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A Dance of Fire and Ice News

A Small Surprise!



Surprise!

As of April 1st, you'll see you'll see a new tile waiting for you in the main menu. You can also trigger it by typing in the cheat code "firestix" on the main menu.

This special update will stay up for a week. You'll need to beat 6-X first to access it, because it isn't quite "beginner" territory.

Have fun with it! We hope you enjoy the little surprise.

---

If you don't mind spoilers, here's what we've added...

Enabling the crab tile on the main menu will take you to a new version of the game, with new versions of the first few worlds. These joke worlds are created by Firestix, one of our level artists. Once you clear the new versions of Worlds 1-6, you'll unlock a new version of B-X. You can revert back to the normal game by using the crab tile again. The event will go on until April 8th, but you can still use the code "firestix" to bring the levels back afterward.

As always, thanks for playing!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New Featured Levels: Tech Wave 1

[h2]Version 2.9.2[/h2]

As of recently, it's been six years since we first launched A Dance of Fire and Ice on Steam!

Over that time, we've received a tidal wave of support way beyond anything we could have predicted. Thank you to everyone who has played, left reviews, told their friends, and made videos about ADOFAI. Thanks to your continued interest, we've been able to spend all these years working on updates and improvements. Brick by brick, we've expanded the game into something much bigger than we had imagined in 2019.

One of those bricks has been the addition of Featured Levels. With Featured Levels, we're able to work directly with talented creators from the community to license their levels officially and put them into the main game. Up until this point, we've been adding "Classic-style" Featured Levels, which are levels that largely follow the mechanics and design ideas that we explored ourselves in ADOFAI.

Today, the first wave of Tech Levels is here!

Tech Levels are a different style of ADOFAI level. They follow new charting conventions, many of which were popularized by the custom chart community after we released our Level Editor. Sometimes, Tech Levels are more difficult than Classic Levels. Sometimes, they just ask for you to be ready for different shapes, rhythms, and tempos than you might be used to. Either way, you'll probably want to utilize more fingers on the keyboard while playing. For detailed explanation, please visit our knowledge base.

Because so many people in the community love making, and playing, these Tech Levels…we wanted to bring a few into the game for everyone to try!

[h2]Changes and Improvements[/h2]
  • New design of the Pause Menu: We've re-designed our Pause Menu to coincide with our continued development on the Nintendo Switch version of the game. The menu should be a smoother experience now, and better suited to controller compatibility.
  • Sightreading Warnings: We've added warning tags to a few Featured Levels. These tags indicate the level was used in a community Sightreading Tournament. Because of that, they're quite hard to complete without missing, and are intended to be a test of high score. We've enabled No-Fail Mode for these levels, only for the first time you play them. See how well you do!
  • We've fixed issues with the game running on Steam Deck
  • We've disabled Asynchronous Input as a choice in the settings if you're using the Linux (or Steam Deck) version of the game. It was causing some bugs on Linux that we are still looking into.
  • Minor bugfixes

[h2]New Featured Levels[/h2]
[h3]Tech Wave 1 / v2.9.2[/h3]

In addition to the levels themselves, we're introducing a new "radar system" exclusively for Featured Tech Levels! This radar will identify the strength in level's stamina, speed, rhythm, and tech! Check it out in the new Featured Tech section in the CLS!

Please note that the gem difficulty of these levels are temporary / not final. We will be working the gem difficulty system in the future to allow for harder levels.

Backyard Sanctuary
Music by Tanger
Level by CausticLime

"This level, by CausticLime, is a chill, easy pseudo-focused tech level, suggested by various players for learning the basics of alternating with pseudos. Learning takes time, and mastery takes even longer, so relax, take your time, and let the power of practice do the work for you."

Turkish March
Music by W. A. Mozart (arranged by Misoguy)
Level by Misoguy

"A musical composition so old only some people of today know about it, Turkish March, has arrived in ADOFAI! This level, created by Misoguy, contains fast-paced patterns and magic shapes! Let your inner pianist flow through your hands as you march on!"

Feral [Hard] & [Insane]
Music by meganeko
Level by Ma6icCu8e

With the introduction of Featured Tech Levels, two new difficulties have arrived!

"meganeko returns with a 5-minute epic! Instead of one level, Ma6icCu8e has made different levels to suit all difficulties. They are all so interesting and varied that we wanted to feature all of them, for players of all skill levels. Hard difficulty is for players who beat It Go and need extra challenge, introducing pseudo-multitaps and key rolling to the mix, while Insane difficulty is for highly skilled players, featuring faster and more complex patterns involving pseudo-multitaps and key rolling."

R
Music by Plum
Level by KanoKaz & NumbEr07

"This is one of the most famous ADOFAI custom levels, with music by Plum, a very popular artist in the ADOFAI community. A 2020 collaboration between NumbEr07 and KanoKaz, this level uses Magic Shapes - the use of snails and rabbits to make kaleidoscope-like shapes with the track, while the players simply tap out a stream of consistent notes."

deleted
Music by linear ring
Level by Nephrolepis & ChyaRyam

This level has been completely remade in commemoration of its debut in the Featured Levels list!

"Through Nephrolepis and ChyaRyam's team effort, linear ring's unique electronic sound has been brought to life in ADOFAI! Complex patterns in high BPMs await in your pursuit of escape before the world gets deleted."

felys -final remix-
Music by onoken
Level by Editor AlriC

"felys is a 2002 classic that influenced and popularized Artcore, a mix of Drum & Bass and classical/traditional music. The song's lovely and graceful sound touched the hearts of listeners, particularly musicians who were inspired by onoken's music to produce their own Artcore music. Editor AlriC's elegant taste in VFX and charting allows us to experience its beauty visually in ADOFAI!"

Here's a new preview video showcasing this wave of Featured Levels:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]New 7BG Team Member[/h2]
Together with this update, we're also happy to announce our new team member! SaJabe has joined 7BG as our Tech Levels Lead! He will be curating and creating Tech levels for the game. This first batch of Tech featured levels is his first contribution. Please give him a warm welcome!

As always, thanks for playing!

Twitter (X): https://x.com/adofai

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adofai.7thbe.at

Official Discord Server: http://7thbe.at/discord/

Featured Levels Wave 10 + Level Editor Updates



UPDATE: Partial rollback of Wave 10 Featured Levels


December 11th 2024: Due to a licensing mistake on our end, we have removed a few of the new Featured Levels temporarily. We hope to be able to return the new levels as soon as possible

The affected levels include:
〇、
humanity
REBIRTH

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and we take full responsibility for the mistake. We'll provide an update when we have more to share. Thank you for understanding.

---

[h2]Version 2.9.0[/h2]

[h3]A Dance of Fire and Ice Coming to Nintendo Switch[/h3]

As you might remember, we're bringing A Dance of Fire and Ice to the Nintendo Switch! We were so happy to be included in one of 2024's Indie World presentations. Although we've been making great progress on the port, we will unfortunately need to push the expected release date into 2025.

As always, we're taking things at our own pace to focus on making something new and special for the Nintendo Switch version that we think you'll really enjoy!

We'll have more information on what new content you can expect next year when we're ready to show it off.

[h3]Level Editor Improvements[/h3]
  • Hitbox Target Planet option (including options for "Any", "Center Planet" or "Orbiting PLanet"). This is useful for triggering events when stepping on a Freeroam floor
  • You can now use 1x1 Freeroam sections without text-editing
  • Editor panel is now resizable
  • Set Input Event, for detecting particular keyboard inputs. It can detect the keyboard's left half or right half, or detect arrow keys. Allows for keydown and keyup options, or can ignore player input and use keys only for events.

[h2]New Featured Levels[/h2]
[h3]Wave 10 (v2.9.0)[/h3]

3000 Moons
Music: Zris
Level: Bingsu
Round like the moon, 3000 Moons is a dotted eighth-focused level for fans of octagon rhythms like those from World 10! Charming like the moon, it has a cool midnight atmosphere that matches the song's vibe, resembling that YOUtopia you've been looking for.

Disk Failure
Music: Sunnexo
Level: M1n3c4rt & CyanAqua
A hard disk drive has malfunctioned! Its memories are being corrupted! Escape from these twisty turns and trials orchestrated by these two viruses, codenamed "M1n3c4rt" and "CyanAqua," that together will ruin your day!

Sonder
Music: Shirobon
Level: Bin, Vybbles, Rikri, TeoC
"How much can you do with music that has very repetitive rhythm?" is the question these four creators were able to answer through this level. It received positive reception for its uniqueness in gameplay but imprisoned those who dared to conquer it. Take a deep breath, and lock in.

VANGUARD-1
Music: II-L
Level: yeetyote, kernby, Econ, Cam_
VANGUARD-1 is the oldest satellite still orbiting the Earth. As the planets align with its orbit, you are given the chance to take a peek at the aged artifact's journey around the cosmos. Filled to the brim with tricky rhythms and visual obstructions, you struggle to see a clear route. Will you manage to stay on course and see the trip to its end? Or will you become lost in space?


Here's a preview video showcasing the 10th wave of Featured Levels!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Updates to Past Featured Levels[/h3]

LORELEI
We've replaced jacket/portal art with a high-quality version (courtesy of Ssimille).

We're almost done with work for the year before taking a little bit of a holiday break. We'll let you know if we have any more small updates before 2024 is over. Thank you for all your support this year, especially with our waves of Featured Levels! It's been incredible to see what people have been able to make in our Editor lately.

As always, thanks for playing!

Twitter (X): https://x.com/adofai

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adofai.7thbe.at

Official Discord Server: http://7thbe.at/discord/

New Xtra World: Party of Spirits!



[h2]Version 2.8.0[/h2]

[h3]New Xtra World: XS-X Party of Spirits[/h3]
Music by: Cansol
Tutorial Music by: Blooky
Level by: NumbEr07
VFX by: Firestix

Let's party! This was a really fun world to make. We knew we wanted to work with this piece for a long time, especially with how quick and bouncy it is. It was a perfect opportunity to introduce a new character, our Tiger. Firestix went the extra mile on animating all of our ideas, and we love how it came out. Enjoy!

[h3]New Featured Levels[/h3]
Olie - Temple Of Treasure [by TeoC]
Temple Of Treasure is one of the 5 episodes of Everypence, a story written by Olie. TeoC loved Olie's story so much he decided to adapt it to ADOFAI. We were impressed by how he created this adaptation, especially by making original gameplay gimmicks inspired by it. Temple Of Treasure stands out as our favorite because of its interesting gimmick that makes you switch between 2 pairs of planets that are different in speed. Pro tip: be mindful of the audio cues; they will help you during the switch-ups!

Raimukun - Avantgarde [by Team Vega]
Team Vega's return to making more high-quality levels couldn't be grander when they published Avantgarde, a level that won the 'Art-est Award' in LOTY2023 for its outstanding VFX made by talented creators around the world! This level is also one of the toughest featured levels, with an average BPM so fast that the rhythms you may be already familiar with were taken to the extreme!

Lokan - Wild! West! Showdown! [by Star4th]
Wild! West! Showdown! is a track made for PABAT! 2019, with an animation that tells the story of a duel between two foes for one treasure. Star4th adapted this to ADOFAI for the SMTL competition, where he was given a penalty that states: "The level must exactly have 48 twirls." Wondering where those twirls went should be the least of your worries though, because... Wait, huh? THE LAST TILE IS SENTIENT???

Camellia vs Akira Complex - Railgun Roulette (VIP) [by Econ, Twilight Skylines, ABorinGuy, yeetyote]
Railgun Roulette (VIP) is a track made by a collaboration between Camellia and Akira Complex with their powerful head-banging take on Drum & Bass music! This level was made for FAINT, a fan-run sightreading tournament where players compete in levels they have never seen before! This level may look easy, but don't sleep on those visual distractions, they might catch you off guard!

Thank you, Akira Complex. We miss you.

(Note: This track may be flagged by fingerprint systems such as YouTube Content ID.)

[h3]Plus...One Updated Featured Level[/h3]
Frums - Great Fury of Heaven [by Daming] (Updated 2024-8-26)
The first 7 gem Featured Level have been given a new makeover from Daming!
  • Major chart and VFX overhaul!
  • Updated tutorials!
  • Updated icon, and portal!

[h3]Fixes and Improvements[/h3]
  • Fixed floor tiles in XN-X and XT-X that were not visible
  • Lowered overall RAM usage by 1GB compared to the previous ADOFAI builds, and disk size by 1.29GB! This optimization works across all released platforms like Steam, itch.io, iOS, Android and the future Switch version.


[h3]Level Editor Additions, Fixes, and Improvements[/h3]
  • You can now use tiling option with Blend Mode
  • New Decoration Type: Particle Emitter
  • "Set Frame Rate" event (Changing frame rate will not affect the judgment of notes)
  • Improved hitbox features
  • Hitbox Trigger Type (Once, Per touch, or Repeat)
  • Hitbox Trigger Target (Planet, Decoration)
  • Improved level editor URL parser for open level from URL
  • Single .adofai file direct link support (now you don't need to make a zip file for single level file)
  • Disable auto angle offset level editor option
  • Optimized decoration loading
  • You can now anchor decorations to floor tiles
  • New depth sync option for decorations
  • Planet decoration depth options
  • New option for Set Track Color event: "Only change this tile"
  • Object decoration floor icon outline / flip


Thanks for playing!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/adofai
Cohost: https://cohost.org/7thBeatGames
Official Discord Server: http://7thbe.at/discord/

New Xtra World and 5-Year Anniversary!



It's the 5-Year Anniversary of A Dance of Fire and Ice!

Thank you so much for playing our game all these years. It's been amazing to watch how the custom level community has gotten better and better over time. The levels that the community has made are so creative, and the skills on display by the streamers who play them have been really impressive. We're a really small team, so we never imagined that people would still be playing after all this time.

We hope you continue to enjoy the game! To celebrate, we've added one new Xtra World and a set of new Featured Levels.

[h2]Version 2.7.0[/h2]

[h3]New Xtra World: Miko Skip[/h3]
World XM: Miko Skip
Music by Kirara Magic
Level Design by Astral Overseer and KanoKaz
Level VFX by Editor AlriC and KanoKaz
Special Thanks to lifliif

A short, relaxing world for players of all skill levels. You can find it on Xtra Island!

[h3]New Featured Levels[/h3]

Overnote' - Amulet
Level by FluffyYoshi & Nickname
FluffyYoshi, known for their tough stamina-testing charts, and Nickname, known for their contributions in some of the popular custom levels today, have come together to create a beautiful but challenging level that tests players in their mechanical skill and stamina. Prepare for a speedy challenge!

Ssimille - Surreal Walk
Level by Bingsu
Level creators can be Artists too! This is demonstrated by the well-respected Ssimille, composing one of his tracks, Surreal Walk! Interpreted by another well-respected creator, Bingsu, this level takes you on a surreal walk through the wonders of the Greek era, as your sense of time will be realized.

Halv - Wings
Level by HanB
A throwback to 2020, when the creators you may have known today start in their humble beginnings. HanB is one of them, as they create yet another fun, electrifying level, with sudden changes of its pace! Enjoy, but be sure to pay attention!

Riya - Artificial Chariot (Ssimille Remix)
Level by hotduck, Hanwol, Bingsu
A perfect ending to one of Team Vega's biggest projects. We were astonished by the impressive gameplay and visuals of the level, especially paired with Ssimille's beautiful remix of Riya's 'Artificial Chariot' from World 12.

iTIC - Triple Sec
Level by Pharah & hyonsu
Pharah is celebrated for being one of, if not, the most talented and skilled VFXers in the ADOFAI community for creating levels that are as if he's using a video editing software! He has appeared many times in the previous LOTY events, and now in LOTY2023, he has finally won the Level Of The Year through his most outstanding level to date, Triple Sec!

ああああ - クローバーのやくそく (Promise of Clover)
Level by Seodawon & Boleumdal Cookie
Seodawon & Boleumdal Cookie won the 'Relaxing Award' category in LOTY2023 through this amazing level that interprets ああああ's song by transporting you into a beautiful dream of warmth and cheerfulness!

Monokuro - Black Rose
Level by CyanAqua
Tutorial music courtesy of 0mni
CyanAqua, and his dedication to making gameplay gimmicks that are fun to play for everyone, were able to win the 'Gimmick Award' in LOTY2023 through Black Rose! It is an RPG Maker-inspired level with a gimmick that is easy to understand, but gets trippy once distractions start to appear!

[h3]Updated Featured Level[/h3]

Zris - Can't it be true (Updated 2024-02-10)
Level by Lycklig
For the year 2024, Lycklig has remade this level from scratch (with help from our staff, rKizCora)! We've also updated some elements of it.
- Now tagged as "Community Featured".
- The difficulty has been increased from 2 to 3.
- The new speed trial aim is x1.4.

snakywine - Classy Kitty (Updated 2024-02-13)
Level by pixelo3o & Team P.A.L. (7BG)
rKizCora revamped the swing classic, Classy Kitty!
- The entire chart has been touched to polish the gameplay, such as taking out the midspins.

[h3]New Features[/h3]
  • Settings Menu: Added new DSP buffer size setting. Lowering this value can lead to improvements in input accuracy for high-level play, but can lead to audio stuttering and glitching. You may also need to go to the calibration screen after changing this setting.
  • Better audio output detection on mac. Used in the calibration screen for detecting the current output.

[h3]Improvements and Bugfixes[/h3]
  • Game should support many more tiles on a single level. In our testing, a level with 86,000 tiles used to run at 26 FPS, after optimization it now runs at 128 FPS.
  • XN-X: Scale planets effect was not working properly
  • Fixed some Asynchronous Input problems.
  • Fixed some small graphical glitches

[h3]Level Editor[/h3]
  • The Scale fields from the Move Decoration and Move Track events can be now left empty to not change one or both of their axis values.
  • Fixed Weird editor behavior with input fields
  • Game settings menu: Settings would get restarted after restarting the level editor.
  • Better URL parser when opening level with URL


Thanks so much for playing!

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