Is there/will there be users' music support?

[Simon Evo]

Hey everyone! Found this game pretty recently, and I already can't wait to play it. Awesome job! But there is one detail which seems to evade my grasp, and this is the question in the title. Is users' music support in development, or, if not, will it ever be considered as a side-feature?

[Marc Flury]

Hi there -- thanks for the kind words!

Custom music support is not currently in development. Thumper is about maximizing the impact of the unified audio, visual, and gameplay experience. All the music and audio is made by Brian for that singular purpose. After we finish the first version of the game, we'll think more about custom music, but it would probably require first re-imagining and significantly re-designing aspects of the game for it to really make sense.

[DaveKap]

I would definitely buy a sequel or expansion that allows custom music but with custom-made tracks being an available option ALA something like StepMania. I want to be able to set up an entire track to play myself with maybe the additional support of being able to store the data in a very small form for easy sharing along something like Steam Workshop.

Still going to end up buying Thumper itself, day 1 for sure. I just have a dream of creating a music game where you can actually modify the track yourself and isn't just something as simple as Rock Band or StepMania. Thumper's real close to being just abstracted enough to create custom gameplay without having to be so un-abstracted that it's just a simple "push this button" interface. Hopefully that makes sense. ;)

[Cristovelli]

Please consider at least a track editor and the ability to import an accompanying music file. perhaps this is a simpler and more satisfying solution than attempting to generate new tracks from audio. I'm very impressed by the way the game *feels*, I don't think I've gotten this kind of visceral sensation from a rhythm game before.

[.dink]

This would be awesome and greatly extend the life of the game but thumpers pretty complex...ain't no audiosurf

[daveisthemusic]

^Here's how easy it would be for Thumper to have custom music levels:

1. Analyse the BPM of the track you want to play (takes around 10 seconds).

2. With this number, generate obstacles on the beats of your track with regard to a difficulty of your choice (perhaps 1-5 difficulty levels).

Vib Ribbon had this in 1999.

[squashysquish]

Go play audiiosurf if that's what you're looking for. Thumper is a series of bespoke rhythmic challenges that has a visual design specifically crafted around the music and required inputs of the level. To just throw in randomly generated prompts to the BPM of instered songs would cheapen the experience to the point that it wouldn't resemble the main game.

[daveisthemusic]

"To just throw in randomly generated prompts"

To perfectly recreate the main game and probably even easier to implement than your idea, existing levels could be pulled from and sliced up in a such a way that you wouldn't even recognize them. It could be in quarters of a checkpoint, even less, before pulling from another level - and that could be the full extent of the randomization. The difficulty you choose would determine the world-pool of levels from which sections are pulled, the timing of events is adapted to the BPM of the personal music of the user - and away we go.

This would basically be the main game, shuffled differently every time, with the music of your choice. It would have fantastic replayability.

Let's face it, Thumper is a set of recursive challenges set to a BPM, it is not some storied saga with deep character arcs so don't play the purity card - game needs more modes. Considering the music in the game is barely more than a beat 90% of the time, it would be a good addition for the game to have a custom music mode.

Subscribed to the thread, hope that it gains more traction.

[Aye Siwmae]

Gotta say I agree with squashysquish and also like the way his name sounds in my head.

I see a lot of people requesting the user music feature and I just don't think Thumper is the right avenue to chase this dream. Although Thumper doesn't have a story, it has a certain feel and atmosphere it is trying to get across. Thumper's strengths lie in it having a very specific direction. I think user music could often clash with the feel of the game, and then from a technical perspective even though getting a basic kind of BPM and frequency spectrum analysis might not be too hard, getting this to recreate the feel of thumper gameplay in a balanced way seems like a huge task. Seems like they would have to rework their whole engine. A lot of thumper is elements not quite working in perfect unison to create a somewhat disorienting experience wheras with a game that tries to work with user music its about getting the gameplay to work in unison with the music.

I think the idea of a game that lets you choose your own music and has the elements of thumper's gameplay is a fine goal but if the devs were to work on it I think it should be a totally seperate game with a different aesthetic, or an idea for someone else to work on.

[Bor]

Originally posted by Marc Flury:

After we finish the first version of the game

What do you mean by that exactly? :) Fixing bugs, adding more features? DLC perhaps, more levels?

[.ATOM.]

Originally posted by squashysquish:

Go play audiiosurf if that's what you're looking for. Thumper is a series of bespoke rhythmic challenges that has a visual design specifically crafted around the music and required inputs of the level. To just throw in randomly generated prompts to the BPM of instered songs would cheapen the experience to the point that it wouldn't resemble the main game.

This exactly.

People asking for the ability to import their own music don't seem to understand exactly what it is they are playing and what makes it so good.

[Cristovelli]

Setting aside the custom music import notion for a moment, a track editor that lets you choose pre-existing BGM in the game and design your own beat tracks to them. I don't think that would take you out of the feel of the game. Not requesting anything fancy like campaign design, just vanilla. The track editor could just be a timeline with a beat snap-placement lines and the various event cue points placeable on it. And sharable. I really want to design my own metallic clanking smashy beats, and I would love you for it.
e: with a snap-toggle for at least basic triplets, and maybe a swing slider.

Also I support the above "remix" idea where sections could get shuffled, I would like to experience contrasting level feels if possible. Agreed that the game could use some additional modes. The replay value of this game could and should be greater than it is. Not dissatisfied with the product, but hopeful that the devs are aware of the potential. This game is too good not to get some extended play features.