Jamie TehFeb 22
I've just spent far too long writing the beginnings of a ridiculous music game for web browsers. You use either a MIDI keyboard or the computer keyboard (a s d f g h j k). The game plays a bar of random notes and you have to play it back, correct notes and correct timing. As you level up, the patterns get more rhythmically complicated. If you make 5 mistakes, game over; you have to start again. Still probably a lot more to do to make this more interesting, but I'm curious as to whether anyone finds this remotely worthwhile.
One challenge right now is how to calibrate if you don't have absolute pitch. I feel like I might need to add some sort of screen where it plays you a few notes until you find the right ones or something. For now, note that it's in A minor, A3 to A4.
https://files.jantrid.net/simus/
Simus

Show threadJamie Teh
Just pushed a new version of Simus. Fixed the bug where the note gets stuck at game over. Loop music is a bit quieter so you can hear the melody more easily. You now get a life back (up to a maximum of 5) every 10 correct responses.
Feb 22 at 10:27pmWeb
Show threadJamie TehFeb 23
New in Simus: a second loop (hear it on level 2), more levels and less points required to level up. Also, you can press escape to "game over" early so you can see your score before you quit. https://files.jantrid.net/simus/
Simus

Show threadScottFeb 23
@jcsteh Please don't add a score board until I've figured out extracting absolute pitch from an unworthy host and redeploying it into my big stupid noggin.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 23
@Scott Heh, I still don't think you should need absolute pitch to do this. As noted in the instructions, use the first few bars of the song to calibrate your ear to relative pitch by playing keys while you wait. That said, it does require very snappy relative pitch that way.
Show threadScottFeb 23
@jcsteh Oh sure, I can do it. That's not the issue. The issue is I'd like to do it well. :P
Show threadJohn Dowling, Jr.Feb 23
@jcsteh man this thing is fun. I think I need a midi keyboard though. Using qwerty feels very strange for some reason. Maybe I just have to get used to it.
Show threadBrandon TysonFeb 24
@jcsteh This could very well just be me, but I feel like sometimes I'm playing the notes correctly and on the correct rhythm and it still occasionally seems to be counting it as wrong sometimes. Again this could very well just be me not hearing something right, but this has happened a number of times now where I'm wondering if there's something going on under certain conditions? I am playing using my computer keyboard. This is a great game and I am really having a great time with it! Thanks for putting this together.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 24
@BTyson Yeah, I think I've seen that once or twice, particularly if I game over and restart. But I'm not entirely sure if it was just me either, haha. I was seeing bugs like that before I released it, but I thought I'd squashed all of those bugs. Can't rule out one lurking somewhere though. Getting the timing right for this in the code is tricky.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 24
@BTyson Played it quite a bit just now, getting to level 3 both times with score 54 or so, and didn't see any problems. 🤷‍♂️
Show threadJamie TehFeb 24
@BTyson Level 4 sorry. Oh also, note that if you play notes while it's playing you the melody, those will currently count as errors.
Show threadBrandon TysonFeb 24
@jcsteh I wonder if I happened to start playing as the last note was finishing up instead of fully waiting for it? I'm not sure. I felt like I saw this even on level 1. It was also late at night so maybe I was tired too.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 24
@BTyson That should be fine. I only meant if you pressed other incorrect notes long before you were supposed to start playing. There's a bit of timing tolerance, so starting a tiny bit before should be fine.
Show threadJageFeb 24
@jcsteh @BTyson How many levels are there? So far I have not got past 3 so I guess I can't ask for faster modes lol. Are you tracking people's scores? In addition to tracking correct notes, 1 point per loop it seems like currently, perhaps some score bonus, or more points based on timing, or points for streaks, etc. It's a cool timewaster for sure.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 24
@BTyson @Jage I think I did 6 levels or something? Can't quite remember right now. I've only reached level 4 myself. Yeah, I guess the score could be multiplied by the level or something, though ultimately it just results in a bigger number. :) I've more been wondering whether something should gain you extra lives, since you really need them later in the game. I'm not tracking any stats at this stage. That would require server side code, which I can do, but there's always a chance of abuse: some troll overfilling the database with data, etc. I don't have the cycles to do all of the required security work to protect against that.
Show threadJageFeb 24
@jcsteh @BTyson Ya fair enough, no reason to overengineer things. Oh boy are 5/6 16th notes? Maybe it does an end of round bonus based on some things.
Show threadBrandon TysonFeb 24
@jcsteh I also have occasionally hit a thing where sometimes, it sounds like one of the notes will get stuck while it's playing the sequence to me, and that lead me to think that the note was supposed to be played twice, but it counted it as an error. So I'm wondering if it's very occasionally missing a note when it should be playing another. This also seemed to happen on level 1.
Show threadBrandon TysonFeb 25
@jcsteh I think I just saw the bug happen again. When it happened, I heard both the sound of getting it correct, plus the wrong sound at the same time. Then, after that, every other sequence I tried to play back correctly was counted as wrong. This seems to happen for me on level 1, at completely random times.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 25
@BTyson Urgh. I'm sorry. I can't reproduce it, which is going to make it rather hard to debug. It sounds like there's a timing issue where somehow two melodies get scheduled at once - only one plays but both get checked - but I don't know why that would happen.
Show threadJamie TehFeb 25
@BTyson I'll keep an eye out for it. Maybe some inspiration will strike at some point and I'll be like, oh, oops, there's some questionable code here :)
Show threadvictor tsaranFeb 22
@jcsteh What's Simus?
Show threadJamie TehFeb 22
@vick21 It's a musical memory game for the web. https://files.jantrid.net/simus/
Simus

Show threadvictor tsaranFeb 22
@jcsteh Yes, thanks a lot. I found your earlier post. Should have read my Mastodon TL in reverse!:)