Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Other music/rhythm games without specific coverage above

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
sennin
Beginner
Beginner
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by sennin » Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:15 pm

Demo available: http://www.indyddr.com/forums/viewtopic ... 397#p91397

Hey everyone. I'm here today to present a new rhythm/shoot 'em up(shmup) game called "Rhythm Destruction." Its been in the works for 4 years now between a friend and I and we're finally ready to release in October :)

The game plays like a traditional shmup, where you control your ship as you traverse through a stage, dodging enemy movement paths, bullets, and environmental hazards. The twist however, is that enemies and objects are destroyed with timed key presses to the beat of the music (the indicators are similar to Elite Beat Agents)

We will be releasing the game in October for $5. We havent nailed down the distribution service yet but we'll most likely start on Desura(we're trying to get on steam).

Launch trailer & extended gameplay trailer here:

Rhythm Destruction (PC) - Launch Trailer
Rhythm Destruction - Gameplay Footage

We recently had a 16-man tournament showcase @ Project Storm, a rhythm/fighting game tournament held every year in Orlando, FL. We got a ton of great feedback and all the rhythm guys really liked it.

Our music, as you may recognize is produced by Kyle Ward, and we hope to expand on our library of songs in the future.

We've also launched a Kickstarter campaign, and are in the process of trying to get onto steam via Greenlight. If you're interested in backing in either avenue we'd really appreciate it.

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rhy ... -up-game-f
Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=92936348
Official Website: http://www.rhythmdestruction.com

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for your time!
Last edited by sennin on Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Fluffyumpkins
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 6592
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:53 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:35 pm

Everything about this looks cool. I'm not a fan of Kyle Ward at all (because he makes meh music), but I'd be willing to give this a shot. If nothing else, we've all heard most of these tracks already in ITG/PIUPRO so passing stages shouldn't be too hard. Will you be releasing a track list?

Edit: Pledged 5 smackeroos.

sennin
Beginner
Beginner
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by sennin » Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:45 pm

Ya we've mostly gotten good feedback about having Kyle Ward behind the music. Hard to please everyone out of the gates though :)

Track list is as follows:

KAW - Supremacy
Osc X - Dynamo
KAW - Who
Banzai - Land of the Lost
KAW - Esperanza
Smiley - Oasis
Osc X - The Message
Osc X - You Bring the Rain
KAW - Machine Rhythm
& one other produced in house

We have some other in house songs and more songs from Kyle Ward(hasse mich, stop & go, dawn and y2z are ones that we'd like to do first) that we'd like to release. But we will be taking feedback on what the community wants for future stages, and barring any licensing costs that are too high we should be able to accommodate the most requested choices.

Thanks for backing us :)

User avatar
Riot
Heavy
Heavy
Posts: 5373
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 7:58 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by Riot » Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:22 pm

I always had this idea to make a game =) Looks very cool! I suggest making some levels or a powerup where you go on autopilot so you don't have to worry about moving and then have really hard streams of notes like 16th streams in stepmania or something to vary the challenge up. I guess it would take the form of a boss shooting a giant swarm of enemies at you that had to be killed with like Left Right L R L R LRLRLRLRLRLRLR really fast for example.

p.s. we have a few electronic music producers on this forum that we could contact if you're looking for more music. Joe, aka Helix Eternal, might have music that's a good fit for this game. One or two of his songs have been in ITG as well.
Image

sennin
Beginner
Beginner
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by sennin » Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:38 pm

Riot wrote:I always had this idea to make a game =) Looks very cool! I suggest making some levels or a powerup where you go on autopilot so you don't have to worry about moving and then have really hard streams of notes like 16th streams in stepmania or something to vary the challenge up. I guess it would take the form of a boss shooting a giant swarm of enemies at you that had to be killed with like Left Right L R L R LRLRLRLRLRLRLR really fast for example.

p.s. we have a few electronic music producers on this forum that we could contact if you're looking for more music. Joe, aka Helix Eternal, might have music that's a good fit for this game. One or two of his songs have been in ITG as well.
Thanks!

We actually do have a section in each stage where you just focus on hitting notes. We added it in so we could eventually get to a point in later stages where there are a ton of notes to hit, as it wasn't possible to do it with ships(the screen got way too cluttered and unreadable heh). Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jnekbHa ... age#t=143s

Ty for offering, I'll keep it in mind when we start planning all of that :)

sennin
Beginner
Beginner
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by sennin » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:03 pm

The 2-stage demo is now available!

The playable stages are Dynamo(tier 1) & Esperanza(tier 2). Both of them are fairly basic in the rhythm department. Esperanza ramps up the shmup difficulty a little bit though. An interactive tutorial is also available when first launching the game, which is highly recommended!

Please note that Norton will detect the installer exe as "dangerous" and delete it when you try to run it(so you may have to turn it off while installing).

If you have any feedback, comments or problems with the demo, please let me know! Enjoy :)

http://www.rhythmdestruction.com/demo/R ... oSetup.exe

1.01 change log:
-Added new graphic options for low,medium,high and max settings(defaulted to high)
-Added options to enable v-sync(enabled by default)
-Many optimizations to work on lower end computers
-Upon dying, the screen is now cleared of all bullets & upcoming notes
-Reworked many sections in both Dynamo and Esperanza to offer a more fair and enjoyable experience
-Increased the duration of the grade check marks after destroying an enemy
-Tutorial now points out the grade check mark
Last edited by sennin on Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Fluffyumpkins
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 6592
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 1:53 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:37 pm

I dunno. It plays pretty slick. I like the look and feel, but there are some issues.

1. There are too many parts of the game that are instant punishes if you haven't played it before. Like bosses aim in areas with beams that require you be in a completely different part of the screen. Walls move such that you need to know where they're going ahead of time. The parts where I feel like I wasn't psychic enough to dodge, even with boost, are frustrating.

2. Kyle Ward's tracks just aren't great for a shmup. I really hope you can get a new composer to add some tracks. If you want ITG people take DM Ashura or Sanxion7. Boss fights don't feel like boss fights.

For everyone that hasn't played, does this sound like good shoot em up music? I don't think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt7thmVY6aQ#t=1m22s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_ucwTEfZM

3. Don't end boss fights when the song ends. Loop something. I want the satisfaction of killing it or it killing me.

3. I'd like to see the accuracy gauge appear over the enemy I shot instead of in the corner. Unless I'm missing a subtle effect, there's no way to tell how on beat you were at the time you hit the arrow.

4. Maybe make the arrows keysounded? Other titles like Rez and Lumines all have samples that play when you take an action. I'd love to hear a sound letting me know I did some damage. Shooting things down is unrewarding.

5. Have dodge patterns that require you to play an arrow on the beat. Imagine dodging a lot of bullets while still tapping out a 4/4 beat on the left arrow to prevent things from being even worse. That would be pretty cool. Since you can't fire unless allowed, you can pretty much script the game however you want. Have more fun with that and sync it all to the beat.

6. More shooting down missiles. That part on stage one was pretty cool.

7. Maybe use the hyperspace parts of the stage sooner to introduce players to the rhythms they can expect to encounter. That part, in comparison, is much easier for anyone that plays a rhythm game (your audience) so why not use that to show them what to expect as the level plays out?

If I were a musician, I would totally throw down money on Kickstarter to get my song in the game and help design the level. :[ There's a whole lot of potential here.

sennin
Beginner
Beginner
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Re: Rhythm Destruction - New Rhythm/Shoot 'em up game for PC

Post by sennin » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:47 pm

Responded to you on Kickstarter :) Thanks again.

Post Reply