A Vibrant Melody How to play guide, early Alpha

Here is the guide for how to play A Vibrant Melody as it currently stands if you have access during the early alpha. If you want access please let me know @Trev_Murray on twitter. The game is still very early in development, but some of the core ideas are in place, and it already is fairly fun to play. As with any alpha there are a lot of major changes coming to the game in the future.
Beware if you’d like to figure the game out on your own there are many spoilers ahead.


The Basics

Move with the arrow keys, wsad or the buttons on a controller.

The unhappy creatures move on the beat of the music, you cannot move any more often than they do.

Moving into creatures sings to them, increasing their happiness.

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A Vibrant Melody 0.10o Patch Notes


Here are the patch notes for A Vibrant Melody for people in the private Alpha. If you’re interested in testing the game let me know. I’ll be looking to invite a lot more people in the next major release.

Patch 0.10o

  • Emotional energy under the hood overhaul, all animations and movements improved

  • Unified note colours Dark brown for damage, Light pink for healing.

  • Agave Redesign: Calm, happy, ecstatic Agave no longer move creatures, but they still move gems!

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Loss conditions constrain the player’s choices and actions

Most of the challenge of games comes from the pressure of not losing. And so, it warrants spending more time thinking about the purpose of losing from a game design perspective. Since loss conditions interact with system complexity and mastery in non-obvious ways, I’ll describe a combination of loss conditions that I think is the best for maximising player engagement.

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An old podcast about The Last Of Us

A long time ago, not long after The Last Of Us came out (and long before the expansion) two close friends and I discussed it on a podcast. I wanted to share it here since it has long since faded from the internet, and since its a nice snapshot of my thinking at the time.

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Safety and Powerlessness: the Dynamics of the Exit Gate

This post is discussion and critique of the exit gates in Dead by Daylight. While I think many aspects of the design of the exit gates are great, the way they trigger escape leads to bad dynamics between the survivors and the killer, ultimately breaking the tension and the setting.

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The celebration of objectivity in The Witness

This post mainly acts as a response to some of the thoughts bought up in the excellent podcast series Close Playing by Tevis Thompson. In the first episode he is joined by guest Carolyn Petit to discuss The Witness. It is a really great episode and I highly recommend listening, to both it and the whole series as well as the games criticism of both Tevis and Carolyn.

I had some thoughts that I share below, since I think there's slightly more going on in the game than was touched upon in this episode. They will make little to no sense for those who haven't played the game and listened to the podcast.

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Infusion, table-top RPG

A good friend and I have been working on a table top RPG for the past month or so. We've made a lot of progress in that short time and developed a system which I think is really innovative and powerful. The game's focus is on fast, but deep combat events and thoroughly integrated and engaging non-combat encounters.

We've just begun the first playtesting phase so we don't have much information to share just yet, but watch this space.

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Rhythmcaster Design Article 1: Normal Attacks

Normal attacks are your bread and butter offensive moves in Rhythmcaster. Normal attacks either deal damage or give you a temporary advantage, assuming some of the notes hit the opponent without being blocked. Before we talk about normal attacks in greater detail, let’s talk briefly about how to play notes.

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Competitive Rhythm Games Part 1 - Depth and rhythm games

Rhythm games are one of the most successful genres in recent history. However, in most rhythm games, the only competitive aspect is trying to beat other players’ high scores. Currently competitive rhythm games only exist as multiplayer components tacked on to single player games. While the majority of rhythm games have shied away from any form of competitive multiplayer, others have explored new forms of player interaction.


However, despite their innovation, these rhythm games have failed to provide a compelling competitive experience. Meanwhile, other genres are flourishing because of their engrossing competitive modes¹. Many of these non-rhythm games have even garnered fan bases that regularly compete at a professional level, at national and global scales. To my knowledge, no rhythm game has managed to maintain a long-term tournament following, and as of this year there are no rhythm games in prized tournaments beyond the local level. I want to understand why rhythm games have failed where so many other genres have thrived. This is the first in a series of articles in which I, a) discuss how rhythm games have expanded the scope of game design, and b) try to understand why, despite their novelty, they have failed to attract a diehard competitive fanbase. 

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Welcome

 

Welcome to the new Rhythmcaster website. Here I'll fill you in on the design and development of Rhythmcaster. I will also write and post articles about games and game design.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be sure to have more for you soon.

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