Spin Rhythm XD News

Hey spinners, just a quick update about our upcoming patch.

We are redoing our tutorial from scratch. We have a few goals we want to achieve with the new tutorial, including:

• Music that is more modular (with vamp sections so we can better control the flow)
  
• More encouragement, less frustrating feedback
  
• Clear AI-controlled demo sections supporting different input displays
  
• Proper text explanations for each gameplay element
  
• Smaller, more relevant chunks, pertinent to the difficulty level the player is actually trying to play
  
• Players are required to play a tutorial before a level, but it's simple to skip
  
• Currently obscure elements like release notes should be taught properly
  
• Tutorials accessible from the track select menu at any time
  

We hope that this new tutorial system will make playing the game much more accessible for new players.

In other news, we have been accepted into BitSummit 2021!



It looks like we will be having to exhibit digitally, but either way this is a huge honour for us! Hopefully we can discover a few new Japanese fans!

And lasly, we were asked to do a talk for China's version of GDC (China Game Developer's Conference). As with all events, it got kind of slain by the COVID19 delta outbreak in China and fizzled out. We still wrote and recorded the talk, so we released it on YouTube. If you're interested in a bit about the development process for SRXD it is worth a watch.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As always, thanks for your support and patience, and see you at the next patch.

Hey spinners,

A few things slipped through in our last patch, we spent a few days cleaning them up.

Details below.



FIXES

• Updated many Russian translation strings - many thanks to Discord user SleepingKotofey
  
• Fixed motion controls on DualShock 4, Steam Controller, and Switch Pro controllers
  
• Refresh rate (in graphics menu) has been made slightly more visible
  
• SpinFM pause menu background has been readded
  
• Customs track titles are no longer always capitalised
  
• Switch Pro controls have been properly remapped (get the latest Official Config)
  
• Dual Shock 4 mappings have also been improved
  
• “A” rank (in level select) is properly capitalised
  
• Audio will no longer continue to play when quitting the calibration tool early
  
• SpinFM back button location in radio select menu has been fixed
  
• Calibration popup will no longer appear while in SpinFM
  
• Pressing the context button will now both open and close the context menu
  
• It is once again possible to scrub the timeline in practice mode when using a mouse
  
• Audio spectrum visualiser no longer covers the time remaining on the HUD
  
• Album cover number can now properly display numbers greater than 99
  
• “Sensitivity” setting in MIDI mapping should now properly work
  
• Music will no longer continue to play when the calibration menu is open in some circumstances
  
• Calibration tool will no longer be prompted in SpinFM when changing audio devices mid-game
  
• Errors while loading some customs songs will no longer cause other assets to fail to load
  
• Fixed formatting on customs text fields (lower case j will still be cut off, sorry juch - this is a problem with Text Mesh Pro’s handling of italics)
  

Keep on spinnin’.

What’s up Spinners,

This was meant to be a quick update to improve our calibration tool, with a little bonus UI polish. It ended up being a huge haul getting the UI looking universally excellent, so sorry for the delay on this patch.

We have now completed the Monstercat DLC levels, which only need backgrounds made for them. We plan to release these with 1.0.

Details below.




[h2]HDR UI OVERHAUL[/h2]

We have redone our entire UI in HDR. It looks shiny and delightful now, including the long neglected MIDI and KB&M mapping screens. Bask once more in the shiny glimmer of a new user-interface.


[h2]CALIBRATION TOOL UPDATE[/h2]



There are a few big changes to the calibration tool. Firstly, you can now calibrate at any time during play, as the tool will appear as an overlay. This is accessible via the pause menu.

Secondly, we now include video calibration alongside audio calibration. Please note this isn’t input calibration, just an adjustment of when the video signal appears (useful for TVs that are slow, or don’t have a game mode).

We have also added a ticker in the calibration menu, so you can adjust your audio and video values and see the effects in real time on the ticker.

We want to include a heatmap somewhere on the wheel in the future.


[h2]MP3 SUPPORT[/h2]

The patents for MP3s are all lapsed so we can officially support using them in customs. Does anyone even use these anymore? Either way, they work now! This should dramatically decrease the size of a custom chart if used.

Note that MP3s have a tiny amount (around 30ms) of silence at the start, a hallmark of the format and something which is unfixable.

Patch notes below.


[h3]FEATURES[/h3]

• Added a new HDR user interface
  - Including reskinned input mapping menus (MIDI and keyboard & mouse menus)
  
• Added new calibration tool
  - Calibration tool can now be accessed during play
  - Audio and video calibration is now separate
  - Added ability to check and adjust values to a ticker in menu
  
• Added MP3 support for custom charting
  
• SpinFM is now called “LIVE” in main menu
  
• Improved gamepad default mapping
  

[h3]POLISH[/h3]

• Gamepad users now have better interaction with drop down menus
  
• Gamepad users can now scroll between options menu tabs using triggers
  
• Improved “NEW BEST” display on success / failure screens when achieving a new high score
  
• Humanity Expert has been rerated to 16
  
• Customs radar graph has updated values (thanks to Prog for the stats)
  

[h3]BUGS[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where sometimes release note particles would not appear
  

Cheers.

Hey spinners, just giving you an update on what we plan on releasing over the coming months.

We do have a small update incoming, which includes MP3 support and an update to the calibration tool. We aim to deliver a tool that will let players compete with confidence, as well as include video latency calibration for TV players.

We have a long list of cool, fun and interesting things that would make the game slightly better, but we tend to go down rabbit holes of trying things, cutting them, experimenting and so on.

We sat down recently and made a plan to lock down all of our 1.0 Steam / Switch features in mid-August. This is to ensure we have enough time to properly playtest and produce launch / DLC trailers to target a mid-late October launch.

These features include:

• XD beginner experience
  
• Calibration tool update
  
• Tutorial update
  
• DLC content
  
• Achievements
  

The main thing that has caused us delays so far has been prototyping and throwing away single player experiences. It always blows out in scope and leads us back to square one.

We want to implement something involving completing simple challenges to learn the game's tracks and systems, something beginners can jump into and track their progress.

We always planned to support XD beyond 1.0, so we will save the following potential features for future updates. Some of these are weighted more heavily, some are easy to implement, some quite difficult.

• Editor update
  - including trimming levels, selectable backgrounds, mouse controls and QoL
  
• RemiXD levels
  
• Scoring system improvements
  
• Weekly w/ mutators
  
• Split screen multiplayer
  
• Steam trading cards
  

If any of this list is something you were deeply looking forward to, then I apologise.

As always, thanks for your support and patience.

Hey spinners, just giving you an update on what we've been up to.

David has successfully relocated to Canberra from Melbourne (about 650km away), Will is moving house right now, Dave is moving house in 3 weeks, it's absolute mayhem.

We somehow managed to finish the mobile version of Spin Rhythm at the same time (mad props to Steve who worked his booty off).


That's right, we have actually gone from a "when it's done" development cycle, and an "Android soon" to an actual release of both versions!

That's right, it's completely free on both Android and iOS. Go grab it!

In the mobile version gameplay loop, players work their way through tracks as they level up, and mastering each level will reward the player with medals. With enough medals, you unlock career mode setlists (a mix of a few unlocked tunes) - mastering these will reward you with loads of coins, which you can use to purchase new levels, boosts, event tracks and such.

One of the main differences is the entire game has been redesigned to be played one-handed. This means tap notes are now beats, and there are no scratch zones (it felt pretty weird on a touch screen).

Please note that this is not XD in your pocket, it is a much more casual experience. Level design and monetisation is all handled by the Habby.

If you're interested, have a play, let us know what you love, what you hate, if you find any bugs and so on. It's best to log everything via [email protected].

For the next week or so we are going to monitor the release and jump on top of any major issues and bugs. We also have to figure out the kind of workload involved with supporting mobile, and get the team back on XD updates as we work towards 1.0 Steam and Switch.

Happy speening and as always thanks for your patience and support.