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A jam submission

Soulstix: Move to the Groove!View game page

Jump, slide, punch, and switch gravity to the beat with Comet!
Submitted by Ben Kurtin (@ThisIsBennyK) — 3 hours, 53 minutes before the deadline
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Soulstix: Move to the Groove!'s itch.io page

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I really appreciate the absence of a "death" / game over state in this; for some reason, despite having made a runner game myself (albeit not a rhythm one), my silly fingers kept wanting to hold the buttons instead of repeatedly tapping them where necessary, so I did pretty terribly, but appreciate the game itself nonetheless!

Developer

Thanks! I didn’t think a death screen was necessary for a game like this, so I’m glad you appreciate it.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Wow great work Ben! I can tell you're a rhythm game enthusiast with song maps like these! The response from key inputs feels quick and sharp, so you can just focus on the music. I'd love to know more about your workflow in Godot. Did you create data files for the beat maps, or use the scene editor? (I suspect the former)

I my only quarrel was that the up/down (jump and slide) keys didn't switch on the ceiling. I had to make an effort to switch my thinking for ceiling sections.

Developer (4 edits)

Thank you very much, Dustin! I’m glad that you liked the song maps; I had to make sure they were comprehensible enough without a proper tutorial put in the game. The controls did leave something to be desired, but originally I had wanted controller support to be in the game, so I made the controls on the keyboard kind of match that. Also, by workflow, do you mean my development process throughout the two weeks, or actually how I worked in Godot day to day?
I created data files for the maps because I wanted the computer to tell the game where and when the objects were supposed to be spawned, not me :)

Submitted

Oh that answers my question! I've been thinking about different ways to choreograph game play and/or visuals with music. As a programmer, data files seem the most logical. Aren't there tools for helping create these? I know a lot of rhythm game communities tend to have tools specifically for their game. I wonder about beat map tools that could help regardless of game.

Developer(+1)

That’s a good question. I don’t think there’s a general “tool” for making beat maps for all kinds of rhythm / music-based games. The closest thing to that would be creating a MIDI for a song you like– at least then, you have a reference for beat maps in general.
That’s not what I did. I had the sheet music of the songs Cityfires composed, and then translated the melodies (with a creative license) into arrays.

Submitted(+1)

Translating directly from sheet music is a good idea, then you know with certainty those notes are correct, and you're not guessing + trial/error.