A trombone game at the origin of disastrous harmonies has been the delight of the web these last few days. Behind, a small studio surprised by its success.
The web is stirring around a new game these days: it’s about the rhythm game Trombone Champ. Popularized by a tweet from specialized media PC Gamer, Trombone Champ is a rhythm game that consists of playing the greatest classics of classical music with a trombone. A kind of Guitar Hero of the trombone, where the rhythm to follow is indicated by a series of notes.
Obviously, the concept is simple but the application is less so: the trombone is an instrument which is not in harmony with all the melodies, and that is felt (heard!). To say that Beethoven has been “revisited” would, for example, be an understatement to describe the video published by PC Gamer.
On the gameplay side, it’s about moving the cursor up and down to follow the rhythm presented on the screen. But for more difficulty, the top and bottom are reversed. For the past few days, many streamers have been sharing videos of their tests, which are for the most part real auditory challenges for the uninformed Internet user.
And for the most creative players, Trombone Champ also offers a free mode, to create the melodies of your choice.
Proof that the best ideas are often the simplest, the game has seen its player count increase by 383% since Thursday, according to the specialized media jeuxvideo.com.
Holy Wow, the studio behind the game took note of its success, and thanked the many players through a tweet.
“Hi everyone! We are blown away by the recent success of Trombone Champ! Thank you to all of our fervent supporters! Needless to say, after the events of the past few days, we aim to take the game much further than expected .”
“However, we need to clarify that currently, Trombone Champ is actually the work of one person,” the studio continues. “And it’s not even our main job! We have full-time jobs (!!!) and created this game at night, on weekends and during holidays. So it will take us a few weeks to put our lives in order and access the huge demand this game has generated. Please be patient, and once again, thank you for your support,” the studio continued on Twitter.
The “only person” mentioned in this tweet is Dan Vecchitto, one of the developers at Holy Wow Studios. He explains with the NBC News channel that he develops games out of passion and hobby, and yet has never played the trombone.
Trombone Champ is available on PC for 12.49 euros.