ClickBeat started its life as an idea that we (Aymes and Surasshu) had when Surasshu visited Aymes in England. We thought that a music game that was controlled by the mouse would be an awesome addition to the music game genre, something that hadn’t really been tried before. When “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!” (which later became more commonly known under the English name “Elite Beat Agents“) came out shortly after, we knew that this was the direction we wanted to take our game too. The game appealed to us because of the crazy graphics and the fun Japanese music.

We initially decided to just try to replicate the game, using their circle scripts and songs and so on. However, it soon became apparent that the mouse didn’t work quite the same way as the stylus, and the scripts in Osu! were all but useless for our game. Honestly, the game may look similar on the surface, but it feels like something altogether different. So we went for all original compositions and started calling the game ClickBeat (or BeatClick, it was never quite consistent).

The game was part of Surasshu’s thesis/project that got him a Master of Arts in composition in context. Not that that makes the game any better, of course, but I say it’s nice to know!