In Octave Devlog #8 - Finish Line

You might have noticed earlier, I've released something today. Not this game, but a totally different project (although it is still about dynamic music in game). Orchestre-JS is a project that I've been doing in parallel of In Octave. I'm really glad to release it before summer!

It might be the case for In Octave as well! We're really close to finish this one too. Here is what have been accomplished last week.

First, the restart button is functional! Not much difficulty for this one. Making a smooth transition betwen the actual level and the first one was a bit tricky, but the code in place had already everything ready to do it. Just a bit of refactoring, and it was done!

The score is also in place! Using localStorage to make a save is even easier than expected My greater fear was for the in game timer, but Phaser provides a good one. The most challenging part was actually to balance the UI. Fortunately, there is a lot of space already, so scores can fit nicely. And I think I don't need to add too much text: without the label "Best", player will easily understand which score is their current one, and which is their best one.

(… Are those squares? Why are the particles squares? I thought I had fixed that. Ok then, another task to do.)

Also, play-testing scores is tricky.  When it comes to try to beat the previous one to see how it looks… It is tempting to actually try to play well. Especially since it gives an idea how the game will be played. And, well… There is a lot of randomness in this game. I guess making the balls as much unpredictable as possible was a success. Well, I was a bit prepared to this. There are some strategies that can be found, but yeah, great scores are often made with luck. Which can be a bit frustrating. But my main focus has always been the musical aspect of this game. It has the priority, and therefore, I'm happy with mechanics that play a nice song.

That's it! This update is a short one. Not only was I more busy than usual this week, but I also took a lot of my spare time to release Orchestre-JS. And unfortunately I will be even busier the coming days. So there will probably be another devlog before I can release the game. But it might be the last! Because there's not a lot to add now. I need exactly 3 sound effects, then there are a few technical details to fix before I can release the game. We're getting close!