Hi, everyone! Today is the 5th anniversary of SiIvagunner's King for Another Day Tournament, an event that really means a lot to me. To celebrate this very special day, I think it's finally time to unveil a big project that I've had on the backburner for almost three years...

RHYTHM MASTERS: TAKE BACK THE CROWN!

A SiIvagunner fangame staring our favorite rhythm-loving duo, Hakuko and Don-chan! What's the game about? What will it be like? This blog will tell you all about it.

The Story

The game takes place a few days after KFAD's final matchup. The Crown was destroyed, and DJ Professor K won the tournament. However, what if someone had stolen the shattered crown pieces while no one was looking? What if this someone rebuilt it, and planned to use its remaining power to destroy everything in their path? Maybe some familiar, dated meme animals, perhaps...?

While setting up the awesome roof party to celebrate his victory, DJ Professor K is suddenly kidnapped by none other than the Cool Meme Team. Believing themselves to be the rightful winners of the tournament (what with their 99 bazillion votes and all), they created a plot to sabotage everything with the (admittedly weaker but still dangerous) power of the rebuilt crown. Hakuko and Don-chan, who were the only ones to witness the ordeal, plan to rescue Professor K and stop the Cool Meme Team. 

Gameplay / Levels

Take Back The Crown is mainly a combat-based 2D platformer. You have to fight your way through enemies and traverse dangerous areas to reach the end. New gimmicks will be introduced frequently to keep things fresh. One level will have you cross gaps by riding a skateboard over a ramp. Another will have sections where Don-chan climbs into a crawlspace in order to open a locked door for him and Hakuko to pass through. I want to keep most of these a surprise for now, but this should give you an idea of the different things I have planned! In total, there are 20 levels, separated into six areas with three levels each. 

There is also a ranking system in the game, and you will be ranked at the end of every level based on what you accomplished. How many enemies did you defeat? How many times did you get hit? What collectibles or hidden secrets did you find? All of it will be tallied, and you'll earned one of three ranks that you may recognize from the Rhythm Heaven series: Try Again, OK, and Superb! (to clarify, you'll be able to proceed to the next level regardless of what rank you get. unlike the original rhythm heaven, the 'try again' rank is really more of a suggestion than a must). And if you do everything perfectly, you can even get a PERFECT ranking!

Of course, you can't have a game with the Rhythm Masters as the protagonists and not have any rhythm games in it, and that's where the boss fights come in. Each area will be capped off with a boss fight, but instead of a traditional arena-style fight (which is actually what was planned initially, but that's a story for another day), they are based on the boss battles from the Taiko No Tatsujin series. You will have to hit notes to the beat of the music in order to deal damage to your opponent. Every time you miss, you'll take a bit of damage yourself, and hitting a deadly bomb note will make you take a lot more damage. Later bosses will have special moves to throw you off, like large obstructions blocking the screen, or even special notes that you have to deal with in a different way. Whoever has the most health by the end of the song wins. 

There will also be secret rhythm minigames hidden in specific levels for you to find. These will be in the style of the Rhythm Heaven games. Beat them, and you'll earn some extra special collectables!

Showcase! (What I've Done So Far)

I'd like to take this time to share some glimpses at what has been created for the game so far! Keep in mind, everything you see here is subject to change. Don't take this as an accurate representation of the final product! (blog posts mess up gifs sometimes, so the ones that were jacked up initially will be posted on the art portal and linked here)

First, the title screen. This is the most recent thing I've finished, and I'm really proud of it! I even set a logo-less version as my desktop background, haha. 

On to player sprites. They look fine for now, but they'll definitely need a tune-up at some point down the line.

but hey, they're a hell of a lot better than what the even older sprites used to look like... eugh.

here are some sprites for Don-chan by himself, meant for the solo crawlspace sections I mentioned earlier:

Anyway, let's take a look at the first level! It's called "Garden Grapple" and takes place in the Gaylord Hotel's atrium. Known for its lovely view of the sunny sky, its glistening waterfalls, and killer potted plants. Apparently.

And these are the killer potted plants in question. I guess they think you're a zombie for some reason. Maybe they forgot to pack their contacts for their vacation.

Some of you may remember my cover of Crop Stomp from Rhythm Heaven I posted on here around the time I created my Newgrounds account. What I'm sure no one noticed is that I quietly updated the tags about two weeks ago to add the title of the game, because it's actually the track for this level! Go ahead it a listen if you haven't already.

And finally, here's a peak at the first boss fight. This is what I've been putting the most work into these past few months. Making a rhythm game in Gamemaker is deceptively difficult! After doing tons of research, I finally figured out a good way to implement it. It still needs tweaking (I still need to figure out how to make charts for songs), but for the time being it's in a mostly playable state.

So When's This Thing Comin' Out?

No idea! Like I mentioned, this has been a passion project I've been chipping away at for about 2-3 years. Development has been slow since it started, mostly because of school, having no one else to work on it besides myself, and the desire to focus on other personal projects. However, I've become a lot more confident in this project (and my art as a whole) as the years have gone by. Enough to make it a much bigger priority than it used to be. I still have a long, long way to go before it'll come out. I plan to release more devlogs in the future, but only when I feel that the progress I've made is substantial enough to warrant one.

But regardless of when, or even if, this game comes out, I hope you enjoyed all that you've seen and read about here. I can't wait for people to play this stupid comfort character fanfiction game I've been cooking up. For now though, feel free to tag along for the ride!