- Accompanist (role)
- Ad libitum
- Agenda
- Aleatoricism
- Aspect
- Balance
- Bartle types
- BCG
- Conductor (role)
- Constellation
- Constructor (role)
- Co-optionality
- Cue cards
- Dice
- Dimension
- Downbeat
- Downtime
- Elegant Game
- Emergence
- End Condition
- Event (musical event)
- Extended technique
- Facilitator
- Fighting
- Flow
- Found sound
- Gameplay flow
- Genre
- Goals
- Heteronomous Music
- Horizon of intent
- Insert game
- Inspire cards
- Instrument Preparation
- Judge (role)
- Karaoke
- King-making
- Learning curve
- Ludomusical dissonance
- Meaningful Choice
- Mechanic
- Music game
- Non-idiomatic music
- Notation Cards
- Open work
- Parameter
- Pervasive Game
- Player (role)
- Prompter (role)
- Psychographics
- Quarterbacking
- Rhythm cards
- Rhythm game
- Roles
- RPG
- Rule Cards
- Speedrun
- Stacking
- Trading
- Transition
- Upgrade
- Victory condition
- Xenochrony
- XP
- Yes, and...
This glossary entry is a draft. You can help by editing it or discussing in the comments
A game where actions must be performed to the rhythm.
Usage
Generally, in a rhythm game you don't necessarily have to make sounds. Actions to the rhythm may be silent, there might also be an external sound source playing a track for you to synchronize with. Central mechanic of time synchronization is more popular with video games than analog/tabletop because of checking the performance success is much easier with computers, when players press buttons (although nowadays the diversity of controllers for such games is huge, including actual musical instruments).
In theory, precision should be the most important success factor and your in-game actions should be neither too late nor too soon, but perfectly on point. It is possible to play non-electronic games with this premise, but you need specific type of instruments (clear attack) and relatively high skill of participants for this to work well, or at least a skilled facilitator as a judge.
Much more often note placement will be approximate all the time, and the rhythm game is analogous to a time-tracking game (e.g. with a sand timer), but with a much shorter time span for player's action (e.g. 3-second window).
Games in the library
Go to rhythm tag for full set of rhythm games on the wiki (including ones embedded within other content and not in the library).
External games
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A Clave de Candombe | Emanuel Sánchez | rare | A rhythm game with traditional South American inspirations |
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Biff Baff | sold | A rhythm game where you drum on the box | |
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Drakkar Tum Tum | Alexander F. Francisco | sold | A rhythm game done in sync to recitation, with a rowing boat setting |
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FiveLines | Takashi Saito | sold | Music-themed rhythm game played to a backing track (now as: Hey Yo) |
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Flail and Wail | Dave Rockenbaugh | rare | A rhythm game with a CD and a transparent maraca with a dice inside |
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Nebuta Beat | Nagisa Kujira | rare | A rhythm game with elements from a traditional Japanese festival |
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Onk-Onk | Jean-Baptiste Fremaux Thomas Luzurier Paul-Adrien Tournier | rare | As sea lions clap in rhythm, observe cards, and react |
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PARTYtura | Katarzyna Cioch Wojciech Wiśniewski | sold | Polish music-themed rhythm game with a quite loose synchronization |
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Rhythm Blox | Wes Crawford | sold | A rhythm game with notation cards and backing tracks |
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Rock the Beat | Gabriel Ecoutin | sold | Gesture rhythmically to "We Will Rock You!" body percussion |
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Tasty Score | Kosmologym | free | A larger spatial piece of found sound, rhythm, and recipes |
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Tempo | Francisco Gallego Arredondo | sold | A rhythm game where a player marks the beat and gives to others syllables to perform |
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Zombie Crisis: Party Edition | Anthony Gill | rare | A rhythm game played to an audio track |