Hello! Wanted to share my project called Rhythm Game Studio. It's a way to create your own rhythm games without needing to know how to code.
I just released a demo on Steam and would love for you all to try it out and give your honest feedback :)
I just completed the story mode of Rhythm Doctor, and I felt like it was a pretty different experience than all of the other rhythm games I've played! Wanted to share my thoughts on what made it stand out.
First, I really felt like the game was designed by a team of musicians. The OST was by far the best part of the game. Also, they didn't cheap out on the rhythm gameplay; I found it quite surprising that the game had me play crossrhythms and polyrhythms! ;p I think most other rhythm games get their difficulty from gameplay elements like reaction time, quick movements, etc, but Rhythm Doctor's challenge felt like it came from the music itself.
I constantly felt like I had to rely on my musical intuition... the game keeps repeating its line that all you have to do is "hit it on the 7th beat", but this is plain false (lol). I don't know if I could have completed story mode if I didn't have any musical training.
Second, I want to mention that this is the first rhythm game I've played that had some sort of narrative. When I think "rhythm game" I usually think of competitive/arcade games like Osu or Taiko. Although I felt like the story was a bit thin and not too well-written, especially towards the end, I enjoyed how the game was less focused on simply achieving the highest score. Overall it felt more like an "interactive work of art" rather than a video game.
That brings me to my last point. I recently watched an Adam Neely video on the concept of "musicking", which describes how there are different ways we interact with music. For example, your way of "musicking" is very different at a classical music concert vs. at a rave. Rhythm Doctor felt like it was a visual novel/soundtrack, just with a slightly different way of "musicking" that involved hitting the spacebar.
Going to spend the next few weeks playing/making custom levels, as that seems like an even bigger part of the game than story mode!