Devlog 1 - Welcome to Rhythm Quest
Published: May 24th, 2021
Welcome to Rhythm Quest!
About the game
Rhythm Quest is a music-based autorunner game where the obstacles are all synced to the music. The best way to get a feel for how the game works is by watching a short gameplay video:
The basic concept is similar to that of the BIT.TRIP RUNNER series, but with a more direct correlation between the timings in the music and the actions required. You can think of BIT.TRIP RUNNER as "platforming that directs music", while Rhythm Quest is "music-directed platforming", if that makes sense.
Gameplay uses only two buttons: Jump and Attack, though obstacles in later levels will often require you to use combinations of these two actions in sequence.
Flying enemies, for example, require a jump immediately followed by an attack.
Strong enemies, on the other hand, require two attacks in quick succession.
In the future there will be a larger variety of different obstacle types. Some possibilities: enemies that are moving rather than stationary, "wing" powerups that require you to hold the jump button down, tempo changes, etc.
More details
Rhythm Quest is a labor of love from me, DDRKirby(ISQ). I'm handling 100% of the game, including the art, audio, coding, game design, and management. In particular, I'll be creating all of the backing music tracks for each level, using my trademark "9-bit" modern chiptune style.
Being both the game designer and composer for a rhythm game allows me to create music tracks that are mapped out specifically to provide call-outs to obstacles in the game. This worked especially well for previous games of mine, such as Ripple Runner (one of my most popular works) and you can see this coming into play in the demo above.
The game is being built using Unity3D, and will be available on Windows/OSX/Linux, as well as iOS and Android (the 2-button control scheme lends itself quite well to mobile devices). I also hope to create a port for Nintendo Switch if possible.
The story so far
I first started Rhythm Quest two years ago as a side project during a break between jobs, where I built out the core functionality that you see in the demo above. The game had promise and I was pretty happy with what I had built, but it ended up taking a backseat to employment and other projects...until now! I'm happy to report that I've quit my fulltime job and have dedicated myself to attempting to finish and publish Rhythm Quest over the course of the next handful of months. (famous last words...)
This does give me a somewhat limited (though flexible) timeframe for finishing the game) as self-employment isn't in the cards for me long-term and I'm not counting on Rhythm Quest being a commercial hit (though I certainly wouldn't complain if it was ;P). The initial project scope will hopefully be kept relatively straightforward and streamlined in light of this.
There's still a lot of work to be done, though!
- Figuring out the rest of the game mechanics
- Making the rest of the content (levels)
- Reworking the UI to support keyboard + mouse + touch + gamepad
- Quality of life features (key remapping, etc)
- Making audio calibration better and more intuitive
- Setting up alpha testing for feedback
- Marketing...
- Porting to Switch (?)
- ...
About the developer
DDRKirby(ISQ) -- that's me -- is a 9-bit chiptune music artist and independent game developer. If you know of me, it's most likely through some of my more popular video game song rearrangements, such as my Katamari Damacy - Lonely Rolling Star remix or my Super Mario 64 - Koopa's Road remix. You can browse my full extensive music catalog on my Bandcamp site at https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/.
I'm also a veteran participant in the weekend-long "Ludum Dare" game jam, having made 25 jam games over the past 10 years. Some of my more notable entries include the music games Ripple Runner, Melody Muncher, and Samurai Shaver, which took 1st place overall in Ludum Dare 40.
Links
Rhythm Quest main website: https://ddrkirby.com/rhythm-quest
My main website: https://ddrkirby.com
Rhythm Quest discord server: https://discord.com/invite/w3paJPchmb
I don't have dedicated social media accounts for this game (yet?), but feel free to follow my generals:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ddrkirbyisq
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ddrkirbyisq
itch.io: https://ddrkirbyisq.itch.io/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DDRKirbyISQMusic