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A jam submission

Rhythm Freedom 7View game page

Freedom, all the way to Space
Submitted by Crab Bucket Games — 15 hours, 36 minutes before the deadline
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Rhythm Freedom 7's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#24.2004.200
Gameplay#33.8003.800
Overall#63.5003.500
Thematic Relevance#84.1004.100
Accuracy & Authenticity#103.3003.300
Visuals#113.2003.200

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Historical Accuracy
The Mercury-Redstone 3 Freedom 7 mission in rhythm game form. You play as Alan Shepard, the first American in space on this historic mission.

In our game we have used the real events and facts surrounding the mission such as the dates of the flight, Shepard's anger at losing out to Yuri Gagarin and awarding of the Distinguished Service Medal. We've also included references to specific events during the flight, such as the replacing of parts which paused the launch countdown and the capsule being at the wrong angle on re-entry.

The visuals are also based on real history as reference images to both the real capsule and Shepard's training documents were used as a basis for the control panel designs. These reference images and information was gathered primarily from the National Air and Space Museum website.

Thematic Relevance
Rhythmically follows the flight of Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space. Follow the guidance of Ground Control as you navigate the whole flight from lift off to landing.

Disclaimers
CC0 Music, SFX and Fonts.

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Comments

Jam HostSubmitted

Hello! I'm the Jam Host of HAGJ. while playing through your game, I noticed that you had a splash screen at the beginning, that said "Made with Phaser". Did you intentionally use AI-prompting/engine known for vibe coding to make your game, or were you unaware of our No-AI rule?

Please respond to this query within 24 hours, as we will have to determine how to impacts your HAGJ experience.

(+1)

Phaser is first and foremost a js framework. The AI prompting, vibe coding part of Phaser is relatively new push by the Phaser dev. Im the dev for our team and have used Phaser for years, before it had any AI-prompting/vibe-coding design (and before llms were even a thing).

Jam HostSubmitted

Alright! Just wanted to clear that up before it became an ambiguous issue later. Thanks for reaching back out about this!

Glad my choice of engines I made 6 years ago won't be an issue :)

Jam HostSubmitted(+1)

Hardly should, I think it's more that some engines are evolving into something else with time. I used to use Notion extensively before they pivoted into more of an AI service, which is disheartening. Honor system's been applied to your case, and as long as we don't find damning proof that you/anyone else is lying, you're all set!

Developer

I’m sorry but I feel like we’re being put under a lot of scrutiny here for making a game in an engine we’ve used as a team for years now. Are other teams being questioned as hard as we are? Asking if we intentionally used Phaser because it’s used for vibe coding doesn’t sit right with me. No. We used Phaser because that’s what we have used (without AI) since the start. Every engine can be vibe coded in. 

Jam HostSubmitted

None of the scrutiny is targeted. If your Discord handle had been somehow visible/you were easier to reach, this question would have been asked privately, and not on the review page.

Regarding whether or not this was specific or general scrutiny:
 
This round, one embedded an AI usage disclaimer into their credits in-game, but that was most likely an unintentional submission, as they took themselves out of the rankings once they were asked by another jammer, before I even got to them. Another clearly not for HAGJ, and made with AI game insisted on being included. Every run, we have people trying to skirt around the rules, which is why the AI rule has become far stricter.

As for process as to how questions are asked: 

I checked through every game disclaimer from entries. I scanned every game, and only noticed "Made with Phaser" once I went ahead and played your game last night. Its one of the engines that are developing more and more towards AI usage, and I can't know what extent your team may or may not have used i t. If this had been a Native-AI engine, I would not have asked, only informed of a disqualification (since that is definitely against the rules), but there is always a chance that you didn't use any AI at all since Phaser is not. 

When your teammate came forward and said they haven't, I have no reason to disbelieve them. 

The additional statement from me about honor system applies to everyone, and wasn't targeted to you specifically. As a jam runner that is only trying to keep the jam fair with limited resources, I do apologize that the initial question held bias. I hope you will see this as a concern managed and already put behind us, and not a targeted experience.

I'm also happy to address any further concerns in DMs on Discord: @tuile

Developer

I tried to join the discord but none of the links work for me

Submitted(+2)

This was cool - I liked the simple gameplay loop but with an addictive difficulty curve. Might have been better on a touchscreen but worked fine with the mouse. It's a style that could in theory work with a lot of other "controlling a large machine" scenarios.

Submitted(+2)

As Arkasaur eluded to below, this got much more fun when I switched to using the touchscreen. My right thumb got a bit better after a few plays, but was always a little too eager to punch those buttons. I love the scope of your project. It seemed like it would fit nicely within a week of development? How did the dev and timeline feel to you?

(+2)

I was the developer and I couldnt start until Tuesday and could not work Sunday. It was 1 day to get a bare minimum playable demo, 4 days of polish, playtesting, and improvement. I was lucky because our artist was able to give me assets before Monday so I could hit the ground running.

Submitted(+2)

This was really fun! The dialogue and voiceover were hilarious! Just easy enough for a rhythm-game newcomer like me to make it through!

It was a bit tricky to use the mouse/mousepad for this, but I can imagine this on a touchscreen being super smooth to play. Maybe a keyboard option for desktop users would be useful.

Developer(+1)

It might be a little small, but it plays well on your phone if you're interested in trying it out that way!

Submitted (2 edits) (+2)

Awesome! Thank you for this game! You did great work - the visual and auditory feedback, the pacing is spot on!  

You included history. The dialog lines were really goofy and the voice delivery was superb.

The only thing I can think of gameplay-wise to improve it would be to make a custom cursor that is larger than the standard.

Also - it would be nice to include something at the midpoint when he reached outer space. A relief from the tension and a nice payoff. That would enrich the experience. 

Very good all around! Good luck! 

Developer(+1)

Those are some good ideas thank you! The game probably deserves another week of our attention haha

Submitted(+3)

Neat inclusion of reference material and a great concept.

Hall-leh-lujah! The punchy, chaotic vocal audio on this was hysterical. Can’t get over the Marinara Trench. Likewise, your SFX did some heavy-lifting here really helping as both guidance and round distinction.

Really solid game entry that ticks all the boxes. Hats off!

Developer(+1)

Marinara Trench was not intentional... but it was funnier to leave it haha. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+3)

Brilliant! I dropped the F bomb pretty soon into this - which is a good thing!
For a while I thought you have to press keys 1,2,3,4,5 so I thought the game was broken.
You might want to explicitly point out that the mouse/touch needs to be used.

Once I figured out to use the mouse it was great fun.
At one point I went "why oh why am I playing full screen - I have farther to move the mouse". 
Things got better when I turned off full screen.

But it's the voice over that makes this. Some fantastic humour in there and the accent is spot on.
Has a kind of Stanley Parable vibe to it . 

Well done!

Submitted(+3)

Fantastic tutorial and game flow, you really did a great job with that. I always felt like I was playing, but you were building up my skills. Voice acting is perfect and hilarious!

Submitted(+3)

Another rhythm game! Very unique take on it, loved the voice acting, well done!

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

My favourite entry so far! Perfect length, great voice acting, amazing research and historywork.
I scored 6125 after missing 2 buttons and I am gutted.
Ony bug I coudl find and bothered me slghlty too much for what it is, is the text bubble not advancing with the voice over without clicking.