Joy Phases - Public Beta 0.2

Hello everyone! This is the continuation of the weekly devlog for Joy Phases, started here. Since it has now a public beta, I decided to upload the project on itch to use the devlog feature.

If this is the first entry you read, well, Joy Phases is a simple musical toy that uses Steve Reich's phasing music to create minimalist songs. It uses Vue.JS and Tone.JS. I started it last month, and it might be finished soon actually.

Now, what does this new version bring? First of all, it's a lot more responsive! At first I experimented a bit with relative values, but it wasn't giving really satisfying results. So I did the most simple thing: under a certain width, I change some values. It's very basics, but… Well, for this little app, it seems to be the best solution. You can now use it on a small screen, or embedded on itch (although I would recommend using full screen).

Next was some UI improvement. It is now possible to jump from one section to another to edit them. Editing the scale on the sequencer edit the current section, and the melody can also be played before the phasing is started! This make editing the entire music a lot easier. It just needs one more option, and it should be good.

And finally, songs can be exported! That was an important aspect, I want users to be able to share their creation. For now, I use an hash code. A loooong hash code unfortunately (writing it in an input was the best option I found to not break the page). Maybe not suitable for social networks like Twitter, or even any webpage actually. But it's a start.

For each of those features, there is an improvement needed. So here is what I plan exactly to add to the next version(s):

• Make the app navigable with a keyboard! So far it's laborious. Focus is not highlighted on certain part, and editing the sequencer is a pain.
• Add a button to spread a scale (tonic and mode) on all sections. If I want to write a music on F minor, it should be possible to make this the default chord everywhere!
• Gives a link to share songs. And of course, read them. Not sure it would be shorter, but at least it would be easier to share.

Other features include new instruments, maybe change the number of measure in a section, and MIDI export. But progress will be slow: I have several things going on right now, which don't let me a lot of time for developing games. I'll still keep weekly updates as much as I can, but it might not have a lot of content every time… Welp, we'll see how it goes! See you soon, and enjoy Joy Phases as it is today!