Development Update - May

[Dejobaan]

Hey all,

Apologies for the radio silence lately. I've been putting in a bunch of structural work, so this won't be terribly exciting, but perhaps demonstrates what we've been working on:

1. I'm just not happy with gameplay, and that's the primary reason for the lack of a recent update. Instead of building on what we have, we've been gutting it.

2. I've taken the latest build to Game Developer's Conference, to have other devs look at it and make suggestions. A colleague who's the former design lead on Harmonix's Dance Central is also kindly helping consult on all this.

3. Our current immediate goal is to create three minutes of gameplay we're happy with, independent of any music. That's it. Once we get that fun level, we'll start building out again.

4. That's started with things like gameplay feedback -- making it clear when you're buzzing things, and rewarding you for it visually. Removing or limiting audio effects associated with those, so as not to muddy the song you're listening to.

5. I think levels look boring and repetitive now. Visuals being key, we've generated a dozen new primitive pieces to play with. Buildings, cubes, spheres, random geometric shapes, and so forth. We've strengthened the music connection (re-jiggering the way throbbers work, so that the background dances to the music better).

6. I'm also not too thrilled with my music. I think we can do better -- no movement there; just a thought that we will replace it with something else.

So, those are the high points. Once we get that canned 3-minute experience, our next step will be to make it work with any music.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I know you want to see an update soon -- I don't have a date, but this is where we're succeeding and failing, and what we think we can do next.

[[APOC] Dirksade]

Good to hear from you guys. I know you'll release this game when you are happy with it, and thats the best way to do it.

Keep up the good work :D

[freespaz]

Don't drop the music completely! Future Shock is like one of my favorite songs! and I know it's not a song techinally but I love diving to the news report because it makes me laugh.

I agree with the backgrounds. The textures are awesome but the levels are really predictable, no matter what song you run through it with, if you could cycle colors depending on beats per minute or something that would be amazing, and it would change it up with out really re designing everything.

Keep up the good work and we are with you!

[[APOC] Dirksade]

I agree with freespaz, Future Shock is an awesome song, please don't drop that one :D

[ophan]

Oh, thank god that you guys are still here. For a while, I thought you did some sort of aliens:colonial marines and just ran off with the cash we used to buy the game.

I'm happy to give ideas and feedback when they're needed, though. I'm now waiting patiently. 'u'

[Forestmourner]

Loverly post =) good luck with the game.

[e-v-a-n]

My main issue is with the game is that every song is supposed to make the gameplay different and I find it's too easy to get a level that looks very similar with two different songs. If you can master the randomization aspect - it could be a fantastic music game.

Glad to hear that you are still working on it!

[Glinglo]

I do agree. Future Shock and the News are great, and if they have to be changed, then just polish them up a bit.

[ォジョロ]

To reiterate what others have said, I really like Future Shock too. Looks like you have some ideas moving around now, good luck with the new builds.

[OneManDroid]

I literally just came onto the forum to ask "what's going on with this game - it's been soooooo long since an update"...

I'm glad that it's being gutted (in a daft way)...

I genuinely, genuinely thought you were on the edge of something great when the objects where untextured, more neon, it had a distinctive style - I think the recent updates have caused a muddying of the look, and it doesn't have any character...

Definitely it needs to go back to the product description - about a game that responds to your music, levels that pulsate, generate and change in line with your beats and sounds and songs... that was definitely lost in the last update...

Please get rid of that woman singing (is it future shock?) if I have to hear it again, argh! I will go mad - at least let us skip it... it may have been mildly amusing first / second time, but no no no... don't waste time on your own music - people want this to play with 'theirs'... you have Audiosurf 2 snapping at your heels, great classics like Symphony and even oldies like Space Invaders Infinity Gene...

To respond directly to the six points...

1. Great / sad news, it means a much longer developer cycle, but maybe it was needed...

2. Sounds really promising.

3. Please don't forget that music is key to gameplay, they really can't be separated otherwise it just becomes "aaaaaaaaah" the game all over again...

4. Sounds good!

5. It needs to be distinctive like it was, retro neon, almost Tron-like

6. I understand there needs to be a single player element - but we just want awesome levels that react / generate to our own music!!!

THANKS!

[[APOC] Dirksade]

Originally posted by One Man and his Droid:

Please get rid of that woman singing (is it future shock?) if I have to hear it again, argh! I will go mad - at least let us skip it... it may have been mildly amusing first / second time, but no no no... don't waste time on your own music - people want this to play with 'theirs'... you have Audiosurf 2 snapping at your heels, great classics like Symphony and even oldies like Space Invaders Infinity Gene...

I can understand not liking the "Future Shock" song and being able to skip it. I personally enjoy the song itself, but everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. Having their own music in the game is an important part that makes their game unique. Same thing with the opening song from Drunken Robot Pornography, another favorite of mine.

As for Audiosurf 2 snapping at Dejobaan's heels... Really? Have you played a lot of that game? It's a flashier, less interesting version of Audiosurf. I regret ever supporting it personally. This game has a unique foothold in this genre, and I support the guys at Dejobaan who just want to make the best game they can (As far as I can tell).

[Daedric Dave]

Please just make the levels vary more. Love the game, and the music's great! Future Shock is actually one of my favourite songs of all time!

[Science Diet]

I enjoyed this game less and less every update. So I am glad to hear you are re-working it. Big fan of this company so I hope for a great product

[XorUnison]

I unfortunately have to agree with the poster above. It once was pretty cool, but now... it's not even playable. I mean, the new things like the voicemail, and that little bit of weird story or whatchamacallit is pretty ok and it adds some flavor.

But the whole signal thingy is totally breaking everything from beginning to end. It just makes me want to fly out of the fray, somewhere far outside so I can at least finish my 10 minutes tracks at all. Actually I'd totally love to even play longer tracks, but the damn signal thingy is just making it impossible, and the game feels like a chore instead of being fun. I agree that you gutted the game so far, and I totally agree that taking a step back is the right thing to do here.
I HATE being interrupted when I listen to music, and to have a game about music doing just that is as wrong trying to breathe vacuum or something. Just remove that feature, or make it optional if you really must.

Also the array of auxiliary sounds is annoying and unnecessary, it could be easily fixed by just taking all those sounds out and replacing them with visual hints.
For example... you have that targeting dot in the middle of the screen, right? Just put some colored dots around it which pulse, change shape or color or whatever whenever there's something going on, like you buzzing close to some object, or passing any objects.
For buzzing you could have a dot which changes color, and for passed objects one that pulses and changes color according to the number of objects passed per second. If you use that color for passed objects per second the player also gets a direct measure of where the golden spots to fly through are, and you can even acces the information tight spots where you really need to focus.

As for the visuals, they're not fancy, but them being fancy doesn't feel too important to me. A bit of variation will certainly help though. Some times the bright background has interfered with the visibilty of things directly in front of me though, that's a no-go.

And as for the shapes of the levels... The different 'cities' are a great idea, but so far they bring one curse along. They divide all the different possible level designs among many so called cities, making the individual cities relatively repetetive. Before you divide and specialize the cities you need to have enough variation to do so. Take a step back and throw them all back into one pot and see what comes to mind.

And last but not least, this may sound somewhat harsh but I'm just honestly stating my opinion, trying to give feedback. The game has some great ideas and I believe the potential for something great is still there. Credit where credit is due, it really was fun once and I know it can be again.

Oh, and the last official news post that we can see in the library page, the one with the level creation, will have it's anniversary tomorrow... And one year of no immediately visible news is not overly cool, you should throw this information and maybe something else in there, just so that there is a clear sign of life out there for everyone.