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It’s the geometric center of the bottom layer that snaps to the grid, and that is pretty much impossible to imagine for an arbitrary stack. One person mentioned that because of that placing waves/seagulls in Mayday was easier, because their center felt natural due to the stack’s shape. But not all stacks can be like that, otherwise it’d be very dull and limited puzzles.

But on the subject of showing an indicator, I’m trapped in my own decision to make the whole game diegetic. A visual indicator would be too artificial. But I do have a neat idea that I want to try out (and steal from another game I saw recently), that should help out. It will be much more intuitive regardless of the distance, if I can make it work.

Thanks!

Having to start over is an old design decision which I haven’t revisited in a long time. But I might! As for instructions, there isn’t that much space on screen to show the packs, the box, and the stacking area, while also showing full instructions at the same time. So at this point it’s kind of a non-decision that I have to stick to.

But I appreciate the struggle and keeping it in my mind for the upcoming work!

Thanks for the feedback! I agree, layering needs a bit more work to present it as an adequate yet satisfying challenge. I will work more on it for the final release, because I don’t like how it leaves people frustrated as this kind of anti-cherry on top.

There are things that work well, like when you can eyeball parts which are close by. But when they are far apart, it is a pretty difficult experience. So that at least will inform how I design the rest of the puzzles. But I also want to give players better guidance here.

As for measurements, they show the distance between dots on the grid. Dots are picked by being relatively close to the center of each stack. These dots themselves can be used as a visual reference, though admittedly they are hard to work with.

You are free to put the pieces together in any order, as long as the final result matches exactly what you’re supposed to build, all shapes and colors are in their supposed place. When you think the stack of pieces is complete, you need to drag it over to the task to check it and pack it. If it shakes instead of being packed, then there is something incorrect about it.

Have you tried the demo? Please let me know what you think or if you’ve experienced issues!

Yes, there is also the SmartScreen system on Windows, which this app, and many other projects published on itch.io, will trigger.

SmartScreen does have a reputation system, but it is also more distrustful of an executable that has not been digitally signed. Which Bosca Ceoil Blue isn’t — because it costs a pretty penny (way more than for macOS), and isn’t generally necessary for distribution (you can just click it away, as you say).

And if you get Bosca Ceoil Blue through Steam, SmartScreen will never show up, because Steam circumvents that system entirely. Not saying that anyone necessarily should, it’s just an interesting factoid.

Hey! It’s a known issue that some scales and chord arrangements are incorrect. This has been a problem with the original Bosca Ceoil, and while I could’ve fixed it at this point, I wanted to preserve compatibility for the initial release of The Blue Album.

I plan to release version 4.0 in the future with some breaking changes which allow for more features going forward, and will also open the door to fixing issues such as this. Though I can’t promise any date for that release at this point.

I agree, a few mass data manipulation features are currently amiss! I plan to tackle at least some of them in the next release (hopefully, some time this year).

Thanks for clarifying that clause about use in games and such!

Hey! What operating system you’re on? And could you try starting it from the command line to see if there are any errors printed out? Running it with the --verbose flag may help show more information as well.

There might also be some logs in your user folder:

• Windows: %APPDATA%/boscaceoil-blue/logs
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/boscaceoil-blue/logs
• Linux: ~/.local/share/boscaceoil-blue/logs

Could you try running it from the command line with a --verbose flag? There might be more clues in there. There is also a possibility that your antivirus software is intervening, since the executable is unsigned on Windows. Especially if you’re not using the 64-bit version.

If it still doesn’t work, there’s always the web version too: https://humnom.net/apps/boscaceoil/

Can you tell me what exactly isn’t working? What are you trying to do, what are you seeing? Also, what operating system?

Yeah, that could work! There is a small chance that would still interrupt typing into filter for some, but perhaps it is negligeable for the convenience. Maybe Ctrl + Space could be a workaround. There is also the issue that Shift + Enter is right now used as a counterpart to force-stop playback. So a different counterpart would be needed if Shift + Space is for playing.

I mainly wanted the play button to be easy to hit, so you can spam it to preview the SFX. But holding a modifier key is not a big deal overall.

Ah, that’s great to hear! That was exactly the tool I had wanted too :)

Cheers!

Hey! An Android version is definitely in the books (and an iOS/iPad OS is definitely not). The synth is fully capable of running on Android already, however the GUI of Bosca needs adapting for smaller, touch-enabled screens. So it will take me some time to get to that. But I really want to!

Thanks! Glad to hear it’s helping you!

I was originally going to add tags, but it felt too complex of a system to bother at the time. Ultimately, though, I think existing features cover most of the same needs effectively:

• Collections can be used for major grouping, which you would probably already have with folders, hence why it’s piggybacking off of that.
• Names work like space-separated keywords when text searching, which pretty much what a tag system would do for you anyway.
• And then sets allow you to group tracks into ad-hoc lists, per-project or per-purpose or per-inspiration groups of sound bites.

So yeah, probably not going to be adding tags at this point.

As for your request, I am aware that collections stick around even when no files are assigned to them. I will address it in a future version, but no, as of right now they cannot be removed from within the app.

If you feel adventurous, the entire library is stored in an SQLite file, which can be edited using available tools. Naturally, I wouldn’t recommend messing with it, unless you’re very comfortable with relational databases. It’s in one of the following folders:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\YuriSizov\soundlib
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/YuriSizov/soundlib
• Linux: ~/.local/share/YuriSizov/soundlib

Hey there! This is not a DAW, just a sequencer. It doesn’t support plugins. And as of now it doesn’t support custom instruments, neither as synth presets nor as soundfonts/samples.

The reason it’s Enter and not Space is because you can type in the text filter and navigate/play at the same time, and that’s intentional. The spacebar is needed by the text filter to split up keywords. So it doesn’t have to be Enter, but it cannot be Space, and Enter feels like the best alternative to me.

Hey! What do you mean?

That is true, it doesn’t have large-scale file manipulation capabilities. Sorry.

Ah, that’s a very nice idea for a feature! I’ll log it in, thanks <3

It looks absolutely lovely! Thank you so much!

Thanks! Hope it proves useful to you :)

Aaand as of 1.2 we now have a bunch of filters and effects! All that Godot provides, really :)

Hey, thanks again for your work! Would it be possible to add an ellipsis character? Y’know, triple-dot as one glyph, “…”. It’s quite often used in UI for text overflow.

Hey! So you adjust fades by dragging the circles at the top of the track region, right? To trim the track, you move the vertical line that the circle rests on. And if you grab the middle area between all the handles, you can move the region on the timeline left and right.

https://i.imgur.com/w1XRqAg.mp4

(sorry for an imgur link, something is wrong with video uploads in comments on itch)

In the upcoming version you’ll also be able to ctrl+click to set left and right ends of the trimmed region, and right click to align the region with 0:00. Should be up this week.

Good news, per-track filters are on the issue list! https://codeberg.org/YuriSizov/slamy/issues/15

Not sure if I’m going to tackle that now or some other time, but at least I know how I want them to be implemented overall.

Hey there! I believe panning is supported by our synth, so it should be possible to expose such a feature. But not until version 4 is in the works, since any extra bit of data requires changes to the file format, and that’s when it’s planned to happen.

Not exactly, what you are probably referring to is lack of electronic code signature. Which is typical for projects released here because it’s expensive to do and itch is a platform full of first time indies. And without codesign Windows shows a protective warning.

Here the issue is different, but curiously if the executable was codesigned, it might have lowered the risk factor for the AV software and prevented the false positive.

So, first of all, let me say that you absolutely should be careful online and should NOT open or execute files which you do not trust.

So if you don’t feel safe using Bosca Ceoil Blue, do not use it! That’s the only right approach to digital security.

Now, if you still want to use it, but are alerted by your AV freaking out about it, there are a couple of options which might help you.

• If you are trying to use the 32-bit version, please choose the 64-bit version instead (choose the file ending in windows-x86_64.zip). There is likely no reason for you to use the 32-bit version of any app in 2025.
• You can also download Bosca Ceoil Blue using Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3570850/. Perhaps having Valve as an intermediary would give you confidence. They do manually test every project that is published on Steam (at least initially).
• You can also use Bosca Ceoil Blue online with your browser: https://humnom.net/apps/boscaceoil/. This way, nothing gets downloaded on your PC, except for the music that you make and eventually export.

If you’re wondering why your antivirus is freaking out, let me try to explain it as simple as possible.

There are many ways to detect wrongful activity on your PC. One of the most basic ones is scanning every file to try and spot a virus hidden within. As you might know, files are made up from bytes. Like our DNA, bytes form chains, sequences which together create a unique file on your hard drive.

These chains of bytes are not themselves unique. Anyone can have brown eyes or blonde hair. These are traits that may repeat from person to person, and so chains of bytes may repeat from file to file. Despite that, chains of bytes is exactly what an antivirus is looking for when scanning your files for viruses.

Now, you might think, an antivirus should just know all chains of bytes that make up a known virus, but that’s not a very good defense. If you only identify a virus by how it looks like now, the hacker who created it could just disguise the virus in a different form. Like using differently colored contact lenses or wearing a wig. So antivirus makers try to find a trait, a chain of bytes that would be sufficiently unique for the virus.

That is called fingerprinting. And the process of trying to match a file using multiple fingerprints is called a heuristic approach.

Like everything in security, there is balance to things. Looking for traits allows to identify bad software even as it tries to elude the antivirus. But it also means that inevitably someone will match the description even though they have no relation to the virus. This is called getting a false positive: the matching was successful, but there is no virus actually, just a coincidence.

Digital security is crucial, so your antivirus is designed to be extremely paranoid. It will happily report a false positive match like that just to be sure. Better to be safe than sorry. Which is how sometimes legitimate and innocent files can be marked as viruses or trojans. They just have same brown eyes and same blonde hair as the description that the antivirus is looking for.

Hope this makes sense :) But again, if you don’t feel safe using the app, do not use it. That’s the right thing to do.

Please read the discussion directly below your comments :)

Hey there! You are not the first to run into this issue, but, unfortunately, this is not really something I can address on my end.

Antivirus software generally works based on a system of heuristics, or, in simple terms, fingerprints added to their database. They check the executable for a sequence of bytes that matches a known fingerprint and trigger an alarm. As you can imagine, a particular sequence of bytes isn’t in itself malicious or unique, and such matches can happen at complete random.

By their nature, AVs are designed to be as panicky as possible. Better safe than sorry. That means that they are more than happy to report something as a virus even if it’s not, rather than to potentially miss one. This leads to abundance of false-positive reports.

Personally, I can assure you that there is no malware in Bosca Ceoil Blue, as far as I am aware at least. All of the source code is available for inspection, since it’s an open-source project. The build pipeline is also public, as builds are produced on GitHub, alongside the code repository.

Now, you have no way to verify that I upload files that I say I upload. While the build process is public, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I upload those same build results to itch, GitHub downloads, or Steam. I can assure you that I do in fact upload the same executable that you could build yourself using the publicly available code. But it’s up to you to trust me, or not.

If it helps, the 64-bit version doesn’t seem to trigger AV warnings for people. Although I assume you’re trying the 32-bit version for a reason. I’m surprised there are people who seek the 32-bit version in year 2025, if I’m honest. But it costs me nothing to provide one.

You can also use the Steam version of Bosca Ceoil Blue, if that sounds safer. Or use it in browser without downloading or installing anything.

Thank you! I can’t personally take credit for the Irish-ness of Bosca Ceoil. That’s all Terry Cavanagh’s legacy :)

Yes, you are correct that the MIT license text only explicitly covers full copies or copies of significant portions of the software, for the purposes of including the MIT license text itself.

I’m sorry if my original post appears misleading in that regard. I had to answer this person several times (though those messages are now gone for some reason), and this was my attempt to summarize everything that I have explained before. That is to point out that:

• MIT license’s laymen implication and spirit is to give credit where possible;
• It is customary to credit tools used in the production of your game/video/whathaveyou;
• This does in no way transfer to people who get from you, including purchases, creative work made with the tool.

Their main concern is whether I put any restriction or claim any partial ownership over their songs, and the answer to that is NO. The rest is just elaboration.

The tool is provided under the MIT license. This means that you can use it for both non-commercial and commercial work, for any kind of project or purpose, without limitations for you and without liability on my part.

The MIT license’s only requirement is that you credit the tool, i.e. mention that it has been used in your work. This is typically done in some credits or description section. For example,

• If you sell your music, there is probably a product description field somewhere where all third party credits can be given.
• If you create music for your own game, there is probably a credits screen where all first and third party contributions to the project are listed.
• If you create music for your own video, credits are typically given at the end of it (like in a movie) or in the video’s description.

In case you sell, or provide for free, your music to the general public, that’s none of my concern at that point. What kind of license, limitations, and requirements you put on your work is up to you and is between you and your customers.

TL;DR: If you draw a picture in Photoshop and then sell it to someone, that someone doesn’t enter into relationship with Adobe. Likely, they won’t even know that you’ve used Photoshop. Same here.

The maximum pattern length is currently limited 32 units, with the longest possible note being 128 units. How long of a pattern would you like to have, hypothetically? Keep in mind that the pattern length is universal for the song and cannot be adjusted per pattern or per instrument.

Thanks for looking more into this! That’s curious and definitely not expected. I’ll have to try and replicate it during the next round of improvements.

Thanks again!

Hmm, I would hazard a guess that the area is just too small and you slightly missed it those few times. That can easily happen, and I should make it more reliable to hit.

Thanks for the feedback!

I don’t know what GEMS is but the synthesizer used by Bosca Ceoil is designed to emulate sounds of old Yamaha chips, commonly used in retro consoles!