transmission unlocks a new ability that will help you survive against stronger enemies.
But there is one problem: the signal is unstable.
To receive new attack techniques, you must synchronize with Agent Rhythm by catching the incoming signals. Fight on the battlefield, collect biomaterial, and stay connected.
Good luck, Agent.
Credits:
Programming, game design – David Skvorsow https://www.instagram.com/skvorsow
Game art, game design – Nadia Kazakovtseva https://www.behance.net/nadiakazakovtseva
| WEB | https://nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/agents-rhythm-raid |
Ratings
| Overall | 555th | 3.403⭐ | 95🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 545th | 3.21⭐ | 95🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 619th | 3.039⭐ | 92🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 754th | 2.783⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 279th | 4.021⭐ | 96🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 308th | 3.571⭐ | 94🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 419th | 2.778⭐ | 81🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 455th | 3.581⭐ | 88🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 124🗳️ | 144🗨️ |
But why is only half the screen visible? I can’t see the whole interface.
Also, it gets stuck after defeating monsters and can’t quickly move on to the next level!
Yeah, you caught a real bug there! The D key cooldown was broken. Fixed now, thanks for pointing it out.
Appreciate the note on substance too. We're pushing the mechanics further next time.
Haha thanks, appreciate it! And no worries, This site has its own mysterious ways
Thank you, really glad you liked the animations and feel!
Yeah, there were issues with the HUD, partly because the game was running with two cameras at the same time. We fixed that, so it should display correctly now and not get stuck after fights (praying hands emoji)
Thank you!! We really tried to make those abilities feel good to use, so I’m super happy it landed 🙏
Could you describe what you did and what went wrong? Was the animation not responsive, or did nothing happen at all?
When the ball matches the receiver, pressing the corresponding key (ASDF depending on the lane) should trigger a hit on the ball. If you don’t press in time, you should hear a sound cue.
Your feedback would help a lot, thanks!
That’s the dream! I’ll tag you here when we sign the Netflix deal haha
Thanks!!
Thanks a lot for such a detailed comment, really appreciate it! Glad the rhythm idea clicked after a bit and that you noticed the Y2K vibe, we were really aiming for that, so it’s great to hear it came through.
About the S slash.. I’ve seen that issue on fullscreen Web version on Mac (works fine on my PC/ Chrome). When not in fullscreen it seems fine on PC and Mac. Gonna dig into it after a short break. Thanks again!
Not sure I fully got what you mean, but I’m glad the game helped you to achieve your goals haha
Thank you all for the kind words about the visuals and animation! Another shiny gem straight from our genius pixel artist 😎😎😎
Thanks a lot! Yeah, there was an issue with the slash in fullscreen, but in browser window it seems fine. Did you play in fullscreen? Would really appreciate your feedback!
Hearing that you enjoyed it this much makes all the effort worth it! Thank you!
great progression and lots of mechanics, very impressive in a jam game! its the kind of game that makes it really easy to point out things that aren't perfect, because you can imagine a "fully realized" version easily and its really good already.
I was surprised at first that the action phase wasn't tile based or rhythm based, i expected something crypt of the necrodancer-ish.
Overall, I say you have the start of something really cool here, but the balance of the attacks feels off and it's hard to get much to connect.
thank you so much!
yeah, the title kind of hints that the whole game could be rhythm-based. at some point i even wanted to sync attacks with the music, like giving bonus damage for hitting on beat, but that idea didn’t make it in the end.
thanks again for playing and for the thoughtful feedback!
thank you so much! really glad you enjoyed the progression and the abilities, and happy to hear the music worked for you too!
you need to use A S D F to catch the balls, each lane has its own key. there is now a small tutorial image in the game that explains this. Your comment made me realize it was really needed, thank you for that!
i’ve fixed the issues you mentioned. the balance is still far from perfect, but it’s the best i could manage within the jam time. i already have some ideas on how to improve the balance further, just planning to take a short break first.
i’d really appreciate it if you could try the post-jam version on itch:
nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid
thanks again, your feedback was super valuable, it helped me a lot!
thank you all! really glad you liked it!
sorry you didn't get to properly play the game. it’s been fixed now, and you can try the post-jam version.
thanks again, really glad you had a good time with it!
nadiapixel.itch.io/agents-rhythm-and-raid
Still, fun idea to mix two type of game to unlock new abilities!
Even better, I did this in survival mode and now I can survive forever
Graphics are really impressive, it's definitely by far the most polished aspect of the game. I has fun though, keep it up!
I would have liked more audio and visual feedback for hitting enemies, because I never knew when I hit someone. Louder sound effects during the decoding sequences (I think there was a drum in it when you successfully hit the buttons) would also help in this area.
I like the overall art of the game. The UI is stylised and fits very nicely to the game. The music was fitting too. It is cool that you implemented different enemies. I also dig the character designs. :)
thank you for the feedback!
i honestly didn’t even think about spamming asdf in the signal mode, so i didn’t treat it as a miss. i’ve fixed it now, your comment really helped to improve the game, thank you!
glad you liked the vibe :) yeah, i’ve adjusted the balance a bit, hopefully it feels better now haha
thank you for the comment!
i added a small cooldown to S, it’s still the main attack but you can’t spam it endlessly anymore. really appreciate you pointing that out!
also curious, how did you end up outside the map? i’ve never seen that happen 😄
thank you! really glad you had fun!
yes, that’s the final boss. after beating him you unlock the last ability and can try to survive as long as possible in survival mode.
thank you!
i’ve tweaked the balance a bit, it should feel a bit easier now :)
thank you!
i took your feedback into account, hopefully the balance feels a bit better now.
thank you!
that’s fair, the hitbox was quite small. i’ve made some adjustments to the balance, so it should feel a bit more manageable now. really appreciate the feedback!
thank you!
yeah, i’ve adjusted the balance a bit, it should feel a bit better now. really glad you liked music and visuals!
thanks!
i actually tried syncing the rhythm part with the music at first, but it felt too easy with clear audio/visual cues. then i experimented with speeding things up, which meant speeding up the music too, and that started to sound weird, so i dropped that idea.
maybe i’ll find a way to make it work in a way that feels good and not forced. thanks again!
thank you for the feedback!
based on your comment, i added a hit sound effect :)
that’s unfortunate 😄
but at least the letter keys are there!
thank you for such detailed feedback!
really happy you mentioned the dummies, we’re kind of proud of them haha :)
about the audio, S has both hit and miss sounds, and the laser has its own too. but when combined with enemy death sounds it turned into a bit of a mess, so i removed some of it. probably needs better separation in audio design, just didn’t have enough time to polish it properly.
really appreciate you pointing this out, it’s important!
thank you for the feedback!
yeah, the game was partly meant to feel a bit unforgiving, where you need skill and a bit of luck 😄
but your comment made me realize that an instant restart after death could’ve helped keep the flow instead of breaking it with a stats screen. definitely something to think about, thanks for that insight!
Another little piece of feedback is that I thought the dance sequence was an animation/cutscene at first, loading a new map/mode, because majority of the screen was taken by the screen that started with "Decoding..." (just felt to me like loading a new game!). I realized after a bit and started actually pushing the buttons :)
I really liked the dancing guy animation though, reminded me of Jet Set Radio!
Nice work, team.
https://youtu.be/65hZqclL31Y
thank you for the feedback!
dodging hits is actually part of the enemy behavior. as for the teleport, some enemies have a dash attack where they quickly move to the player and deal damage.
but maybe i misunderstood your comment and something unintended happened. would be great if you could clarify what you meant!
yeah, that little guy just really wanted the spotlight haha but you’re right, it’s a bug, he should’ve disappeared. thanks for catching it and for the screenshot!
about the dance sequence, there is a hint with arrows pointing to the other screen, but i totally agree it should be clearer right away, not only after reading everything. really helpful that you pointed this out!
and nice catch with jet set radio! i love the visual style, even though i’ve never actually played it — maybe it’s time to fix that!
really glad the skip option was useful! some players mentioned the difficulty, so i wanted to make sure people could still see more of the game without getting stuck for too long 😄
appreciate you giving it a try and sticking with it!
just a heads up, the video is based on the original jam version, and a lot of the issues there have already been fixed. it was honestly a bit painful to watch knowing that laser cooldown was at 0 and the F ability wasn’t working at all back then 😄
Thank you for adding the stage skip so you can get the abilities to try out - there were sometimes in the earlier stages where it didn't feel quite as balanced or achievable as the latter stages.
Melody was simple but fitting, and it would be cool in later builds if the better you do, the better it builds the melody or something like that.
The pixel art, and the art in general was the highlight of this one imo. That and survival mode. The dash almost feels like it should be the 'main move' since you can teleport on the beat to an enemy.
Amazing that you got all this done in three days! Great job!
I also got the impression that the rhythm game reacts to the player—if you start hesitating, the tempo slows down, which is a nice touch.
However, it would be better if the rhythm controls were mapped more intuitively. For me, for example, arrow keys would work better than A / S / D / F.
What could be done better in my opinion:
- longer track! Especially noticeable in rhythm section, it was far too repetitive. I would even have fun in endless mode as simple as it is now, but the 6 seconds loop killed the fun for me unfortunately
- pressing escape reset the game and I needed to start from the beginning. Was expecting a pause menu with some info/settings, and not resetting my progress :(
- Couldn't beat "two tough guys" even after several attempts. Probably it's possible to outrun them and kill with the last ability, but it would take toooo much time
Otherwise, good game, keep it up!
It does give me the impression that it was victim to a bit too broad a scope, though. As cool as the presentation of agent rhythm's section is, I think it would have been more compelling to just focus on the combat section and give it more polish. It took me a load of tries to beat the first level because I couldn't figure out why the slash wasn't hitting. Seems like the range is super short! As others have said, compared to the D attack, that makes things much more trivial. One thing I didn't see anyone talking about was I'm not sure what the F ability does? I couldn't get it to do anything. Was that intended?
This might all have been addressed in your post-jam version, so feel free to ignore it if that's the case! Well done on making everything that you did, and there's a solid concept here.
The combat section was fun, but the rhythm to catch the signal felt a bit incomplete, like not knowing how many I had missed/collected until the end, compared to something like a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game which gives immediate feedback to that.
Still, had a lot of fun playing this and would like to see a more polished version in the future!