Tactichord: Glam Strategy News

[p]Finally the weather in Stockholm is fantastic (at least to my mind). Blue skies, crisp air, 6 degrees on the morning commute. This has me fired up working on Tactichord. We're shifting gears development wise a little bit now because we are approaching our first private beta! ːsteamhappyː [/p][p]Last month we did that show down south as part of Malmö Game Week. I pulled out all the stops and took a stand to start a trend (I hope it becomes one anyway) of Tactichord costplaying! Check out my totally metal Lance getup inset to Magnus checking out our booth.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]At the show we ran two stations of the game, and started our shift to help collect testers for our exclusive private beta which is coming up. You can do so right now on the main Steam page (just open a new window to the store page and scroll down to "Request access" on the playtest button. I'll wait...[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Got that taken care of? Good. Now to support a playtest is not a trivial thing. We need to make a custom Steam build with our server farm, upload it to a special place, have it all marked up so it's nice and easy for you to log bugs with, create some anonymous analytics code so we can see where people get stuck, etc. Maybe say you want to play match 2 until you get an S+ rank? Wicked! But to do so you'd need a stage select menu to be able to choose that level again. We have a design but this isn't implemented. And so on![/p][p][/p][p]The main menu is getting some reworking at the moment. Mette's band portrait is well-received at the moment.[/p][p][/p][p]The point is NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! We have an idea about how our game is both easy to get in to and hard to master, but the game is for you guys so we need your feedback to tell us if that's the case. So stand by, join our Discord now, and get ready to rock![/p][p]Click here to reach the Discord so you can log bugs and feedback!
[/p][p][/p][p]We are trying out enemy attack preview arcs to give more information about how dangerous a move would be.[/p][p]
Next up, Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki![/p][p]/David[/p]

[p]Fresh off of our trip to Gamescom in Cologne just yesterday, we're taking Tactichord south again to visit Malmö Game Week August 30th and 31st.[/p][p][/p][p]Check us out in the Indie Corner next to the food court to try out our latest build and win some good really cool merch! We'll have an updated version of the game with lots of cool UX improvements built out of feedback from our playtests over the summer.[/p][p][/p][p]Learn about tickets and opening hours of the convention here![/p]

[p]Another month, another bit of progress on Tactichord: Glam Strategy. Those who know, know, but Sweden in July basically shuts down and things slow to a crawl. This is the month where we switch over milestones, people take long vacations, and not much development occurs. This is mostly true for us this last month as well, but we took the opportunity to make a few small changes and show the game in Japan for the first time![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]In the middle of July we were fortunate to have an opportunity to show the game at Tokyo Indies, an event very similar to the Indie Game Dungeon we often frequent here in Stockholm. We gave a short presentation on the title, and other developers and fans alike were around to try the game. These kinds of things are always made more easier with the help of our amazing marketing assistant Shinta, who lives near Tokyo.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]There have been some small improvements to the UI in Tactichord as part of our larger core experience improvement we've been working on based on feedback from the last few playtests, but we'll save those GIFs and explanations for a future dev blog.[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]What we can talk about is some tangential news related to the seminal rhythm title for Nintendo DS, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. July was the twentieth anniversary of the Japanese cheerleading game's release and our creative director David was a part of the small indie team that created to the title. There is a lot of Ouendan in the spirit and delivery of Tactichord, so fans of the former have a few little surprises to look forward to. Along with lead artist Atsushi Saito and lead engineer Norhide Okada, David was interviewed by Retro Gamer magazine for a six page article covering the making of Ouendan. If you've ever played Elite Beat Agents or the fan game osu!, this is where it all began. You can order a copy of the Retro Gamer July 2025 edition from a number of resellers online.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Thirsty for more? You can be a part of our micro- dev logos in our very own studio Discord! Share ideas of Backbeat universe lore with other players, learn about upcoming events and campaigns, and let us know what you think about the evolving look and style of the game.

Click here to reach the Discord!

Next up, Gamescom![/p][p]/David[/p]

[p][/p][p]It's finally summer! The office is closed! It's time for vacation... kind of.[/p][p][/p][p]Things in Sweden have ground to a halt, as they always do in July. I'm travelling to Japan for a little bit of holiday, biking in the Kanto area and thinking deep thoughts. But it just so happens the Japanese game meetup Tokyo Indies is having an event and I'll be in the area so this is a great chance to collect even more feedback on our core game loop and see how it's landing with people. So if live in Tokyo this is just chance to try out Tactichord before anyone else in your country![/p][p][/p][p]Our man in Japan Shinta and I will be giving a tiny presentation at Tokyo Indies at Mogra in Akihabara Wednesday the 16th from 19:00-. Stop by and say you read this dev blog and I will personally give you a commemorative Backbeat pin and a big yoroshikuonegaishimasu![/p][p][/p][p]Get all the details about Tokyo Indies here: https://www.tokyoindies.com/[/p]

[p]Tactichord: Glam Strategy has been seeing a lot of playtests! Since May, we've shown the game three times gathering feedback on the core game loop and finding ways to improve things and make our unique twists on the turn-based tactics genre even clearer. First, we showed the game on the Moderskeppet Gaming cruise from Stockholm, joining a handful of other indies and some excellent live game music performances including one by game orchestra Songs From Our Savefiles. We even got Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy to give the game a try! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Next we collaborated with the monthly Stockholm chiptune club event Syntax Error for a special Indie Night literally down the street on Hornsgatan. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Finally, we joined the long running Indie Game Dungeon for a final test before summer break, also conveniently located on our home turf of Södermalm.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]In between all these shows we've also been preparing a Japanese localization of the prototype while also working on the band costume and drummer replacement system. Shown here is the elusive fan favorite drummer substitute, MPG.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]And we got some kick ass lighting and thunder SFX together for the characters' special attack transitions.[/p][p][/p][p]Thirsty for more? You can be a part of our micro- dev logos in our very own studio Discord! Share ideas of Backbeat universe lore with other players, learn about upcoming events and campaigns, and let us know what you think about the evolving look and style of the game.

Click here to reach the Discord!

Have a great summer![/p][p]/David[/p]