PoLi: A Polyrhythmic Game

Gameplay
Screenshot of the main menu
Splash

Inspiration

Primarily inspired by music theory's polyrhythms, and visualizers people have made for them.

What it does

PoLi is a prototype rhythm game based on tapping to polyrhthms. You can play it in your browser! Features a level select and four levels. The game will score and track your accuracy as you progress. The technology enables JSON-programmable beatmaps, dynamic polygon count, and dynamic sounds.

How I built it

PoLi is built in pure front-end JavaScript, meaning it can run on a static website, such as this. I drew the graphics myself.

Challenges I ran into

Starting out, getting the audio to sync together was a nightmare. My initial approach caused audio to desync and drift over time; problematic in a normal game, unacceptable in a rhythm game. Fixing this required the design of a more sophisticated hit detection engine, as well as fixed intervals for

The most difficult aspect of this project has been reconciling the hit detection system with the large-scale flexibility and variability involved with having multiple, changing, cyclic polyrhythms.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm proud I have a mostly-functional, fairly non-buggy game that is entertaining for me to play, and is accessible through any modern enough browser. I'm also very impressed at the amount of work I was able to compact into a weekend.

What I learned

I learned a lot about audio control and game logic. I was able to apply and prove concepts I've learned in W&M's game design class to maintain good separation of game logic and view, resulting in a fairly streamlined workflow.

What's next for PoLi: A polyrhythm Game

Eventually, I hope to turn this into a fully functional rhythm game with backing tracks. Beyond bugfixes and polish, the game's engine is actually fairly complete at this point. Getting it into a less buggy place will take work, but the result will be a mostly-complete product sans level design.