Melody's Escape 2 News

This patch features a major internal game engine upgrade from Unity version 2019 to Unity 6 (2025).
Ideally no in-game features should be impacted, but please let me know if you notice any strange behaviour after the upgrade.

This patch also introduces a tentative fix for Playstation and Nintendo Switch controllers not being indentified as such by the "Auto-Detect" features of the Gamepad settings.


[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Upgraded the internal game engine from Unity 2019 to Unity 6
  
• Updated the Steam API
  
• Changed the way that files are read from a directory (this will hopefully have a positive impact on huge folders read time)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Added additionel checks to try auto-detecting gamepad types by first querying Steam Input, and then the Unity Input System if the first step returned no result
  

Please join our Discord or the Discussions Forum to share your feedback about this new patch!

This patch introduces a change to significantly speed up the "Running" (yellow) intensity, plus a complete rework of the algorithms for intensity detection, as well as slow-motion jumps placement.

The feeling of speed of the "Running" mode has been greatly improved to feel like the old "sprint" mode instead, with a new animation and faster speed! It now offers a much better contrast between Jogging and Flying.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the current detection of music intensity (corresponding to Melody's various movement modes) and this complete algorithm rework should be more faithful to the human perception of the energy of a music track at any given moment.
Of course with only 4 different modes (walking, jogging, running and flying) it won't always be perfect, but I'm much happier with this version!

As for slow-mo jumps, it has always been my favorite feature of the Melody's Escape franchise, and while the first game had way too little of them, I had overcorrected course for the second instalment, and it would sometimes generate them in instances where it felt out place.
Long volume fade-outs at the end of a song could also sometimes be misrepresented with a slow-mo jump instead of a smooth animation transition.
Slow-mo jumps placement has been reworked, and now feel more appropriate while still keeping their epic feeling! It also fixes some cases of jumps that were not correctly detected.

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Speed up the Running sections, and changed the Running animation to a sprinting-type one, to greatly enhance the feeling of speed
  
• Track intensity detection rework
  
• Slow-mo jumps detection rework
  
• Improved multiple existing animations to be smoother (especially the looping "held" ones)
  
• Modified the "Held Note" ground indicator
  
• Improved the size of ground indicators to match the new speeds (and visibility)
  
• Slightly speed up Jogging and Flying speed (by about 5%)
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Updated the internal Unity engine to version 2019.4.41f1 for security purposes
  
• The "Heart Filling Up" sound effect at the end of a track now correctly uses the UI volume slider
  

Please join our Discord or the Discussions Forum to share your feedback about this new patch!

This patch features a complete overhaul of the "held voices" detection algorithms, as well a revamped look for the "Walking" intensity mode!

Vocals are an extremely important part of the game for me, as it is where my mind focuses the most during a listening experience.
I wasn't satisfied with the old algorithm and I've always wanted to improve on it. So I've spent months rewriting a completely new algorithm for detecting held human voices (starting from scratch) and I'm extremely happy with the results!

My new algorithm is now far more accurate, improves detection of deeper voice pitches, and also results in much less false positives than before (where it would confuse instruments for human voices).

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• The "Held Voices" detection algorithm has been entirely rewritten, and is now far more accurate
  
• Changed the look of the falling bubbles in Walking intensity. The arrow indicators should now be more obvious.
  
• Modified the "Sky Walkway" environment side visuals to focus more on audio frequencies in the voice range, as well as modifications to the color palette
  
• Improved music intensity sections detection
  
• Improved arrow visibility on obstacles indicators
  
• Improved the animations of the held obstacle "sliding while standing up"
  
• Changed the output Music Volume curve to "ease-in" at lower values (instead of being linear), in order to provide finer control of low volumes
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the Sky Walkway visuals sometimes updating in a choppy fashion
  
• Fixed an aspect ratio UI issue on Steam Deck
  
• Audio and Video latency sliders now increment in steps of 5ms, in order to be useable with a controller and on Steam Deck
  

Please join our Discord or the Discussions Forum to share your feedback about this new patch!

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Updated the design of some character skins to feature a bit more color patterns
  
• Removed the noise pattern on the road from Sky Walkway
  
• Renamed the skin "Yoga" to "Runner"
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Modified all character skins to lessen an outline effect glitch with some character color schemes
  
• Fixed the position of the "Back" input prompt on the loading screen
  

Please join our Discord or the Discussions Forum to share your feedback about this new patch!

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• The album art is now displayed on the loading screen
  
• Removed the safety rails over holes in the track on Sky Walkway
  
• The visualization effect in Sky Walkway now starts a bit closer to the camera
  
• Updated the early character skins to fix the wide variance in polygon count compared to the new ones, and to update some designs
  
• Improved the GPU-related performance of the visualization effect in Sky Walkway
  
• Improved the obstacles fade-in effect
  
• Long solid obstacles now fade-in progressively accross their lenght, instead of fading the entire obstacle at once
  
• Improved the fading out of the road at the end of Sky Walkway
  
• Modified the way that Cosmetics preferences are stored. This patch will reset your Cosmetics preferences to default upon first launch.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Potentially fixed a bug where a dropdown panel in the Customisation menu would sometimes lose focus when navigating the interface with a gamepad (as I haven't found a reliable way to reproduce this issue, it is hard to confirm that it is gone)
  
• Fixed a distortion effect with the visualization effect in Sky Walkway when playing on Ultra Wide resolutions
  
• Fixed inconsistencies between ground indicators fade-in times
  
• Fixed the Flying mode's flare horizontal light persisting for a few frames when jumping over a hole in the track
  
• Fixed a bug where walking mode bubbles could appear in the Customisation preview
  

Please join our Discord or the Discussions Forum to share your feedback about this new patch!