Scratchin' Melodii

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• Announcements·24 Jul 2026Official

  Progress Checkup! (Jul. 2026) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

  Hey there! Scratchin' Melodii development continues as usual and I've got a little bit of news to touch base with you all on.Most of the progress as of late has been animation related. We're mostly done animating the first rival song of Act 3. I said "we're" this time because I've finally brought on another animator! Camille C. is now working with me on the game as a 2D animator. We may mix and match who does what part of the process depending on the scene, but for this song's animation we tried having Camille do the lineart and color for a few scenes.Here's a small look:Sketch animation by meFinal lineart and color by CamilleI've never really worked this much nor this actively with another animator before, so it's been a really interesting experience and a huge relief to finally have some help, both now and going forward. As the general scope of these MVs increase, it's been rather isolating and time consuming doing it all myself, but it looks like things will be moving along a good bit faster now.The only 2D animation left to do for this stage is the Trainwreck/lose scene, which I'll likely do after I've had that part voiced by a required character's VA. In the meantime, I've also started storyboarding the next song.I don't have much else I can talk about here yet at the moment, but luckily I've gathered a few questions to answer for a Q&A section.Q: Will there be any more "scratch like crazy" sections in future songs or is that only for Dragon Funk as seen in the preview? A: That bonus section was made pretty specifically for that scene, so I'm not sure. But if I find a good enough reason to, maybe!Q: Can you freestyle the hold notes? A: Similar to pow notes, hold notes can only be placed within their respective space on the chart. The idea for gimmick notes like these is that you must find other ways to maximize points from them, like the vibrato bonuses on hold notes for example. I've been considering other kinds of possible bonuses for hold notes too, but it'l...
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• Announcements·1 May 2026Official

  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 Jamt...
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• Announcements·3 Jan 2026Official

  Progress Checkup! (Jan. 2026) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

  ​Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for another year of following/supporting the development of Scratchin' Melodii. Let's touch base again on the game's progress over the past few months. PROGRESS:In October, I finished implementing the Act 2 boss and I now continue chipping away at animation. I'm currently animating the first stage of Act 3. If you're wondering when I'll be showing a gameplay preview of the Act 2 boss though, I'm not sure at the moment! The audio isn't completely ready yet, but even aside from that, there will probably be a point where I'll have to decide to start saving most of the gameplay previews for when the game is closer to release. Whether or not that point will be before or after the Act 2 boss is shown is still up in the air though.Another thing I've been working on is the hub world. As I've mentioned before, the tutorial and beginning of story mode are being revamped to better introduce the player to the game's mechanics. This has led to a new, more purposeful foundation for the hub world in general. That's right, by popular demand, the hub world will no longer be useless gameplay-wise. It'll be a safe space to discretely let the player be introduced to and practice new gameplay mechanics. For example, the area leading up to the tutorial song has gates you must unlock by completing simple rhythm challenges using the gameplay style of the actual stages.This is somewhat of an evolution of the "music boxes" that were seen in the 2022 test demo's story mode, in which they weren't necessary for progression and had a simple mini-game that didn't resemble the main gameplay. Having them directly tied to the main gameplay was out of the question before, but now with the new framework it's finally possible. (There's also the fact that I just hadn't thought of it back then!) Of course, these simple gates from the tutorial area won't be the only way I can utilize this feature, so you'll see it contextualized differently in many areas throughout the gam...
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• Announcements·16 Sept 2025Official

  Progress Checkup! (Sep. 2025) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

  Hello again everyone! Looks like it's been a long time since the last devlog. (again). Sorry about that! It's for a good reason though actually, as like I mentioned on Twitter and Bluesky, I'm now at a point in development where the majority of the workload is with animations, music, and other non-coding related tasks. This is because the game's new framework for the stages is pretty much complete! The tradeoff though, is that less coding for me to do also means less for me to write about in these devlogs. Talking about animation and music is a bit more difficult, especially since I can't show you most of it yet. All things considered though, rest assured that I am indeed still putting my all into working on the game. I'm lucky enough to be in a position that allows me to work on this game full-time. Nearly every single day, I spend most of my time working on it and making progress, even if you can't always see it!Well, let's get started then. Firstly, I'm pleased to tell you that last week I finished all of the 2D animation for the Act 2 boss! Since then, I've just been making the necessary 3D models for it and implementing everything into the actual game. It's going incredibly smooth so far, which means all that coding I did to make the process smoother was a success. I'll have to give myself a promotion 👆🏽🎖‼This boss won't introduce any new special note mechanics, but instead will utilize all of the new mechanics introduced in the Act 2's other songs. I felt like this pattern would be perfect from a game design standpoint, as the player gets to conclude each Act using everything they've learned from said Act's rival battles. I wasn't entirely safe from coding anything new here though, as I just made it so that the beat dots/stars on the UI will rearrange their order to line up with the placement of the first note on each respective line. This way, lines that begin on a backbeat or middle beat will be properly reflected visually instead of just always starting fro...
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• Announcements·20 Apr 2025Official

  Progress Checkup! (Apr. 2025) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

  Hey there! I felt like it was time for another devlog, it's been longer than usual I think. I felt it was less of a priority since I'd just shown off a gameplay preview, so my deepest apologies to all 7 dedicated devlog readers... Also, this is actually the first time I've tried posting a devlog on Steam, so we'll see how that goes! If you're on Steam and this is your first time reading one of my "Progress Checkups", it's just where I give a little insight on how progress is going with the development of Scratchin' Melodii. First off, in case you missed it, Lucid Mode was shown off in a recent gameplay preview of Stir & Mix! During stages, freestyling well enough on two consecutive lines will allow you to ascend into Lucid Mode, a state where there are no charts or suggestions to follow, just your own freestyles! Successfully completing the stage in Lucid will give you a special ending scene and an emblem on your rank as lasting proof of your success. To answer a few questions about it I saw floating around: Q: Does this mean the other parts of the song are gone? A: No, going Lucid is something that only happens if you manage to activate it yourself. Otherwise, the song continues as normal. Q: Can it be disabled? A: Yep, if you're like really good at the game but don't wanna accidentally ascend into Lucid, there will be a toggle in the Options menu to enable/disable the ability for it to activate. Q: Can this happen in every stage? A: Probably! That's the plan, unless I find a rare reason it wouldn't work well for one. In the preview, you can also see that Stir & Mix itself has been updated a bit in the vocal and artwork departments! Compared to the 2023 beta version's vocals, 2cada tuned them with a bit more stylization this time. In terms of artwork, the animations were redone in my current art style, as another step towards a consistent art style by release. In the process, I was able to make the animations much more fluid and expressive! https://64.media.tumblr....
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