Nice #AgentsOfGroove double review feature in issue 6 of #playdate magazine Cranko! 🪩
"So unique and well done [...] easily worth the cost of entry, especially if you are a fan of lighthearted yet challenging rhythm games like PaRappa the Rapper and Rhythm Heaven"
Check it out at cranknockout.com!
🪩 #AgentsOfGroove 1.3.2 introduces further improvements to quality of life and #accessibility, including easier access to the most relevant modifiers and improved performance with Playdate Mirror. Read on for details! 🧵
play.date/games/agents...
#AgentsOfGroove 1.1.2 is available on itch and Catalog with important bug fixes and changes 🧵
- a crash fix 😨
- scoreboard fixes (Catalog only) 📋
- several difficulty tweaks 🕺
- optimizations for traversal levels 📦
Details in the replies!
play.date/games/agents...
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate
Screenshot from an email written by an Agents Of Groove player to Synaptic Sugar. The shown portion reads: "Anyway, thank you for making such a charming and surprisingly diverse rhythm game for the playdate. It's an awesome game! Best regards,"
If you like a videogame, let the devs know! Indie dev can be rough, but knowing that our games do resonate with others keeps us going. Thank you for the praise for #AgentsOfGroove 🥹
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate
A big thank you to all those who have already tried Agents of Groove! If you haven't yet, did you know that the game offers many settings to tailor the gameplay experience? Here's our previous thread on accessibility features we launched with:
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #AgentsOfGroove
Welcome to secret agency G.R.O.O.V.E., recruit!
Agents of Groove, our story-driven rhythm game for Playdate, releases TODAY on Catalog with a discount during launch week! Check it out now!
play.date/games/agents...
#gamedev #indiedev #AgentsOfGroove #playdate
#AgentsOfGroove will launch on Catalog in less than a week, and we hope to announce more updates soon! 🪩🕺
Happy 2026, and may the new year bring everyone all they wish for! ❤️
#AgentsOfGroove will launch on Catalog in less than a week, and we hope to announce more updates soon! 🪩🕺
Happy 2026, and may the new year bring everyone all they wish for! ❤️
📣 Attention undercover dancers and masters of the Rhythm!
📅 Agents of Groove will be available on the #playdate Catalog store on January 6, 2026!
❤️ Check out the new key art on its Catalog page, where you can wishlist today!
🔗 play.date/games/agents...
#gamedev #indiedev #AgentsOfGroove
We believe #accessibility to be important to allow people to enjoy videogames. Rhythm games and the @play.date controls can present unique challenges, so we designed #AgentsOfGroove to be fairly relaxed, and implemented features to tailor the experience further 🧵
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate
Welcome to secret agency G.R.O.O.V.E., recruit!
Agents of Groove, our story-driven rhythm game for Playdate, releases TODAY on itch.io with a 10% discount during launch week! Check it out now (and soon on Catalog)!
synapticsugar.itch.io/agents-of-gr...
#gamedev #indiedev #AgentsOfGroove #playdate
Thank you Uncrank'd for featuring the #AgentsOfGroove trailer in the season 3 finale of Uncrank'd TV! 🪩 🕺
#playdate
In case you missed it, we recently released a new trailer for #AgentsOfGroove, and announced our goal to launch before the end of 2025!
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
New trailer for #AgentsOfGroove on #playdate! 🪩 🕺
vimeo.com/1121610427
We're aiming to launch on itch.io before the end of the year, with a Catalog release soon after!
Learn more about this story-driven rhythm action game at synapticsugar.games/games/agents...!
#gamedev #indiedev #TrailerTuesday
Watch the Uncrank'd Pumpkin Patch & Play Showcase in only a few hours and you'll see a new trailer for our spy rhythm action game #AgentsOfGroove! 🕺
📅 - November 1st!
🕘 - 9 AM US Pacific / 🕛 - 12 PM US Eastern time
🪩 - youtu.be/G3HWYy5uM1o
(Agents of Groove is coming soon to a #playdate near you!)
Thank you for joining us on this series about the main characters of #AgentsOfGroove! Our story-driven rhythm action game is coming to #playdate soon, and we'll have many more updates shortly! 🕺 🪩
synapticsugar.games/games/agents...
#gamedev #indiedev
A 1-bit screenshot from the game Agents of Groove. A portrait of a pirate wearing a big hat and a thick black beard is on the right side, over a name tag that says "Angus Weathervane". A bird, likely a seagull from the looks of it, sits on the pirate's shoulder, and appears to wear a tiny bandana above its eyes. Both the pirate and the bird have their mouth open as if shouting angrily. A text box on the left side says "Captain Weathervane for th'likes o' ye!" above an icon representing the A button. The whole thing is over a background that looks like a folder complete with a paperclip in the corner, a coffee mug stain and a stamp partially visible that says "Top Secret".
What folk dare to whisper under cover of darkness about Angus Weathervane is steeped in mystery and rumors. Surely those tales of pirates controlling the seas with an army of birds at their command cannot be true? Find out in #AgentsOfGroove!
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
A portrait, on the right side, of a man with long straight hair and a thick horseshoe moustache, wearing a bandana and smiling with his mouth slightly open, over a name tag that says "Paul Hanover". A text box, on the left side, says "Oh, right on, that explains why I can't remember anything! Or I think it does?" above an icon representing the A button.
One of the younger #AgentsOfGroove, who often teases Daley for relying on time-tested methods, Paul Hanover may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but is nevertheless an invaluable ally and a skilled tinkerer with H.Y.P.E. equipment in the field!
#playdate #gamedev #indiedev #ScreenshotSaturday
What is this robot after, and how is it connected to the G.R.O.O.V.E. case? A case more unsettling at every step, like a tall tale told by an excitable sailor in exchange for the promise of more attention. Find out in #AgentsOfGroove!
#playdate #gamedev #indiedev #ScreenshotSaturday
A portrait of a smiling woman wearing stylish glasses, large hoop earrings, and a black turtleneck is on the right side. A text card is on the left side, with the text: "As such, you won't generally see me in the field much, but you'll certainly hear from me!", and an icon representing the A button lies underneath it.
Melody Handler, information expert on the #AgentsOfGroove team, works behind the scenes planning missions, accessing remote systems, and guiding the agents. Often Daley's last defense against danger, she just as often has to save him from himself.
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
A portrait of Daley Bellbottoms, a friendly-looking man with a big head of curly hair, glasses and thick sideburns and mustache. Some chest hair pokes through the open collar of his shirt. A dialog card on the right side of the portrait reads: I've been doing this for a long time, with Mel's help of course!
Let's start a series about the characters of #AgentsOfGroove! And who best to start with than Daley Bellbottoms, legendary undercover dancer and Rhythm wrangler of secret organization G.R.O.O.V.E.? 🪩
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday #pixelart #1bit
One of the best parts of #gamedev is building tools that make your work (or someone else's) easier, more efficient, or just possible at all. This level editor for #AgentsOfGroove is very simple but does its job well, and was incredibly useful for iterating on all the game levels.
You've seen how the art for #playdate game #AgentsOfGroove evolved over time, but how did the game levels come together?
We made a simple visual editor to make the process a lot easier, especially for long levels like this one. This is what it looks like!
#gamedev #indiedev #ScreenshotSaturday
Screenshot of the current state of the art. A conversation is happening over a background image of a folder that comes from a set of confidential files, stamped with the words "Top Secret" and complete with a paper clip over the top and a round stain from a coffee mug. In the foreground the portrait of the speaking character, in this case a smiling woman wearing stylish glasses and round earrings, sits on the right side. The name tag "Melody Handler" is visible underneath the portrait. A box with rounder corners enclosing the text "*sighs* Nevermind all that, he does it all the time." is on the left side, and below it sits an icon representing the A button on the Playdate.
Screenshot from the earliest prototype. The background here is nothing more than solid white color, a similar portrait of a smiling woman is on the right side, but the art is simpler and much less refined. A text box saying "Let me tell you more about this!" is on the left side, above a smaller and rougher icon representing the A button. There is no name tag, unlike in the other screenshot.
We call #AgentsOfGroove a story-driven rhythm game, and conversations are an important part of the experience. Here's another example of how the art for these evolved during development, comparing the current state against the earliest prototype.
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
Thank you Debug Magazine for including our #playdate story-driven rhythm game #AgentsOfGroove in the Magnify feature, alongside so many cool games!
Check it out at www.teamdebug.com/magnify
A very early screenshot of the Cat and Fox club level from Agents of Groove. The art is still a rough placeholder, but the main elements are there: Daley Bellbottoms on the left side of the rectangular dance floor seen in perspective from an elevated position, another dancer on the right side, the big disco ball spinning on top. A and B button icons are scrolling at the bottom from right to left, and a text label reads "Perfect!" above the lower middle, commenting on player performance with the most recent button press. Another label, right in the middle of the screen, reads "Crank it up!", which was also the working name for Agents of Groove at the time. A third label is in the upper right corner and reads "Score: 5025". Two big speakers are in the back of the scene, at the corners of the dance floor, and the silhouette of a crowd completes the picture in the background.
The same scene, but with art that is already a lot closer to its final form. There are now four characters on the dance floor and they're much more defined. Sections of the floor, as well as spotlights above, light up as the player presses the buttons corresponding to the scrolling icons, which are completely redrawn and catch on fire when the player is doing well. The disco ball has much more detail, depicting the small mirror sections, and the crowd in the background is also more recognizable and defined. There's now a placeholder DJ console at the bottom, behind the scrolling icons, with a vinyl record spinning on it, but the art for it is still simple and sparse. A vertical bar is on the left side of the screen, completely full. A text label in the upper right corner reads "14800"
Progress is evident in this third shot, with a new disco ball that is more stylized and polished. The background is also more polished, and a whole new DJ console is in the scene, showing a pair of headphones and various knobs, cables, and sliders. The record spinning on it has been redrawn as well. The card in the upper right corner has a smaller size and a border around it, as well as a different font and reads "18825".
This screenshot depicts the current state of the art. The characters are more polished, the button prompts are completely different, larger, and use d-pad icons instead of the letters A and B as before. They're highlighted in different ways, including with flashing rings or stars rather than small flames. The vertical bar on the left is slimmer and has a star about 80% of the way up.
Continuing the series on the evolution of #AgentsOfGroove: the club level art as well as the button matching gameplay UI both changed a lot over two years. This was the first level we prototyped when we started experimenting on the #playdate!
#gamedev #indiedev #ScreenshotSaturday #pixelart #1bit
A scene at the docks, with a guard alerted by a suspicious upside down cardboard box that may or may not be moving. The scene is a bit sparse, the background a bit rough, and the box is small and clearly not final art. Oil drums and trashcans are present at various points. UI elements like a vertical bar, partially filled, on the left, and a small card with the score in the upper right corner are present.
Same scene, but this time the background is more refined, has more detail and variety, new items like different types of crates have made their appearance. The score card is larger and has changed font style. There's an all new cardboard box, larger and more detailed, and other elements like a hole open in the ground and surrounded by cones, due to construction.
In the final form presented here, the scene has many more crates, broken glass, a bottle, all art has been polished including the oil drums that have some shading on them. The score card is gone, and a second vertical bar has appeared below the original one on the left.
As development on #AgentsOfGroove gets ever closer to completion, let's recap how some of the art evolved over time, starting with a sequence of screenshots for the sneaky docks level. From its earliest prototype era to its likely final form!
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
An encounter with a robot. A character stands on the left side, and a big robot on the right side, facing each other. The setting is that of a factory, with a conveyor belt moving rubber ducks directly behind the two characters, a strange machine in the middle, and some large oil spills on the floor. Button prompts scroll from right to left over a DJ console at the bottom of the screen.
You never know who or what you will encounter in #AgentsOfGroove, and when all else fails the best way to resolve a dispute may be a good, old-fashioned dance-off. Try not to make mistakes! 🕺 🪩
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate #ScreenshotSaturday
New devlog! #AgentsOfGroove now has 15 levels, 12 main music tracks, over 12,000 words of dialogue, 10 micro-cutscenes, and a ton of handmade 1-bit art. It's a lot for two people! We're doing what we can!
Catch up at synapticsugar.itch.io/agents-of-gr...
#gamedev #indiedev #playdate
Much polish and many additions went into #AgentsOfGroove for #playdate in the last few months. For example, here's an updated version of the Cat and Fox Club location. New look, same perfect cover for a hidden base for the secret dancers of G.R.O.O.V.E.!
#gamedev #indiedev #ScreenshotSaturday
