{"id":2079,"edition":11,"categories":1,"features":0,"size":10953,"name":"Pied Pipe Revolution","authors":[{"name":"Allen Schmidt","url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238}],"description":"

Pied Pipe Revolution!

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Be the Pied Piper and play your pan pipe to lead the rats from town. Use the Arrow keys to play the notes when they reach the arrows, which will increase your area of influence over the rats. Once rats hear the tune, they will follow you. When the song ends hopefully enough rats will follow you out of town that the townsfolk will rejoice!

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As always, this ended up being a mad rush at the end, so I didn’t get to really play test this a ton, so let me know if it feels too hard or too easy. I had planned on adding touch support for mobile.

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Also make sure you click on the game before pressing any keys… otherwise the audio will play everything at once when you first click on it or press a key. Forgot to look into that AudioContext piece!

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Enjoy!

\n","source":"cobrajs/pied_pipe_js13k","stars":0,"comments":[{"at":347251795,"author":"Alex Swan","login":"BoldBigflank","gh":636964,"url":"https://alexswan.dev","text":"

I enjoyed it. I love the characters and the animations. The sfx were pretty good and the half step off on a missed note is clever.

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Since it was my first time playing I had to think hard about what position went to which key. What might work better is four keys that are above each other (like 1QAZ or 963. on the numpad).

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I thought it was weird the low notes were high pitched and the high notes were low pitched. It would make sense to reverse that.

\n","games":["The Mystery at Glamis Castle"]},{"at":348182530,"re":347251795,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Thanks! Ack, I can’t believe I made that mistake with the low/high notes… I guess I still need way more practice reading sheet music haha!

\n"},{"at":347415161,"author":"Elliot Nelson","login":"elliot-nelson","gh":58273,"url":"https://7tonshark.com","twitter":"7tonshark","text":"

Short and simple rhythm game, felt responsive and the tunes are pretty good too!

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My only complaint is that arrow keys feel very odd and made playing the chords more difficult than necessary… supporting other keys, like 4567 or GHJK, would feel more natural to the fingers I think.

\n","games":["Harold is Heavy"]},{"at":348182344,"re":347415161,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Thanks!! For the arrow keys, I was definitely influenced by other rhythm games (namely, Stepmania) that also use the arrow keys. At least here the chords are only two keys together (though that was more of a choice due to it being a pan pipe, so I kept the chords close together haha).

\n"},{"at":347475458,"author":"Isaac Benitez","login":"isacben","gh":37629156,"url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/isacben/","text":"

Cute little game. Made me smile. Nice graphics, and pretty good controls. Wish there were more levels!

\n","games":["Wanted"]},{"at":348608303,"re":347475458,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

It’s definitely pretty short on levels, but I feel like with how limited the mechanic is I’m not sure I could make it any more difficult. Thanks for the review!

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":347658156,"author":"Luke Stapley","login":"CocosLuke","gh":53160446,"url":"https://cocos.com","twitter":"GameAddict","text":"

I was hoping for a hidden 5th track after beating the game, but the game shows a lot of promise. Hopefully, better melodies in the future if you keep going. The game is a nice basic introduction to the music games of old.

\n"},{"at":347947166,"author":"Francesco Bedussi","login":"fbedussi","gh":9413715,"url":"http://www.francescobedussi.it","text":"

Very original and cute. There is a bug: if you press the arrow keys all toghether you always get the right note.

\n","games":["Guess the letter"]},{"at":348181975,"re":347947166,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Whoops! I only made the penalty be for missed notes… I guess there is still the penalty of not being able to hear the melody :D Thanks!

\n"},{"at":348054524,"author":"Ryan Tyler","login":"tyler6699","gh":50468,"url":"https://carelesslabs.co.uk","text":"

Nice game, simple but cool graphics, nice songs and all well executed, I noticed a little cheat, hit all the buttons all the time and you win!

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Missed notes and incorrect notes could have been punished.

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Over all a good entry

\n","games":["Fort Knight"]},{"at":348182198,"re":348054524,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Thank you!! There is a slight penalty for missed notes, in that your influence circle shrinks by a bit, and any currently following rats have a chance of stopping following you. It’s pretty easy to miss though, since most likely you’d be more focused on the notes (something I realized late in development). I should have added a little visual indication of a missed/wrong note!

\n"},{"at":348118613,"author":"ch!k0","login":"Chiko4Samples","gh":34527406,"text":"

what a fun and unique game! the graphics and sounds were simple and very clear. although throughout a level, i was too focused on keeping my eyes on the staff because the illustration of the keys were a little small.\ni like how each level’s speed changes though after i finish the level, when i return to the menu, the current selected level was 1 and not the level i recently played in. all in all it was awesome! great work!

\n","games":["Rock Feud"]},{"at":348299419,"author":"Mark Vasilkov","login":"mvasilkov","gh":140257,"url":"https://mvasilkov.animuchan.net","twitter":"mvasilkov","text":"

The visuals are fun! Is that just me, or is the beat not synchronized with the music? Anyway, we need moar rhythm games on js13k!

\n","games":["Super Castle Game"]},{"at":348301073,"re":348299419,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

It was mostly synchronized when I was testing it, but I basically just tweaked the timing until it mostly lined up. I really should have tested it on more computers to make sure but I ran out of time haha!

\n"},{"at":348410447,"author":"Chris Subagio","login":"csubagio","gh":756253,"twitter":"csubagio","text":"

LOVED the illustrations, they look super solid, and in theme. The flute sound worked pretty great, but as I was playing I wished that you’d not assigned a note to each track, and just played out a pleasant melody instead, regardless of which key needed to be struck.

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Had a minute and a half of genuine fun with the little entry, thanks!

\n","games":["Robin of Thirteensley"]},{"at":348610144,"re":348410447,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Glad you liked the graphics!! That was my favorite part to work on, as it took a bit to get the animations working nicely! That’s a good idea, so the note in time with the rest of the song instead of just whenever you press it. That’d make it a bit more like in Ocarina of Time so there’s a nice melody in the back (though I guess that’s a bit more like after you’ve played your melody haha). Thanks for the review! :)

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":348477725,"author":"Christer Kaitila","login":"McFunkypants","gh":2111957,"url":"http://www.mcfunkypants.com","text":"

I really like the line art used for the player character. it has excellent design and could be a million dollar logo for a brewery or bakery or something. the whole game exudes stylish minimalism and looks awesome and plays nice and smoothly with great tweens and silky smooth scrolling. the only thing I did not love was the actual music itself, the notes chosen were very dissonant to my ear in terms of scale and interval and I wish they were actually lovely and melodic medieval pan pipe tunes! but that would be a huge ask! =) overall, amazing work, nicely done.

\n"},{"at":348609184,"re":348477725,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Thanks for the feedback!! I was pretty happy with the arts, though I wish I had made the rats a little more blocky to match the piper. I had intended from the start to make everything with pixel graphics, so I made the pipe noise a little dissonant to match the pixel graphics, but then I went with line drawing using Canvas instead and didn’t update the pipe sound to match haha! Probably doesn’t help that I went with a bit of a minor scale, since it sounded more medieval to me, though something less melancholy would have contrasted with the outcome of the original story of the Pied Piper (I had intended that to be the final level, but time got away from me!)

\n"},{"at":348534793,"author":"Roman Miniv","login":"RomanMiniv","gh":50551993,"text":"

I liked it - congratulations! The difficulty is well matched to the level, so I had fun playing.

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It would be convenient to also have control using the WASD.

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Maybe a few houses that would make a map of the city with small paths between them, where the rats could converge - would add interest (their arbitrary arrangement by levels, or a more complex arrangement is also possible…).

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If the notes will be made into beautiful and interesting melodies of that time - it will be perfect! (perhaps this is the case even now, in which case it is necessary to choose more accurate melodies that would immediately feel good for non-musicians :)).

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Thanks for game!

\n","games":["Crusaders and their Journeys"]},{"at":348609654,"re":348534793,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

I kind of made the melodies intentionally not beautiful, since that felt a bit more medieval in my mind. I thought it would be more fun to not really look up anything melody wise, and in the end it was just a mad rush to even get the few I had done haha!

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Houses were definitely part of the original design, but fell off once I started losing time. Would have made it much cooler though… maybe this would be worthwhile reimplementing in another language and expanding a little bit. I’m not sure if it was a bug in KontraJS (the library I used), but I had the code in there so WASD would work as an alternative. I didn’t test it out extensively (just noticed that it didn’t work and never tried to fix it) so I may have had the code wrong as well.

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Thanks for the review!!

\n"},{"at":348599630,"author":"Stiggstogg","login":"Stiggstogg","gh":53380538,"twitter":"Stiggstogg","text":"

Cool game! I really liked the simplistic graphics and the pretty innovative idea to interprete the theme! Not sure if the arrow keys are the right choice for the notes, as the layout does not really match. Maybe using a vertical key combination, e.g. E, D, C, Space would feel more natural. I think a bit more feedback to when you do an error would have helped, because you can not really watch the rats when you are playing. Maybe having audio feedback (playing wrong notes) would be even better.\nAnyway congratulations to a very nice game!

\n","games":["Cathedral Master Builder"]},{"at":348609402,"re":348599630,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

I did notice that early on in development, like it’s really hard to look at what’s happening above to notice the influence decreasing or increasing depending on how you play. There is audio feedback when you miss a note, but nothing for when you play the wrong note (should have made it so any wrong note played would be offkey and give you negative influence). And I was definitely influenced by all the old school rhythm games for the arrow key input (Stepmania, Friday Night Funkin’, though is that even old school?) Thanks for the review!! :)

\n"},{"at":348682298,"author":"John Edvard","login":"johnedvard","gh":656024,"url":"https://reitgames.com","twitter":"ReitGames","text":"

I’m a sucker for rhythm games, and I really enjoyed this one too.\nI love the animations, the gameplay and the style. I just wish there were more songs to play. I personally think level 4 was too easy as well, and I’d love to see even more difficult levels.

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Great entry, and I wish it had more levels.

\n","games":["Samurai Sam"]},{"at":348720859,"re":348682298,"author":"Allen Schmidt","login":"cobrajs","gh":297238,"url":"https://cobrajs.itch.io","text":"

Thanks!! I had planned on changing up the song speed to make some songs harder, but I ran out of time. The song implementation is a little wonky anyways, so I think I would have introduced too many bugs late in development. I had thought about adding like three finger combos, but I didn’t think that would be as realistic with a pan pipe (though having never played one, I’m not sure haha).

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":348708451,"author":"Taufik Sani","login":"tictacx-gm","gh":106235867,"url":"https://linkedin.com/in/taufiksani","twitter":"gorilatictacx","text":"

When DDR meets rats in the 13th century!

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I like the theme, and how you incorporated a rhythm game as part of historical event!

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Graphics were cute (rats following the piper), and the captions after you finish a level is just hilarious (have you switched your sound on/off?)

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Controls were just like DDR (the combination of directional keys are great to trip up players).

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The songs can be longer (understand it was finished in a rush). Rhythm games are always popular with players on whichever platform (mobile, pc.). More levels will be welcomed!

\n"},{"at":348714507,"author":"Gauthier Billot","login":"gogoprog","gh":1249453,"url":"http://gogopr.org","twitter":"gogoprog","text":"

Nice but I wish there were more levels

\n","games":["Minipuyo"]},{"at":348741624,"author":"Marcin Walczak","login":"wiserim","gh":18725798,"twitter":"wiserim_","text":"

Despite very simple design, characters are very well animated (that bouncy movement animation is just adorable).\nVery responsive.\nPlaying off-note on miss was a good idea.

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Even though I suck at rhythm games I had a lot of fun with this game which says something.

\n","games":["Petty kingdoms"]},{"at":348869039,"author":"stxtus","login":"stxtus","gh":79226770,"text":"

I love this game good concept, easy to play too

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