Version 1.0.4: Fixes and a New Accessibility Feature
[p]Hello interns!
First of all: a huge thank-you to all of you for the support and kind words we've received since our 1.0 launch! It's been great, and surreal, to see everyone's reactions to the end of the story and the very ambitious final boss that we worked on for a long while.[/p][p]As you might imagine, most people on the team have been taking a well-deserved rest and getting back to work at their own pace. Aside from some quick bug fixes, we haven't really made any big changes to talk about.[/p][p]Although we're done making Acts of Story Mode, there are still some standalone levels that we're working on. One of them is a collaboration with Beatblock, which we recently posted a teaser of.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Today's update includes a new Accessibility setting, various fixes to Story Mode, and a bunch of new options in the Level Editor. We look forward to supporting Rhythm Doctor bit by bit throughout the year with smaller updates like this![/p][h2]
New Accessibility Setting: Reduced Flashing[/h2][p]In this patch, we've added a Reduced Flashing setting in the Accessibility menu. It weakens and reduces the amount of flashy effects across Story Mode, like full-screen white flashes. This will hopefully make the game much more comfortable to play for players with photosensitivity.[/p][p]To be clear: this setting reduces many instances that may cause eyestrain but does not remove every effect that may cause eyestrain entirely. If you've played the game, you'll know how intertwined some of the effects are to the overall experience and concept of some of the levels. Our goal is to reduce overall eyestrain while still retaining animations and distractions in the levels, so that users of the setting don't get a lesser experience. Players who struggle with epilepsy should still exercise caution while playing the game.[/p][p]As with all of our Accessibility efforts, this will be an ongoing project and an ongoing conversation. If you try the setting, please send us feedback on what you think about it. You can let us know what you think on our official Discord server or by sending an email to [email protected] with "accessibility" in the subject line. We would love to know what you think of the toggle and if any levels are still causing discomfort for you.[/p][p]We are still discussing a strategy for making the "window dance" levels cause less eyestrain, which might require a more thorough reworking of those levels and a separate toggle.[/p][p]You may be wondering if the Reduced Flashing setting affects Custom Levels made by the community. It does, but only if the creator of the custom level you're playing has properly tagged the events that cause eyestrain in their level. Because the feature is brand new, this will likely be a small minority of custom levels at first. Please keep that in mind if you decide to try custom levels while using this setting. We encourage all custom level creators to apply these tags to their levels, in order to make them more accessible.[/p][h2]
General Improvements and Fixes[/h2]
First of all: a huge thank-you to all of you for the support and kind words we've received since our 1.0 launch! It's been great, and surreal, to see everyone's reactions to the end of the story and the very ambitious final boss that we worked on for a long while.[/p][p]As you might imagine, most people on the team have been taking a well-deserved rest and getting back to work at their own pace. Aside from some quick bug fixes, we haven't really made any big changes to talk about.[/p][p]Although we're done making Acts of Story Mode, there are still some standalone levels that we're working on. One of them is a collaboration with Beatblock, which we recently posted a teaser of.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Today's update includes a new Accessibility setting, various fixes to Story Mode, and a bunch of new options in the Level Editor. We look forward to supporting Rhythm Doctor bit by bit throughout the year with smaller updates like this![/p][h2]
New Accessibility Setting: Reduced Flashing[/h2][p]In this patch, we've added a Reduced Flashing setting in the Accessibility menu. It weakens and reduces the amount of flashy effects across Story Mode, like full-screen white flashes. This will hopefully make the game much more comfortable to play for players with photosensitivity.[/p][p]To be clear: this setting reduces many instances that may cause eyestrain but does not remove every effect that may cause eyestrain entirely. If you've played the game, you'll know how intertwined some of the effects are to the overall experience and concept of some of the levels. Our goal is to reduce overall eyestrain while still retaining animations and distractions in the levels, so that users of the setting don't get a lesser experience. Players who struggle with epilepsy should still exercise caution while playing the game.[/p][p]As with all of our Accessibility efforts, this will be an ongoing project and an ongoing conversation. If you try the setting, please send us feedback on what you think about it. You can let us know what you think on our official Discord server or by sending an email to [email protected] with "accessibility" in the subject line. We would love to know what you think of the toggle and if any levels are still causing discomfort for you.[/p][p]We are still discussing a strategy for making the "window dance" levels cause less eyestrain, which might require a more thorough reworking of those levels and a separate toggle.[/p][p]You may be wondering if the Reduced Flashing setting affects Custom Levels made by the community. It does, but only if the creator of the custom level you're playing has properly tagged the events that cause eyestrain in their level. Because the feature is brand new, this will likely be a small minority of custom levels at first. Please keep that in mind if you decide to try custom levels while using this setting. We encourage all custom level creators to apply these tags to their levels, in order to make them more accessible.[/p][h2]
General Improvements and Fixes[/h2]
- [p]Tweaked the timings of all beats for a section of 5-2N to be more accurate[/p]
- [p]Removed redundant cues in 2-XN 2P[/p]
- [p]Fixed visual issues with the heart entry animation[/p]
- [p]Fixed Rhythm Weightlifter changing your preferred player mode to 2P[/p]
- [p]Fixed a case where you could incorrectly get a perfect rank on the final level[/p]
- [p]Fixed some mistakes in 7-X2 2P[/p]
- [p]Fixed narration saying "row length -1" in some cases[/p]
- [p]Fixed narration announcing boss health in levels that don't have it[/p]
- [p]Updated the list of keyboard shortcuts while holding tab[/p]
- [p]Added preset conditionals that work in every level, so you don't need to create them yourself[/p]
- [p]Added autocomplete and descriptions for custom methods[/p]
- [p]Added various new custom methods[/p]
- [p]Added a button to automatically create nurse cues for a oneshot beat[/p]
- [p]Added a button to convert one!/two!/three!/etc cues into the Set Counting Sound event[/p]
- [p]Added "closed" variant of the Samurai Ward theme[/p]
- [p]Added Scanlines, Pixelate, Embers, Heat Distortion, and VHS Rewind effects to Set VFX Preset[/p]
- [p]Added heart customization to Paint Rows, and the ability to disable the electric sound effect[/p]
- [p]Border, tint, and opacity properties can now be individually toggled off in Paint Rows, Hands, and Sprites[/p]
- [p]Fixed outdated heart sprite in the freetime beat editor[/p]
- [p]Fixed capitalization of "UNBEATABLE" in the character picker[/p]
- [p]Internal changes to Show Dialogue and Set Counting Sound. Functionality is unchanged but the UI might look different[/p]
- [p]Internal changes to how file picking is handled[/p]
