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Sound Catcher's itch.io pageWhat was your goal for the project this month?
My goal for this month was to get back into making games after a long break. I wanted to create another audio-focused game that anyone could enjoy, whether they rely on visuals or not. While Sound Catcher isn't as accessible as I'd ultimately like—players still need to left-click once to activate keyboard input due to a Construct 3 limitation also it doesnt support screen reader—but I'm pleased to have released a new project and learned more for future games.
What type of project was this?
New Project!
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Comments
Thanks for submitting this. I was confused the first few times but started to get it. I think it would feel nicer if it didn't restart the game the first time I play and miss it. Because I'm still trying to figure out how it works, and I'd like to feel like I at least get a few chances to figure out the game before going back to the menus. That, along with some indication of where the sound actually was when I miss it would make a good tutorial level.
thank you for your feedback, it does help me. I totally agree that it would be good to know which button you should have pressed when you miss on hard mode, also you are right the game restarting upon a miss might be a bit too punishing especially with there being ten levels.
There is so much I want to change it will be better if I make another game. I'm planning one where you listen to animal sounds, you will be able to set the amount of time you get which affects how many points you get (changing this will remove best scores) , and it will probably just have one round with any early press being like a false start because I know some might keep tapping for a fifty fifty chance of getting the best reaction time.
That was a well-done minigame! It’s quite simple and effective, though I think the immersion/goals/narrative/challenge didn’t feel very enticing for me. I think if this had some kind of narrative attached to it, it would become better. Like, even just having a highscore, or maybe we’re a monkey and bananas are falling from the sky, and they fall either in front of me, on the left of me, or on the right of me. If I’m not fast enough another monkey will grab it. This for example would be essentially the same mechanics, but have a narrative with it that would make it immediately more fun and exciting.
I felt that the third level was too hard for me. I got to level 8, but I think the time / “too slow” penalization is too unforgiving. It made me have to try to press buttons faster, but that gave me just maybe under a second to process where the sound came from. Further, people who are unable to have these reflexes for physical disability reasons, or assistive technologies, any other reason, for them it might be physically impossible to even play it. So I think that would also be taken into account.
Lastly, I want to say that I really loved how we could pick our own sound to catch. I found most sounds painful for my ears, but this gave me an opportunity that many games don’t: to choose the sound that was the most pleasing for me! Which was sound 5. Sound number 7 was also not painful, and I think it was the last one that felt fun but wasn’t comfortable enough for me to pick it.
I think the game could improve with some few ideas:
I’m wonder also what’s the maximum amount of points we can get per level. I figured it was 65, because that was my maximum. But I wonder if that’s actually correct or if that was still my reflexes.
Good job! Curious about your other entry, as well.
Hi Patricia, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such detailed feedback! It was really helpful to read, and I'm glad you enjoyed the core idea. I'm especially happy to hear you liked being able to choose the sound, as that was a feature I wanted to include so people could pick something they found comfortable to listen to.
Rather than continuing to update Sound Catcher, I think I'm going to make Sound Catcher 2 instead then I can look back on it. I've already figured out how to add much more sounds by renaming audio files, which gives me many more events to play with.
I'm thinking of giving it a simple theme where you rescue animals by listening to where they're calling from. The score you need might be based on your last or best score to make it fair too. The player will probably be able to choose which animal they want to rescue as well. I haven't completely planned everything yet though—I tend to work out a lot of the details while I'm making the game!
I also think I'll reduce it to around three rounds instead of ten. I originally made it ten rounds to make the game feel longer, but I completely understand how frustrating it can be to get so far and then lose everything because of one mistake.
Your score was actually around what I'd consider my average! My personal best is 75. I think you might react differently to different sounds. It is technically possible to get 100... but I think you'd have to be a Jedi or have fingers that can vibrate like top Tetris players to do that! I wanted there to be room for players to improveme, but I also want the game to be playable for as many people as possible. So I really like the idea of a practice mode, and I think that's something I'll seriously consider for the sequel.
The idea for the game actually came from watching Star Wars. I imagined it as the sort of reflex training game that the little Jedi might play to improve their reactions.
I also agree that the scoring and timing could be much improved. My goal will be to make the points scale with how quickly you react, either using a simple linear system based on the time limit you choose, or maybe a curved scoring system. I haven't figured out exactly how I want to do it yet, but I enjoy working through those kinds of design problems.
Thanks again for such thoughtful feedback. It gives me a lot to think about, and I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game and write such a detailed comment.