BEATBACK

"A rhythm-based survivors game where your attacks pulse to the beat and the music beats back"

Why I made it

I have been making games full-time with AI for the past 8 months (4 large projects mostly completed before this jam). When I saw this jam I knew I had to keep the scope small and always wanted to make a survivors-like but with actual skill involved. Got the idea for the core rhythm mechanic out of the blue and from the first prompt it was fun! Froze my other projects to grind out the jam.

I have been a game designer for 7 years, but have yet to publish any of my projects (my longest running project is 6 years in development with no AI). This jam is a great opportunity to show what I have learned about game dev while working with AI, and finally get one of my games out there for people to play!

Winning would be great, but more than anything I want people to enjoy the experiences I craft, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity AI provides me as a game developer. It saddens me how closed-minded other game devs are about AI. Part of me would be lying if I didn't grind this jam hard to prove them wrong. I also want to inspire other designers or 'ideas guys' that feel burdened by coding. To me making games is about designing experiences that move people. Coding is just a stepping stone to that goal in the digital medium.

Hopefully I can add the upgrade system before the jam ends! I want to show that AI can make games collaboratively with humans, as long as the human has taste and design skills and works with AI's strengths. AI is not a replacement for creativity or capability - it is an amplifier.

The details

• Genre: Action, Arcade
• Engine: Custom engine — no dependencies, pure TypeScript + Canvas2D + Web Audio API
• Made with: Cursor
• Mobile: playable on a phone