Rainy Rhythm

Introduction

This game was made for Weekly Game Jam. Since the theme "Siesta" refers to relaxation, I wanted to make a game that offers a relaxing experience for the players. This was the first time that I worked on a rhythm based game.

Rhythm Centered Development

The scripts and the development process are significantly different in a rhythm based game. In most games, you write the script in such a way as to synchronise the game objects and other elements with the frame rate in order to maintain consistency in gameplay experience. In a rhythm game, however, syncing the game elements with the frame rate causes the gameplay to lose synchronisation with the music.

Instead of connecting with delta time, some of the game elements were coupled with real time clock to maintain consistency, especially in the scrolling speed of the arrows.

Keeping the Flow

The arrows carry trigger boxes to check for the overlapping of the appropriate arrows. The box sizes are relatively large in size so that the players may not feel pressured to achieve pixel perfect accuracy in a game about relaxation.

Music

Royalty free music was used for Ode to Joy and the sound of rain. If the player misses too many beats, the rain slowly fades and the sky becomes bright and clear. Owlbert the workaholic owl wakes up from his nap and flies off to work. In order to keep the game less punishing, I kept the music playing and the arrows scrolling so that the players may still continue playing and enjoy the music.

Art

Krita was used to draw the owl and the background. The owl in the rainy scene is a different game object from the owl that flies off if the rain stops. I used two different objects in order to make it convenient to script its behaviour.

Accessibility

Royalty free font "OpenDyslexic" was used in order to provide a relatively better experience to players with dyslexia.

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