image

The Diviner has arrived at the Disco! Keep to the beat and move around the dancefloor, using your magic to cast spells and defeat enemies as you go. Be careful, misstepping can cause the enemies to catch up to you - but a perfect step to the beat or defeating a spooky enemy rewards you with candy! 🍬 Scoop them up and trade them in for extra spells and powers! Try to survive all 5 waves!

image
In Game:
<WASD/ARROWS> to move and prepare spells
<SPACE> to cast spells

Menu:
<F> to toggle fullscreen
<SPACE> to play

image
This game had some major bugs which I didn't get time to fix in the 48 hours (as below), but I have repaired these now and released a post-jam version! Check it out here: https://tydecon.games/#/disco/

image
image

image
This game definitely did not get the testing time it deserves - there are some issues to be aware of which will all be fixed post-jam:

  • After going back to the menu, music from in-game will resume, you'll need to reset to stop the overlay
  • The Shock Shake spell does not work correctly, hitting an enemy with it will crash the game
  • Some health bars are placed lower than they should be on enemies
  • Sometimes, in the tutorial, the test enemy can appear under the text, this doesn't affect gameplay but keep an... eye... out for it
  • There is no end screen, but there's 5 waves, have fun! 😅
You must be logged in to leave feedback
Log in Register an account
  • Kukatoo
    Lv. 3

    This game is really fun and has so much visual polish! I would miss a lot of spells that I thought were on beat. I'm not sure if this had something to do with the timing system or if it's just evidence of my lack of skill, lol! I was going to mention some of the bugs, but it seems you're already well aware. I think one improvement would be to make it more obvious what defines the end of the round. I wasn't sure if it was just time or if it included enemy kills. I would be very curious to hear how you did the timing system. Is it just an alarm mathematically synced to the bpm of the music or does it actually read the audio file in some clever way? All in all, great entry.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the difficulty hah. The round was designed to end after the track finishes, however the tracks were a little shorter than anticipated so I had extended it to when the track plays twice, I think some indicator might be a good idea, thanks for the suggestion :) and it was all synced to bpm :)

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    I couldn't even buy another spell in 3 runs 😭
    First run I bought hearts, second one I wasted 15 on the power up (it increases damage but enemies still take 2 shots to die 😤) and last one... I died on wave 4 with 19 candies.

    It's a good idea but yeah there's a lot of balance issues. Biggest thing is it needs a beat indicator because once you're lost it's very hard to get back. Casting spells is also pretty hard, there's no indication that you missed a beat, so it feels like the game skips inputs. And the fact that pressing and releasing spacebar has to be on beat too is sooo frustrating :'D If you miss the beat when you press it, it just does nothing for your next moves, and if you miss the release it wastes your hard earned spell :( If spacebar has to be on beat, a toggle will probably work better?

    On the rogue side, it also lacks an indicator for the end of the round. Sometimes I'd wait to kill a few enemies before getting candies, and it would end the song suddenly before I could pick up any.
    Some of the multiple movement enemies are a little weird too. Like, you can try escaping, but they can also catch you between "turns". I also have to mention the skeletons who can snipe you at the end of their move without any tell 😖

    And overall, I'd say the level is way too big. It makes moving around less fun, and you can mostly just shoot things from far away. Having a smaller area would also make the bigger enemies more dangerous without necessarily having them move 5 times at once. Alternatively, for this size and number of enemies, the base spell needs to be stronger, or have an AoE or piercing, or the first bonus spell shouldn't cost 20 :(
    As it is, almost all enemies take at least 2 shots, which is 10 turns if you're aligned and don't miss anything. When taking into account the spawn rate, the overall time limit, and the fact that you also need to go pick up the drops, it makes it very hard to get a good number of candies. I'm pretty sure 15 was my best in round 2, and when I started missing beats I couldn't even get to 10.

    Arctract
    Submitted

    Arctract

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thank you for playing, I agree the balance was the hardest thing I struggled with during this and you've made some great suggestions to help with this - thanks for these suggestions, I will take these on board when updating it and I hope you still enjoyed it

  • Chris Bradel
    Patron

    I loved watching all the little guys dancing around and nailing the timing on a set of moves was super satisfying! I'm always excited to try your entries and you delivered, once again!

  • arthurgps2
    Lv. 12

    You never fail to surprise me do you. Pretty cool game, really like the way you made the combat and shop system (the combat is pretty similar to my game too!), though I feel like the music and the song are off beat sometimes. Either that or the window for pressing keys is too strict and very easy to mess up. You're lucky I'm into rhythm games

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thank you so much for playing and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it 😁 yeah, getting the balance right is a tricky one so it's definitely something I'll be looking at balancing a bit better 😅

  • Mavvy
    Lv. 2

    Aww yeah, bring on the funk! I love rhythm games and Disco Diviner is pretty sick, especially for being done in 48 hours. Love the music and the enemy variety, the presentation is spot on.

    I feel kicking off with a slower song and maybe having the option for a tiny bit more leeway with when the beat hits would help people get into this.

    Overall a very enjoyable entry!

  • Batboy
    Lv. 7

    That was awesome! Very unforgiving, but also fun. Loved the music, the graphics vere nice, and the sheer amount of stuff going on makes me almost forget that this is a jam game. Good work!

  • Travis Pirozzini
    Lv. 4

    Great submission! Right from the opening screen I knew I was in for a treat. I loved the full screen option and room transitions. I was absolutely TERRIBLE at the rhythm portion of the game - oh my... casting that first spell during the tutorial was a challenge! Really fun game once I sort of got the hang of it and I can really appreciate the skill that went into making this. I wouldn't know how to begin to implement the code required to make something like this at this point in my journey. Congrats and thanks for making this game!

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thanks so much, I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed it despite the challenging nature of it 😁 it's my first time making a rhythm game so getting the balance right was tricky but I'm glad it didn't stop you enjoying the game 😁

  • Richard
    Lv. 7

    Nice entry. I appreciate the creativity.

    It is a difficult game and I could not keep in sync when more complex enemies came up. Maybe adding UI visualisation of the upcoming beat sequence would be helpful.

    I will play this tommorow and see if I can achieve better results :D

    Thanks for submission.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thanks for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it :) the difficulty balance was something I'd found tricky as I'd not done a game like this before and I think a visual queue for the beat would be helpful but I hope you enjoyed, thanks very much!

  • TibiSoft
    Lv. 4

    Unique concept with special gameplay. To be honest it was difficult for me but once I got familiar with the movements it become more funny. :) But I do not always understand why I cannot move in time (maybe a previous missed steps?). The game seems to be ready for release considering the well polished status, maybe a learning curve can be balanced for rookie players. :) Main screen fits to the game, nice room transitions and challenging task, congrats!

    Ps.: Actually I am just wondering how you aligned the rythm of the music with the checking cycle of the player... :)

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thanks so much, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! It is a bit tricky to get the balancing right as I've not made a rhythm game before so it can be a bit tricky to get used to but I'm glad you got the hang of it. Aligning the rhythm to the beat involved ensuring my music guy kept the music he made to a consistent beat that I could time then using variables to measure a buffer around each beat to allow movement :)

  • Allison James
    Patron

    Expectedly-highly-polished Crypt of the Necrodancer-esque game here! Enough so that I was absolutely awful at it, I was barely hitting any spells and sometimes not even moving very fast - I don't think through any fault of the game, all just me! 😔

    Lovely entry nonetheless. Looked great, sounded great, premise was excellent!

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it, skills aside haha! The timing part was tough to pull off and balancing how much leeway to give is a tricky decision to make but thanks for playing and enjoying :)

  • singleshot
    Lv. 43

    I played though your game on stream : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1628068563?t=01h48m56s

    yeah the lack of bug-fixes/testing really did hurt this game. it still a fun idea and a nice atemp!

    Spell-Wits
    Submitted

    Spell-Wits

  • Grei
    Lv. 2

    Incredibly fun and creative concept - though good lord do I suck at these types of games, haha. It took me faaar too long to get used to the way you cast spells, especially to the timing of the rhythm. Skill issues aside, great game!

  • Villany
    Lv. 6

    Really fun submission! Getting used to the rhythm of the songs took a bit of time but once I got the hang of it it was really fun to vibe to. Spells are creative and fun to use and the enemies are appropriately menacing. The amount of levels is also nice and provides a pretty large base of content. I found that the second song was slightly hard to match movement too but maybe that could be countered by having a visual beat show up for like 5 seconds at the start of each level so you can see what the rhythm to follow actually is?

    Another really polished and fun submittion and the menu, transitions, and typography were spot on!

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thank you so much, I am so glad to hear you enjoyed it! I think a visual que would be a great idea as well, the lights change to the beat but something to give a bit of lead up as you go in to the level would be great, I will look in to that. Thanks again for playing! :)

  • Brian LaClair
    Patron

    Another GM48 classic from Tydecon! Great art and music, I think the game itself was a bit confusing but I slowly got the hang of it. Enjoyed bopping to the beat and getting rid of the baddies.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Disco Diviner

      1yr ago

      Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it! It was a new concept for me to make this time around as well so I'm glad it went okay, but time wasn't on my side for the usual menu's and things that I would've liked to have had haha 😅

TEST, TEST, TEST! For goodness sake, people, test your games! If there's one thing I learned from this experience it's that you need to allocate some time to testing. I've been a little out of practice recently as well so it was really great lighting a fire under me to get this game finished and with EXACTLY SIX SECONDS to spare, that was tight! But damn, I should scale down, plan better and TEST, TEST and TEST some more when I take part in the next one.
It's a lot of fun being a part of these, as it always is, and the community is great here. I really hope that we can muster up some more people to join in next time as this jam is great and I'd hate to lose it through lack of engagement. Tell you friends, tell your mother, tell your friend's mother, get everyone to join the jam in January!

Result 8th
Loading...