Caught in the music loop

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.13
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.72
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.70
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.31
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.43
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.02
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.62
You are stuck in the music loop and you can only get out, if you solve the puzzle ... or figure out how to cheat!

Please give it a few seconds to load and click the "play original sound" to hear the sound to compose.
Unfortunately I was not able to spend more time on the game (not more than 10h). I love my two kids and wife :-)
But it turned out much nicer than I thought. I think there is quite potential in this game!

```
Instructions
Listen to the sound (green button)
Re-create the pattern using the different sounds (blue buttons)
Remove wrong notes by clicking on the buttons on the loop
When completed (0 missing, 0 wrong) the next level starts directly
```

```
Please rate using the original version: https://merkisoft.github.io/LD47/index.html
Post Ludum Dare update with additional sounds and a hardcore level 10! https://merkisoft.github.io/LD47/v2/index.html
```

Unbenannt.png
Btw, my first attempt failed badly because https://paxstellar.fr/ is not working in WebGL. The 2nd try was much better.

Progress on 2nd day:
- replace buttons with nice hand-drawn icons - last 30 minutes!
- explain scores "x y" at the bottom: "0 0" is the goal, x are the missing notes, y are the wrongly placed notes
- animations when sounds are played
- more levels
- *cheat codes: F freeplay, N next* - none on mobile, sorry

Next would be to select the instrument, add highscores etc.

screenshot

Comments29

merkisoftauthor4 Oct 2020, 00:27
good night :)
yangying
yangying4 Oct 2020, 14:30
Very cute music simulator. Maybe it would be better if you add a clean button on it.
Pixel Maniacs
Pixel Maniacs4 Oct 2020, 15:19
Nice idea, not sure if I understood it correctly, if I did, it was a bit too hard for me :)
merkisoftauthor4 Oct 2020, 19:35
thanks for your input! i found a bit more time and improved it, uploading now :)

you can clear sounds by clicking on them.
nil4k
nil4k4 Oct 2020, 23:31
Agree on the idea for a clear/undo button. The timing is hard to get right. Seems to pause on the loop around after making it hard to align on the beat (or there is more lag between loops than expected)
merkisoftauthor4 Oct 2020, 23:32
just click on the white buttons on the loop to remove! you can single undo sounds which are wrong
Untitled Studios
Untitled Studios4 Oct 2020, 23:43
Awesome! Had a great time playing this game and only wish there was more. In fact, please @ me if you ever make a post jam version; I love rhythm games and really enjoyed this.
TheseusInABottle
TheseusInABottle4 Oct 2020, 23:43
I'm trash at rhythm games so feel free to take everything I say with a grain of salt. Not going to lie it took me a second to be able to figure out what I was actually supposed to be doing (my fault I didn't read the directions you have at the top of the page because I am impatient). Once I did figure it out it was pretty fun. I like the sort of minimalist style that you achieved. My only wish is that instruments could have been also assigned to buttons as I always felt like my reaction time was limited by the mouse.
Listonos
Listonos5 Oct 2020, 00:49
I will also join the camp of being very confused initially how to play (and not reading the description). Clicking the white dots to remove them is not super intuitive. A big reset button would be nice and the fact you finished a level should also stand out more I think. Pretty creative entry in my opinion a rewarding when you get it right.
neonjeff
neonjeff5 Oct 2020, 02:41
I figured out how to play pretty quick and like music games in general. I'm not great at remembering things though so I eventually had trouble getting it right and just started freestyling :) It's a fun loop editor!
Jin9310
Jin93105 Oct 2020, 09:27
Really nice concept you have. With the time you have spend on this, the result is very promising and would be interested in some post-jam update. My suggestion would be to bound the instruments also to certain keys on the keyboard and have the ability to "reset all" (in the terms of wrongly placed notes). Overall great entry! Good job.

edit. you might have typo in the first line of the description? ( … or figure out how to cheap! - should be cheat?)
Tero Pulkkinen
Tero Pulkkinen5 Oct 2020, 11:05
it says 47 wrong and 0 correct. maybe i'm missing something?
zimny11
zimny115 Oct 2020, 11:33
Awesome idea! Not only I had great time playing but also i start to make my own music for fun :P
merkisoftauthor5 Oct 2020, 11:42
@jin9310 - thanks! i really plan to do so, thanks for the motivation and your input, full agree.

@tero-pulk - you need to try to match the beat. if you misplaced sounds, remove them by clicking the white buttons on the loop.

@zimny11 - thanks! yeah, the freeplay mode is exactly intended for that. great to read that you enjoyed it :)

thanks all again for playing
Spiderhead20
Spiderhead205 Oct 2020, 13:13
It's a nice musical generator, it gets challenging when it comes to place 8 sounds in a round, but its enjoyable
rhoff95
rhoff955 Oct 2020, 14:44
Cool game! Could use more instructions on controls and what to do on your submission page.
Kehl5 Oct 2020, 19:24
It was too hard for me, I actually enjoyed it. After doing some rounds, I did some music for fun. Awesome idea!
merkisoftauthor5 Oct 2020, 20:58
@rhoff95 thanks, i updated this page now. hopefully it helps the next players. to me figuring out how to play is part of the fun, but i see the point, we all review many games in short time...

@kehl some levels are very tricky, hopefully you used the cheat codes :)

thanks for playing
Aterlamia
Aterlamia6 Oct 2020, 10:50
I think this is a cool and unique idea and for as far as i can see well executed, but i have no ear for sounds so i think this kind of game is not really for me
merkisoftauthor6 Oct 2020, 12:27
@aterlamia thanks for playing and your feedback, maybe you can imporove your skills :D
HumphreysMedia
HumphreysMedia6 Oct 2020, 12:38
Pretty neat game though I was a little confused at the beginning and took me a while to figure out what to do, if there was a bit of feedback telling the player that they completed each level otherwise it feels as if they're cheating when 'N' needs to be pressed. Great take on the game jam theme and quite enjoyed the beats, great job!
merkisoftauthor6 Oct 2020, 23:36
@aterlamia, @clemetayer, @humphreysmedia, @jin9310, @kehl, @listonos, @neonjeff, @nil4k, @pixel-maniacs, @pov, @rhoff95, @spiderhead20, @tero-pulk, @tero-pulkkinen, @theseusinabottle, @untitled-studios, @yangying, @zimny11

try out my post ludum dare update just for fun with additional sounds, improved UI and a hardcore level 10
(when you skip through with n - please give it 10 sec and hit play again, there is a bug due to the cheating :)

https://merkisoft.github.io/LD47/post-ludum-dare/index.html
Jin9310
Jin93108 Oct 2020, 12:21
So I have tried the update and must say that the improvement is huge! Way more understandable and user friendly :) Way to go! Love it. Now going to try that level 10 :)
pkenney
pkenney11 Oct 2020, 20:08
Pretty cool! I got to level 9 before I couldn't hack it any more.

My main struggle was synchronizing the start. Maybe if you gave the first beat for "Free" to the player, it would let them know where the rhythm begins. I had a couple of times where I thought I had it, only to realize the real one started on 2 and not on 1, for example. I am glad to see in your screenshot that you added a "clear" button, because that was something I also wished sorely for a few times.

Nice work for only 10 hours!! And a good level of challenge.
Barvaz25 Oct 2020, 11:02
A very nice game! The main problem is that it didn't play some sounds sometimes and it skipped a couple of times...
This game has a lot of potential for a post game jam game
Roka Josh
Roka Josh25 Oct 2020, 11:06
Really fun game, managed to beat it just but had to really brute force some of the final levels. Creative take on the theme, great job!
Esphoros27 Oct 2020, 18:15
Cool game! I really enjoyed it, it was a very original idea, and the minimalistic graphics were nice. The only thing I would recommend changing would be that the sounds aren't bound to keys, as it's much more difficult to rush to get the mouse to hit one of them. Maybe that adds to the challenge, though. Fun anyhow

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