Really interesting game! I would have preferred if I could trigger the rage mechanic myself though. Nice cohesive art style and impressive use of sound.
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Songbird's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Originality | #32 | 4.376 | 4.376 |
Overall | #98 | 4.040 | 4.040 |
Presentation | #118 | 4.312 | 4.312 |
Fun | #346 | 3.688 | 3.688 |
Ranked from 125 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
In our game taking damage gives rage. Maxing out rage makes you lose control of your saxophone in favor of a melee frenzy which will in turn make you lose access to a musical note for a short period of time.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all audio during the game jam
Comments
This was awesome! I loved the different songs, the combat, and the rage mechanic. I felt like the movement shouldn't change based on the direction you're facing however, because it kind of takes the control out of the game. YES, I know it's obvious that's the theme of the jam but a game that doesn't control well still isn't fun. I did get used to the controls pretty quickly so it didn't matter too much, but it was still jarring at first. Also, was it intentional to use the song of time from Zelda OoT? As someone who also composes music I know that it can be pretty easy to accidentally copy a song that you can't remember at the time, so I was just curious. Either way, this game was a blast and definitely my favorite of this game jam!
I really enjoyed using the numpad to cast spells! The character felt a little hard to control, and I kept getting stuck on walls, but having to multitask dodging shots and casting spells was really fun!
Thank you for enjoying our game! For the level bug, I forgot to disable player movement once you reach the level exit so if the player leaves the level trigger it'll say they can go to the next level even if they can't. So if you go back inside the level exit door then press enter it should work, sorry you had that happen in your playthrough!
NICE! I had problems with moving the character (a lot of walls/weird turns) but rest was just purrrfect!
I really like the concept, and the use of the numpad is genius! It's weird to say, but it almost feels like a flight sim or some other thing where you control something complex: with one hand on WASD and the other on the numpad. That said, I struggled quite a bit with the controls, I seemed to move relative to how the character was facing which could get really confusing given the fixed perspective. After the second level I wasn't able to progress any further: the enter key didn't work, but I think the idea is definitely there! With some more work this could make a fantastic game!
I like the cute art and the idea, almost reminds me of a musical Helldivers. I think this game would benefit from controls similar to that game but all in all this is one of the better games I've tried during the jam and I'd love to see a more expanded version.
This game is incredible! The sound design is amazing, and completely immerses you in the world, (the zelda reference made me so happy!) and the art style is iconic and memorable, and I want to play more!! Y'all should be so proud of this game, it's one of the very best I've seen all jam. Great job!
I love the idea behind this game! It's really satisfying when you start memorizing the spells and can rapid fire cast them :) Beautiful audio and visuals as well!
If I can offer one criticism, it's that it never feels good when the controls aren't synced with camera. In other words, I think this game would have benefited from free flowing movement rather than four-directional constrained movement.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concept! Great job!
Nice concept and visuals!
Sometimes I was'nt able to cast spells even before rage and using the right order of notes, but I think that can be fixed in the post-jam version.
Nice Job!
Your idea is great for sure. Very original and the presentation is nice. It really shows you did the art and audio yourself, it fits like a glove to your theme and looks cute (especially when angry).
My criticism is the controls. I like the mechanics, but I had such trouble managing the controls! six notes makes sense, but I certainly could barely get shots off in the heat off battle, and the movement not being relative to the camera confused me a lot (though it IS the norm for iso games, so I get your choice :) ). It fit the theme, but was sooo hard to figure out.
I think cutting the notes some could have helped - as could not starting pretty essential spells (like healing) with five notes. Mind you, I'm not that good with games, so it might just be me being very bad at input combinations D:
Thank you so much for the feedback! I 100% agree with the controls, I'm not a fan of the character controller, I def made him too floaty and his movement is a lot more unintuitive than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if I agree with cutting down the required notes for healing specifically but I think changing fireball to two then introducing the spells so that each new one requires one more note would have been a lot better of a learning curve. Def going to release a new build after the jam taking balance far more into consideration!
It looks and sounds fantastic, however it was pretty frustrating to play overall. Having to change sheets with the mouse while your hands are occupied with wasd and numpad was clunky and the camera was a bit hard.
I look forward to seeing this one develop!
I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of music sheets that give you special abilities (it's, personally more interesting than the rage mechanic which fits in with the jam's theme). There was an issue in going to the next level but I found out how to do it :) I will say that maybe for new players, (who don't read sheet music) they may find the notation confusing (e.g. for the healing spell they go by order of number instead of left to right) I really liked this game! Good job :)
I learned how to spam lighting at the beginning of the level. Is that cheating? after using the tune abilities over and over, muscle memory became a thing :)
If there is one thing that bothered me, it is the movement. pressing up makes you move diagonally up. It doesn't feel too natural. Eventually, I got a hang of it. Then there was also the door incident which I dm you about.
Asides from that, I enjoyed the mechanics of the game! the graphics are charming and memorable. The rage was fun and I used it to my advantage.
Yeah, def should have made lightning only work within more of a range of the player. Movement and the character controller are 100% what I want to work on improving the most in a new build so I'll probably ditch the diagonal movement entirely once I do that. Thank you so much for playing and I'm glad that you enjoyed it!
So I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. On one hand, there's the amazing music and art, with a very nice Oot like idea (would have been so cool to have a music like the main menu music in levels, where the key and chords always fit the notes you can play). On the other hand, there's some pretty janky gameplay, with a perspective that makes movement a real pain, quick numpad progressions that often fail (i feel wind reflect should have a longer effect), and the janky end of level enter collision. I think the game went a bit too much into the action aspect of it, which I think is just too hard to be fun, and didnt delve enough into the beauty of the art and music. I would have seen it more as a contemplative game but oh well. As for fitting the theme, I feel the rage mechanic was kind of pushed in just to fit that, though it isnt what drives the game. Id love to see what you could do with this game post jam, after a whole lot of feedback from people, because it honestly has potential to be a very cool game.
There is no way you wouldnt give this 5 stars . This is such an original idea, with an amazing and adcting gameplay, i will definetely follow this and wait for a full release, you've something special here!
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