Heya, I’m back with another development update for City of Beats!
This month we’ve reached a major milestone - we’ve finished implementing the final boss encounter. And it’s a crazy one, we’re really firing on all cylinders here. This means that we can now play through the whole thing, from the start screen until (and including) the end credits sequence!
Of course, there’s still a lot to do - but now my probably favorite part of gamedev begins: Tweaking and iterating on the campaign so that it flows well from start to finish, and adding additional content where we feel like there’s still some variety and fun missing.
Balancing Run Duration
After a bit of internal playtesting, we found that a full run through all 3 biomes & the final boss currently takes about 50-60min. This is quite a bit longer than I originally intended, considering that we know the game really well and are probably faster than the average player in their first few hours.
Ideally, I’d like the length to be around 40min, as having more but shorter runs results in an increased number of “big choices” and therefore more gameplay variety. Of course, if the runs are too short, those choices lose some of their weight and a successful run might not feel as rewarding, so we’ll have to find the perfect balance between the two. I’ll try to shorten the length and amount of combat encounters a bit and see how it goes. I’m already looking forward to the 15min speedruns. 😅
Summer Gaming Events
In the past few months, we brought the game to a couple of gaming events, which really paid off on the marketing front. Between Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show and EGX London, we’ve gathered tons of wishlists, followers and feedback. 🥳
Check out this interview with Nick, which dives deeper into the origins of the game and highlights some of the decisions we made regarding the music/rhythm aspects!
Our latest trailer!
Adaptive Music
Nick has also recently published two new interviews on his blog that are must-reads if you’re into adaptive music and music design in general:
Hey everyone! We want to start off this update with letting you all know that City of Beats is being featured at Gamescom at the Freedom Games booth! If you happen to be attending Gamescom in person, you can check it out at Hall 10, Stand F-002g. With us being at Gamescom, we've got a brand new updated trailer for you all to check out:
The trailer isn't the only thing getting an update! We've also updated our demo. You can check it out now on our Steam page 👀
Patch Notes
the Lightning Bow is now the default weapon for the demo
new mini-boss reward type: select a Trait Upgrade to add 5 levels to one of your traits until the end of the expedition
combat reward nodes can now be destroyed to gain HP instead of the reward
supercharging weapons now feels more powerful (new sounds, and an AoE Stun when activating supercharging the bow)
updated 2D illustrations for our characters and events
new sounds, e.g. mini-boss warp-in
keyboard/mouse icons are now displayed in menu button prompts (instead of text-based indicators)
slightly increased player's damage reduction in the demo
update to the final UE4 version, bugfixes & polishing all around
Development update - July 2022
Welcome back for our July update, which barely made it into July!
The Blazemaker
In City of Beats, we want to make sure that every weapon feels unique, both in terms of gameplay as well as its soundscape and what it adds to the music. So, in the past month we’ve been working on another rather unexpected instrumental weapon: a flamethrower called Blazemaker.
Shooting flames with it adds an euphoric synth layer to the music, as was our idea right from the start. But it quickly became clear that something is missing: while our other weapons play a melody on each shot, the flamethrower just… continuously shoots flames. Our solution was to play the melody through our burning enemies: Enemy drones take fire damage each quarter beat, and this is what plays harmonic notes that create the melody. Therefore, make sure to keep them burning if you want the melody to keep going! (In hindsight it might not have been the best idea to work on a flamethrower weapon during the heatwave here in Europe. Literal heat & sweat went into creating the Blazemaker. Might want to reschedule that Ice Beam weapon we had planned for Winter.)
Working on the Metagame
Besides the Blazemaker, we’re also reworking and adding to the game’s metagame systems and persistent progression. If you’ve played the demo, you already know the trait system, where you can permanently improve your character stats. In July, we’ve implemented the hovercar AI component system, which allows you to upgrade your hovercar’s software to gain out-of-combat advantages on your expeditions. Examples for this are unlocking new flight paths on the map or even re-rolling combat rewards if you’re not happy with the selection you were given. You can buy/upgrade these components in the hub and enable up to 3 of them at the same time.
WIP screen of the hovercar upgrade menu
The Pursuit of Flow State
Last but not least, there’s a new blog post from Nick where he explains the techniques we’re using to get the player into a “state of flow” in City of Beats. Check it out here!
Thanks for reading & see ya next time! Kai
Development Update - June 2022
Hi again! This month’s issue will be a short one, but I wanted to keep the monthly update rhythm going, so here we go:
After finishing the Sunken District’s epic boss fight, we directly jumped into the development of Chapter 3 (which we’ll preview at a later date). Not gonna lie, in terms of gameplay, this proved to be the most difficult one so far to develop.
This being the third chapter, it’s gotten more difficult to find new ideas for enemy types that are unique, work with the music, and are easy to understand/read. We prototyped tons of different enemies, only to later scratch them because they weren’t any fun or too similar to those that came before. Luckily, the ones we’ve stuck with are great, and some of them are among my favorites of the whole game.
It’s pretty cool that - now that we’re done with chapter 3 - the game can be played from the start right up to the final boss encounter (which will be so huge it’ll take place in its own biome/mini-chapter)! But before we’re getting to that, there’s a new weapon as well as some meta-game features to implement. :)
Banjo-Kazooie and the end of MIDI based soundtracks
Our composer Nick has started to write a series of blog posts about games that use rhythm and music in interesting ways. I wanted to highlight his latest post about Banjo-Kazooie and how it tailored the music to its current game state & environment: https://www.nicholassinger.com/blog/banjo-kazooie-and-the-era-of-n64-midi
We’re using this technique (often called “vertical layering” nowadays) in our hub area: the hub’s music track changes based on where you are, and different layers fade in & out. For example, when you get closer to an NPC, their “theme” is added to the overall background music, or if you’re walking up to your hovercar, the drums will kick in.
If there’s something specific you’d like us to write about in these updates, you want to give demo/playtest feedback or if you just want to hang out and talk games & music, join our small community on Discord!
See ya next month & have a great day, Kai
Development Update - May 2022
Hello there, it’s Kai from Torched Hill. It’s been a while since our last update and a lot has happened in the meantime - so let’s do a quick recap!
One Year on Steam
In April last year we put up our store page on Steam to start collecting wishlists and doing playtests to get feedback on the game’s alpha. We’ve now crossed 10.000 wishlists, which is a big milestone for us 🥳 The feedback we got through playtests and the public demo from you folks was incredibly helpful and encouraging.
Towards the end of the year, not only did we get game development funding from our state, but also signed with the awesome indie publisher Freedom Games - ensuring that we’ll be able to release the game in 2023 with the scope that we’ve intended right from the start.
The Sunken District
Based on your feedback we got from the chapter 1 playtests, we refined the core gameplay until we got to a point where we had a solid base to build upon. Once that was done, work on chapter 2 started.
Chapter 2 takes place in the Sunken District of the city, where the ocean waves nearly reach the rooftops you’re fighting on. It introduces acid-themed enemies and the “acid” condition that you’ll really want to avoid. Of course there’ll also be some really cool boss encounters that sync up super well with Nick’s music, of which he has composed an insane amount for this chapter (I think it’s like an hour or so, without counting the dynamic parts).
And in case you’re wondering how extreme the rainstorms can get in this part of the city: Yes.
What's next?
Chapter 2 is mostly finished, so our internal builds can now be played from the start of Chapter 1 all the way to the Sunken District’s chapter boss, which (imo) is the most epic encounter so far. What’s still missing is lots of visual polish like environment assets, VFX, that kind of stuff.
In April, we’ve already started working on Chapter 3, which will be revealed at a future date. Same goes for weapon 3 - so stay tuned for upcoming development updates! I’m planning to do these posts every month or two, and be more transparent in terms of what the current development state is.
Newsletter
By the way, if you want to stay up to date on City of Beats' development and want to get future development updates sent directly to your inbox, we have this cool newsletter you can subscribe to: news.torchedhill.com
Have a great day, Kai
London Games Festival & Small Chapter 2 Sneak-Peek
Hey all,
We're excited that City of Beats is part of the official selection for the London Games Festival in the "Games Are Good For You" category! London Games Festival will be starting on April 1st and ending April 10th.
For this festival, we'll update the demo on Steam and also show some gameplay for the game's second chapter.
Here is a short sneak-peek: [previewyoutube="Y1oqj-MSkGk;full"]
If you want to try out our game, there's a demo available on the store page - feel free to join our Discord or post in the forums and let us know what you think :)
Also, don't forget to check out all the other cool games that are part of the Games Germany event!
Cheers, Kai
Third Public Playtest is Live!
Hey everyone!
We’ve been working hard on all the feedback you provided us after the last playtest and we’re now ready to have you all test again. From now until next Monday (Dec 13th) you’ll be able to download the latest update and get grooving!
If you’re new to City of Beats (welcome, we appreciate you), just click the big green “Request Access” button on our store page. If you were a part of our previous playtests (back again? 🥺 thank you so much), you should see an update to the playtest build and go from there. Don’t forget to wishlist and follow the game if you want to stay up to date!
After playing, we’d love to hear your thoughts, you can fill out this form here, or in our awesome Discord server.
🎵🎵🎵 ENJOY 🎵🎵🎵
Update Notes
What’s new?!
Lightning Bow The main feature of this update is our second weapon: The Lightning Bow. Its attack fires bolts of lightning that can bounce to up to 3 additional enemies, generating sweet melodies while doing so. The bow's power attack shoots a huge, slow-moving energy ball that electrifies nearby enemies and adds a bass-y synth layer to the music. Like the repeater, the bow has its own set of 6 modificators - among them for example the Black Hole, which absorbs enemy projectiles along its path.
The Beacon The Beacon is our new hub area where you spend your time between expeditions. It has a bench to chill and watch the city skyline, as well as several NPCs to talk to - they'll be able to upgrade your character or hovercar, provide you with new weapons, and more.
EMP Stun Gadget Gadgets are a powerful new type of skill that can be used only a limited amount of times per expedition. The "EMP Stun" disables all enemies (except bosses) for several beats, while also removing their shield barriers. You can buy new charges at the shop - in the future, there will be additional ways to get more gadget charges.
What's improved?!
Supercharge progress now stays between encounters! This helps especially in early encounters, where you often only got to 80-90% and then the combat was already over.
Instead of "?" nodes on the map, each event now has their own icon, so you can better plan your route.
Also on the map, all combat buildings now glow red, while non-combat buildings glow blue. Elite encounter icons have a spiky border.
Halfed the sniper enemy's HP. Now, you can usually destroy them during a single "barrier down" phase.
Lots of new SFX have been added, e.g. for the reward node & hovercar.
As usual, tons of smaller tweaks & bugfixes.
City of Beats Publisher Announcement!
Hi everyone! We’re thrilled to announce that City of Beats is now being published by Freedom Games. For those of you who may not know, a game publisher not only provides additional investment and funding for developing the game, but also takes care of a lot of the business and marketing side of releasing a game. That includes managing our store pages, marketing and advertising the game, helping showcase the game at both digital and live events, PR, and a lot more. It really lets us totally focus on working to make the game the best it can be, and provides us with the resources to do so.
Thank you for all of the support you've given us. If you have any questions about the announcement or just want to join the community, feel free to join our Discord and we’d love to hear from you! Also make sure to follow us on Twitter where we’ll be showing off some of our work in progress for the game.
City of Beats @ gamescom on Steam
Hey everyone, were part of the gamescom Steam event!
Check out the demo for City of Beats, which contains the first chapter of our music-driven roguelite shooter.
In case you missed our previous gameplay stream and want to watch Sima blast herself through the City of Beats, we'll be re-broadcasting it later!
