Very stylish rhythm game. As someone who is bad at these games I really enjoyed this one so GJ :)
Play game
Beatcore's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #72 | 4.358 | 4.358 |
| Audio | #151 | 3.604 | 3.604 |
| Gameplay | #195 | 3.453 | 3.453 |
| Enjoyment | #227 | 3.585 | 3.585 |
| Overall | #446 | 3.220 | 3.220 |
| Innovation | #907 | 2.208 | 2.208 |
| Theme | #1093 | 2.113 | 2.113 |
Ranked from 53 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
I'd say writing music atop a retro car that's actively falling from the sky is arguably a strange place but ultimately that's for you to decide.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
The music is royalty free and licensed from envato, and the game's name/logo is recycled from a previous attempt at making a different rhythm game.
All the ingame art and code for this project was created for the jam.
How many people worked on the game?1
Comments
Nice songs and great art style, a rare game genre and well executed idea :)
Submitted
Void BreachNice game. Love the art style. One thing I would add is the sound effects when hitting notes.
Submitted
Journey of AlcorI'm into this. Rhythm games are always a nice surprise in a jam, and this one looks really good. The background are gorgeous, and the hit paritcles are super satisfying, it's got that juicy feel when you're on a streak. When you're locked in on a streak it just feels good. I ran everything on hard and had a blast with it. Clean presentation, great music choices, and just flows nicely.
Submitted
Where Left Socks GoHonestly, it felt really good at max difficulty, challenging but still fair. I think it's perfect for a jam.
But since I do see you're building a wish list for a steam release, if I had to suggest anything, maybe justa bit stronger feedback on timing? Like clearer "perfect / early / late" distinction or slightly more punch when you nail something dead-on. A few moments also just slightly felt visually off when multiple notes hit together, but nothing that stopped it from being fun.
Overall, though, it's in a really good spot. You've got a great base here.
Welp, this is my favorite looking game of the jam. Such a vibe of a game too. I think the button reaction and charting feels a bit off - I thought there was some sort of warping as the notes approach, and maybe more feedback to hitting notes would be nice. None of this stopped me from playing every song a few times.
Submitted
Al's Trading CompanyI think it is notes not being consistently spaced, and the shape seeming to change as the note approaches the fret. Its hard to explain, but like the last note of the third song - It looks like it should be all three of them at once, but the "c" note is just slightly ahead when it gets to the fret. Or in the first song you have runs of three notes in sequence of z, x, c, but they appear that the c note lags behind a bit. The keys are generous enough that you can hit all the notes without adjusting, but then it feels like I was given a note I missed. Its hard to explain without examples, and it might be a perception thing. After more thought the charting does line up pretty well, its more of an issue that it might be too generous, so I get notes that I should not have and then it feels like my actions are correct even if I fall off beat.
Ah so in both of those cases you mentioned, this is intentional, as it fits with the music. But other people have mentioned this too so I may have to change it if it looks accidental.
I will also add stronger feedback for when your hits are less accurate, but I don't want to make the punishment too strong as it's meant to be a casual game :)
Thank you for elaborating, was there anything else?
Sweet game!
(I hate rhythm games because I’m trash at them, so take my feedback with a grain of salt)
Positives:
- I really like the main menu — nice aesthetics
- I like that you can preview the song and theme and choose the difficulty
- Each map has its own design/theme
- Beat track was clean and clear
Negatives:
- The button layout (Y/X/C) doesn’t work the same for all keyboard layouts/languages. Maybe let the player configure it? (For example, the German QWERTZ layout doesnt work well / feels clunky)
- The button click feedback felt a little weak and a bit wonky. I think there should be a clearer separation for timing precision — like Perfect, Good, and OK — because I could swear I mistimed some hits pretty badly (too early/too late) but still got the same feedback as when I felt like I hit it frame-perfect. Thats a bit weird for a rhythm game
- This might just be my browser (Firefox), but the music (especially Map 2) sounded poorly mixed. It came across scratchy and maybe too loud/over-saturated/distorted. Not sure what the right term is, but it didnt sound clean
- One thing that confuses me a lot (and it seems like no one else is talking about it) the music sounds littlebit AI
I thought the use of generative AI was forbidden for sound/music and visuals — or more broadly, for game assets in general. (I don’t think anyone cares if someone got some help with coding)
Seems like I was totally wrong and made a baseless accusation. Im sorry!
Submitted
Portal Pup: Strange WorldsHi thank you so much for playing and providing such detailed feedback :) especially since you don't like rhythm games, so I really appreciate you giving it a try anyway.
I'll just address your negative points:
> Poor choice of keybinds
Yes this has been brought to my attention by a few people now, I will choose different controls for the final game and also make them rebindable.
> Bad button click feedback
I agree that there wasn't any good feedback for timing - though it really does affect your score (-10+ points depending on accuracy, per puck), and of course missing a puck / tapping nothing will drastically ruin your score by resetting your multiplier. I will definitely add some more prominent 'early'/'late' feedback, though it's not something I ever focus on too much when I play rhythm games.
> Level 2 was poorly mixed
Sorry, this is probably due to game maker automatically compressing the life out of audio files, and this is just a setting in the editor I can turn off. I personally don't notice these things because I have the cheapest set of speakers you'll find on the market, so thank you for the reminder! In the final version, it will be importing audio files externally rather than compiling them included, so this shouldn't be a problem (though maybe the track just is poorly mixed, as you didn't mention any issues with the other tracks, but it could also just be that particular track particularly doesn't like compression).
> Use of generative AI is prohibited for sound/music (and visuals/game assets in general)
So, the music is actually royalty free from carefully curated artists over at Envato Elements! Their signup process for creators was notoriously selective, but right now you can't even enroll as a creator, presumably due to an influx of generative AI assets in their signup portfolios. So I can only assume it's made by real humans, especially since the website existed way before AI became so prevalent.
You can find the tracks here:
- Changing seasons
- Jazzy Beat
- Falling cars (Strange laptop folk)
I think you were mainly referring to the music, but I'll also clarify that the artwork was drawn by me - though admittedly I relied very heavily on photo references for this particular game, especially for the vehicles in falling cars (you'll notice they suspiciously are in poses you'd find in normal car photos, maybe with a bit of rotation lol)
But yes, AI is prohibited and yet I also have noticed a couple of entries using it, so I guess it's not enforced. I think it resulted in 99% of the entries following this rule, so that's nice at least.
Hey don't stress about it :)
These days it's impossible to tell for certain what's AI and what's not. Relevant meme.
I love a good rhythm game, so it's nice to see one in a game jam. The songs chosen are very good, and the charting is just as good. The actual gameplay is simple, but satisfying. I admit that I chuckled at the lack of a results screen. Great job!
Submitted
Alleyway of RepetitionReally nice visuals. I do like the hand-drawn style of the game. It looks very nice with that colour palette, and sells that cosy vibe super well. The characters are also interacting with the main game track (like leaning on it etc), and it looks really cool. Gameplay-wise, it's a standard falling object rhythm game without much twist, but at least the time was done relatively well. Overall, I think the game is quite nicely done!
Other things I like:
- Hand-drawn object hit effect animation
- Casette icon for level selection. The 90s yay
- Different difficulty for each track
Suggestions:
- It would be nice to have some stronger visual and audio feedback for correctly timing a button press. It doesn't have that fanfare right now, that I am doubting myself if I am even pressing correctly
- Moving the combo counter closer to the track would make it more visible
- For a jam game I think it needs more to tie in with the theme
Submitted
Last words of the late Arthur JerymnThank you very much for playing and providing such detailed feedback :)
Regarding the hit press, do you mean that it's the same animation regardless of whether you hit it on time? So to fix this, it would need an additional / different confirmation that you got it on time?
I agree there isn't enough time to look at the combo / score, moving it closer is a good idea!
The theme was the falling cars level, but then I added the others as extras :) but I agree it could have had more relation to the theme
Super! Cool art with really juicy notes animation. I like to imagine that the guy in "Changing seasons" is singing next to an industrial conveyor belt (:
My favorite is: Falling cars (Hard)
Submitted
Homebound WormholeI really love the visual style. The retro color palette makes a lot here. The scenery in first track is something you want to frame and put on a wall.
All three music tracks sounds really good and it was fun to play.
I was not sure about the responsivity/precision regarding the rhythm game part on some places. There were parts where I felt it is a little bit off, but then there was a part that felt good fitting. But this can be an issue on my side. :-)
For the theme, it would be nice if all track were set in some strange place, not only the first one. Especially when we saw how creative you can be with the flying cars one.
Overall it is a great entry and I wish you will keep working on more content in the future!
Submitted
Knight's tripThanks for playing, I'm a bit worried to hear about the precision being off - someone else had mentioned this too. Some of the notes are slightly off, I'll have to go through it and tweak it.
You mention it's only in some places, how often would you say it was occurring? Percentagewise? Any particular song had it bad or all of them? Was it a global sync issue, like your audio was always consistently behind?
I agree I could have made the other 2 locations strange too, but I ran out of ideas and wanted to give it more content!
And yes, I absolutely plan to take this one further :)
The thing with the precision is hard to describe (and hell hard to implement - I can imagine). But overall I thing it might be a little delayed audio what causes it. I re-run second track on medium difficulty to check and notice that at the first part I would expect some beats to match the piano note. Later with the percusions beat introduced - I would expect it on the beat. In both cases I had to push key a little bit earlier.
But once again, it might be totally my problem that I am fixing on "wrong" flow.
EDIT: I also tried easy difficulty on the same track and it seemed on point there. So either it is little off for medium on that track or my brain is overwhelmed with more inputs and that is what creates this feeling.
I think I will have to add some kind of audio offset setting that allows you to 'tap' when you hear beats to sync the audio up for every user's own hardware.
Can you elaborate more about the piano / percussions - are you saying it was confusing that sometimes the beats randomly switch between aligning with the piano and the percussion?
And weird that the easy track seemed more in sync than the medium track.
Beautiful visuals/colors. I really enjoyed the music selection and the game controls were smooth. I had a lot of fun playing!
Submitted
Stranded at Star MartWow, great art and game! Well done.
I didn’t realize you could submit more than one game to this jam. That’s seriously impressive. Hats off!
Submitted
Twisted TidesNo words, your project is really conceptual and artistic, and as a musician/producer, I loved it deeply and from the deep of my heart!
Submitted
Hemophony - A Symphony of GutsYou’re welcome!
About this, I worked more recently on Valledi (you can listen here) and also sold some packs on UAS and I’m making some freelance tracks for Elidriel, Haha, and I even made just one track (you can listen on YouTube) for a random guy for a game called “Three Sisters”. Since I didn’t know what the project was about, I worked under a pseudonym.
But now I’m building my new portfolio, since I wasn’t really happy with the mixing in my older tracks (like overusing compressors, instruments with less efficient EQ, limiters pushing the volume too much, reverb not properly calibrated — that kind of stuff) and I don’t feel they represent me well anymore.
But feel free, I just commented casually because I’m planning to create a new portfolio (especially for horror games or those with that strange vibe, kind of like “Backrooms” or similar).
How did you cook up two games. Great art, music, and sound design!
Submitted
corporate memphisSolid visuals, great sound design, and a well-paced game loop! Good job! Would love to see ultra hard mode
Submitted
Strange RealmI really enjoyed how interactive the different elements are, for instance I could tell I was hovering over a tape icon when the little drop shadow appeared.
Very polished game that serves as a good example of what a solo dev can get done in a week. I am new to game dev so I've been trying to find a game that can serve as a "benchmark" of what I want to be able to do for a game jam one day and this just might be that game.
Submitted
Postcards from Camp JackalopeThanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the interactive-ness of it :)
With regards to benchmarks, this one was about 3 days of work (about 8 hours per day), as I also had another entry for this jam. That one was about 1.5 days of work.
90% of the time spent on Beatcore was drawing the artwork for the scenes, and also designing the timings. The actual game's code is very minimal, like, draw_background(), draw_pucks() lol
For sure when you're starting out, it takes 10x as long because you have to google how to do everything! Very brave of you to use game jams as a way to learn gamedev, the pressure would have been way too much for me when I started.
I don't think you really need to worry about copyright in a game jam, I assume that rule is just to encourage creativity (and to prevent blatant theft).
But you evidently didn't need premade assets anyway, as you clearly have the skill to make your own art - it's actually kinda similar to my style, if a little more pixel-arty.
Well it's kind of you to call it brave and just not crazy. I decided to go the Game Jam route so that way I was forced to actually sit down and learn to make a game rather than doodle ideas in a notebook. It will also give me some frame of reference of my improvement for the next Jam.
Also, I agree there are for sure some similarities between our styles since it looks like we both really like muted/retro color schemes and a nice black outline. and thank you for your feedback on my game!
I always love games like this and the music you used is on point, the splash effects really help sell this for me compared to others <3
Submitted
Froggy Jones
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.