karaoke stage

how it plays

the birthday blob takes the stage, a star bounces along the lyrics like an old sing-along video, and a crowd of six watches with high expectations. there is no microphone and no actual singing required: the game is about timing and a steady hand, which is good news for everyone in the room.

1. 1tap the syllablespress Space or tap the stage when the star lands on a syllable.
2. 2ride the pitchhold ↑ ↓ (or drag the ribbon) to keep the knob on the wavy line.
3. 3shatter the glassthree perfects in a row break the glass. keep the crowd past 55%.

each syllable is judged on timing. a run of three perfects in a row shatters the glass (it is a very brave glass), which is worth a bonus and a lot of noise from the crowd. the pitch ribbon runs underneath the whole time: keeping the knob on the line adds a pitch bonus on top of the timing score. finish the song with the crowd's meter above 55% to win the round.

the lyrics are your friends

the default song is doodle-speak: nonsense words that are fun to tap and impossible to get stuck in your head. but once four or more friends have left a card with a singable line in it, karaoke starts singing them. the game takes the first few plain words of a friend's message (three to nine words, links and emoji cleaned out, never rewritten) and turns them into a lyric line. the subtitle credits the friend, so the birthday person finds out mid-song who wrote "you are the only person i know who would build an entire island".

the crowd of six is drawn from friends' cards too, once three or more have joined. same rule as every other game: the same round shows the same friends on every device, and a new round can pick new ones.

controls

• laptop: Space to hit a syllable, ↑ and ↓ to steer the pitch knob.
• phone or tablet: tap the stage for syllables, drag the ribbon for pitch.
• pause: P or Esc. the crowd politely waits.

scoring

a song runs about fifty seconds and has roughly eighty syllables. points come from timing plus a growing combo, the pitch bonus, and every glass shattered along the way. a good song lands somewhere around six thousand points; a flawless one is worth about twice a good one and caps there. hammering Space on every beat gets you a few thousand points and a crowd that has politely left, so it loses.

finishing a song pays LOVE and stickers on the birthday person's sticker sheet, the same as every booth, and the festival page keeps their best score.

tips from the stage

• watch the star, not the words. the star lands on each syllable; reading ahead makes you early.
• small pitch moves. the line moves smoothly, so little nudges keep the knob on it. big swings overshoot.
• protect the streak. three perfects shatter the glass, and one rushed tap resets the count.
• steady wins. a clean, even song keeps the crowd's meter up better than a few flashy bursts.

where it lives

the karaoke stage is one of 12 booths at the festival on the birthday island. walk up and press E, or open it from the festival page. it's the game we'd pick for a long-distance birthday: the friends who couldn't be there still end up in the song.