April 21, 2006

Beat Matching but Casual

During this year's Experimental Gameplay Workshop, Nick Fortugno from Gamelab presented their challenging project Downbeat, a casual game combines RTS with beat matching mechanics. Nick mentioned that it is quite a challenge to design a beat matching game (which was mainly for hardcore gamers) to be easy to pick up by the casual gamers.

Downbeat successfully solved the problem. It changed the basic gamplay from the very hard "click in time" to the easy to pick up "move direction before it's too late". Interestingly while Downbeat is still not released yet. Japanese game designers have already put out a flash game that is surprisingly close.

japanesebeatmatchinggame.jpg

Without any graphics candy, this game is surprisingly pleasing. The synchronization between body, eyes and ears is always a very addicting experience.

Posted by Jenova at April 21, 2006 6:20 PM


Comments

That was awesome game. Very simple but really solving the issues of most of the previous beat matching games which are about the same linear scrolling screen all the time. Thank you for introducing this game, Jenova.

Posted by: doox [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 27, 2006 10:21 AM

that IS pretty fun. id love to get to play the "original".

and you're right...muical games are always so interesting. im really interested in the relationship between light and sound in an interactive environement. the holy grail of touching music and hearing light etc etc.
infact im obcessed.

Posted by: fish [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 30, 2006 11:48 AM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?