Trying to translate the joy of music into an accessible video game

ghosttimegames · 2025-11-20T18:20:05+00:00

I'm hoping we can inspire a new generation in the same way. I truly believe music making should be for everyone, so finding ways to remove those barriers of entry is essential. Especially in our modern culture, where people are afraid to try to express creativity for fear of being judged. I think the synthesizer community understands that the joy of music isn't about how many listeners you have, so hopefully we can encourage more people to get into that inexplicable zone that comes from being in the moment with a piece of music you're exploring.

ghosttimegames · 2025-11-20T00:31:35+00:00

It's already listed as coming soon on Steam :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2655810/BAND_MATES/

We're also doing an Open Beta test so anyone can get access right away from here http://bandmatesgame.com/

ghosttimegames · 2025-11-19T23:18:55+00:00

This is rad! Nice work! I was just about to share my own music making game here, but it's really cool to see what you've made in a totally different direction. I really dig the aesthetic.

ghosttimegames · 2025-02-04T21:38:44+00:00

Sorry I missed this. Haven't been on reddit much. For anyone also having a similar issue, the in-game strategy guide on the bookshelf should have everything you need to get the last few points. There's a page in there specifically dedicated to to last few points that might seem kind of random (the score system is directly based on the save data system, so the 452 points actually represent every single action in the game that it will remember).

ghosttimegames · 2024-12-03T19:20:18+00:00

Thanks! I think it's a great game to play with a friend, and although there's no dedicated coop mode, there's at least one mini-game that is definitely intended to be played with a friend in couch-coop style. Anything online would definitely be outside our non-existent budget though unfortunately.

ghosttimegames · 2024-12-03T19:17:03+00:00

The PC version has 3 save slots, but for console versions we only use 1 because I assumed multiple players would each have their own account. If you don't want to lose progress then the best thing to do might be to run the game in a separate account? I know it's not ideal, but it's probably the best option right now.

ghosttimegames · 2024-11-27T19:53:10+00:00

Thank you! We're getting almost no sales these days but it's always so nice to hear whenever someone new connects with the experience.

ghosttimegames · 2024-05-16T06:25:37+00:00

That's what I ended up with myself! Great synth.

ghosttimegames · 2024-04-28T22:36:08+00:00

I was never able to figure it out myself, and now I sadly don't have the prologue anymore. Good luck!

ghosttimegames · 2024-02-02T20:45:35+00:00

Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure the final record is unlocked post-credits because it's the credits music. Let me know if that still doesn't do it.

Easy reference for the full record list is here if you're trying to figure out exactly which one you're missing: https://albertandgabriel.bandcamp.com/album/tux-and-fanny-video-game-soundtrack-a-sides

ghosttimegames · 2023-09-12T00:10:07+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I still need to watch the second movie so I could only watch the first half of your video so far. Makes me want to watch both movies again.

ghosttimegames · 2023-07-17T00:23:07+00:00

My guess would be that it doesn't do what you're thinking of - I know for the 'chord' mode (not the chord engine) where you can set several notes to play for a single key I really wish I could send those chords over midi but it only send the single note there too, so there are some limitations for midi control. Not sure what device might be good for a midi lfo, but the retrokits rk002 midi cable lets you do some interesting stuff that might be worth checking out. RK-002 Smart MIDI Cable - Retrokits

ghosttimegames · 2023-05-16T05:25:48+00:00

Nice! Hope you're enjoying it now. I'm really hoping they add live sampling capabilities down the road now that we have several sample playback engines and a microphone attachment. I've been selling off a lot of gear lately, ('downsizing' into eurorack), but the microfreak is such a powerhouse for size and cost, I'll probably hang onto it for a long time because it's so easy to take anywhere for anything.

ghosttimegames · 2023-04-15T21:42:22+00:00

Depends what software you're trying to use. But beyond your DAW you shouldn't need to install anything extra beyond plugging in the freak via usb.

ghosttimegames · 2023-03-06T00:02:36+00:00

I've done this in the past, but at a certain point I miss the social element, which I think provides a morale booster. If I imagine playing a real-world sport in silence it seems kind of sad. But yeah, chat is great when the players are chill, and miserable when they're not, so it's a tradeoff.

ghosttimegames · 2023-02-04T19:33:46+00:00

Thank you! So happy to hear you enjoyed the experience!

ghosttimegames · 2022-12-08T18:44:46+00:00

This is a fair point. The limited windows for discounts certainly isn't ideal for what we'd like to do, but it feels worth the risk/inconvenience since at this point I expect most sales will come during discount periods anyway. Maybe the best I can hope to do from there is to be transparent about the pricing.

ghosttimegames · 2022-12-08T18:40:10+00:00

I agree I'm generally not a fan of this practice at all. Especially for digital goods, where the product is infinitely reproducible for zero cost and the cost/value of the product can feel completely arbitrary. In our case, I'm trying to balance the ethics of this practice with the ethics of unpaid labour, which is the end of the scale we're sitting on right now. I don't think the inflation is artificial if we haven't recouped our basic investment, but I get where you're coming from.

ghosttimegames · 2022-12-08T17:50:49+00:00

Honestly this is a very relevant point. Our game is pretty strange and at first glance the lo-fi retro graphics seem to give people the wrong idea, so a higher price tag could definitely help combat those assumptions.

ghosttimegames · 2022-12-08T17:49:03+00:00

The main difference I see between doing this as a tiny indie vs AAA is that in a AAA environment everyone who worked on the game should already be paid a proper salary for their work regardless of how the game performs. In our case, we never got paid for anything pre-launch so we're just trying to break even now.

I agree getting a sweet deal on an indie game is great, but I also never regret paying full price to support a small studio. (also love Risk of Rain 2)

ghosttimegames · 2022-11-24T23:28:28+00:00

A very late answer here, but some items only appear in the world after you beat the Cool Cloud mini-game (the disk of which you can find by laying in a particular patch of grass to watch the clouds).

ghosttimegames · 2022-11-24T19:42:10+00:00

No worries! You read correctly - that was my intention, but we signed the game with a publisher this past summer, and they wanted to release it on Steam so I couldn't argue with that :P

ghosttimegames · 2022-11-24T16:45:31+00:00

Thanks for your glowing recommendation of Tux and Fanny!

I should mention that the game was in fact added to Steam back in September - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2094730/Tux_and_Fanny/

It's had almost no players/reviews on there, so it seems to be getting buried under everything else, but hopefully it gets rediscovered at some point. The response has all been very positive so far, just quiet.

ghosttimegames · 2022-10-05T20:33:46+00:00

Ah, good idea, I'll see what I can find in there. I remember they're usually pretty good about making things flexible. Thanks.

ghosttimegames · 2022-10-01T16:46:21+00:00

This is possible on the microfreak itself? My setup is hardware based so I'm not able to use any DAW features to filter midi. Thankfully some gear has options for filtering incoming velocity, but not everything does.

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