- Version 1.1.03 - 11 September 2025
Some balance tweaks, and some bug fixes in this fairly minor update: Increased hunter damage while increasing energy usage (slight homing reduction and other minor tweaks) Reduced vehicle speed while using hunter, but increased speed bonus from POWER MAGNET upgrade slightly Reduced hunter trail length slightly Electric trails no longer stop rendering after a while Electric trails now render correctly during pause and don't go funky when unpausing Fixed Storm and Pulse not being affected by Stationary upgrade (damage portion) Increased base damage but significantly reduced knockback for Pulse Split Pulse damage upgrade in 4 Super and 4 Ultra versions (+1 for first 4, + 2 for second 4) Changed knockback to be based on weapon/upgrade, and rely far less on damage amount Increased enemy HP for higher worlds for each Bring It On modifier enabled (3-6 HP instead of always 3) Fixed achievement…
- Version 1.1.02 Changelist (balance pass) - 19 August 2025
1.1.02 Changelist: Added 3 weapon +1 damage bonus (hidden) Made Breakdown Ultra give both weapons +2 damage Made Breakthru +5 (from +4) for Spread, and 5x (from 3x) damage for Ultras Made Air Bounce on Vector add +2 damage when it bounces Double Ricochet Ultra shots now add an extra +2 damage per ricochet Ricochet Damage Ultra now does 2x damage per ricochet Reflection Ultra (Plasma) now does 2x damage per bounce (instead of +5) Saber Steady Hand Ultra adds up to +2 bonus damage when not rotating Made all ionic effects deal 1 extra damage (silent non-destructive) Increased default Hunter Damage by 1 Added Hunter Super Piercing as a potential upgrade to get Shocking Pierce Ultra Added 2 bonus damage to both weapons for Shared Fractions Ultra Increased Pulse default fire rate by 11% Increased Converge default fire rate by 9% Increased Burst default fire rate by 6% Fixed a couple weapon Ul…
- Version 1.1 Brings Two New Vehicles, MAX Power Upgrades, and TONS more! - 16 August 2025
I've been trying to finish this version for three days, and I think it's finally ready for release. I can promise there will be a 1.1.01 update in a couple days to tweak/fix something I missed. But as you'll see below, there's a LOT of stuff in this new version. Let's start with the major stuff:2 NEW VEHICLES!20 NEW MAX POWER UPGRADES!ALTERNATE COLOR SCHEMES!FULL UPGRADE LIBRARY!MODIFIER COSTS REDUCED! (and cap added)FIXED A MAJOR BUG WITH KNOCKBACK AND FIRE RATE!Yeah, that last one is embarrassing, but taking the Knockback upgrades would reduce your fire rate by a lot, and not affect Knockback at all. But now it's fixed, and many weapons are a lot more powerful than they used to be (unless you were very careful previously).Now we'll get into the excessively long changelist, which I'll try to split into similar sections, and I'll bold anything important that's not mentioned above.RHYTHM…
- Version 1.0.06 brings more variety with "Enemy Shuffle" and Alternate Powers - 29 July 2025
Version 1.0.05 addressed concerns about upgrade path knowledge/information among many other things, and Version 1.0.06 focused on more gameplay variety through other means.Here's the full changelist, then I'll go over the two big additions:Added Shuffle Enemies option to the Difficulty menu (complete 5 runs or 1 on Elite to unlock)Updated some unused enemies to function a bit better, and scaled a few on higher worldsUpdated some world 1 enemies to be tougher on world 2+, and some world 2+ enemies to be a little easier on world 1Updated Swap Meet modifier allow you to change to alternate power upgrades on vehicle configure screen (and fixed some issues that caused)Renamed Exchange It modifier to Swap Meet (and updated the description)Make sound for invulnerable not high-passThe smaller of the two significant changes is allowing players to use Alternate Powers for each of the vehicles (in…
- Version 1.0.05 Patch Notes - 28 July 2025
CHANGELIST Renamed Ultra Combos to Ultra Library, and added all Ultra upgrades to it (32 combos, 20 power, 40 weapon, and 8 others) Added Ultra Library to the pause menu Made Ultra Library track both discovering and using an Ultra (instead of just discovering it) Changed Guardian 1st body weapon from (Pulse) to Cyclone, and changed 3rd body weapon (Cyclone) to Orbital Changed Blaze 2nd body weapon (Orbital) to Pulse Doubled power of Revenge Mode upgrade (and reduced max count from 5 to 4) Added two new Ultra upgrades: Ultra Blasts and Ultra Survivor Added saving/restoring of scrolling position on modifiers/vehicles/ultras separately (resets on game restart) Changed how shield around player syncs to music (subtler and more in sync) Reduced Pulse inner ring brightness Added a cheat code for adding sparks Added a backup save file that the game uses if loading the main save file fails Fixed…
- Rhythm Storm 1.0 is out now! - 25 July 2025
Rhythm Storm 1.0.04 is now available on Steam! In case you got here without knowing much about it, Rhythm Storm is a rhythmic bullet heaven/swarm survival/survivor-like. It uses vector-graphics (aka lines and polygons only, no textures), but more importantly, it has tons of vehicles, powers, weapons, and upgrades. There are many ways to succeed in the game, and if you want a head start, I posted a Beginner's Strategy Guide earlier this week.After playing the game a bunch this week in preparation for launch, I made a number of minor tweaks to the visuals, audio, and a few gameplay elements. There was also some good feedback from the Steam forums thanks to the (no longer available) demo. You might notice some slight visual differences between the trailers (like the launch one below) and the actual game, but I think all the tweaks/changes are for the better.BUILD BALANCINGWith so many diff…
- Rhythm Storm Strategy Guide, Part 1 [Beginners/General] - 22 July 2025
Rhythm Storm 1.0 releases on Steam in 3 days. To prepare for the release, and to help players succeed at the game, I'm writing up a strategy guide. Part 1 is all about Beginner/General strategy, and I'll create intermediate and advanced strategy posts in the coming weeks. Note that the following might be considered spoilers, to some extent. So if you prefer to figure out things on your own, you'll want to stop reading now. Let's begin...ONLY TWO CHOICES?Rhythm Storm's upgrade system only gives you 2 choices every time you upgrade. That would appear to make the choice "simple": set A or set B? But you have a strong influence on what A or B can be. In reality, A or B is really two of A, B, C, or D. There are six possible sets of choices you'll see each time you upgrade (AB, AC, AD, BC, BC, or CD). At the start of each world, you also choose what ABCD are, out of 6 upgrade sets. The choice…
- Rhythm Storm Releasing July 25th on Steam! - 25 June 2025
It's finally here after 3 years: Rhythm Storm version 1.0 is coming to Steam on July 25, 2025!To celebrate the announcement of a release date, there's an all-new trailer:The release date trailer was going to be a use remixed version of the original announce trailer song from 2023, but after watching trailers for other competing games, and looking more critically at that original trailer, I changed plans. I wanted to have the trailer represent the game more effectively, and I liked what games like 20 Minutes Til Dawn and Vampire Survivors did in their trailers. So I remixed world 3's music into something more trailer-friendly, and focused more on showing the game's progression and variety. The result turned out about as well as I could have hoped for the amount of time I had to put it together. Hopefully others like it too.Three Years of Development*I started work on Rhythm Storm in the…
- Rhythm Storm All-New 2025 Demo Now Available - 13 May 2025
The Rhythm Storm Alpha demo released in early 2023, when the game was announced. Though the demo hit a lot of goals I had for the game, I didn't really enjoy playing it that much. After some additional refinement, a Beta demo was released in mid-2023. It fixed a couple minor issues, but some fundamental problems remained. At the time, I thought that the rhythm and upgrade elements were a bit too conflicting, but there was something else not quite right. So I took a break from the game while I finished Instruments of Destruction. The difference between the Alpha and Beta demo was fairly large, and the new 2025 demo has received even more revisions. The fundamental gameplay remains that of a bullet heaven or swarm survival game with music-synced elements. In the end, I didn't change much with the music syncing, but instead the process of upgrading is very different from previous demos. Wi…
