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I totally agree about it getting boring after you lose heads. The gameplay shift was meant to make it more intense for the remaining lanes, but it ends up being a laser spam fest until the rate of evil head spawns becomes overwhelming (which it technically does, because they'll spawn too fast for the laser recharge time to deal with). Being able to move remaining heads between lanes is an interesting idea! Could make the game feel more like a an actual bullet hell at that point (a somewhat more railroaded, onto 4 tracks, kinda bullet hell).

I likely spent more time on those graphics and remixing the backing track than I did on refining core gameplay D: thanks though! And thanks for playing and the feature in your video! :D

Yeeee there was no drawback to just slamming all keys at once, except the slight cooldown before you can press it again, but its still mostly irrelevant.

In my earlier plans for the game I was actually thinking of making it a psuedo typing simulator (the name Dullahan Under the Keyboard began as a reference to keyboards and typing, until it fully embraced the keyboard as a musical instrument interpretation). Never enough time to spend on adapting/optimizing the gameplay - I locked it in too early and spent all my time on other refinements. Classic game jam things xD

Thanks for playing! :D

Yoo thanks for adding to the feedback! :D

I'm also dissappointed that I couldn't get the actual rhythm side of the game working. Having never programmed rhythm-based spawning systems, I was looking at manually timing individual spawn sequences in time with the music I'd remixed... so, all in all, I cut lots of corners to end up with less stress, but ultimately a less fun game. And yeah, the loss of heads ended up being anti-fun - losing because the game decides to get too fast is kinda lame. With more playtesting and reworking time I'd certainly have adjusted that out.

Solo devving a game jam definitely has it's ups and downs, but I'm pleased with the end result. Always good to look for what can be done better next time though!

Thanks for playing! :D

The death animation of one of your heads is pretty underwhelming in the current build, so maybe you just didn't notice that was what happened? I was pretty confident in the coding around that, so I'm glad to know there isn't still bugs there (spent a lot of time troubleshooting spawn locations, especially when you lose heads - game got really boring when enemies were spawning in lanes you didn't have heads in)

If any of your seki heads get defeated (touched by an evil head) then the evil heads will only spawn in the remaining columns. Buuuut if all four heads are still alive and the enemies stop spawning in certain columns then that certainly is a bug :/ can you remember what 'combo value' (the number at the top left) the enemies stopped spawning at?

Thanks for the feedback! :D 

I wanted to try make a ddr/rhythm game clone for this, but I'm still a bit of newbie with the genre. Thanks for the feedback! 

I'm gonna have to swing by and try yours out soon! :D

I've reactivated the download link for just the standalone executable file. A number of folks were having issues with virus protectors flagging the executable as a high risk file, so I replaced it with that installer file.

Hopefully that works better for you :)

Have updated the .exe file to seem like less of a virus (to Windows10, at least). It's no longer a simple click and play .exe though, and you'll have to install it. Sorry for the issues!

Was a struggle to balance the difficulty curve with making the game less boring/one dimensional. I ended up leaning on that crutch of "if the game's harder, it'll be more fun, right?", which was ultimately the downfall of it all. Plenty learnt for next time, for sure!

Thanks for playing! :D

yeeee i definitely neglected the concept and failed to make any significant gameplay refinements. If I ever went back to this I'd likely rebuild it from the ground up. I'm pleased with all the art for it, so I'll likely reuse those somewhere.

Thanks for playing! :D

Aaaaa the pixel art is adorable, soundtrack is super chill (nue's theme on jazz trumpet is the new best thing) and the gameplay felt original and refreshing! (Somewhat reminded me of Crypt of the Necrodancer, but with less timing involved)

Only constructive feedback/criticism I can think of would be stuff your team likely already thought of, but had to cut due to scope and time constraints (character portraits during the dialogue, the Nue boss battle... and just more levels!)

Great job! :D

Loved the writing/dialogue in this! And the animations for the characters and sprites in the overworld were really charming! Great job! :D

The title rings in my head in that same over-enthusiastic 'Super Mario 64' voice! Platforming elements were smooth but sometimes a little limited (being forced to use the triple jump to scale most platforms in the second level, and make it over most long jumps in the first level). The jumping/combo mechanic was an interesting take on the theme and the 3D platformer genre - was a fun challenge though! Great little game! :D

Thanks for the feedback! I was originally aiming to make it a rhythm game, but I don't know enough about the game engine I used (gamemaker Studio 1.4) to hit all the right notes on that genre (pun somewhat intended). Also never made a rhythm game, but as with the territory, I wanted to challenge myself :D always learning more and more!

Ahh ok that makes sense. Whenever I hear about loading issues I think back to Metroid Prime 1. It would hide loading times for new rooms behind the functionality of its doors. Whereby, you'd shoot the door to try open it, and it'd sit there idle until the next room was fully loaded, then it would open up. Hide loading times behind the guise of a malfunctioning door (considering the environments in Metroid, this made perfect sense).

Dunno if that example is of any help, but if you wanna keep your big sprites then there could be a way to sneak loading times behind something that seems normal/immersive for the game world.

A wonderful demo! Animations are smooth, combat is fun, and the controls were quick to pickup (I used a 360 controller, and it worked fine right from the start). Loved the hidden caves - just like in Yoshi's Island!

A few odd frame drops near the start - maybe some background processing? Otherwise, a charming game so far. Keen for more!

Thanks for the feedback! It was a first time jamming for most of our team (and a first time team leading a jam for me), so our final project certainly suffered from a bit of the jam rush! We'll hopefully find time to fix a few of these things, if even just to have the game properly playable to anyone wanting to dive back into the games from this game jam! 

Excited for the next one! :D