We have a new level: Fixations Toward the Stars

We're collaborating with indie rhythm game, vivid/stasis! A few months back, you might have seen that they added All The Times (Rhythm Doctor) and It Go (A Dance of Fire and Ice) as playable levels. This time, Saturday and Allison visit Middlesea. Fixations Toward the Stars features music by Foodbot, and pixel art by Winston.

Much like us, vivid/stasis combines rhythm gameplay with characters and a narrative, so it was really fun to be able to crossover like this. Go check out the game if you haven't already!


Middlesea Hospital has become a popular place to visit, so we've opened up a new ward. You can now enter the Basement, which is basically Ian's office. That's where you'll find the new vivid/stasis collaboration! You'll also find our crossover levels with fellow rhythm games Bits & Bops and Unbeatable.

I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll see a new face, so we'll keep you updated next time we add a level here.

• Added "ice" and "chili" song speeds to 5-X
  
• Improved freeze beat visuals
  
• Improved freeze beat audio cue clarity
  
• Added act number above ward entrances
  
• Added Restart from Checkpoint button
  
• Added a new rank for completing a boss stage without checkpoints
  
• Tweaked 3-X pager to display Mr. Stevenson instead of Paige
  
• Removed skipped beats in 4-4
  
• Improved 1-XN virus infection animation
  
• Fixed 5-1N invisible hit
  
• Fixed 5-X game over cutscene
  
• Fixed 5-X checkpoint skip
  
• Tweaked boss health bars so that they always reach 0 when the boss is defeated
  
• Added error sound for trying to change fullscreen setting during certain boss stages
  
• Added Instant Dialog option
  
• Tweaked heart crack appearance to always be proportional to your level rank
  
• Tweaked subdivisions to only count one mistake per set
  
• Fixed held beat particle effects
  
• Tweaked Ian's voice on the train to sound muffled
  
• Updated Insomniac pager icon

• Added the Custom Character Template Generator, which lets you import any story character
  
• Added Custom option to Set Counting Sounds
  
• Added level event tooltips which let you preview conditionals, tags, targeted rooms and data
  
• Added syncopation audio cues
  
• Improved syncopation visuals
  
• Added Tile Sprite event
  
• Added grid view to the level event selection panel
  
• Added ability to resize timeline by dragging
  
• Added playhead indicator to timeline scroll bar
  
• Removed Resize Window from the level editor
  
• Added Tutorial Notes VFX preset
  
• Added Diamonds VFX preset
  
• Decluttered Set Theme variants
  
• Fixed subdivision spotlight displaying incorrectly for one frame
  
• Fixed Floating Text with instant fade permanently disappearing
  
• Added ability to hold down shift to adjust swing sliders by half increments
  
• Added interval to skipped beat cue
  
• Added new UI for Play Expression's expression picker
  
• Fixed Custom Character fps = 0 behavior
  
• Fixed SVT beat wave opacity
  
• Fixed game not pausing during some file browser popups
  
• Fixed Window Dance playback button
  
• Fixed CLS song text color

Thank you for playing!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame
Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhythm.doctor/
Cohost: https://cohost.org/7thBeatGames

The story of Rhythm Doctor continues! Today, we've added Act 5 to Story Mode. This is a free update that continues the story right where Act 4 left off. When you start up the game and continue your save file, you'll notice a new hallway in Middlesea Hospital: the Physiotherapy Ward.

Have fun! We had a lot of fun making it.


Act 5: Enter the Physiotherapy Ward, meet our new patient, and play 4 new Day Shift levels and 2 new Night Shift levels.

New Night Shift level added to Act 4, "4-4N Murmurs"

New Level Editor Features: New heartbeat types and a new character seen in Act 5 have been added to the Level Editor, to use in your own custom levels!

Visual Updates to 4-2, 4-2N, and 4-4

Added two new options to the Settings: "Drum Mode" and "Tap to Hold."

Full detailed changelog coming soon!


Q: What is Act 5?
A: Act 5 is the next chapter of Rhythm Doctor's Story Mode. It's a free update, added as part of our Early Access, to continue the story of Ada Paige and everyone else at Middlesea Hospital. It takes place immediately after the conclusion of Acts 1-4, which have comprised the game since we first released on Steam. Remember when you saved the hospital from that virus?

Q: How do I unlock Act 5?
A: It is unlocked after you complete Acts 1 through 4, including the Night Shift boss level "Super Battleworn Insomniac." You will also need to complete, or have already completed, 2-1N "wish i could care less" in the SVT Ward.

Q: How many Acts will Rhythm Doctor's story have?
A: We're aiming for one or two more, but we're not quite sure yet. Act 5 is not the conclusion of the story! We are not currently planning to do any more "main story updates" to the game until the rest of the story is completely finished and we're leaving Early Access. We feel this is a good place to leave off for now, and we'll continue working quietly towards the conclusion!

Q: I'm going to stream the game on Twitch or Youtube. Should I record my whole desktop again?
A: Yes, you should probably record your whole desktop instead of just the game window. Or you can adjust your settings in the Settings menu, where it says "Window Movement." If you've played the rest of the game, you probably know what this means.

Thank you so much to everyone who has played Rhythm Doctor, streamed it for people around the world, made custom levels, posted fanart and fanfic, and cheered us on during our continued development! When making a game like this, it's hard to know how much it'll click with anyone else, but we've been surprised and delighted to see how much love there's been for this game and our characters.

Act 5 has some challenging levels in it, so if you're rusty with your rhythm skills, you might want to warm up with an earlier level.

Good luck, and thanks for playing!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame
Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhythm.doctor/
Cohost: https://cohost.org/7thBeatGames

Hello everyone!

We are so close to done, but we need a little more time!

Act 5, our free story update to Rhythm Doctor, will now launch on November 4th, 2023. As always, we're trying to maintain a healthy workflow without having to overwork anyone on the team. We're very excited to show you what we've been working on.

Thanks for playing, we'll see you soon!

Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhythm.doctor/

Cohost: https://cohost.org/7thBeatGames

Hello everyone! As you know, Rhythm Doctor is still in Early Access. We launched in Early Access so that we could continue the story, add new levels, and flesh out different mechanics and features before considering the game "complete" by our original vision.

Our first major story update, the Act 5 Update, is coming soon! Very soon, actually. We plan to release it on October 21st, 2023.

Act 5 picks the story up right where we left off, after you've established yourself as an integral part of the Middlesea Hospital team. The update will feature a new ward with a new patient, new type of heartbeat, and new levels.

We've been working hard on this for a while, so we're excited for everyone to see what we've been working on. We'll have more to say in October!

Official Discord Server: https://7thbe.at/discord/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhythm.doctor/

Cohost: https://cohost.org/7thBeatGames

At the end of May, we announced that we were holding a short fundraiser for National Cancer Society Malaysia in memory of Jyi Sim, one of our voice actors.

Shortly after posting that announcement, we were honored to see how many people reached out with their condolences and with their support.

Thanks to you, we sold a whopping 1362 copies of Rhythm Doctor during the fundraiser. After that, we had a wait few months to receive the final payment (which has to subtract out taxes, Valve's platform cut, and other fees.) Now that we've received the money, we'll be donating RM37,800, around 8200 USD, the total of what we raised during the fundraiser period.

Thank you all so, so much. We're a small team with a small game, so seeing you all show your support on Twitter, Steam, and Discord for our fundraiser really meant a lot.

Folks had really nice things to say not just about the game but about Jyi's contribution specifically. We're glad that Rhythm Doctor could make a positive impact on your life. So thank you for helping us make a positive impact in the world!

Just because the fundraiser's over doesn't mean the fight against cancer is over. There's no wrong time of year to check out National Cancer Society Malaysia[cancer.org.my] to see how you can help. Or any of the local organizations doing good in your own area.

Once again, thank you so much.


We've been looking to try something new and branch out where you can hear about updates from us. If you're already reading these update posts here on Steam...you're in a pretty good place!

But we know that a lot of people aren't here, reading these things. To help with that, we're now going to try making some Update Videos to post on Youtube and other platforms. These will help recap updates that people might not have heard about, or announce new things.

You can watch the first one here:

It's a lot of info that you might already know, but it might be worth watching to the end anyway...

We're going to try to be more active on Youtube in general. In addition to our Twitter and Discord Server[7thbe.at], we're also going to try to be more active on Instagram[www.instagram.com] and Cohost[cohost.org] too.

Doesn't hurt to have a few choices, right?

(Because of Steam's handy feature for letting you post in multiple languages, these Steam posts are still the best place for news in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean.)

Thanks so much for reading, thanks for playing, and we can't wait to tell you more about Rhythm Doctor Act 5!

The bottom of this post is where I usually list links to where you can find us, but...I guess I did that already.

Hello everyone,

Near the end of 2022, we received heartbreaking news that one of our voice actors, Jyi Sim, passed away peacefully after a long battle with lymphoma cancer.

We were lucky enough to work with Jyi as the voice for Rhythm Doctor's Nurse, who helps count and cue for the player, and as a singer in the beautiful Chinese renditions of "One Shift More" and "All The Times."

We were devastated to hear of her passing, and send our prayers and well wishes to her family. May her soul rest in peace.

In the time since mourning the loss of Jyi, we have spoken with her family about ways we can help them in this difficult time. At their recommendation, we have decided to raise money for National Cancer Society Malaysia*, an organization which Jyi herself was a donor to for years.

You can learn more about NCSM on their website: https://cancer.org.my/

From Friday, May 26th at 1:20pm PST to Sunday, May 28th at 1:20pm PST, Rhythm Doctor will be on sale for 10% off. All proceeds from the game made during this period will be made as a collective donation to NCSM**

We deeply appreciate any support you can give. If you already have a copy of the game and still wish to find a way to support the fundraiser, we invite you to purchase a gift copy on Steam for any friend you have who may love music. Alternatively, you can also visit this page to learn about ways you can support NCSM directly: https://cancer.org.my/donate/

We look forward to your support, and will update you on the amount raised after the sale's conclusion.

One of Jyi's wishes was to share her journey with cancer so that others can learn from it. She published a number of videos on Youtube documenting her life with cancer while also sharing her experience and her music.

Please check out her videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNXn7ZbVZ7M

We hope you will join us in celebrating our memory of Jyi, supporting her family through this difficult time, raising money for a great cause, and enjoying the work Jyi shared with the world.

Thank you,
The 7th Beat Games Team

*In the event that there are issues preventing a donation to NCSM, or in the event that the family of the deceased requests that we donate to another organization in the same field or needs help in the financial recovery of her passing, we will redirect the donation to the family's choosing. If this happens, we'll post an update on the donation. We want to respect the family's final decision.

**Donation total will be calculated after Valve's portion of revenue and taxes are deducted.

This update focused on relatively minor changes, such as bug fixes and adding Quality of Life features. But here's one that's not so minor: We've added German localization!

On the other hand, we are working hard to bring Act 5 to life. We can't wait to show what's coming to you. Please stay tuned for our updates!

• German Localization: Thanks to our German translator purplpasta, Rhythm Doctor is now available in German! We are thrilled that we can finally show Rhythm Doctor to German speakers. If you encounter any bugs or typos while playing in German, please let us know on our official Discord server[7thbe.at]. Guten Tag! Vielen Dank fürs Mitspielen!
• 3-3 Distant Duet: Updated visuals! (RentaP & megaminerzero)
• Sleeve Paint: Added customizable nail color and palm shading. (megaminerzero)
Sleeve paint interface showing off new nail color feature. The intern is a comically long single right arm. They wear a long black sleeve with “0.13.0” written on it in white. The intern has dark skin with a lighter-colored palm, and their nails are painted purple.
• Audio: Added new sound effects for Player 2’s heldbeats. (Satellite)
• Audio: SVT skip cues (“rattle”) now obey row volume and pan settings. (Satellite)
• Settings: Separated “Counting Voice Volume” into its own setting. (Satellite)

• Gameplay: Fixed bug where pressing on the same beat as a CPU hit would sometimes cause a miss. (JCI)
• Gameplay: Prevent CPU-handled beats from displaying Numeric Hit Judgement, if the setting is enabled. (JCI)
• Gameplay: Stopped freetime heldbeats from causing levels to hang when they are terminated by the “remove beat” action. (megaminerzero)
• Gameplay: Fixed a missing HUD element on boss levels. (JCI)

• Backend: Overhauled internal handling of level event data. This will be a huge help for us to create and edit level events in the future! (huan & JCI)
• Bookmarks: Added undo/redo support for Bookmark actions (megaminerzero)
• Color picker: Added an eyedropper tool (megaminerzero)
Screenshot of the color picker window and eyedropper tool. The eyedropper is selecting a color from the floor of the Samurai’s hospital room, a sunlit purple.
• Grid snap: Implement customizable snap denominator value. Replaces old unsnapped (“--”) setting. (JCI)
  The level editor timeline grid snap option. The value is set to 1/7.

• Shift+C: Toggle "Numerical Hit Judgement" setting within level editor.
• Shift+O: Toggle “Detailed Level Results” setting within level editor.
• Ctrl+U: Open level from URL. Popup dialog not yet keyboard accessible.
• Ctrl+Shift+P: Publish level. Popup dialog not yet keyboard accessible.
• Alt+Q: Quit from editor to main menu.
• Home: Rewind to start of level, or the first bookmark if the level has bookmarks.
• Page Up: Restart current bar.
• Page Down: Skip to next bar.
• Shift+F1: Display disclaimer. Changed from F1.

• Optimization: Improved performance of Floating Text and Blur events. (JCI)

Hello interns! We hope you've been enjoying Rhythm Doctor, and the RD Steam Workshop. The year is coming to a close, but we have one last update of 2022 here before we take a short break and enjoy our holidays.


We have a new level: Meet and Tweet!

Meet and Tweet (music by Zorsy, level by Jenny, tutorial by s9menine, art by Winston and Kyle) is based on a level from Bits & Bops[bitsandbopsgame.com], a new one-button rhythm game coming soon to Steam. We're huge fans of the game (the gameplay, the art, the music!) and we were excited for the chance to work together with the devs at Tempo Lab Games to take one of their minigames and translate it into Rhythm Doctor.

Someone left the window open, and now Mrs. Stevenson's pet cockatiel has made a new friend. Do your best to make compelling, birdly conversation (while defibrillating.)

Check out the Bits and Bops Kickstarter campaign[bitsandbopsgame.com] if you want to help bring the game to life. You can also find a free demo over on Steam and play it yourself!


-New Gameplay Mechanic: Syncopated Beats. These are seen in the new level, Meet and Tweet, and now you can add them to levels yourself in the Level Editor.
-Editor: Paint Hands event now as an Opacity Option
-Editor: Added a Color Palette for quickly changing colors in Events
-Editor: Customize Wave Type, Wave Height, and Wave Width for Oneshot beats


Originally, we had hoped that we could release Act 5 of Story Mode by the end of 2022. Although we are well underway in Act 5 development, we ended up taking a lot onto our plate in December and decided we need to push Act 5 back a little bit. We're aiming to release that Act 5 update in the first half of 2023.

Act 5 centers around the arrival of a new patient in Middlesea Hospital. Some of the cast are pretty excited about it! Here's a small look at Dr. Paige consulting with the new patient in the halls between treatments.

Exciting, right?

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Thanks for playing, we'll be back with more updates in 2023!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmDrGame
Official Discord: https://7thbe.at/discord/
Website: https://7thbe.at/

Hello rhythm interns! We’re here with another version update, v0.12.0/r27.

This update has a myriad of level editor improvements and platform updates like native Linux compatibility. We’d also like to introduce the newest member to the team, Random Guy JCI! He was already a big part of the community before, making some great custom levels and programming mods to improve the game and level editor. Now he will work with us to improve the game and level editor, but officially .

Thanks to team members Random Guy JCI, megaminerzero, huantian and Satellite for all the tweaks and improvements, and also to HeySora, huantian and antonio for the backend work!

• Linux compatibility: Added native compatibility with Linux! Make sure to disable “Force the use of a Steam Play compatibility tool” so Steam will download the native version. (big effort from huantian!)
  -Should work on most modern Linux distributions, but have only tested on Ubuntu, Arch, and NixOS. Requires GTK for file pickers and xdg-open for opening files, these should also be installed on most distributions.
  - Note: True window dance on Linux has been disabled, as it doesn’t seem to work well with all Linux desktop environments or window managers. Window dance is set to Simulate by default instead.
  - Make sure to keep an eye out for any Linux related issues or bugs, such as issues with the file chooser or explorer, or custom level saving and loading. If you find any, contact us via our discord server: https://7thbe.at/discord
  
  
• Gameplay: Frame offset no longer multiplies on stacked hits (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Gameplay: Game now prevents you from holding too late (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Gameplay: Game now prevents late holds from auto-hitting beats later than the proper release time (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Gameplay: Hold releases on unmissable difficulty are now truly unmissable (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Gameplay: The mouse cursor is automatically hidden when entering a level or opening the fullscreen view in the editor.
  
• CLS: Song text color now automatically changes to white if the label’s dark enough (Random Guy JCI)
  
• CLS: Level sorting now ignores <color> tags (Random Guy JCI)
  
• CLS: Preview music is now properly faded out when you start and edit a level (Random Guy JCI)
  
• CLS: Added a progress indicator when downloading levels through the Import Levels menu (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Levels: The floor reflection for cole’s ward (sunrise) is now accurate (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Settings: Now you can change the keyboard layout for 2P levels. (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Rank Screen: The button on the bottom right corner now changes depending on your difficulty. (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Rank Screen: The rank’s color now changes depending on the level speed. (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Settings: Main Volume for new saves now defaults to 7 instead of 10. Old saves should be unaffected. (Satellite)
  
• 1-X Battleworn Insomniac and 1-XN Super Battleworn Insomniac: “LOW HEALTH” text is now localized (Satellite)
  
• 4-1N Rollerdisco Rumble: Adjusted gameplay sound effects. (Satellite)
  
• 1-1 Samurai Techno: Fixed rank margins to: 25, 20, 15, 5, 0 misses

• Main Menu: “Menu” button now shows an * to indicate unsaved changes.
  
• Timeline: Dragging the end of a oneshot beat with other oneshot beats on the same row selected will line up all their hit times to where you drag (megaminerzero)
  
• Move Room: Scaling now allows to scale X or Y independently without altering the other value.
  
• Set VFX Preset: Some VFX presets that are redundant have been marked as ‘legacy’ and don’t appear in the dropdown list unless the event had them set before.(Satellite)
  
• Set Speed: Added easing controls. (Random Guy JCI)
  
• RDCode: Added a new read-only levelSpeed variable (thanks Klyzx
  for the suggestion!) (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Level Settings: Added the ability to switch to a grayscale syringe by clicking on the preview color (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Various other tweaks and bugfixes

• Added livesplit autosplitter support (Random Guy JCI)
  
• Editor: Fixed levels being exported incorrectly when they contained decorations.
  
• Mac Apps are now notarized (antoniosalte)
  
• Mac: Discord presence now works for both Intel and Apple Silicon macs.
  
• Window Dance is set to “One Screen” automatically if OBS is detected for the first time.
  
• Significantly improved the performance of the editor, as well as levels that heavily use decorations. (Random Guy JCI)

You can read the extended patch notes and see video examples over here.[7thbeat.notion.site]

Thanks for playing! We're still working hard on making more content for Story Mode, so we'll keep you updated here when there's something to share.

Special shout-out to anyone who's been playing Rhythm Doctor on Steam Deck, by the way! Let us know if it's working well for you.

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhythmdrgame
Join our official Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VGVJV82EQC