- Devlog 86 - Backdrop Redesigns - 7 August 2026
This month I finally started drawing up new backdrops for existing levels, trying to up the visual fidelity and quality (to bring them more in line with the other ones). Here's a video of those new ones in action: Level 5-4The old backdrops for level 5-4 were pretty plain -- just a bunch of partially-transparent floating bordered rectangles of various sizes: Visually the "theming" for world 5 revolves around translucent, "glassy" shapes. I took a look at some other videogames for inspiration on ideas that I could pull from, especially Crystal Man's stage from Mega Man 5, which not only has these nice "prism" shapes making up the floor, but does a good job of layering detail in the background: Here's the same section as above, but with the new backdrops. There's some more detailed hexagonal prism shapes in the foreground, and opacity is lessened in the background layers to provide a sens…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.42.0 Released - 7 August 2026
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.42.0. This update brings new reworked backgrounds for levels 2-1 and 2-2 and tweaked floor/ramp graphics for world 2, as well as the usual slew of bugfixes and improvements.Full changelog:Version 0.42.0 - New backdrops for level 2-1 - New backdrops for level 2-2 - New (thicker) floor/ramp graphics for world 2 - Tweaked charts for level 2-2 - Tweaked antialiasing for ramp graphics across all worlds - Fixed level 1-3 water effect not respecting level fade settings - Fixed enemy y position not updating when enemy spacing was changed mid-level - Cleaned up handling of enemy spacing with different enemy types - Fixed respawn scrolling behavior when respawning before first level spawn point - Allow normal jumps/attacks after level end with strict inputs enabled - Made early input detection slightly more responsive - Fixed strict input still…
- Devlog 85 - Level Fading - 4 July 2026
It's been a long while! Summer months tend to be a little slower for me since I have other stuff going on, but I've still been chugging along when I can. A lot of the work I've been doing has simply been easy/hard charting for bonus levels that are still missing those two difficulties -- Violet Hyperwave, Flower Fang, Super Mega Zero, Let's Have an Adventure, Fur Elise, Rondo Alla Turca, Standing Here Alone, and Song of the Sea have all gotten easy and hard mode charts in the past months. None of that is really devlog-worthy, but I have some other neat stuff to report on now too.Level FadingThere's a new "Level Fading" advanced setting that will add an extra challenge by either hiding obstacles until you're about to reach them... ...or by making them fade out in advance, forcing you to look ahead and remember them. Both versions also have a more intense variant that is more extreme with…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.41.1 Released - 4 July 2026
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.41.1. This release brings a new "level fading" challenge feature which can be enabled to increase gameplay difficulty, and changes the default coloration for wings (blue by default, green only if an attack is present).Full changelog:Version 0.41.1 - Change default wing color skinning - blue for both air jumps + flight paths, green only if an attack is also present - Added "Level Fading" feature, which increases challenge by making obstacles fade in or out, or be entirely invisible - Fixed visuals for color skins/enemy spacing settings not rendering in main menu settings - Float "Back to Menu" item in level browser at top of screen - Increase size of world headers in level browser to account for new scrolling logic - Fixed level stats not updating in level browser for difficulty changes - Fixed max coin value not updating in level brows…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.41.0 Released - 6 May 2026
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.41.0. This release fixes some strange menu issues that surfaced in the 0.40.0 release, and enables the Indonesian and Lithuanian translations in-game.Full changelog:Version 0.41.0 - Add Indonesian and Lithuanian translations - Fix various errors with menus in version 0.40.0
- Devlog 84 - More Custom Level UI Work - 23 April 2026
Lots of things got worked on in the past month!Timing Jitter FixA small but super important one that honestly should have been fixed ages ago (oops). I've mentioned a long time ago in the past how the audio timeline and visual/game logic timeline essentially run independently in parallel and can drift with respect to each other, so there needs to be some sort of special handling to keep the two synchronized over time. There are basically two ways to handle this problem, you can either let the gameplay/visuals run at their standard rate and try to make minute adjustments to the audio pitch in order to keep it in sync, or (and this is what Rhythm Quest does, probably what I'd recommend as a default as well) you can use the audio timeline as the source of truth and try to adjust the gameplay/visuals to be in sync with that.This is all working fine and well and I'm using a linear regression…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.40.0 Released - 23 April 2026
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.40.0. In addition to the normal slew of fixes and improvements, this update includes an important tweak to game/audio synchronization logic that reduces jitter, especially on displays/devices with high framerates.Full changelog:Version 0.40.0 - Significantly reduce slight but constant camera/position jitter due to how audio-video sync was tracked - Track total level play counts, show in level browser - Add ability to mark levels as favorites in level browser - Start main/bonus level browser folders as closed in most cases - Fixed level 1-1 issues with speed modifiers, particularly for web - Update translations from weblate - Fixed level 1-1 tutorial enemies/jumps counting in level stats - Tweak layout of prev/next buttons in advanced settings menu, increase clickable area - Clicking the title of an advanced settings page now jumps to t…
- Devlog 83 - Verified Artist Flow - 3 March 2026
It's been quite a while! Besides taking a welcome break from thinking about Rhythm Quest over the holidays, I've been dealing with a bunch of different non-Rhythm Quest things in my life (sickness, death of a pet, practicing for and winning a tournament...). Real life never really stops coming at you, I guess. Nevertheless, since making the main Rhythm Quest Discord server read-only it's been a nice breath of fresh air to just quietly work on the game without feeling any real expectations from anyone, taking pit-stops as needed to deal with everything else along the way.Demo Soundtrack ReleaseIt's been a few months at this point, but I've given an official release to the Demo Soundtrack, which you can now find at https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/rhythm-quest-demo-soundtrack. I've also rendered out gameplay videos of those songs with just the music, you can view those in a YouTube…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.39.1 Released - 3 February 2026
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.39.1. This update includes some small new features, such as "Strict Input" mode as well as a "Marathon Mode" that automatically progresses through each level.Full changelog:Version 0.39.1 - Added "Strict Inputs" gameplay setting to punish extra inputs - Added "Marathon Mode" gameplay setting to allow for playing many levels - Removed "Unlock All Levels" setting (use Level Browser instead) - Fixed music speed change desynchronization for web builds - Correctly hook up coin and respawn counts for folders in level browser - Fixed minor rounding issues when calculating spike heights - Tweaked/fixed beat markers for flight paths - Fixed diamond on/offbeat indicators not updating immediately - Fixed flight path end markers sometimes already having wings on level load - Slightly increased attack cooldown on miss - Disallow warping to a checkp…
- Demo Soundtrack Release - 12 December 2025
The official soundtrack release for the demo version of Rhythm Quest is now available!Purchase/Download Link (Bandcamp): https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/rhythm-quest-demo-soundtrackThe demo soundtrack is also available as a YouTube playlist, with accompanying visuals:
- Devlog 82 - More Companions - 1 December 2025
I took a break from working on level charting to turn my attention to something that's been on my to-do list for a while -- adding new companions and followers that you can purchase in the in-game shop! I've added 5 new ones, for a total of 7: Animation NotesFirst off we've got this cute green turtle! It's a simple animation, but took some fiddling to get the feet to read smoothly. There's a small little bob in the motion, but most of it is expressed through subpixel motion.The jump animation is a fun one where we have the limbs flapping about like it's trying to fly: So far none of the companions have separate animations for flight paths, but I also wanted to give turtle a chance to do the classic turtle thing and hide in its shell, so I used that for the flying animation, along with the standard green wings: The above concepts are combined together for when you respawn after making a…
- Devlog 81 - Clematis - 2 November 2025
Another bonus level, huzzah! I'm really excited to show this one off since I'm a big fan of how the track came out -- lots of energy, and fills in a niche that isn't quite covered by any of the existing tracks. As I continue to churn out bonus tracks here and there, I've been thinking more about trying to inject some more variety in the type of songs that I add to Rhythm Quest. I've already added some drum and bass music, classical songs, and even a track inspired by synthwave sounds, but I could probably have some fun exploring other genres, too. Stay tuned for the upcoming Gregoriant chant level? Haha, just kidding...Here's the video of "Clematis", with its normal mode chart. The song is quite fast at 180BPM, and the chart is pretty dense and challenging!Charting NotesAt this point I have pretty established patterns for how I like to chart my songs in Rhythm Quest. As I noted above, t…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.39.0 Released - 17 October 2025
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.39.0. This update includes a rework to the audio latency calibration flow, as well as some screenreader and gamepad fixes. The Mac App bundle has also been notarized.Full changelog:Version 0.39.0 - Changed audio calibration flow - Audio calibration now set in increments of 25ms - Screenreader: support different Windows TTS voices if corresponding language pack is installed - Fixed pause music playing at wrong rate after practice mode speed changes - Fixed Accessibility menu not working in game - Fixed broken tutorial when screenreader active - Fixed some missing readouts when screenreader set to "Read Only" - Fixed issue causing screenreader support to fail when NVDA is detected - Fixed (inconsistent) doubled input on steamdeck / using gamepads - Added new toggle for "Alternate" gamepad input to avoid doubled inputs - Normalized scroll…
- Devlog 80 - Calibration Rework - 16 October 2025
Progress continues on doing the easy/hard charts for the remaining levels that I've made so far, but I took a detour for a bit to work on something more important that I've been putting off for a while -- redoing the audio latency calibration flow.The Story So FarRhythm Quest is a music game that does its best to Do Things Right when it comes to audio synchronization, even doing things like prescheduling jump/hit sounds by default instead of playing them in response to player actions. Of course, some sort of audio latency calibration system is needed to measure the difference in the delay of input/video display versus the audio output that is being used by any given player.The calibration has gone through a number of different forms over time. Here's a really early version that was needlessly confusing and had the player set the audio offset manually for no good reason: I realized at so…
- Devlog 79 - Hard Charts, Settings Tweaks, and More - 21 September 2025
Easy/Hard Difficulty ChartingI've been quietly plugging away making the easy/hard mode charts for all of the existing levels. Back in June I got done with recharting level 4-1, but since then I've gotten through another 7 levels and am now finished with those additional charts for level 5-3, plus some of the bonus levels!Since everyone loves seeing videos, here's one that demonstrates some of the harder patterns in action. Some of these later levels are getting quite tough!I especially appreciate the patterns where the ghost enemies jump forward into grouped sequences of flying enemies, like in this sequence from level 4-5: The quick pattern of hold - flying enemy - release has been a really common pattern in the hard difficulty charts. In level 5-2 it gets enhanced to feature green combo enemies at the start: In the normal difficulty, sixteenth-note rhythms aren't introduced until the…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.38.0 Released - 16 September 2025
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.38.0. This update includes a rework to the settings menu organization, as well as many other fixes and improvements.Full changelog:Version 0.38.0 - Split settings into basic settings and advanced settings menus - Fixed some coin sfx playing even when disabled - Fixed doubled input bug when using steam deck or certain other gamepads - Fixed broken jump inputs when using steam deck touchscreen - Fixed crash/lockup on level browser screen - More robust handling of device suspend/pause events - Better load time / more efficient grass for level 1-1 and level 1-4 - Fixed y-axis scaling in level browser density charts - Performance enhancements - Level load time improvements - Density chart now uses magenta color for 300-360 notes per second - Added failsafe to automatically trigger respawn if y position is too far off - Fixed inconsistent be…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.37.2 Released - 16 August 2025
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.37.2. This update includes some major fixes to accessibility/screenreader functionality, as well as UI tweaks and other fixes.Full changelog:Version 0.37.2 - Adjusted default pixel clamping behavior to allow for "subpixel" scrolling - Added pixel clamp option to restore previous behavior - Finally (?) fix sprite clamping artifacts causing horizontal/vertical lines/gaps - Fixed level generation bug causing shifted/overlapped spikes - Fixed character disappearing on world transitions in level select - Fixed odd menu transition between first calibration and level select - Fixed settings menu navigation bugs - Tweak darkening effect for settings menu - Fixed minor issues with level select UI - Performance improvements for some UI screens - Fixed tablet mode blocking mouse/keyboard inputs - Add ability to page through settings screens using…
- Rhythm Quest Demo v0.37.0 Released - 18 July 2025
The Rhythm Quest Demo has been updated to version 0.37.0. This large update includes a ton of bugfixes and some new functionality, including a brand new settings menu.Full changelog:Version 0.37.0 - Replaced "Settings" and "Mods" with new unified settings menu - Faster "Restart Level" without reloading entire scene - "Start Game" now skips difficulty selection - Full difficulty select menu now accessible from the level select screen - Fixed incorrect ramp placement for level 1-1 - Fixed missing level 1-3 water effects - Added level 1-3 water effects to level select menu - Fixed level 2-2 flight zone speedup - Adjusted camera tracking - added camera height smoothing - Fixed broken diamond indicators for ghost enemies - Fixed input timeline hold indicators on subsequent level loads - Correctly despawn input timeline markers when warping in practice mode - Fixed music sync issue when pausi…
- Devlog 78 - Unified Settings, Camera Smoothing, etc. - 1 July 2025
Somehow the springtime always seems to be extra busy for me, and I ended up not really making much progress on Rhythm Quest last month due to having a million other things to worry about. I'm back at it, though, at least for now...Unified Settings MenuI've been somewhat dissatisfied with the overall organization of the settings menus for some time now. The design of each menu itself was pretty ok (I wrote about this in an early devlog), allowing for intuitive interaction with any control scheme: However, as I've added countless different tweaks and options (there are over 60 in total so far, and I'm only making more as I go), separating them all into their own menus has proven to be cumbersome. I have something on the order of 20 of these different settings menus, because each menu can only hold about 4 or 5 rows worth of actual toggles (remember, buttons and text need to be readable an…
- Devlog 77 - More and More Bonus Levels - 27 April 2025
Everyone's favorite thing to see (?) -- new levels! I had a bunch of different life things to tend to this past month (and the rest of Spring is going to be no different...) but I managed to crank out some more charts while in the midst of travelling. Here's a video of those in action: Scherzo of Magical Science is a whimsical song initially released as part of the Hero Hours Contract OST. At 155 BPM, it's quick, but not blazing fast. https://rhythmquestgame.com/devlog/77-scherzo.gif There's a really distinctive 16th note pattern (using a whole-tone scale) at the beginning of the main musical riff. It's too fast for my tastes to chart each of those notes (at least for an official chart), so I ended up using the green attack+jump combo enemies along with flight paths to accentuate that rhythm instead. Claustrophobia is a song off of the Nyamo's Adventure OST. It's written at 90 BPM, but…
