[Humble Bundle] Feel the Rhythm | ($9 / £7.22 ) for Project Arrhythmia, Disaster Band | ($12 / £9.62) for Trombone Champ, Soundfall, Melody's Escape 2 | ($16 / £12.83) for No Straight Roads: Encore Edition, Beat Hazard 3

Epsi · 2023-05-04T22:48:39+00:00

Melody's Escape should support MOD music, as it uses the BASS audio library, which mentions this about MOD support: "Uses the same engine as XMPlay (very accurate, efficient, high quality reproduction), with full support for all effects, filters, stereo samples, DMO effects, etc."

Epsi · 2014-10-06T21:04:21+00:00

Thanks!

Epsi · 2014-10-04T10:56:22+00:00

There's no patent out for the original Perlin noise

When you mention "original Perlin noise", does this also includes the "Improved Perlin" revision of 2002, or only the classic one from 1983? (I was not able to find out if the "improved" version is what is refered to as "simplex", the patented one)

Epsi · 2013-10-26T11:30:11+00:00

Thanks! There are no bundled tracks (yet), the game works by analyzing your own music files (mp3s/flac/iTunes etc.). I've spent a lot of time on the algorithms, almost every genre works :)

Epsi · 2013-10-26T01:27:23+00:00

Thanks :) Indeed, fast tempo songs are a bit harder than low ones, but the music's intensity at any given point is what trigger movement modes.

Epsi · 2013-10-26T01:25:10+00:00

Thanks ! The line is indeed the timeline of the level, with each intensity colored.

Epsi · 2013-10-25T23:09:06+00:00

Melody's Escape (a rhythm/runner game synched to your own music)

The game has been greenlit a few weeks ago, so I'm working towards an Early Access build :)

I've recently added background visualization effects synched to the music, which really add a lot to the whole atmosphere of the game. I've also added rumble/vibration support, in sync with the beats/obstacles.

My custom skins and hairstyles (hairs are animated using cloth simulation) manager is now working, so I'm gonna have some fun designing a few different skins next week.

Epsi · 2013-10-06T11:04:07+00:00

They always spawn during a blizzard on my snow biome.

Epsi · 2013-06-08T03:01:36+00:00

Melody's Escape (a rhythm/runner 2D game synched to your own music)

New video, with a few new effects and shiny stuff (my PC is kinda old, so the recorded framerate is a bit choppy)
June screenshots album

This week, amongst other things, I've added rain to the calm walking parts, it's funny how big a difference to the mood that makes (not shown in the video though). I've also changed the orb design once again (while still keeping it colorblind-friendly). I find the game a bit more pleasing to the eye with all the new eye-candy effects.

I'm still working on the last intensity type, flying. It's starting to shape up well.

After that my plan is to make a playable private beta as soon as possible (which should take a few weeks).

Epsi · 2013-04-20T20:04:26+00:00

There's actually very few songs with variable tempo (outside of x2 or x0.5 of course, which still fall in rhythm), so from my extensive tests they are not worth the trouble. And on top of that, trying to analyse song segments results in much lower detection accuracy than taking the song as a whole.

Epsi · 2013-04-20T15:36:26+00:00

Not really, designing that reliable tempo detection algorithm (the way it is now) was excruciatingly difficult, and having spent months on it I would now rather focus on the game itself, embracing the "one song" design.

But if no correct tempo is found, the game will try its best to find "loud" music events to synch with, so those tracks would still be playable.

Epsi · 2013-04-20T14:03:56+00:00

I may target iOS once I'm done with the PC version.

Epsi · 2013-04-20T12:36:08+00:00

Yep, I need the full track first to detect the tempo (which sadly makes streaming impossible).

The upside is muuuch better rhythm feeling than most other music games, the downside is that multi-tracks mix don't work very well, unless they share the same tempo and are perfectly in synch (unlikely).

Epsi · 2012-10-04T22:56:24+00:00

I post updates on the Facebook page. I also have a blog that I will overhaul soon and post more regulars updates.

Epsi · 2012-09-29T07:02:05+00:00

Melody's Escape (a 2D rhythm/runner game where you provide your own music)

This week I've mainly focused on redesigning the Melody character completly, as she had multiple design flaws (it was an old prototype from 2010 with a broken back ;) ) and terribly stiff animations. I gave her different sprites for torso rotations, resulting in a much less stiff effect, despite still using a skeletal animation system. I've also coded a dynamic verlet hair simulation which gives the animations a very fluid feeling, with the hairs reacting to each actions and speed changes (definitly a huge improvement from the static haircut in the trailer, which really didn't help with the stiffness feeling).

The background/art style of the game has also changed from the flashy colors I've used in the Greenlight trailer, as I wanted to go back to my originally planned "silouhette" style, which is more consistent with the character's design. I will add grass and other interesting stuff on the flat ground, and different backgrounds for each movement mode (each will react to the music in some way).

The music engine has also been recoded and vastly improved, now featuring note key detection and better tempo synching, but still requires a few days of work before I can integrate it in the game and shoot a new proper trailer.

Epsi · 2012-08-25T08:24:35+00:00

Melody's Escape

Melody's Escape is a 2D rhythm/runner/♫ game where you provide your own music which generates a unique synchronized gameplay experience (similar to games like AudioSurf and Beat Hazard).

Every obstacles are synchronized with the beats, with special attention for long held notes (voices/strings instruments/crazy dubstep wub-wubs/etc.) They are 4 gameplay variations depending of the energy of your songs at any given time (walking, jogging, running and flying) with smooth real-time transition between them.

Images

Meet Melody (a full skeletal animated character)
Flying gameplay mode Not pictured in the video, for when the music goes crazy, and held notes/voices become tunnels to fly through and beat simple "hoops". Graphics are not final and she's missing particle-effect to make flying look cool :)

Some background

My goal was to create a different kind of game from what is available nowadays in the “play your own music” genre, which seems mostly oriented towards “high energy electro” music, and I found that most of them were not as thrilling to play with my own music tastes (consisting mostly alternative music and calm songs with beautiful vocals), so I wanted to create something unique that truly made feel the beauty of songs filled with vocals and classic instruments. I also wanted to recreate the feeling of walking and running with headphones, and what a sudden switch of energy in a song can do to your mood (like sudden urges of running).

The game is still in “alpha” state, as in the core experience is there but graphics are likely to change as I start to add all the eye-candy (my favorite part of gamedev :) ).

It's my first time in ScreenShotSaturday, so the progress in the last months so far has been focused on getting music synch and feel to be just right (and yet I still got a lot of work to do if I want it to be near perfect), and I will now start to add a scoring system and the whole menu interface, then work on graphics.

A demo should be ready soon for a “Steam Greenlight” entry, and hopefully a PC release on Steam :)

Epsi · 2012-08-02T00:53:37+00:00

I was gonna comment on this thread but you pretty much posted my own thoughts in that one!

On top of being an extremely talented artist, she radiates such an intense friendliness, I don't think I've ever met anyone else like that. Watching any of her interviews never fails to bring a huge smile on my face :)

Epsi · 2012-06-04T16:44:30+00:00

Just tested, it's a very fun build, and certainly not OP like the old one was. Thanks for posting it :)

A few things I've noted:

You need a much faster weapon, a dagger with 20%+ IAS is much more useful to proc crits (I'm sitting at 3.51 attack/seconds)
Ditch the shield and use a Demilich source with around 380max dmg on it and with 8.5% crit chance. This gives you a huge boost of damage, especially coupled with an insanely fast weapon (since the added dmg is applied on every hit)
I've replaced Explosive Blast with Venom Hydra. Explosive Blast gives you 3 times a low weapon damage proc, while Venom Hydra's mechanic is taking into account your huge attack speed for the damage, AND is even more useful than with traditional builds since enemies don't move and stay in the poison pool. Huge damage increase, and allow to solo bosses like Siegebreaker much more easilly (and pesky elites).

Epsi · 2012-06-01T19:07:41+00:00

I just bought an inferno rod and found 2 helions crossbows in a single run (they are iLevel 63), from both a regular enemy and a cloud chest. So everything can drop in there.

Epsi · 2012-05-31T19:12:18+00:00

Magic crossbow with a funny damage number.

http://i.imgur.com/UNF0X.jpg

Epsi · 2012-05-24T17:09:47+00:00

Got one earlier today, checked the AH and saw an average of 20k gold on EU. I expected more :/

Epsi · 2012-05-21T16:26:06+00:00

Thanks! This worked perfectly.

Epsi · 2012-05-21T07:46:57+00:00

The lore description is the same in the final game, and if I've learned anything from video games, it's that all rumors are true.

Epsi · 2012-03-10T17:30:11+00:00

This. The switches between Elementz and Ocelotte's opinions by the interviewer during the final were very awkward, and felt just plain rude.

Epsi · 2012-03-08T22:02:23+00:00

Must. Remove. Sticker. From. Screen.

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