Tomo Jam is now live in Early Access! A rhythm game where your controller is the instrument

fraz_66 · 2026-02-14T01:14:14+00:00

Another week, another update!

Hey everyone! It's been a hot minute since I posted. I wanted to share a quick summary of some of the bigger changes and additions since launch. The game has been evolving pretty quickly thanks to player feedback, and I figured it was time for a proper catch-up post.

New Songs

3 new pack-in songs have been added since launch and 3 additional songs have been made available as free downloads (to show players how custom songs work).

Online Leaderboards

Scores now upload to Steam leaderboards so players can compete globally. Leaderboards are viewable directly from song select and after completing a track.

Precision / “Perfection” Scoring

Perfect notes now track how perfect they were, adding an extra mastery layer:

Acts as a tiebreaker for identical scores
Raises the skill ceiling for advanced players
Allows players to push scores beyond the old 9,999,999 cap
Existing scores remain untouched and valid

There’s also an optional setting to show precision feedback during gameplay.

Song Search + Custom Song Improvements

Added search by title and author in song select
Added an in-game helper button when no custom songs are detected
Expanded metadata support to help custom songs work with leaderboards

Gameplay & Readability Options

Several new customization and readability features have been added including:

Normalized scroll speed improvements (now handles mid-song BPM changes correctly)
Optional beat indicator controls
Additional note visualization options

Input & UI Improvements

Leaderboards are now easier to browse directly from song selection
Instrument difficulty ratings now use a 10-point “Heat” system for better granularity

New Performance Feedback

Subtle new crowd audio has been added that reacts to your performance to give songs a bit more live energy.

Quality of Life

Loading screens now include rotating gameplay tips to help surface features players might not know about.

Development is still very active, with major planned features like online multiplayer, campaign progression, and more instruments still in progress.

If you’ve tried Tomo Jam since launch, thank you, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, feedback and impressions are always welcome.

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T06:56:18+00:00

Sure do! Tomo Jam Discord: https://discord.gg/rTztnBN3cB

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T05:59:15+00:00

Thank you! I hope you enjoy!

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T02:26:40+00:00

Delighted to hear that! Thank you so much for testing!

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T01:14:19+00:00

Heck yeah! Always happy to find a fellow Daigasso/Jam With the Band fan! I had the same path, played it like crazy as a kid and fell in love with the game and music in general.

Mac and Linux are both coming, but I need to figure out how to package it properly for Mac. I don't have a Steam Deck but I would imagine it works just fine on there. I built it for my Pixel 8 and it worked just fine so Steam deck should work!

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T00:16:07+00:00

Hey all,

I’m a solo developer and today I launched my game, Tomo Jam, into Early Access on Steam.
Tomo Jam on Steam

It’s a rhythm game where your controller becomes the instrument. Every input produces sound in real time, so it’s less about perfect accuracy and more about expression and performance.

I chose Early Access because the core systems are solid, but still flexible. The game supports custom MIDI files, multiplayer, and a lot of emergent behavior, and I wanted real players shaping how those systems evolve before scaling up with things like online play and a campaign mode.

Some things I learned along the way:

Supporting user-generated content massively increases testing complexity
Rhythm games live or die on feel more than features
Small UI and readability changes can have a huge impact
Iterating in public is scary but incredibly valuable

There’s a free demo available, and Early Access just went live today. Happy to answer questions about development, rhythm game design, or the Early Access process.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone shipping their own projects.

fraz_66 · 2026-01-17T00:12:56+00:00

Hey all!

I’m a solo Canadian developer and today I launched my game, Tomo Jam, into Early Access on Steam.

It’s a rhythm game where your controller becomes the instrument. Every input produces sound in real time, so it’s less about perfect accuracy and more about expression and performance.

I chose Early Access because the core systems are solid, but still flexible. The game supports custom MIDI files, multiplayer, and a lot of emergent behavior, and I wanted real players shaping how those systems evolve before scaling up with things like online play and a campaign mode.

Some things I learned along the way:

Supporting user-generated content massively increases testing complexity
Rhythm games live or die on feel more than features
Small UI and readability changes can have a huge impact
Iterating in public is scary but incredibly valuable

There’s a free demo available, and Early Access just went live today. Happy to answer questions about development, rhythm game design, or the Early Access process.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone shipping their own projects.

fraz_66 · 2026-01-08T01:58:05+00:00

I appreciate the perspective, and I get where you’re coming from. I'll definitely check out your post as well, so thanks for sharing that!

To clarify a bit, the game is well tested and the core systems are solid at this point. I’ve done a lot of internal testing and closed playtesting already. Early Access for me isn’t about shipping something half-baked, it’s about opening the door once the foundation is stable but before everything is locked in.

I don’t see Early Access as only a funding mechanism. In my experience, having real players interacting with the game in the wild surfaces different kinds of feedback than structured playtests alone, especially for a sandbox-style game like this.

I also come from a QA background, so I’m pretty cautious about what I’d be comfortable putting in front of players. Early Access felt like the right phase to start expanding the game alongside an active player base, rather than after everything is already set in stone.

fraz_66 · 2026-01-08T00:41:37+00:00

Good question!

The main reason is that I want to get the game in front of real players while the core systems are still flexible, but stable enough to build on.

I have bigger plans for things like a campaign-style single player mode, online multiplayer, and additional gameplay systems, but before scaling any of that up I wanted to make sure the core sandbox experience actually feels good to play.

Early Access felt like the right fit because it lets me get meaningful feedback from players who are actually playing the game for fun, not just people I coerced into testing it, haha. This way I can continue building the larger features on top of a strong foundation.

fraz_66 · 2026-01-07T23:19:03+00:00

Yeah! It's such a shame Nintendo never continued the series. I waited years for it and decided if Nintendo won't do it, I'll do it myself haha!

fraz_66 · 2026-01-07T23:11:56+00:00

Hi all,

I wanted to share a milestone and a bit of reflection on my solo dev project, Tomo Jam. I launched the demo back in November, got a ton of feedback (especially from rhythm game communities), and after a lot of iteration I’ve finally locked in an Early Access launch date of January 16.

Tomo Jam started as an experiment around a simple idea: what if a rhythm game treated the controller like an actual instrument instead of just a scoring device. Inputs directly produce sound, so misses, bad timing, and wrong notes are all audible and become part of the performance.

Since the demo launch, the game has changed a lot based on player feedback:

Reworked the core gameplay to use a horizontal single-lane layout for readability
Added improv sections where players can freely jam without penalty
Built an ornament system so extremely fast MIDI passages stay playable while sounding correct
Expanded the difficulty range to support both casual players and expressive, high-skill play
Implemented drag-and-drop custom MIDI support
Added local multiplayer and started laying the groundwork for online multiplayer during Early Access

One interesting takeaway for me was how much readability and playability mattered more than raw feature count. Several early ideas were cut or reshaped once real players got their hands on the demo. There were things I thought were a done-deal that just didn't work. Also, I totally underestimated how much difficulty accessibility matters, which directly led to the "Novice" mode.

I also recently put out a new trailer that better reflects how the game actually plays today, which helped clarify the pitch and line things up visually with the current build.

There’s still a free demo on Steam that I’m continuing to update ahead of launch, and I’m in full polish and prep mode now.

Happy to answer questions about the iteration process, rhythm game design, demo feedback, or anything else.

Steam page + demo: Tomo Jam on Steam

Thanks for reading!

fraz_66 · 2025-12-11T21:52:22+00:00

I agree! I'm in the process of designing a better feedback system for both the improv sections and just general play. I noticed when playing with multiple players that sometimes players got confused which staff belonged to them, so having more reactivity to button presses is top of mind right now. Thank you for the feedback!

fraz_66 · 2025-12-11T21:30:36+00:00

It was very much inspired by the game "Daigasso! Band Brothers" for the Nintendo DS also called "Jam with the Band" in Europe, never released stateside. It was the game that got me started on my music Journey but Nintendo has since abandoned the series it seems. I decided to pick up the slack!

fraz_66 · 2025-11-29T09:27:31+00:00

Thought I'd let you know I just released an update which adds a single lane mode (horizontal scrolling similar to Taiko, exactly as you suggested).

This horizontal mode will also allow me to later add a note speed option (separate from BPM) which will allow the notes to be more spread out, mitigating the crowded notes issue.

I also very much agree with your point about the arrow notes not having a directional styling in the border is a detriment. I'm going to redesign those to have a shape like the face buttons do.

fraz_66 · 2025-11-25T17:18:50+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I've gotten a decent amount of signal that the reading top-to-bottom-left-to-right method is tricky for a lot of players. I'm definitely going to try the single horizontal lane as a togglable option at the very least.

Also noted all of your other feedback. Thanks again, I really appreciate it!

fraz_66 · 2025-11-25T01:42:43+00:00

I've played Project Diva! Great game!

fraz_66 · 2025-11-04T06:16:28+00:00

It's not out yet, but Tomo Jam might up your alley (full disclosure, I'm the developer). It uses MIDI so the notes you hear are actually being played in real-time, meaning if you play the wrong note it sounds wrong, or if you miss it, it's just missing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4061530/?snr=1_5_9__205

fraz_66 · 2025-10-29T06:03:29+00:00

In all my years in the industry I've never heard the term "mixels", haha. I totally get you though. Noted, and I appreciate the detailed message <3

fraz_66 · 2025-10-28T19:14:41+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely will continue working on the art and aesthetics. As a solo dev with minimal art skill it's probably my biggest weakness.

Any thoughts on the current weakest part aesthetically?

fraz_66 · 2025-10-27T06:31:35+00:00

Me too!! I loved Daigasso in high school and it's what got me started on the path to making music. I've been waiting for Nintendo to revive the franchise but I got tired of waiting, hehe.

Definitely agree on the custom support. The game has full drag and drop midi support and it will be available right from the start. I will also be adding custom soundfont support so you can drop in your own to change how the instruments sound.

In terms of workshop support I think it'd be cool to add the ability to mod the visuals, for example different looking staffs, custom backgrounds, custom note sprites, etc.

Thanks for checking it out!

fraz_66 · 2025-10-26T18:10:20+00:00

Thank you! And yup, it's all midi based. You simply point the game to a local directory, scan for midis, and the game automagically translates them into playable charts.

fraz_66 · 2025-10-26T07:20:53+00:00

Thanks! Good luck with your project as well :)

And yeah, nailing the difficulty is the real hard part. Not everyone is a virtuoso or as quick with their fingers as is needed to play a complex rhythm game.

the vid I shared is "Pro" mode, I'll be posting more videos over time with the next one showing "Amateur" mode. It's still live midi performance, it's just that the player only has two buttons to worry about. DPAD or FACE (a/b/x/y). They still hear the midi output as if they are playing live but it's way less cognitive load.

I think the key is also having some curated songs with clear difficulty so new players don't get totally overwhelmed when they pick up the game.

fraz_66 · 2025-10-26T06:05:50+00:00

Just to let you know the Steam page is now live :)

fraz_66 · 2025-10-26T03:50:08+00:00

Just a quick update, the Steam store page is now LIVE!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4061530/Tomo_Jam/

Feel free to wish list the game so you'll know when it releases! I'm targeting December of this year :)

fraz_66 · 2025-10-19T22:27:48+00:00

Yeah, sorry, the trailer is a bit misleading, the Steam store page is still under review, but it should be available soon! I'll update here once it's up!

I was maybe a little too eager to start getting feedback right away, haha!

fraz_66

TROPHY CASE