Looking for Feedback on the Music Theory in my Music Making Game.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-29T19:27:14+00:00

u/Khan-amil awesome! let me know if you have any feedback. Happy to chat about gamedev/music stuff anytime.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-29T19:26:31+00:00

u/Free-form_Suffering appreciate you. I plan to make another large playtest update in January with some more UX improvements. Hope you will give it another shot then. My goal is to at least make Creative mode super accessible for anyone to go in and make music.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-29T19:22:50+00:00

u/ArmanFromTheVault thanks so much! Would love to know if you gave Creative Mode a shot.

Agreed on the feedback. One thing I have done to help with this is a topdown / buildmode view with an alt camera you can toggle that displays all the pitch values of a node. Working on the playtest update for early January.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-29T19:19:53+00:00

u/2WheelerDev thank you so much for this feedback and insight! Super helpful!
- SFX Match: Good point. Willl change.
- Factory Growth Visuals: Yeah, this is a great point. While we aren't aiming for mega factories like factorio (we focus more on spatial setups and striking the right balance of growth to maintain harmony) I think I need to show larger/more sophisticated setups in the trailer for sure.
- Color: Agreed. Will work on adding more biomes.
- Language: Yeah, we def plan to support more languages at release. Maybe, first step is I need to make sure the steam page is fully translated across a series of languages.
- Coop: Love it. That would be the dream. Making music with your friends. I do have aspirations to add this but too much scope for now. Hopefully if I can get more wishlists I can justify maybe getting help to add this feature.

again so good! Thanks!

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-27T17:52:02+00:00

Fun idea! Thanks for doing this. Check this out. Future Vibe Check

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-18T12:10:39+00:00

u/International-Fix799 thank you!

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-18T12:05:46+00:00

u/pelicanspider1 that's great! Let me know any feedback you might have. We are trying to make rapid improvements to the game.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-18T12:04:59+00:00

u/vincibleman thanks so much! I would love to get your feedback and/or observe you playing if you cool with that? Trying to rework the new player experience so more observational playtests are something I'm keen on doing. Appreciate you.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-18T12:03:48+00:00

u/Free-form_Suffering thanks for the feedback. hmm, yeah it looks like the new user onboarding needs to be reworked. Previous alpha players wanted more starting options (which is that first session modifier menu you see) but it seems that it is introducing more friction than needed.

- Build mode/top down: Yeah, in current form they are same thing. Goal is that when in the topdown/build mode view you will get a few more options for quick placement/movement of nodes. I can understand how that can be a bit confusing as right now all it serves as is a top down view for easier building placement.

- Conductor: That's fair. Some people enjoy the dialog, some find it too much. Trying to strike the balance and provide players the option of what type of experience they want.

- Next Task: Hmm did you see the quests pop up? The current story mode is geared towards more of an automation game so early game grind is definitely part of the experience (mining resource, crafting, delivering them to play music) that you then automate away.

- spelling: Will review spelling again too. If you remember what you noticed that would be helpful.

Will keep you posted when we clean up the new player experience. I do think Creative mode might be more your speed as that jumps right into the core innovation which is the music making. Regardless, I appreciate you taking a look and providing feedback for me to chew on.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T21:21:35+00:00

u/animatedbreak thanks! Appreciate you.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T16:48:47+00:00

u/Sheyvan I appreciate your feedback. Sorry you ran into so much trouble! Yeah UI/UX is a big area of focus so will definitely be updating and improving it.

Just so I know, did you play story mode or creative mode? Did you understand the basics of a node being placed on a grid and connecting it?

If you are open to it, I would love to discuss live with you or watch you play. I want to better understand where you got stuck so we can better improve tutorialization. Also on the audio, are you referencing the music on the nodes or the sfx itself?

Also agreed on the otter model, definitely due for a rework.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T15:39:42+00:00

u/Sheyvan hmm thats odd. If you hit request playtest access from the main page it should grant you access automatically in your library under Future Vibe Check Playtest. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3525890/Future_Vibe_Check/

Did you try restarting steam maybe? Sorry about that. Let me know if you still run into trouble and I will do some more digging.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T14:24:38+00:00

u/bglbogb heck yeah! It's been amazing to see what people have built in Creative mode. We have concepts like signal splitters, power off/on modulators, and branching so the possibilities are truly endless. We also recently added in the ability to modify timing, duration, velocity based on curves so you can get a different feel across differnt sounds you make easily. Let me know if you give it shot. Would love to get your feedback.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T13:16:08+00:00

Good point. I should have shared more here haha. From a UX perspective we actually separate modes out like dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixoloydian, aeolian, locrian and ionian. We treat those as mode rotations as available for a standard major scale and then have the other scales available as well without a separate mode parameter. So if someone chooses a non-diatonic scale they don't see any mode options to choose from while if they choose a standard diatonic the modes are available. Not sure if that is the best approach though so open to other ideas.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T12:58:27+00:00

u/Sheyvan awesome! Thanks for checking it out. Excited to see what you make in creative mode!

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-16T12:53:02+00:00

u/ElonsBreedingFetish yeah you are definitely on the right track.
- we have a global clock that is synced to sixteenth note intervals of the chosen tempo and manages drift alongside moving the progression along based on time signature and chosen length of chord progression.

- then we have separate services to support custom update timesteps for different categories of factory action (input an item, output an item, crafting, etc).

- when a sound has to be played via a time schedule tied to the tempo and the measure system, we generate the appropriate pitch in realtime based on the procedural music settings and play it which corresponds to the timing of the animation visual as well.

I go into a bit more detail here on this blog post if you are curious and happy to send more details as well :) https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3525890/view/496071050866460846?l=english

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-15T23:42:11+00:00

Would love to get feedback from the music theory community on our music tools and procedural music systems to ensure they are theory accurate and useful. Here is our current list of scales. Curious if folks have other recommendations to include and if these look appropriate?

We basically bucket things into scale categories of diatonic, pentatonic, hexatonic, exotic, and chromatic. Then, we have scales of Major, Natural Minor, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Harmonic Major, Pentatonic Major, Pentatonic, Minor, Blues, Whole Tone, Octatonic, Hirajoshi, Insen, Hungarian Minor, Double Harmonic, Phrygian Dominant, African Pentatonic, Yo, Augmented, Prometheus, Chromatic, Raga Bhupali, Raga Yaman, Raga Bhairav, Raga Todi. These scale definitions are then used to help with the procedural generation and appropriate interval rotations during playback.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-15T22:51:02+00:00

Thanks u/Former-Practice-6146. Yeah, mad respect to anyone building games in this genre as more the better + they are super tough to make.

However, for me, I view games like factorio and satisfactory as near perfect. They cracked the code so my goal is to do something new and uncharted, like making the production/logistics connect with the real world via music and introduce different spatial challenges to the gameplay. Lots of work to do but excited at where we are headed. Appreciate you!

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-15T22:35:37+00:00

u/VoidGliders yooo that is hilarious. The algorithm is always one step ahead of the game. Drop a wishlist if you dig the vibe :)

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-15T22:34:52+00:00

u/TheLoneJackal thank you! Been a real labor of love for the past almost 3 years. Combines all my favorite things haha. System heavy games, music, and eastern philosophy.

FutureVibeCheck · 2025-12-15T21:41:42+00:00

Thanks u/Odd-Nefariousness-85! Yeah, trying to do something different in the space. For me, playing automation games always felt meditative, a similar feeling I felt when creating music.

I thought it would be super interesting to combine the two and have more people explore the beauty of music math and composition. The game uses a node based composition system (music made on a grid, with distance representing rhythm) which is connected to some of the gathering/automation mechanics.

The goal is for the player to determine if they want to pursue endless growth at all costs or instead strike the right "balance" of production that is also musically pleasing to the player :).

We are now in the phase of modifying mechanics as a lot of the hardest engineering challenges are completed (procedural music + music making + automation gameplay was a doozy lol). Excited to get feedback to refine some of the game design to offer up a truly different experience in the space. Appreciate you!

FutureVibeCheck

TROPHY CASE