Spin Rhythm XD News

Hey Spinners,

We’ve got a few more bugs to fix, but we wanted to release this hotfix to address a few accuracy bugs.



FIXES

• Reset leaderboards - sorry, massive scoring bugs found
  - Failing a track no longer grants perfect rhythm
  - Early rhythm hits no longer count as 0ms
  
• Incorporated a lot of base game chart fixes from Discord users
  
• Track no longer flies off into the distance at the end of a song
  
• Peripheral RGB is disabled by default
  
• Added height map to background effects with scratches (a cool, shaky effect)
  
• Added height map boost to background effects when holding a beat hold
  
• Wheel will line up properly with the starting note of a chart
  
• Sorting charts should now be properly case-sensitive
  
• Checking / unchecking show favourites no longer causes the track list to speen
  
• Favourites filter has been fixed when creating new charts (it will disable and remember its state)
  
• Invincibility effect is no longer active in autoplay mode
  
• Album art should properly load under all circumstances
  

More fixes to come.

Hoo boy, it's been a while, and we apologise for the wait, but between upgrading Unity versions to fix a critical bug in mobile build, trying to combine our mobile and XD builds in one (never again) and having only half a team on XD, we fell a bit behind with this patch. There were around 85 bugs alone with just getting the game back to where it was. But we're not here to complain about the perils of independent game development, we're here to talk about our next update. Welcome to...





Three new tracks brings our total to 41! Our EA milestone was always 30 tracks, which we're glad to say we've smashed out of the park. We still have one more licensed track up our sleeve (the epic Final Boss by Nitro Fun), so stay tuned for when and how that will appear in the game.

We expect this patch to have a lot of things to hotfix, so if you find any jank, jump into discord.gg/spinrhythmxd and report it.


[h2]LONGER LEVELS[/h2]

One of the main complaints we hear is that Easy levels are too short. In this patch we have extended every single Easy level to at least Normal length, extended 11 Normal (and thus Easy) levels to the length of Hard levels. Overall there should be more content for players who aren’t chasing mastery of SRXD, but want to chill and have fun. We feel this is a happy medium between full length charts for every difficulty (over half our charts are around 4 minutes or longer) and some of the current Easy levels which were only around a single minute of gameplay.


[h2]SCORING SYSTEM OVERHAUL[/h2]

The scoring system has had a complete overhaul. We had a few goals when doing this:

• To make sure there is score differentiation at the top of the leaderboards
  
• To make it so that notes have a more balanced value relative to their skill required to execute
  
• To make it so that missing a note doesn’t lose you a disproportionate amount of score depending on when you failed
  
• To improve competitive (tournament) SRXD play
  

To achieve this we have made the following changes:

• Multiplier now starts at 4x, increases quicker, increases with note score (as opposed to streak), increases with notes that increase score over time (holds, spins etc), and only ever drops 1x per hit taken
  
• Note values have been updated:
  - Match notes 5pts
  - Taps 12pts
  - Holds 30pts/sec, no longer increases over time
  - Hold releases 12pts
  - Spins 12pts to start, 20pts/sec (quick multi spins are worth more score than one long spin)
  - Scratches 40pts/sec
  - Beats 16pts
  - Beat holds 40pts/sec
  - Beat release 16pts
  - This means higher max scores for levels, so your existing grades will be lowered
  
• Players are now awarded an accuracy bonus for all plays (measured in milliseconds - ms - and based on your average deviation from 0ms per rhythmic note hit) - this caps at 150ms (0 bonus)
  - This final value is viewable in the extended stats page on the results screen
  - This is capped at 10% of the total achievable note score of a chart
  - There is no longer a score penalty for hitting ‘early’ or ‘late’, just an accuracy bonus overall
  
• Players are awarded a small bonus (10% of total note score of a chart) for achieving a PFC (this can not realistically be outscored by the difference between a PFC run’s accuracy and an FC run’s accuracy rating, unless you are a god or robot)
  
• Taking a hit of any kind will penalise with a 150ms accuracy rating per hit (equal to approximately the widest window you could hit a note without missing)
  
• Score is now split across multipliers (if you would have achieved a multiplier increase part way through scoring a particular note)
  - For example, if you are on 1x and are 2 points away from hitting 2x, and hit a beat worth 16, you will receive 2 points at 1x and 14pts at 2x
  
• Massive thanks to all those Discord users who helped refine this system in the short closed beta - we still want to refine this based on user feedback if necessary
  

[h2]DIFFICULTY OVERHAUL[/h2]

There have been many frustrations with the difficulty of SRXD. People of all skill levels complain about the transitions between Easy to Normal, Normal to Hard and so on being too tough. We agree, so we played through every single level in order multiple times and made some serious changes to the design of most of our levels.

While we try to be as thorough as possible, there may still be hidden jank due to multiple revisions. If you find any jank please let us know in Discord.

We had a few goals here:

• To find humps or plateaus in the difficulty curve overall and smooth them out
  
• To make sure that players who play through and master each level in order can move on to the next, eventually mastering XD
  
• To ensure that numerical difficulty ratings can be used as an accurate gauge of your skill
  

To achieve this we have made the following changes:

• Every difficulty now shares the same amount of health (this means more health for Hard and up)
  
• Default XD track speed has been lowered by 0.1
  
• Reduced the complexity of XD difficulty. It should feel more like a step up from Expert rather than a cheap slap in the face
  
• Reduced complexity of beats in Hard mode. Originally we intended to only introduce beat in isolation in Hard, now we have stuck to that design philosophy
  
• Reduced the difficulty of the later Easy levels
  
• Improved chart readability and playability overall by removing center taps before spins, excessive drift (moving in one direction too often), made better use of scratch zones, removed excessive hold note releases and more - thanks to Discord user Trexder for helping catalogue these in every single level
  
• So many individual small changes to levels it’s difficult to even log them
  

[h2]BACKGROUND OVERHAUL[/h2]

Our work on mobile bears fruit for XD. We have implemented a new background system that means making backgrounds is simpler and the result is levels with more dynamic sync with the music, as well as improved performance.

Every single level now has its own unique background inspired by its album art.

Taps and match notes create pulses in the world, beats create shockwaves, and spins create waves in the direction of the spin, and nothing relies on hand-placed elements in our internal track editor (that could change as chart length or cuts changed). There are now more interesting floating elements in all levels, beautiful fog, sandy wind, digital skyscrapers, clouds, gates and more.

We hope you enjoy these as much as we enjoyed making them.

[h3]OTHER FEATURES[/h3]

• 3 new tracks!
  - Body F10ating in the Zero Gravity Space by Camellia - When Camellia dropped this album a few months ago we knew we had to get it into SRXD, and it makes a ridiculously fun chart - the genre is described as ‘speed speedhouse basscore UK hardcore’
  - Heading East by FarfetchD - This Glitchhop bop slaps long and hard - hide your kids
  - Let Me Hear That by Haywyre - This masterpiece suits our game so well, we had to have it. We actually licensed the live YouTube performance which has a few interesting twists
  
• New hit FX when taking damage (in the form of a small, flashing star)
  
• Beat notes have a silky new look!
  
• Beat holds now have a smooth ending by default (one that does not require a release)
  
• Hard tutorial now contains both beat hold types
  
• Wheel colour editor track preview now contains both beat hold types
  
• A new option has been added in Audio to ‘disable audio filters’ (the audio effects when taking damage, or when on low health)
  - These have also been toned down by default, and should be less jarring
  
• MIDI players can now bind for ‘context menu’ (sorting etc) - Beat button is no longer used
  
• Tracks can now be sorted by ‘times completed’ (can be used to show new, unplayed tracks)
  
• BPM should now display a range if the track contains a tempo increase
  
• Track speed override now goes to 60! Thanks to Discord user Mapy for having the toxic mind and vision to demand such intensity
  
• Editor QOL fixes
  - Holding D should no longer skip notes ever, this was an issue with quantisation where notes were sometimes fractions of a millisecond apart and the game couldn’t tell which order they were in
  - Quantise should now properly quantise in all situations (related to the above issue)
  - When stacking notes, beats should always show underneath in all situations
  - Match notes will now show on top of beats in the timeline
  - Scratch zones should now be more visible (thinner - clearer when combined with beats)
  - Clap notes should always play properly on stacked notes
  

[h3]POLISH[/h3]

• New Game XD is now the true full length of the track (includes outro)
  
• Updated Italian translations (thanks to Discord user Dj_Mike238)
  
• In the calibration tool you can now use both the beat and tap buttons
  
• Match notes now show up more clearly on the track when stacked on top of beats
  
• Animations, particles and objects should now be pooled better - this hopefully results in a smoother experience for everyone
  
• Track beams are now brighter by default
  
• Track lines are less bright by default
  
• The trail following a hold note should no longer obscure the wheel wedges so much (it has been made more transparent)
  
• Hold note zones now glow a set amount (instead of increasing over time) - and overall much less when active and inactive
  
• Beat hold zones should be clearer now (when active and inactive) - with reduced visual noise on the track when active
  
• Colorblind and Arcana engine have more accurate note mapping on the speed up sections
  
• VOLT is now more accurately mapped to tempo (there is some weird rubato in this track which we didn’t fully appreciate) - thanks to Discord users TheWay and RAD for helping with this
  
• Post-processing has had a once-over, everything should just look the same, except better (some glowing objects were a little broken)
  
• Custom chart backgrounds should automatically roll over to the new background system
  
• Edit mode in Customs now has its own background separate from Play Mode (to distinguish the two and to reduce fatigue when charting with base game backgrounds)
  
• The spin tap rotating diamond now spins both ways depending on which spin preceded
  
• Level select track preview has been scaled up (to show more notes / less wheel)
  
• Album covers have all been resized to powers of 2 (ie 1024x1024) for better compression and memory usage (if you are using custom album art for your charts, having max 1024x1024 will greatly improve load times)
  

[h3]BUGS[/h3]

• Sorting customs by track length (with large numbers of customs) should be much quicker
  
• Launching a non-favourite song from command line with ‘show only favourites’ checked no longer soft locks the game
  
• All notes (including match notes!) now properly elevate on top of beat notes for additional clarity
  
• When starting a new level in SpinFM, gameplay should no longer stutter while assets are loading
  
• When sorting songs by order, the order should now always remain the same (there were some instances where tracks by the same artist would swap positions)
  
• Disabling the current difficulty in the Clip Editor now swaps to an appropriate difficulty when returning to the note editor
  
• Beat holds should properly display on the timeline when placed at the start of the track
  
• AI should now play scratch zones properly in track previews
  
• Hold notes should now behave properly when hit late (there was an issue with fast motion immediately following a hold note start)
  
• Gamepad input is no longer active on parent menu when context menu is open
  

It's great to be back Spinnin'

Hey Spinners, hope you're well,



We've been meaning to write, but Daverwob - who does these posts - was dragged away (kicking and screaming!) from XD level updates and onto mobile to help with UI, SFX and more. We're nearing the end of the road for iOS dev, but our publisher wants us to stay tight-lipped, which means we sadly don't have much to say even though we would like to.

They say game development usually takes twice as long as you estimate, and this is pretty much true no matter how you try to mitigate it. We have a habit of going "hey, let's just do this cool thing!" and our publisher is like "hey, let's hit this deadline, but also let's just do a bunch of other cool things and the deadline doesn't matter". A deadly combination for those who like to hit deadlines.

Largely we're just working on optimising iOS now and trying to hit 60fps on older devices. Next up they want to work on Android which should be simply a matter of optimisation as all of the design, UI and polish work has already been done on iOS.



We're all keen to get back to XD, although we won't likely have an update until some time in late January. We are going to have to split the team and have half on XD full-time and half on mobile at this stage, which means updates may be less frequent for XD, but at least they will start happening again. We've still got a bunch of things we want to deliver including:

• A main game mode (alternate to arcade)
  
• Better multiplayer
  
• Better background system (which has already been improved on mobile)
  
• More free tracks
  
• Better MIDI calibration
  
• Better tutorials
  
• Longer easy, normal levels
  
• Better XD level design
  
• Weekly challenge with mutators, endless challenge
  
• Some elements to improve score variation
  
• Improved editor (mouse control, vertical timescale, ability to shorten / cut tracks for other difficulties)
  
• More!
  

Once again, sorry to keep you in the dark, the game is still alive in our hearts, we just haven't had the resources to update XD. Hope everyone plays some awesome games over the break.

Merry Spinstmas! From all the SSD team.

Hey Spinners, hope you're well,

It was only a year ago that we released SRXD to the world. While it may be strange to celebrate our baby's birthday when we're working on a new, less attractive baby (mobile version), we wanted to let our XD fans know that we care.

So please enjoy 33% off for a week!

Let's take a look at what we've achieved in our first year.

• Support for new control control schemes (click to move on / off, gyro, rotating joystick controls, Wacom and more)
  
• Added 23 free tracks for a total of 38 (with more to come!)
  
• Implemented global leaderboards
  
• Added daily challenge
  
• Added online multiplayer radio SpinFM
  
• Added the brutal XD difficulty
  
• Added new game mechanics including beat holds, scratch zones and lift off notes
  
• Released out OST Vol.1
  
• Flew half way round the world to PAX East to showcase the game
  
• Implemented Razer Chroma RGB support
  
• Added juicy results screen stats and announcer vocals
  
• Added full custom charting support (more features still to come!)
  
• Implemented a ton of accessibility features
  
• Added track sorting features
  
• Hundreds of bug fixes and QoL updates
  
• Signed two DLCs (Monstercat and Chillhop music)
  
• Probably many more we missed from just skimming our update list!
  

Thanks to all of you for being part of our fantastic first year on Steam!

Stay safe and stay speen'd.

Hey Spinners, hope you're well,



Mobile development is rolling along. We've had to dramatically restructure our Unity project to include both the mobile and XD versions in one project. It's a bit of a nightmare, but it's preferable to working on separate projects and manually bringing shared assets across.

Level designer Dave has not been required as much on mobile, so he's been busy charting some new free tunes which you can find on our official Spotify playlist. Since mobile dev started, we've licensed and charted a few new tunes which we will release as free levels once we are able to ship XD updates again (after the mobile version is released).



We've licensed a Camellia track! Check out Body F10ating in the Zero Gravity Space. Many of you have been requesting Camellia for a while, and I'm sure it will provide a crazy challenge in SRXD.

We have also licensed another Haywyre track, Let Me Hear That. We're using the live version you can hear on YouTube. It's got a few small differences from the official release we think will make a more interesting level design (this chart is already completed).

We've also finished charting Heading East by Farfetch'd - one of our older licenses, and definitely one for our Glitch lovers.

So that's minimum 3 free tracks next update!



We'd also live to reveal our first DLC pack - a collaboration with Chillhop Music!



We met David from Chillhop at PAX East earlier this year. He turned up at our booth wanting to hang and jam with the game. We quickly forced him to take the idea of a Chillhop DLC back to his team, and we're glad he did.

The guys at Chillhop curated 10 incredibly cool, relaxing tunes to help you chill, study and relax to (and PFC). Check them out on the official SRXD x Chillhop Spotify list or by clicking the image below. We also have been loving their incredible merch - we have been living in our Chillhop hoodies all winter.



This pack will be $11.99USD for 10 tracks (with appropriate regional pricing).

Even though we're announcing this now, we want to wait until after 1.0 to release DLC. We don't believe it's a good look to release paid DLC in Early Access.

Having said that, the charts are done, and will be super easy to ship after 1.0 once we get some sweet backgrounds in there.

We want this pack to be on the easy - medium side of the difficulty curve, and a great place to go if you're looking to move up a difficulty and want a more chill experience.



We are also busy polishing every single level in the game. As the game has been released and we've seen a ton of custom charts produced by our incredible community (check out the #customs-showcase channel in our Discord channel). The ideas - of what works, what's fun, what's clean, what's difficult - have evolved over the year the game has been released, so we're taking the time to polish the official charts. This includes:

• Polishing out of time notes (are still quite a few!)
  
• Removing center taps before spins for extra readability
  
• Adding slightly more variety with scratch zones (especially in easier difficulties)
  
• Removing excessive lift off notes, and placing some where they fit more nicely (we went a bit wild when we first added them, especially in Hard where the element is meant to be only introduced).
  
• Remove excessive wheel "drift" (when note patterns force the wheel to move repeatedly in one direction, causing problems for players who don't use click to move, or those with smaller mouse pads)
  
• Ironing out difficulty spikes
  

We are also going to extend all of the easy and some of the normal difficulty levels in length. One of the main complaints with SRXD (and reasons for negative reviews / refunds) is that it is too difficult for new players. We hope that by extending the easier difficulties, we can provide casual players and those new to rhythm games with a more comprehensive experience, without feeling like they're being pushed to the harder difficulties.

This will mean that on average Easy levels will be the same length as Normal levels (2-3 minutes). We've already done this with the Chillhop levels, so we know it works well.

As always, take care and keep spinnin'.