Rhythm Doctor game design thread!
#7thbeatdev
This quote from Yoko Taro has been a guiding principle for me for a lot of the game design of our games since I read it.
Specifically about the idea of how to do effective surprises in game design
Trombone Champ makes a few design decisions that other rhythm games wouldn't do, some to help it be funnier! It's fascinating to me so I wanted to list them out:
#7thbeatdev
The Taiwanese bubble tea franchise KOI is named that because KOI looks like the character ่ฑ rotated 90 degrees, which means beans. Thanks to my good friends for explaining this to me, it enriched my life
1. Use of majority public domain songs. Normally rhythm games, especially indie ones, would focus on an original OST to help carve out its niche. But here, the humour is letting you make a bad trombone cover of a song *you already know*
The world's first trombone rhythm game is instantly a GOTY contender. And no, I'm not kidding. Turn up the volume and hear Beethoven like you've never heard it before.
That's because its goal is to let you feel like you're a competent musician. It's the total opposite of what Trombone Champ wants you to feel. Here there is zero quantization, so you get all the human mistakes that make it funny. Even playing a major scale can be hilarious:
Canon in D is a 'canon' because it has two identical melody lines, offset from each other. Here's a representation using two cars on the same musical road (with the top-left car just providing a repeating bass), showing there's no tricks.
#7thbeattheory
Trombone Champ gets a bunch of laughs from having the most grandiose songs, like anthems and 2001: A Space Odyssey, because they accentuate this contrast between how it should sound, and how you're playing it.
Similar to why this type of video is funny: because you know how its supposed to go, so the contrast of what you hear in your head and what you actually hear makes you laugh
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this, Be sure to eat some baked beans. This thread was really an excuse to subject you to my trombone playing..
Rock Band footage from
2. No quantization. In e.g. Rock Band, being milliseconds off will keep your guitar on time because it's just playing a pre-made guitar track. When you miss, the guitar track mutes only after starting to play already. So you only hear perfect notes (in time and pitch), or silence
How does it solve this? This leads to 4: The scoring is not about timing at all! Since the attack isn't very clear, it doesnt make sense to judge on timing like most rhythm games. Instead, very uniquely, it's about how on-pitch you are through the note
Also the only game i can think where you can see the pattern of a major scale on the guide lines on the left! The inverted mouse control scheme further pushes it to be more difficult to help you laugh at your own playing, and it doesnt penalize freestyling so you can have fun!
Why do so many gamedevs like rock climbing/bouldering?? Is it cause when you see the routes youre all like "wow such splendid level design!" or smth. Are you just like "what an elegant problem, Miyamoto would love this!"
3. (trombone jumpscare) Hitsounds with pretty long attacks. This is the trombone waveform, ~50ms to reach its peak! Rhythm games tend to have maybe +-50-100ms for their strictest timing window, so an instrument with a soft attack would usually be too subjective to feel fair
Finally
#1
paid game, selling above minecraft, an 8 year old game, in Korea specifically, on the Play store!! Life will never be as good. Thanks
@issac_choy
for the pic and thanks korea for liking our game~
We won! Here's the thank you speech i gave, but I'd like to also add extra thanks : our localizers!
@wopaworks
for the amazing key art and UI work! notDonte for the bug reporting. Everyone on adofai team!
Thank you for the outpouring of love everyone, im really touched ๐
It's ADOFAI's 4th anniversary today! Game design trivia: normally the game has an 'Overload' mechanic to stop you mashing, if you mispress too many times. But on the last few tiles of each level, it's secretly turned off so you will never fail by mashing..
#7thbeatdev
Relaying anonymous DMs to me today from someone who worked at Persona Theory Games: yelling, verbal abuse, but the weirdest thing was how they would make you 'nameless' until you earned the right to have your name. What type of psychological manipulation is this?
Saqina's game studio, Persona Theory Games, has been accused of sexual harassment, covering up said incidents, and other workplace misconduct.
She should not represent the Malaysian game industry on the future of inclusivity.
TGA should conduct investigation on their nominees.
I was asked to write a short list of things I learnt from releasing a game as a first-time developer. It's very specific to my situation, but maybe some points will apply to you!
Rhythm Doctor IGF nominated for Audio! Thanks to the judges for playing and choosing it! wow!!
(and honorable mention for the Grand Prize... whoever fought for it, thank you, maybe in another lifetime...)
Tangle Tower feels like someone played lots of Layton / lucasarts / Phoenix Wright and decided to fix all the weak points in them all. Really clever puzzles and story! The โbg music using melodies from sheet music you find in the gameโ thing always gets me. And itโs got jokes
I've missed a lot the past weeks - cause i got married earlier this month! And I'm around GDC / SF this week with lots of the 7BG crew. DMs open, let me know if you'd like to meet. I have literally nothing planned...
Also ignore your gamedev heroes who tell you your game sucks and you should work on something else
(actual serious advice: don't idolize anyone you dont know personally. Please please dont. Opinions of your friends and game's fans are way more important)
Facebook reminded me that 12 years ago today we did this dance for a school production hahaha. This is like 'look at my baby photos' but the gimmick reveal moment still makes me laugh. Feels like an indie game mechanic
7 days to Rhythm Doctor's release, one thought a day! watch me slowly get more deranged as i play the optimising sleep game of how little is just enough that can keep me efficient and creative but not increase too much my risk of alzheimers and dying early when im older
this is a huge moment, never before seen - the biggest website (top 600 worldwide) afaik that's done a front page banner for this. Especially from a country where boycotting โฑหขสณแตแตหก is straight up illegal in some states, they could lose sponsor funding, jobs etc.
Now that our big update is out, my primary goal for the next two months is to play all my friends games that i never got to. Those that i congratulate on release but never actually played. I will play them all, i will appreciate your life's work fully and thoroughly
Today it's 10 years since the very first prototype of Rhythm Doctor that I showed Winston. I think 10-years-ago-me would never have started if he knew it would take 10 years lmao. But also he would be pretty impressed with how it's turned out. Life is strange (2 before the storm)
At a Korean restaurant, halfway through the meal someone comes to us and says 'I hope I'm not disturbing you. Have you heard of SQUID GAME? ...Do you want to play a game?' and we had to select a symbol from a bag. Help
No one outside this games memes niche will understand the significance of getting a siivagunner rip on your song but it makes me so happy, what a high quality rip. whoever you are anonymous selfless person, thank you
Did you know they made a whole multiplayer mod of ADOFAI just for this tournament?? Between that and this whole stream setup and production, its so ridiculous what people are doing with ADOFAI these days!!
ADOFAI fans from
@adofaigg
have been organizing the ADOFAI World Cup. Today was the finals. Here's a moment from LORELEI by
@cametek
that we commissioned for the tournament!
Check out all the matches at . Grateful to everyone making competitive ADOFAI real!
Our first major story update, the Act 5 Update, will be releasing on October 21st, 2023!
This update picks the story up right where you left off. It adds a new ward to the hospital with a new patient, a new type of heartbeat, and of course a new set of levels.
โค๏ธ๐ต
@dvdfu
YES I have always wanted a viral tweet just to be able to reject shopify dropshippers selling some aliexpress item at 3x the price. Living vicariously through this thank you TT
After 1.5h over the last few days: This is the best kind of game for a game developer, instantly showing me a whole new philosophy of games with that I can't wait to put into practice in a future game. Suddenly I am so inspired. This review puts it best
we're almost at 150 positive reviews, in just three days!!!
thanks so much to everyone who's been playing, making videos and hanging out in the discord <3
10-email customer support with a player unable to load levels in our game. Only in the last email for them to send a screenshot showing that they pirated the game and were trying to download levels from some 'steamworkshopdownloader' site
(1/7) 7 days to Rhythm Doctor Act 5 release: here we go again! We are all ~2.6 years older now. Today: just some entries from the past days from my co-host. (it is an amazing site with smart and healthy features and I have full trust in their dev team at this point)
#7thbeatdev
7 days to Rhythm Doctor's release, one thought a day! watch me slowly get more deranged as i play the optimising sleep game of how little is just enough that can keep me efficient and creative but not increase too much my risk of alzheimers and dying early when im older
@7thbeat
@tenebramortis_
@indiefyapp
I'm very sorry for this unfortunate issue ! I ask 2 days ago to this fake "artist" to provide me stuff, and proof. He can't.
I did the necessary thing, and ask removal of this album.
Thanks for your notice.
found a vs code extension that would toggle booleans in one keystroke! this was the result of testing it on a line. would still recommend 10/10
#7thbeatdev
I support you robtop! I know how it feels! Remember health comes first! You are still the greatest gamedev and making it before or after christmas break wont change that!
#RobTopHugs
Found out Jack Lance just passed away. He made many amazing puzzle games, play some in his memory:
I recommend Torus Tours if you're not hardcore, and I'm Too Far Gone for something challenging. I came back after 3 years and solved it.
Thanks for such kind comments. I always have a fear that the replies will turn into 'why is it not done??' and i'm reassured when it hasn't. Work is really moving on finishing the story these days. Can't wait for the day we wrap it up and can have a good final RD celebration!!
Today's the 2-Year Anniversary of Rhythm Doctor on Steam Early Access!
Thank you to the thousands of people who have played the game, streamed their playthroughs, drawn amazing fanart, and shared custom levels.
The best interns a doctor could ask for ๐ต
@tha_rami
Malaysia and Peru (
@giacomopc
)! Rhythm Doctor, one-button hardcore rhythm game inspired by Rhythm Heaven, out on PC & Switch this year.
Browser demo:
Gameplay footage:
Check our SparkLine, a great rhythm game from Indonesia! Seeing a chart of our music in another game is always so satisfying when it's done well. Thanks for the collab!
Announcing the
#SparkLine
x 7th Beat Games collab... The glory, and honor of being part in this collab is ours!
SparkLine x 7th Beat Games ใณใฉใใฌใผใทใงใณ็บ่กจ... ใใฎใณใฉใใซๅๅ ใใๆ ๅ ใจๅ่ชใฏๆใ ใฎใใฎใ ๏ผ
#ADOFAI
#RhythmDoctor
Today is the 8th anniversary of this calibration screen in ADOFAI. This pink has survived until today! But the font hasnt.. beautiful font..
#7thbeatdev
woa review spike on Rhythm Doctor! Wild guess, you have to review a game to vote for it in the Steam Awards, and these people are voting for it? Whoevers voting for RD thank you so much TT
I understand Charlie /
@akiracomplex
was a huge influence on the rhythm game scene, and my heart's out to everyone who had a connection to them and their music. RIP
@hyeNuha
This sounds so logical, maybe you can ask for proof like that instead of "way to push your agenda" and it won't come across like you're defending racism next time
This is the first time since release that we've used the custom drum box that our friend victor made for us, it works great! Thanks
@shawnbecktp
you have steady filming hands
#adofai
#LevelUpKL
FNF kickstarter blowin up, always warms my heart to see online-demo games transition into commercial successesโค๏ธespecially when its done without a bloodsucking publisher taking 30% of all revenue globally by convincing you they're needed ayyy, anyway game design thoughts time:
Everyone please look at this Big Triangle. If you dont know this game, the circles move at a constant 180 degrees to a beat, so these shapes just appear out of the music itself. My soul is enlightened. Level by Lyoug, music from Meshuggah
#adofai
Donation to emergency aid via Viva Palestina Malaysia, roughly $2,929 USD equivalent. (after estimated tax/refunds, my personal portion)
Thank you all for your donations-via-RD! Hope you enjoyed the game! Follow
@zei_squirrel
for some great tweet-sized historical education daily.
And I'll be donating my own portion of RD's sales this week to Viva Palestina Malaysia. For what use is my work if not this. If you've bought the game then that's where part of your money will go, to keep Gaza civilians alive, thank you for supporting them
So cool to see RDL here on r/place, thanks to the community for doing this and making alliances to defend it! There is so much coordination involved. They even had RD samurai and adofai planets at one point, RIP
I still can't believe
@itchio
is just 6 people. It has 100,000 games now and it still runs like a dream. Is this the website with the biggest traffic-to-staff-size ratio in the world
The bouldering place i go to (bump bouldering) set up a two-climber problem for valentines! Both the pink and blue routes have a part in them that requires the other person to provide support. Literally co-op puzzle platformer
It didn't fully hit me until now, how some AAA gameplay is just something any indie could make, but with 1000000x aesthetics. Like, complicated looking games != advanced game design. It's very encouraging as a game designer
"isn't that obvious" i know! but it hits different ok
Posting community-made content of your game is like sharing baby photos: they mean much more only to you compared to other people.
But the triplet flow switchup in this Hamilton rap is so satisfyingly charted that I must share!! Level by plastermaster & gang, video by notDonte
If anyone's there: i'm giving a talk about Rhythm Doctor's game design at Taipei Game Developers Forum in 10 mins!
(its prerecorded ha but i put a lot of effort, its like a video essay thing ok, im mark brown, thank you for watching)
Level Up KL was so good, reminded me how nice it is to have just a reason for people to come and meet again. Recently, being inspired feels more tangible to me. Nice to be able to contribute as a speaker this year too
Just played through this, this was extremely good, 30 min ghost story, lovely ending. Best malaysian made game i've played and most malaysian too!
@CellarVault
Partner got some ADOFAI 5-X Midnight Train themed macarons for my bday !! so sweet TT
(by @/oh_mypie on IG, original art by the one and only @/kylelabriola!!)
Really happy with how this world turned out! Look at our insistent use of unswung dotted octagon rhythms in a swing-time piece. Music and level by
@Riya_440Hz
. I contributed the piano solo near the end & misc design haha. Perfect play from Nichipe:
#adofai
.
@indiefyapp
someone uploaded my own music to your platform and started claiming monetization on Rhythm Doctor gameplay videos. I'm so tired of this, can you help