There are many things dogs aren’t noted for, like being judgmental about their human or picky about what they eat. Somewhere in that list is probably an entry for a lack of rhythm, because a moving doggy is a happy doggy and restricting that energy to a beat would inhibit its canine exuberance. That’s why dogs sometimes need people, for those rare occasions when rhythm matters every bit as much as a fluffy heart and optimistic attitude.
Jump To The User-Defined Beat
Rhythm Doggo is the latest from Nifflas, who’s been creating games since well before indies started taking off when the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade gave them a home on consoles. It’s a musical platformer, which is a genre that’s had its ups and downs (currently I’m looking forward to Rhythm Quest, which has hada demo outfor a couple years now) as everyone tries to put their own spin on it with varying results. Generative music has been a theme of Nifflas' games for a while now, where the soundtrack is heavily influenced by the actions and effects of the player, which you can see in the experiments and smaller games onhis itch.io pageand most recent full release Ynglet.
Jumping Without Feet, Landing Without Platforms in Ynglet
The way Rhythm Doggo will work is that there’s a rhythm bar running down a three-by-sixteen grid on the left side of the screen, with the columns colored red, blue, and green. The rhythm bar triggers the notes when it passes over one that’s been filled in, with props in the levels corresponding to the color like red pushers or blue disappearing platforms, and when a note plays it switches the state of the prop. A green laser will change from being off to on, or a pusher will pop out or retract. The trick is that the notes aren’t filled in and it’s up to the player to do this, charting a course through the level and making the music keep time to their playing speed. A more careful player will have a slower tempo than a speed runner, but a level’s going to be longer than the sixteen bars of the note track so that would effect the overall layout of the tune’s boops and beeps as well.
Generative music has been a theme of Nifflas' games for a while now, where the soundtrack is heavily influenced by the actions and effects of the player.
The reveal of Rhythm Doggo also comes with abit of a disclaimer- “The game is done and I’m very happy with it, but could also be significantly expanded, should the opportunity arise. I’m now figuring out how/if to make money of this thing.” That means publishers, and that’s a bit of a dumpster fire over the last year. Rythm Doggo will get released but whether that’s as a really cool experimental platformer on itch.io or as something bigger and more fully-featured on Steam and maybe even consoles is another question entirely. Whatever it’s final version may be, there’s a very good boy needing a hand in the music department and as long as you’re managing the beat, you might as well handle the running and jumping too.
