Your music
Play with your favorite songs. You need the music files stored on your phone.
invited you to play. Install Zip Zop from this page: you both earn wubs once you reach level 5 and have played on three different days.
Wub Lab · rhythm game for Android
Zip Zop
Got rhythm in your bones? Pick your music and the notes come rolling down. Rediscover your favorite songs by tapping along to get the best score and beat your rivals.
Version 1.1.0 · Android 8.0 and later · Not on the Play Store yet.
01
What you do
In the tradition of music rhythm games: notes roll down three or four lanes toward a tap line, in time with the tempo. Score points according to your accuracy.
The notes
- Zips: single notes, to tap at the right moment. In a chord, several lanes at once.
- Zops: holds to keep pressed until the end, and slides that change lanes on the way, corner after corner, to follow with your finger.
- The tutorial introduces each note before it arrives, on a song the game synthesizes itself.
The score
- Every tap is judged to the millisecond, against the phone’s audio clock.
- Combo and multiplier; at a 100 combo, “fever”: the highway turns gold and the stage flashes on every note.
- A gauge shows the best score to beat during the game.
- Around the highway, a festival stage drawn by code: DJs, crowd, speakers, spotlights, lasers.
02
How it works
Your music, your beatmaps, a community, and up to four players in the same game.
Your beatmaps
A built-in editor: beat grid, notes placed by hand or by a generator, then validation by playing your beatmap all the way through.
The community
Publish your own beatmaps and download the community’s. Invite your friends and send them challenges.
Up to four players
Side by side or far apart, you take on up to three other players in synchronized games.
Your own music
Zip Zop doesn’t provide any commercial music. You play on the audio files already on your phone; about twenty royalty-free songs come with the game so you can play right away.
How it works
- Once and for all, you choose the folder on your phone where your music is. The game only has read access to it, looks for your songs there, and never modifies or copies a file. A file outside the folder only opens if you pick it yourself.
- A beatmap never contains the audio.
- When you get a beatmap, the game finds the right file in your folder on its own (title, artist, then a check against the attack fingerprint) and aligns the beat grid to it. If it isn’t sure, it suggests the best candidates.
- If it doesn’t recognize the attack fingerprint, the game warns you and asks whether your file is another version of the song (remix, live, extended…). It then offers either another file, or a mini-editor to align the two fingerprints yourself. The setting is remembered.
What doesn’t exist
- No Spotify, Deezer or YouTube, and none planned: their terms of use forbid it.
- No commercial songs: the tutorial and the menu music are synthesized by the game, and about twenty royalty-free songs (Creative Commons, credited to their authors) come with it.
- No audio file is copied, sent or modified by the game.
03
The editor
Every beatmap is created in three steps: in the game, or on a computer for the first two. The difficulty, from 1 to 10, is calculated automatically.
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The beat grid
Tempo, downbeat, tempo ranges, and the song’s sections: intro, verse, chorus, drop…
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The notes
Zips and zops are placed by hand, live along with the music, or by a generator guided by markers you lay down to the rhythm you want.
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Validation
You play your beatmap all the way through, missing fewer than 1 note in 100, before you can publish it. An unplayable beatmap doesn’t get out.
The community
- An optional account, with a unique username. Without an account, you play, create, import and export your beatmaps.
- The Jukebox, the community’s beatmaps: search, sorting, stars and reporting in the game; on the web from your computer, search and sending to your phone.
- A leaderboard for each beatmap.
- Friends, through accepted requests, and challenges: you send your game to a friend, who plays it again against your ghost.
- Android notifications, if you allow them.
Up to four players
- Online: a room with a code, 2 to 4 players, for a whole evening. Everyone suggests a beatmap, the draw decides, and everyone goes back to the room after each round.
- Locally, without internet: nearby phones connected over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The sound can play on the host’s phone only: the host then picks the beatmap and lends it to anyone who doesn’t have it.
- Otherwise, everyone plays their own audio file of the song.
- The points of the evening, personal stats and a duel record keep track of your games.
04
In the game
A few seconds of the game, without sound: a game, the beat grid, the beatmap editor and the launch of a challenge (French interface).
Requirements
- Android
- 8.0 or later
- Music
- The music files stored on your phone, the old-school way.
- Languages
- Fourteen: English, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Hindi. The game uses your phone’s language; you can also change it in Profile → Language.
- Internet
- Not required to play. It is used for the account, the community Jukebox, leaderboards, friends, challenges, online play, progression and the shop, and the ads between songs.
- Local play
- Google Play services (Nearby Connections) and the “nearby devices” and “location” permissions (precise: Android requires it to find a nearby phone, the game never reads it), which you can refuse: only local play then becomes impossible.
On the Play Store
Zip Zop is not on the Play Store yet. The link to its listing will be here when the day comes.
App ID: com.zipzop.game
Frequently asked questions
Can I play with Spotify, Deezer or YouTube?
No, and it isn’t planned. The terms of use of these services forbid this kind of use. Zip Zop reads the audio files in your phone’s music folder.
Does the game come with songs?
No commercial songs. The game synthesizes the tutorial and the menu music itself, and comes with about twenty royalty-free songs (Creative Commons, credited to their authors, with Wub Lab’s official beatmaps) so you can play right away. For the rest, Zip Zop is designed for you to bring your own files and create your beatmaps.
Including original tracks is, however, being considered: artists who would like their music built into the game, in exchange for visibility and a credit, can write to us at contact@wub-lab.com.
When I share a beatmap, do I send the music?
Never. A beatmap only contains the notes, the beat grid and a fingerprint of the song’s attacks, which can neither rebuild the sound nor be listened to. The person who downloads the beatmap must have their own music file.
Does the game read all my music?
No. It looks for your songs in the folder you chose, read-only; elsewhere, it only opens a file if you pick it yourself. No file is copied or sent. Choosing another folder gives up the permission on the old one; uninstalling the game removes it too.
Do I need an account?
Ideally, but it isn’t required. Without an account, you create your beatmaps and play them, but your games aren’t saved. The account keeps your best scores, your statistics and your progression, and is used for the Jukebox, leaderboards, friends, challenges, online play and the shop. You can delete your account at any time from the app: see Delete your account.
Can I download a beatmap from my computer?
Yes, from the web Jukebox, signed in with your Zip Zop account. On a beatmap’s page, the “Send to my phone” button delivers it straight into the game: right away if it is open, otherwise the next time it is launched. You can also download the file to import it by hand.
How much does it cost?
The game is free. An ad plays between songs, never during a game — at most one game in two, and not during your first two games —, and a one-time “no ads” purchase removes it for good. In Europe, you first choose whether ads may be personalized. With an account, you earn wubs by playing, the game’s virtual currency, which cannot be bought: they are spent in the shop (cosmetics), on chests, official games and challenges with a stake between friends. VIP tokens, on the other hand, are bought in packs on Google Play and only pay for shop items and gifts: every item has a price in wubs and a price in tokens. Nothing that can be bought affects the score or the beatmap leaderboards. The rules for wubs, VIP tokens and the shop are in the terms of use.
What does the game do with my data?
It’s all written in the privacy policy. In short: no audio file leaves your phone, and the game has no tracker and no player profile (it only counts, anonymously, what happens to the artists’ songs, to report it to them). Without an account, your beatmaps stay on your phone and your games aren’t saved; only advertising, served by Google AdMob, receives device data (advertising ID, IP address), account or not: the ads between songs, and the rewarded videos you ask for yourself to earn wubs. These videos also send your account’s identifier (not your username), so that Google can confirm to the game’s server that they were watched. In Europe, you first choose whether ads may be personalized, and the “no ads” purchase removes the ads. With an account, what is stored with Firebase, your progression and your wubs included, is listed there point by point.
The beatmap doesn’t line up with my file, the game can’t find my music, I have no sound…
These cases are covered on the Support page.