NOTE: Because of the Theme tie, we allowed everyone to pick either Theme. Using both was optional. To keep things simple, there will still only be one Theme category. Every category in Ludum Dare voting is an opinion, so you’re welcome to rate them as you see fit. But we encourage you to be fair in your scores to people that chose only one Theme, and not both.
ALSO: Itch.io has an experimental game downloader over here. You may find it useful.
The name of the game is TWO BAR; it's a musical "simon says" kind of game, but it's more like a hearing game. TWO BAR comes from the fact that you are playing with/hearing two bars of musical time. The purpose is to try to get to the highest level in the least amount of time. The main game implements only two controls ENTER and SPACE BAR. It starts out kind of easy, but difficulty increases and requires great timing skill to get a great score. There are only 15 levels, beyond level 8 it gets really fricken hard. (An extra level exists so that you can end the game and register your score.)
WARNING: This game can cause you to get a little dizzy/hypnotised. Just look away and your vision will return in a few moments.
I have implemented a top 40 list on a server. Yes, I wrote all this in less than 48 hours. All of the source code is available. The only EXCEPTION is that the PHP server database address and password are not included. WARNING: Passwords are stored in clear text, so don't store a real password.
(Shameless plug: I was able to implement the server quickly because I am working on EODB and NEODB, and was able to use them as a reference to write the server. All the code for this game was written from scratch in 48 hours.)
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #219 | Audio | 3.22 |
| #278 | Innovation | 3.47 |
| #618 | Overall | 3.08 |
| #627 | Fun | 2.96 |
| #633 | Mood | 2.75 |
| #655 | Humor | 1.91 |
| #674 | Theme | 3.48 |
| #857 | Graphics | 2.15 |
Comments
Enjoyable rhythm game. Still not figured out how to communicate with each other rhythm and melody.
Works fine for me in Firefox, not sure why it doesn't work for you. If it's windows, sometimes I find that the audio gets messed up.
I ran the web version. Played 8 of 16 levels. I play music so it wasn't too hard, but it's clever how it tricks you. Tutorial is well done. It does make you dizzy. I think it needs re-work if the concept is to be more fun. Maybe has potential as a rhythm game?
could have used a different tile/requirement for using space bar. left me a bit confused... :/ seems pretty robust though, good job :D
Overall okay game. Might as well make a few points:
-The tutorial was extensive and detailed, but I still didn't completely understand what I was doing on the first level, since I got little to no feedback on how well I was performing. Usually if you miss a note in, say, Guitar Hero, you'll get obvious cues that you lost points.
-The art and UI elements were quite simplistic, but I thought the idea of the notes going around in a circle was quite interesting. Perhaps expand upon the circle idea in future projects.
-On the subject of UI, there wasn't a lot of screen space being used since the buttons were quite small. Often it's a good idea to expand the size of the buttons so that you're not wasting screen space. It's a minor thing, but I can see that wasn't the main focus.
-There's not much of an incentive to use the space bar other than being able to hear beats. Typically you want to give the player a reason to use the controls they're given. Perhaps instead of letting the player hold down the space bar, require them to tap the space bar on the beats as well as the enter key for the notes. That'll build a lot more rhythm-based tension to drive the challenge of the game.
Nice rhythm game. I like the concept of having the notes come in a circle, but it would be nice to have a clearer start/stop point, especially if each level is supposed to have a nice melody.
Space bar is useful level 6 and above, otherwise, you're right, not much good before hand.
Very cool! Quite an interesting concept. Seems kinda odd having the leaderboards displayed alongside the game instead of tucked away in a menu, but I guess you didn't really need that screen space for anything else.
Overall cool idea and good execution!
It's a little bit heavy on the information frontloading with the tutorial (a lot of reading). A solid rhythm game nonetheless.
The game is really fun! It's a good rhythm game. I really like that it focuses on the beat rather than the bars. The tutorial felt a little long at the beginning, but it was totally worth it. I'm not sure how else you could explain the false indicators. :)
Great job!
@ambi, that's why I added the ability to just jump to the start. Thanks.
Great work. Might work better as a side scrolling, flappy tune game?!
Fun game, you weren't kidding about it getting super difficult after level 8...lol, nice twist though. I enjoyed it, good job!
So, this game has a really cool concept, it was a bit hard to grasp what exactly to do at the beginning, but when I got it, it got enjoyable. However the difficulty increase was too exponential for me to consider playing the game.
Graphics are sub-par, the audio is okay, and it fits really well to the theme.
I really enjoyed this submission! Great job :)
Hey! Nice idea for a rhythm game!
I just think it's super easy until the level where you have "fake beats" and then it becomes super hard. That would not be so bad, if I could just start at the hard part and then learn by failing, but instead I insta-die and have to do all at that time boring super easy levels again until I come to the interesting part.
I know time is tight on a jam, so nevertheless I think it's a very nice game! Cheers!
Interesting idea. It just seems that in the first couple of levels you can rely alone on your vision, and when the fakes come in you can rely alone on the rhythm (didn't get beyond that though, so maybe you'll have to combine both later?)
Nice game, tutorial too extensive for its simplicity. I still don't get what the space bar key does.
The enter key does all the job.
@numesbarbosa, get to level 8 and you'll know what the space bar does
Pros:
- I love music games & this was a nice entry!
- I have bad memory, and this was a fun training!
- The tutorial was interactive, nice.
Con:
- I found the tutorial a little long.
Nice entry overall :)
I liked this a lot, you can't fail with a music game :-) good job!
It will be great If It show which note already play.
It's fun and a little bit dizzy. :)
It was basically a one button game really. It was kind of boring and unsatisfying. The melodies didn't really make much of sense. I didn't really enjoy it.
Could play it with eyes closed :) Really done something great with the theme. Audio games are really hard to make but I think you pulled this one off! Getting sent back to Level 1 was a bit tough and make it hard to want to progress on the harder levels.
It's a really really nice game. Innovative and I can see it on mobile devices.
Pretty good! Potential to be worked into something interesting. I felt just randomly making the images nearly useless after level 6 was a bit of an artificial way to hike the difficulty suddenly though. There were also a couple of places where the notes weren't really in the right place to fit any sort of rhythm, which is a bit mean in a rhythm game.
When I tried to submit my score, it informed me that I can't have any letters in my username. This makes recording it a bit difficult! Explains why there's nobody on the leaderboard at least. Props for trying to implement that from scratch in a Jam though, very ambitious.
Cool game. Honestly, it became tedious to listen using the space bar. I just wanted to try to get the rhythm without listening for fakes first.
The colors started merging together when I stared at the bars too long. Trippy!
Got to lv8 the first time but the second and third time all my vision is messed up.
Very cool!
Fun. Almost got bored of it before it got to the 'tricks' they're key to it and needing the spacebar.
Really like the fact you went with a rhythm game, original! Also clever to incorporate a high score. At first I didn't see the need for the space bar. But then you threw in false notes and I had a gotcha moment. :)
Nice game, the rotating made me a little dizzy but i like it a lot, especially once the tricks start so you need to concentrate on the rhythm and not the visuals.
Nice on-theme rhythm game. Gets really hard later on. Not sure if the fakes were always differentiated by colour (since I'm somewhat colour-blind).
Interesting idea. I think I might have preferred if the two keys were each different lines of melody--it seemed a bit simple. For me, the simplicity didn't make it easy, though! I found it pretty hard to keep the rhythm in my head. Maybe I'm trying to self-analyze too much, but it seems like the notes seemed kinda random and distracted me from the drum rhythm I was trying to replicate. Some unique "the circle is repeating!" sound would have been very useful too. The beats just didn't seem meaningful in my mind, so I couldn't keep track of the whole circle.
A nitpick (although small things like this matter in rhythm games): the beat seemed to come before a hit could be accepted. If I followed the rhythm like I would in another game, I would hit snares (even when just learning in space mode).
I really like the tutorial, by the way. A ton of games (mine most certainly included) aren't easy to play as self-contained games, but this one certainly was.
All in all, cool game, I just think the core gameplay could have used some extra things to make the patterns more memorable. Nice job!
Cool game, some times the patterns weren't super easy to follow, little out of rhythm. Neat idea, and unique take on the themes!
Well made and interesting concept. Nice work on the score ladder!
Try to improve your art skills!
Af first, I really have no idea, but when I figured out how to play it when the rhyme, it started like a thing, I love to see different ideas, it's really interesting!
The first music game i saw in LD. Nice work! love the player-friendly space control. If the music could have more variations (like adding bass when space is not pressed) i guess it will be more exciting to play.
Good use of the space bar to reveal the correct pattern rather than just following the colored blocks. Enter key seemed a bit "sticky" in the tutorial but worked fine in the actual game.
That was a very cool game! felt very complete and the audio was superb. I liked how in later levels some of the colors were fake. Really made you relay on your ears and not your eyes.
Great job. I would like to take this opportunity to ask a favor. You already rated my game, but I was not allowed "innovation rating." Please could you assess this item now? Take the opportunity to play with some corrections. Very thanks:http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=36629
Very cool game. I love the built in safety of the space-bar. Really makes the mistakes 100% on the player, this is a very good mechanic. great work
Really neat timing concept. The idea of fake sounds is really cool too. Syncing the music notes with the visual cues is tough. Not sure if there needs to be an audio sync like in guitar hero but I found the notes to be pretty close to what I saw.
Good job!
Fun, quite challenging!
"Username cannot contain a J character". But, that's the first character in my name! (Yeah, I realized it meant it couldn't contain capital letters, but it really seemed to be signalling me out!)
Nice game!
Using the space bar to 'hear' seemed a bit strange until the 'fake' notes are introduced, then suddenly the idea of using your memory of the pattern rather than what you're seeing clicks and it seems really interesting!
Only complaint is going all the way back to the start when you run out of lives!
Nice entry! I did not see the point of using the space bar at first, but then it made sense once bar may be fake! I find the idea interesting, but I was bad at it, I could not defeat level 9 ><' Anyway, good job !
Really nice game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/PXolvG1P7M4
You must sign in to comment.
Mini Submission FAQ
TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.
CAN I ENTER BOTH EVENTS?: You should pick 1 event, whichever you think it’ll do better in. If the idea is strong, and everything plays well enough, you can go Compo. If you’re a perfectionist, and would prefer people to play a more polished game, do the Jam. Historically, more games are entered in the Compo, but with more people and more time, Jam games have the potential to be better (that doesn’t mean they are). Many solo participants do enter the Jam.
If you made 2 games, unfortunately, the website doesn’t support multiple submissions per user. To submit your 2nd game, you will have to make a 2nd account. Only do this if you made 2 games. Alternatively, if one game is better than the other, then consider just entering the better game.
CAN I KEEP WORKING UNTIL THE DEADLINE?: Yes! Immediately after the 48 or 72 hours, we do something called Submission Hour. As the name suggests, it’s an extra hour for you to package, upload, and submit your games. If there were catastrophic issues trying submitting your game, or you misunderstood how submissions work, that’s okay. It happens. We’re flexible. If you need advice, check with the folks on IRC. If you need an admin, get in touch.
CAN I KEEP WORKING ON MY GAME?: Oh definitely! You should! But for the sake of judging, keep the Compo or Jam version around. You can include a link to the Post-Compo/Post-Jam version of your game on your games page, but sure your main links are the original version.
PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate at least 20 games to improve your visibility (Coolness).
MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crashes, win condition, or tiny bugs after the deadline. In a sense, this is like “porting” to support more players. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just fixing mistakes you should have caught had you been better rested.
MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up. Alternatively, if you just posted it, wait a minute. The cache may not have refreshed yet.
NOT LOGGED IN?: If you get a message about not being logged in, even though you are, it’s because your web browser cached the non-logged in page. You can fix this by either refreshing your cache or clearing your cache. CTRL+F5 in many browsers. Chrome is a bit more work. Press F12 to enable Developer Mode, then you can right click on the refresh button and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”. This option is unavailable if you are not in Developer Mode.
Cool rhythm game.