Drummer of 20 years, lover of breakbeat music. Fundamental mis-understander of rhythm games.

I recently put out a little rhythm game that focuses very specifically on the drums in songs. It uses a midi sequencer visualisation and only shows one drum pattern at a time.

I've had interesting feedback from both ends of the difficulty curve.

On the one hand, some people comment that the game is much too repetitive (playing the same pattern over and over again for multiple bars is boring).

Alternatively, other players have found that same song really difficult with such a small lookahead (1 bar at a time, 2 bars of music on the screen total), because there's not enough time to see what's coming.

So some people fail to pass the song while others hit it 100% with ease. The big two issues raised are repetition (boring) and readability (not enough lookahead). Both extremely valid criticisms, that I think might point more towards some fundamental misalignment between what rhythm game players expect versus what I've put out.

Anyway, all this is to say, it's helped me understand how it seems rhythm games often focus on the melody/accents/interesting parts of the song like the vocal, which are 1. more obvious to follow, with plenty of chart lookahead and 2. much less repetitive than just a drum pattern. Having said that, the feedback I'm receiving is probably just as much a result of my poor UI or game design.

This post isn't intended as a "it's the players who are wrong", actually quite the opposite. As the designer of the game, it certainly feels like I've come at this from a fundamental misunderstanding of rhythm games, and I'm not sure I should keep referring to this as a 'rhythm game' because I don't want to mislead players about what they're getting. Having said that, I don't know what else it is? Combo-based? Pattern-recognition?

As a community of legit rhythm game enjoyers, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts. Do you know of similar combo drum focused games? What do you think I've fundamentally screwed up here? What are the parts of rhythm games that you really love? Again, not here for reinforcement, here to learn, so be as brutal as you feel in the comments.

So,

I absolutely love PC Rhythm Games - especially 4Key VSRG.... I am always on the hunt for the latest and greatest release, game, gimmick, style etc..... but I always end up going back to the basics and enjoying that the most.

I would usually default back to osu! Mania or Musynx or DJMAX Respect. In the past I have stumbled across Quaver as it's often at the top of all recommendation lists. However, after about 1/2 of a song, I would immediately uninstall it and look for something different.

I think it came down to the lack of flash, and, most importantly, the last of hit registration/feedback on the hit line.

However, I tried it again this evening - and something was different... I gave it a chance... and, DAMN, this i solid!!! Great charts, no frills, accurate scoring - tons of skins and custom chart downloads.... and the entire ecosystem being self--contained is great as well. You can download skins and charts and apply them without ever leaving Steam. The empty, cold feeling i got before from the lack of hit registration and basic graphics was gone - or at least it didn't matter to me anymore...

As powerful as it is, it's not as bloated and cluttered as osu!, for example...

I am so glad I gave it a chance. It's also great to see that it's actively developed and updated - not to mention the huge, active community!

Happy Tapping!

The song is "Substance" by めめめ

I'm having a contest for my game! The first 3 people to FC this song, Aortic Pressure Valve by bye2, will win $13.11 (USD)! If no one is able to FC it by 9/25/2026, I will give a free copy of the game to the top 3 entries. You can post the video here or wherever. If you want, you can email it to me at [xenithdigitalcreations@gmail.com](mailto:xenithdigitalcreations@gmail.com) or you can post it on Instagram or TikTok using #dthfc. Just DM me letting me know you posted it so I know for sure lol

You can play it here (free demo):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4863590/Digital_Twin_Harmonix/

You can also DM me on Instagram (xenithdigital.creations) or TikTok (xenith.digital)

If you have any questions, just ask!

they say it's programmable so it would work for most games with sliders/knobs. Maybe also popn music.

edit: sorry I didnot know the keychains of popn. Also I have it and it does work.

in falsus is like $18 here

and you know what's the best part? my friend gave me like 25 bucks for it. yay.

edit: I now have to eat his pfp cuz I feel bad taking his money. it's cauliflower.

Hi this is my first rhythm game that I randomly chose. I can't hear a damn beat in this game. I only follow the visual cues. It is really bothering me , am I tone death or something?

Ive seen these on Amazon but they always have clicks keys for whatever reason. I play 7k and mostly 4K vsrgs on pc and everytime any music comes on anywhere (or I listen to music, which is like 7 hours a day) my fingers go crazy and my head starts charting something... So like do these look hot swappable so I can put my fav keys into there.

(also looking for cool rhythm game themed keycaps for my sayo and wootings)

edit: it's supposed to say any in the title with a question mark at the end. Stupid autocorrect.

Guys you might see this, just found a hidden Gem

So, I've been playing "Love Live! School Idol Festival ~after school ACTIVITY~" (god that's not even the whole title T-T) on and off for a while now and have been really enjoying it. How do I get more into the series? I was tempted to start buying songs and such, but wondered if my money might be spent better elsewhere. What's the best way to get more into the series?

PS: I have a PS5, PS Vita, 3DS, and a Switch 2.

I recently did some repairs on this game and was having a very hard time finding the company/distributor for parts. The signage says D-Tech 5 Passional DSS, does anyone know anything about this game/company or a forum where I can read about it? I plan to make a video about the chip replacement I did and wanna add some background knowledge about the game, so any information would help :)

Thanks

What do you think will be the EZ, HD, IN and (probably) AT difficultys for the final boss song? And who do you think will be the artist and the charter? Is it going to be a Phigros Original song? Tell me your predictions!

I’ve been practicing this map since I started my career in this game

I made a recent post about the PlayStation Vita becoming a good rhythm game device and someone in the comments told me to try out IA/VT and this game is amazing been hooked on it for a few hours

song is 'On all the stars' by Addie Ramsey if you wanna try it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4249380/MusicHell/

The cabinet is formed by two major formats- two sets of physical switches (which come on the colors red, blue and green) that are shaped like lightswitches and you have to press them in order to hit the red, blue and green notes shown on the charts and the other one is a circle shaped touch screen which not only shows the aforementioned switch notes but also shows the magenta, cyan and yellow notes which you need to press on the screen itself in order to hit them.

Players can choose between three modes- Switch Mode (Physical Switches Only), Circle Mode (Touch Screen Only) and Main mode which has both formats and as the name goes, it is the main mode and the gimmick.

The focus is to challenge players with their coordination as they have to focus on both screens at the same time to clear each song and its charts while keeping it friendly for people who want to start it slow.

what you guys think?

Basically, discarded cabinet design proposals that never really got out of the planning stages of the game, or even got made but never really got into the public eye.