Progress Checkup! (May 2026) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog
Hey again everyone! In case you missed it, in March I uploaded a new gameplay preview showcasing the boss stage of Act 2. This one's called "My Darling Is A Robot", with the new character, Dr. Nitrofunk voiced by Jay M (or Jtastic as some of you may know him!)
Dr. Nitrofunk is a robotics scientist with the ambitious dream of giving everyone (who can pay for it) the same happiness and companionship that was given to him by his robotic wife, Robo-Darling.
Also, while it typically goes without saying anyway, I forgot to include the "(Gameplay footage not final)" text at the beginning of the preview. I still have some work to do on the background, so if his lab looks a bit empty at the moment, that's why.
As I've mentioned before, this is the longest song I've done for the game so far, running at a little over 3 minutes long, so there's still plenty you haven't seen yet of it! I'm excited for you all to experience it and get to know these new characters once the full game is complete. Evidently, it seems I've been getting more comfortable writing longer songs. In fact, it's looking like one of the later Act 3 songs I'm working on might be the first rival stage to run over 2 minutes long. For perspective, Grease Poppin', the boss stage of Act 1, was around 2 minutes to be longer than its Act's rival songs... I suppose the increasing length of the songs can just be considered part of the difficulty curve for now...?
Since all of the "note gimmicks" in My Darling Is A Robot are ones already introduced in previous songs, there aren't a lot of new gameplay mechanics to talk about for this stage. However, in the lines where you assemble the Robo-Darlings, the way you freestyle will actually affect the look of the finished Robo-Darling! The game will remember the combinations you made, so freestyle wisely!
Other than that though, I've made a few more QoL changes to the UI for clarity during duet lines with more than one row. For example, in this part of Stir & Mix, Melodii and Jamtine will have completely separate rhythm tracks to use instead of sharing one. The old method of overlapping them proved to be rather jarring and confusing, so this should hopefully make it clear that it's your turn. It'll also be much more of a compatible format with any possible multiplayer modes down the road.
As a sidenote, I've also rehauled my approach to developing Easy Mode. Previously, I've tried different methods such as simplified charts (which weren't ideal on first time playthroughs) and more generous beat detection (which wasn't noticeable enough for players in any meaningful way). With all that in mind, I've landed on simply adding more layers of "health" to the Fidelity meter in easy mode, which means when you fail a line in easy mode, instead of going down a full status, you'll only go down half of one, like this.
I'd like for easy mode to be an option that allows players of lower skill levels to get a proper-ish experience of the game without hindering their chances to improve at the core mechanics while playing. However, Lucid state and certain other advanced techniques will be disabled in easy mode to encourage easy mode players to eventually switch back to normal mode once they feel like they're ready.
As for other progress, I'm currently at the lineart and coloring phase of animating the first rival battle of Act 3.
I don't have a Q&A section this devlog, but do still feel free to leave questions in the comments so I can perhaps answer some of them in a later devlog. Thanks for keeping up with the development of Scratchin' Melodii! Don't forget to wishlist it on Steam if you haven't already, we're up to over 50,600 wishlists so far! I'm incredibly thankful for the support.
