Hello! Small update today, we just wanted to make something silly for Halloween.
New Level: theme of really spooky bird Music by Rob Fichman aka bobacupcake (follow him on Twitter, Bluesky, and Bandcamp) Level by 3T
You can find this seasonal level in the Main Ward, near level 1-1 Samurai Techno. Have fun, and Happy Halloween!
Fixes and Improvements
Level Select now properly switches to day shift when entering the "dream version" of Physiotherapy Ward.
Fixed bug where game would not un-mute when transitioning to gameplay scenes while window is Alt+Tabbed out of focus.
Thanks for playing!
Version 0.16.1 Patch
Version 0.16.1
Story Mode Improvements
Added new Steam Achievements related to Act 5
2-Player support added for Kingdom of Balloons.
If you’re playing with a single controller, you can now play two player levels by each player being controlled with the buttons on each side of the controller. This is especially useful to play 2P levels on devices like the Steam Deck.
While in menus, un-focusing the game window will mute game audio.
Playing Rhythm Weightlifter now shows as a Discord status
Bug Fixes
X-1 is now unlocked after beating 5-X instead of 1-XN
Fixed various graphical glitches.
Improved macOS controller support.
Level Editor Bug Fixes and Improvements
Settings Menu is available right from the Level Editor’s main menu.
Added a preview for event duration on the timeline.
Timeline height is now remembered between sessions.
Brightness/Contrast/Saturation VFX Presets will now disable properly.
"Show Rooms Horizontally" now scrubs properly.
Sound selection now has an Edit option (you can also toggle between dropdown and edit with right-click)
Fixed room selection for some VFX Presets.
You can specify a room for the Show Dialog event.
Various fixes related to the "Matrix" VFX preset.
Improved the behavior of many events when scrubbing.
Various UI improvements.
Bookmarks can now be traversed using the buttons available at the right side of the timeline.
New Level and New Minigame!
New Level: Kingdom of Balloons
Level by: tepid Level vfx by: tepid Character sprites and background by: Kamayana Song by: Kurubukko
We've added a new level as part of our collaboration with indie game, Circle of Sparks! Circle of Sparks is a decorative rhythm game by WizDream Games, where you'll be setting up your own room and hanging out with characters in between the songs. In our level, you'll be treating Sophia and Lune as they travel into a virtual reality world.
You can find Kingdom of Balloons in the Basement ward, alongside our other guest patients. You'll need to have cleared level 4-4 to unlock Kingdom of Balloons.
New Minigame: Rhythm Weightlifter
We've added a new minigame! You can find it in the Act 5 Physiotherapy Ward.
Rhythm Weightlifter is an experimental minigame about testing your ability to keep 2 separate rhythms in sync with each other. You can either play solo (with two hands) or play together with a friend in local co-op.
You'll be given barbells with different weights stacked on each end. One side might need to tap quarter notes on the beat, while the other side has to tap sixteenth notes, to keep the weightlifter from dropping the barbell. As the challenges go on, the rhythm combinations will get harder and harder. Also, a twist: there's no music to help you. Good luck with becoming the Rhythm Weightlifting Champion!
Special thanks to DeadlySprinklez for help with making the prototype of Rhythm Weightlifter, thank you to Wopa for all the great Weightlifter in-game art, and thank you to Tempo Lab Games (creators of Bits & Bops) for letting us use their audio latency engine.
Improvements and Fixes
5-X can now be played in 2-Player mode
Lucky now wears a new outfit when controlled by Player 2 in 2-Player mode
Janitor spawn behavior re-worked. Now, the Janitor can be found in the ward of the level you most recently played.
Level Editor Improvements and Fixes
New VFX Preset: Balloons
The event inspector panel in the level editor has gone through a major UI overhaul. Most events are now using standardized UI elements to create a more cohesive look and help us add new features more easily. Please let us know if there are any visual or game issues with both new and old levels or something like that.
Added "Language" and "Player Mode" conditional support for the following Sound events: Say Ready Get Set Go, Set Beat Sound, Set Beats Per Minute, Set Counting Sound, Set Heart Explode Interval, Set Heart Explode Volume
Note that events like Play Sound will continue to have their current behavior with conditionals, that is they check for their conditional an amount of time equal to your offset setting before the event occurs.
Thank you for playing!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame
Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/
First mistake in a level now always cracks the heart
Fixed gap in row glow visuals
Fixed hand position in Intro sequence at the beginning of the game
New "syncopation style" toggle on Set Beat Modifiers
Fixed X-FTS missing mistake sounds.
Fixed behaviour of empty room masks.
Fixed behaviour of opacity in decoration tint events.
Fixed window dance "shake" behaviour.
Fixed dialogue text animation for vector fonts.
Fixed 5-X song volume being multiplied twice.
Attempted fix at 5-X and 5-2N first load desync.
Fixed missing glitch sfx in 5-X on Linux systems.
Fixed button and hand animations on level start.
Lucky no longer moonwalks in the CLS background.
Fixed floating text events not being able to be called by tag action.
Level Editor: Fixed CPU marker selection in the level editor.
Level Editor: Fixed event control hover tooltips persisting after changing tabs in the level editor.
Thanks for playing!
New Level! "Fixations Towards the Stars" from vivid/stasis!
New Level
We have a new level: Fixations Toward the Stars
We're collaborating with indie rhythm game, vivid/stasis! A few months back, you might have seen that they added All The Times (Rhythm Doctor) and It Go (A Dance of Fire and Ice) as playable levels. This time, Saturday and Allison visit Middlesea. Fixations Toward the Stars features music by Foodbot, and pixel art by Winston.
Much like us, vivid/stasis combines rhythm gameplay with characters and a narrative, so it was really fun to be able to crossover like this. Go check out the game if you haven't already!
New Level Select Ward
Middlesea Hospital has become a popular place to visit, so we've opened up a new ward. You can now enter the Basement, which is basically Ian's office. That's where you'll find the new vivid/stasis collaboration! You'll also find our crossover levels with fellow rhythm games Bits & Bops and Unbeatable.
I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll see a new face, so we'll keep you updated next time we add a level here.
Game Improvements and Bugfixes
Added "ice" and "chili" song speeds to 5-X
Improved freeze beat visuals
Improved freeze beat audio cue clarity
Added act number above ward entrances
Added Restart from Checkpoint button
Added a new rank for completing a boss stage without checkpoints
Tweaked 3-X pager to display Mr. Stevenson instead of Paige
Removed skipped beats in 4-4
Improved 1-XN virus infection animation
Fixed 5-1N invisible hit
Fixed 5-X game over cutscene
Fixed 5-X checkpoint skip
Tweaked boss health bars so that they always reach 0 when the boss is defeated
Added error sound for trying to change fullscreen setting during certain boss stages
Added Instant Dialog option
Tweaked heart crack appearance to always be proportional to your level rank
Tweaked subdivisions to only count one mistake per set
Fixed held beat particle effects
Tweaked Ian's voice on the train to sound muffled
Updated Insomniac pager icon
Level Editor Improvements and Bugfixes
Added the Custom Character Template Generator, which lets you import any story character
Added Custom option to Set Counting Sounds
Added level event tooltips which let you preview conditionals, tags, targeted rooms and data
Added syncopation audio cues
Improved syncopation visuals
Added Tile Sprite event
Added grid view to the level event selection panel
Added ability to resize timeline by dragging
Added playhead indicator to timeline scroll bar
Removed Resize Window from the level editor
Added Tutorial Notes VFX preset
Added Diamonds VFX preset
Decluttered Set Theme variants
Fixed subdivision spotlight displaying incorrectly for one frame
Fixed Floating Text with instant fade permanently disappearing
Added ability to hold down shift to adjust swing sliders by half increments
Added interval to skipped beat cue
Added new UI for Play Expression's expression picker
Fixed Custom Character fps = 0 behavior
Fixed SVT beat wave opacity
Fixed game not pausing during some file browser popups
The story of Rhythm Doctor continues! Today, we've added Act 5 to Story Mode. This is a free update that continues the story right where Act 4 left off. When you start up the game and continue your save file, you'll notice a new hallway in Middlesea Hospital: the Physiotherapy Ward.
Have fun! We had a lot of fun making it.
Warning: We're aware of an issue where on some computer setups, Rhythm Doctor is crashing upon start-up. This may happen on Intel GPUs, but we're investigating other causes.
One thing you can try is updating your graphics drivers, to see if that resolves the issue.
We're working to fix this, and are going to aim to have it fixed by tomorrow! Thanks so much for your patience!
New Features
Act 5: Enter the Physiotherapy Ward, meet our new patient, and play 4 new Day Shift levels and 2 new Night Shift levels.
New Night Shift level added to Act 4, "4-4N Murmurs"
New Level Editor Features: New heartbeat types and a new character seen in Act 5 have been added to the Level Editor, to use in your own custom levels!
Visual Updates to 4-2, 4-2N, and 4-4
Added two new options to the Settings: "Drum Mode" and "Tap to Hold."
Full detailed changelog coming soon!
Act 5 FAQ
Q: What is Act 5? A: Act 5 is the next chapter of Rhythm Doctor's Story Mode. It's a free update, added as part of our Early Access, to continue the story of Ada Paige and everyone else at Middlesea Hospital. It takes place immediately after the conclusion of Acts 1-4, which have comprised the game since we first released on Steam. Remember when you saved the hospital from that virus?
Q: How do I unlock Act 5? A: It is unlocked after you complete Acts 1 through 4, including the Night Shift boss level "Super Battleworn Insomniac." You will also need to complete, or have already completed, 2-1N "wish i could care less" in the SVT Ward.
Q: How many Acts will Rhythm Doctor's story have? A: We're aiming for one or two more, but we're not quite sure yet. Act 5 is not the conclusion of the story! We are not currently planning to do any more "main story updates" to the game until the rest of the story is completely finished and we're leaving Early Access. We feel this is a good place to leave off for now, and we'll continue working quietly towards the conclusion!
Q: I'm going to stream the game on Twitch or Youtube. Should I record my whole desktop again? A: Yes, you should probably record your whole desktop instead of just the game window. Or you can adjust your settings in the Settings menu, where it says "Window Movement." If you've played the rest of the game, you probably know what this means.
Thank you so much to everyone who has played Rhythm Doctor, streamed it for people around the world, made custom levels, posted fanart and fanfic, and cheered us on during our continued development! When making a game like this, it's hard to know how much it'll click with anyone else, but we've been surprised and delighted to see how much love there's been for this game and our characters.
Act 5 has some challenging levels in it, so if you're rusty with your rhythm skills, you might want to warm up with an earlier level.
We are so close to done, but we need a little more time!
Act 5, our free story update to Rhythm Doctor, will now launch on November 4th, 2023. As always, we're trying to maintain a healthy workflow without having to overwork anyone on the team. We're very excited to show you what we've been working on.
Thanks for playing, we'll see you soon!
Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/
Hello everyone! As you know, Rhythm Doctor is still in Early Access. We launched in Early Access so that we could continue the story, add new levels, and flesh out different mechanics and features before considering the game "complete" by our original vision.
Our first major story update, the Act 5 Update, is coming soon! Very soon, actually. We plan to release it on October 21st, 2023.
Act 5 picks the story up right where we left off, after you've established yourself as an integral part of the Middlesea Hospital team. The update will feature a new ward with a new patient, new type of heartbeat, and new levels.
We've been working hard on this for a while, so we're excited for everyone to see what we've been working on. We'll have more to say in October!
Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/
Shortly after posting that announcement, we were honored to see how many people reached out with their condolences and with their support.
Thanks to you, we sold a whopping 1362 copies of Rhythm Doctor during the fundraiser. After that, we had a wait few months to receive the final payment (which has to subtract out taxes, Valve's platform cut, and other fees.) Now that we've received the money, we'll be donating RM37,800, around 8200 USD, the total of what we raised during the fundraiser period.
Thank you all so, so much. We're a small team with a small game, so seeing you all show your support on Twitter, Steam, and Discord for our fundraiser really meant a lot.
Folks had really nice things to say not just about the game but about Jyi's contribution specifically. We're glad that Rhythm Doctor could make a positive impact on your life. So thank you for helping us make a positive impact in the world!
Just because the fundraiser's over doesn't mean the fight against cancer is over. There's no wrong time of year to check out National Cancer Society Malaysia to see how you can help. Or any of the local organizations doing good in your own area.
Once again, thank you so much.
Where To Find More News From Us
We've been looking to try something new and branch out where you can hear about updates from us. If you're already reading these update posts here on Steam...you're in a pretty good place!
But we know that a lot of people aren't here, reading these things. To help with that, we're now going to try making some Update Videos to post on Youtube and other platforms. These will help recap updates that people might not have heard about, or announce new things.
You can watch the first one here:
It's a lot of info that you might already know, but it might be worth watching to the end anyway...
We're going to try to be more active on Youtube in general. In addition to our Twitter and Discord Server, we're also going to try to be more active on Instagram and Cohost too.
Doesn't hurt to have a few choices, right?
(Because of Steam's handy feature for letting you post in multiple languages, these Steam posts are still the best place for news in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean.)
Thanks so much for reading, thanks for playing, and we can't wait to tell you more about Rhythm Doctor Act 5!
The bottom of this post is where I usually list links to where you can find us, but...I guess I did that already.
Raising Money for "National Cancer Society Malaysia"
Hello everyone,
Near the end of 2022, we received heartbreaking news that one of our voice actors, Jyi Sim, passed away peacefully after a long battle with lymphoma cancer.
We were lucky enough to work with Jyi as the voice for Rhythm Doctor's Nurse, who helps count and cue for the player, and as a singer in the beautiful Chinese renditions of "One Shift More" and "All The Times."
We were devastated to hear of her passing, and send our prayers and well wishes to her family. May her soul rest in peace.
In the time since mourning the loss of Jyi, we have spoken with her family about ways we can help them in this difficult time. At their recommendation, we have decided to raise money for National Cancer Society Malaysia*, an organization which Jyi herself was a donor to for years.
From Friday, May 26th at 1:20pm PST to Sunday, May 28th at 1:20pm PST, Rhythm Doctor will be on sale for 10% off. All proceeds from the game made during this period will be made as a collective donation to NCSM**
We deeply appreciate any support you can give. If you already have a copy of the game and still wish to find a way to support the fundraiser, we invite you to purchase a gift copy on Steam for any friend you have who may love music. Alternatively, you can also visit this page to learn about ways you can support NCSM directly: https://cancer.org.my/donate/
We look forward to your support, and will update you on the amount raised after the sale's conclusion.
One of Jyi's wishes was to share her journey with cancer so that others can learn from it. She published a number of videos on Youtube documenting her life with cancer while also sharing her experience and her music.
We hope you will join us in celebrating our memory of Jyi, supporting her family through this difficult time, raising money for a great cause, and enjoying the work Jyi shared with the world.
Thank you, The 7th Beat Games Team
*In the event that there are issues preventing a donation to NCSM, or in the event that the family of the deceased requests that we donate to another organization in the same field or needs help in the financial recovery of her passing, we will redirect the donation to the family's choosing. If this happens, we'll post an update on the donation. We want to respect the family's final decision.
**Donation total will be calculated after Valve's portion of revenue and taxes are deducted.
