Melody’s Escape (Icetesy)
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Check out the official Melody’s Escape Website
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Give the developers feedback on the Steam Discussion Page
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Buy your Early Access copy on the Steam Store page
Compared to other genres, the rhythm game section of Steam is somewhat bare-bones so Melody’s Escape is a welcome addition. As the titular Melody, you have to run, jump, slide and even fly your way through an obstacle course. The course is based on your own music and the rhythm determines the buttons you need to press in order to make it through.
The game uses a beat matching algorithm to generate the levels and I was quite impressed with this feature. No matter what type of music I threw at the game, it always managed to come up with a very playable level. The beat dictates where colored orbs are placed on each level and you have to press the appropriate button to collect these when running or walking past. There are three difficulty levels so on “Relaxing” you only need to press one of the color buttons per section. On “Normal” you use all four color buttons, while on “Intense” direction buttons to dodge solid objects also come into play. Missing the colored orbs drops your multiplier and score but hitting one of the solid objects causes Melody to stumble and respawn further down the level.
Melody’s Escape is viewed from a 2D, side scrolling perspective and is already very solid for an early access title. There are plenty of neat touches, like how Melody’s hair color changes depending on the color orbs she collects and the way backgrounds change to reflect the song intensity. The game supports MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC and AAC files for audio although a playlist mode is not yet implemented. The beat matching algorithm is very good and the developer has already released updates to tweak the difficulty and balance the hitboxes on colored orbs. Planned Steam Workshop support means that the limited selection of custom skins, hair styles and color palettes will also be greatly expanded in the future.
The concept of the game is very easy to grasp so anyone should be able to just jump in and have fun with the easier modes. Intense mode, which adds the directional buttons to the mix, is a lot more intense and quite fun when you get the hang of things. There is even an autoplay mode which functions as a pretty visualizer for when you just want to chill and listen to your music. There is already a lot of fun to be had with this game and all the basics are nailed down so it can only get better from here.
