20 Second Symphony: The Encore

20 Second Symphony: Encore is a fast-paced music collection game where every note you pick becomes part of your song.

Race around the music sheet collecting numbered notes, build musical patterns for bonus points, and complete four 20-second movements with different scoring goals. Your choices determine the melody you hear at the end of the concert.

Between movements, choose a Technique that changes how you score and lets you shape your build for the rest of the concert.

Once your performance is complete, listen back to the full composition and if you like what you made, save it permanently to your Songbook to replay later.

How to Play

Each concert contains four movements, each lasting 20 seconds.

Notes are numbered 1–8, from low to high pitch. Move into a note to collect it. The order you collect notes becomes your melody.

Each movement asks you to approach your composition differently:

• Peaceful = Keep your notes close together in pitch. Smaller jumps create a smoother melody.
• Rising = Build consecutive upward sequences such as 2 → 3 → 4.
• Playful = Hunt for variety and collect as many of the eight different pitches as possible.
• Finale = Compose freely and use the combos and Techniques you've learned to maximize your score.

You can also earn bonus points by creating musical patterns such as Steps, Runs, Echoes, Turns, Arpeggios, and Pulses. The game will identify these as you discover them.

After each of the first three movements, choose one of three Techniques. Techniques can strengthen certain combos, increase your movement speed, create more notes, or reward particular ways of composing.

At the end of the concert, your four movements are combined and played back as one complete composition.

Or just collect all the notes and see what you get!

Controls

Arrow Keys - Move and navigate menus
X - Select / Confirm
Z - Back / Play your concert

Songbook

Finished a composition you actually like?

Save it to the Songbook.

The Songbook stores up to 8 concerts, including their melodies, scores, and ratings. Saved compositions can be selected and replayed from the main menu.

When the Songbook is full, saving another concert replaces the oldest entry.

Originally Made in 20 Seconds

The original 20 Second Symphony was created for the 20 Second Game Jam 2025 around the theme “Pick it.”

Encore expands that original 20-second experiment into a complete four-movement concert while keeping the original idea at its core:

Pick the notes. Build the melody. Hear what you made.

Created for: https://itch.io/jam/20ms-game-jam
This is a follow up to my 20 Second Game Jam game: https://tmt-eh.itch.io/20-second-symphony