Spin Rhythm April 2022 news: what we've been up to
Hey spinners, it's been a while since we posted anything, so here's an update on what's coming up.
We've been spending the last 6 weeks or so doing a few big changes at once. The focus of the changes is to hit 60fps on Switch, which we have hit! There's a bit of detail below, and it might be a bit game dev-ish but hopefully it's interesting.
We will be previewing these changes at the end of our upcoming Elite8s tournament (in a couple of days), so follow us on Twitch, bit the bell, like, comment, subscribe etc. if you want to catch an early look.
Jump in Jump in Discord for details on when the stream will precisely be.
[h2]Twisty track![/h2]
Twisty track is making a comeback. After many years of being absent (despite being a prominent feature of our Early Access trailer), we are putting the twisting flight paths back in the game. They do make the note reading slightly more difficult, but they make the game look a lot more awesome, and can be disabled in the accessibility options menu.
We had a few issues with world objective cutting through the track (clouds, crystals etc), but we have developed a dithering shader that fades objects as they collide.
All the track twists have been entered by hand, so if there's anything particularly egregious or busted, let Daverwob know and he will fix it up.
[h2]Two new tracks[/h2]
We're up to 49 tracks! We may be able to slip another in before this patch to hit 50, which would be epic. The two new ones are similar in that they are both a little different.
First up we have The Kraken from Raise The Black Flag by Teminite. Definitely one of the weirder drops on the album, but tons of fun to play.
Next up we have a relatively unknown artist with a wild track - One Esk Nineteen by Praxis Axis. It's 6 minute, primal, dark and epic tune that balances analogue Moog synth arps and Balinese Kecak chanting samples. There's nothing quite like it, and we love finding these undiscovered gems. We hope you enjoy it when it finds its way onto the playlist (it's on the upper end of the difficulty spectrum).
Check out The Kraken here
Check out One Esk Nineteen here
[h2]Easier easies[/h2]
Easy was always meant to be a difficulty that anyone could pick up and play, no matter your experience level with rhythm games. By the end of the track list, the levels actually got ridiculously hard for beginners. We witnessed many of our less gamery friends struggle with these, so as Easy didn't fulfil its role as a beginner difficulty level, we decided to redesign all of them.
We have removed scratch zones and added tap notes in simple streams, greatly reduced the complexity of colour swapping and match note movements, and reduced the number of multi spins.
[h2]New audio streaming technology[/h2]
We developed a new way of streaming audio for the mobile Endless Mode. Basically it means the accuracy of how and when audio is played in the game is much higher and more efficient, making genuine DSP issues (hopefully) a thing of the past. It also means we can implement an endless mode in XD (something we've wanted to do for a while).
[h2]Graphical upgrade[/h2]
One of the main ways we optimised the game visually with our recent work has been by reducing the number of cameras to one.
This has meant redoing the HUD (which was on a separate camera) to something a little more immersive, redoing the wheel mesh to be simpler (making it easier to add additional wheels in the future), and redoing the way the track appears in the world.
We are also redoing all the notes to be in 3D (instead of a mix of 2D and 3D)
Unfortunately when changing so many things at once, there's a lot of testing to do to make sure all the features work again. This is why our current patch is taking a little longer than hoped. Thank you for your patience!
Keep on spinnin'
We've been spending the last 6 weeks or so doing a few big changes at once. The focus of the changes is to hit 60fps on Switch, which we have hit! There's a bit of detail below, and it might be a bit game dev-ish but hopefully it's interesting.
We will be previewing these changes at the end of our upcoming Elite8s tournament (in a couple of days), so follow us on Twitch, bit the bell, like, comment, subscribe etc. if you want to catch an early look.
Jump in Jump in Discord for details on when the stream will precisely be.
[h2]Twisty track![/h2]
Twisty track is making a comeback. After many years of being absent (despite being a prominent feature of our Early Access trailer), we are putting the twisting flight paths back in the game. They do make the note reading slightly more difficult, but they make the game look a lot more awesome, and can be disabled in the accessibility options menu.
We had a few issues with world objective cutting through the track (clouds, crystals etc), but we have developed a dithering shader that fades objects as they collide.
All the track twists have been entered by hand, so if there's anything particularly egregious or busted, let Daverwob know and he will fix it up.
[h2]Two new tracks[/h2]
We're up to 49 tracks! We may be able to slip another in before this patch to hit 50, which would be epic. The two new ones are similar in that they are both a little different.
First up we have The Kraken from Raise The Black Flag by Teminite. Definitely one of the weirder drops on the album, but tons of fun to play.
Next up we have a relatively unknown artist with a wild track - One Esk Nineteen by Praxis Axis. It's 6 minute, primal, dark and epic tune that balances analogue Moog synth arps and Balinese Kecak chanting samples. There's nothing quite like it, and we love finding these undiscovered gems. We hope you enjoy it when it finds its way onto the playlist (it's on the upper end of the difficulty spectrum).
Check out The Kraken here
Check out One Esk Nineteen here
[h2]Easier easies[/h2]
Easy was always meant to be a difficulty that anyone could pick up and play, no matter your experience level with rhythm games. By the end of the track list, the levels actually got ridiculously hard for beginners. We witnessed many of our less gamery friends struggle with these, so as Easy didn't fulfil its role as a beginner difficulty level, we decided to redesign all of them.
We have removed scratch zones and added tap notes in simple streams, greatly reduced the complexity of colour swapping and match note movements, and reduced the number of multi spins.
[h2]New audio streaming technology[/h2]
We developed a new way of streaming audio for the mobile Endless Mode. Basically it means the accuracy of how and when audio is played in the game is much higher and more efficient, making genuine DSP issues (hopefully) a thing of the past. It also means we can implement an endless mode in XD (something we've wanted to do for a while).
[h2]Graphical upgrade[/h2]
One of the main ways we optimised the game visually with our recent work has been by reducing the number of cameras to one.
This has meant redoing the HUD (which was on a separate camera) to something a little more immersive, redoing the wheel mesh to be simpler (making it easier to add additional wheels in the future), and redoing the way the track appears in the world.
We are also redoing all the notes to be in 3D (instead of a mix of 2D and 3D)
Unfortunately when changing so many things at once, there's a lot of testing to do to make sure all the features work again. This is why our current patch is taking a little longer than hoped. Thank you for your patience!
Keep on spinnin'