DOWNBEAT

DOWNBEAT is a short rhythm action game for Windows, with a free demo you can play in your browser on this page: the first area, THE GREENWOOD, and its boss. You move freely in real time. Every monster plays one part of the song, and it only moves on that part's notes: the kick drum lunges, the hi-hat hops, the melody fires, the bass turns and slams. Strike, roll and guard whenever you like; on the beat you hit harder, roll further and parry instead of block. The paid download is the whole game: three areas, three songs, three bands, twelve rooms, three bosses and the ending. Hand-written HTML5, no engine, made by Core Systems Asset Factory using AI tools.

The song is the enemy's script

Each monster stands on a disc in its part's colour: KICK red, HI-HAT yellow, LEAD green, BASS blue. Before it acts, a ring in that colour closes on it and finishes on the note, so the music tells you what is coming and the screen confirms it. A red line shows where a lunge will go, a green line where a bolt will fly, a blue cone where a slam lands. Bass monsters carry a shield: hit them from behind, between their notes.

On the beat, everything is better

Movement is never locked to the beat. You can play off the beat and still get through a room; on the beat your strikes do two or three times the damage, your rolls stay safe for longer, and a guard becomes a parry that sends bolts straight back. Eight on the beat in a row and you are IN THE GROOVE: a second layer of the song joins in, and so does extra damage.

We measured it with a bot that reads every telegraph. Acting on the beat, it cleared 71% of its room attempts. The same bot pressing every action a fraction of a beat late cleared 4%.

What is in it

• Three areas: THE GREENWOOD at 100 BPM, THE FEN at 120 BPM in half time, THE OLD STONES at 125 BPM.
• 12 rooms and 3 bosses. Each boss IS the band: it charges on the kick, sends a shock ring on the bass, fires a fan of bolts on the melody, and calls the hi-hat players onto the floor.
• 7 songs composed for the game, each with a groove layer that joins in when you keep the beat.
• Assists: a wider timing window, a beat ring at your feet, an audio offset and a tap-to-calibrate screen.
• Keyboard, gamepad and touch. A room grade for how much you played on the beat.

Free demo and full game

The browser demo on this page is THE GREENWOOD: four rooms and the Sporefather, with its two songs. The $4.99 Windows download adds THE FEN and THE OLD STONES, their bands, their bosses and the ending. No install, no account: unzip and run DOWNBEAT.exe.

Made from our own packs

Everything you see and the sound effects come from asset packs we sell, if you are making a game yourself:

• Deepwarren 01: The Living Dark - the twelve monsters with strike, hurt and death animations ($9.99)
• Wildmark Actions 04: Roll and Guard - the hero's dodge roll and guard in four directions ($7.99)
• Verdant 28: Deep Forest - the Greenwood's ground and trees ($12.99)
• Haymaker - every hit, parry, roll and combo sound ($9.99)

AI disclosure

The code and the writing were made with AI (Claude). The sprites, tiles and effects come from our own AI-generated asset packs. The music was composed for this game as MIDI by our own composition code and rendered through the GeneralUser GS sample bank; the sound effects are our own procedurally made pack. No generative audio model was used.