Spin Rhythm April 2022 news: what we've been up to
Hey spinners, it's been a while since we posted anything, so here's an update on what's coming up.
We've been spending the last 6 weeks or so doing a few big changes at once. The focus of the changes is to hit 60fps on Switch, which we have hit! There's a bit of detail below, and it might be a bit game dev-ish but hopefully it's interesting.
We will be previewing these changes at the end of our upcoming Elite8s tournament (in a couple of days), so follow us on Twitch, bit the bell, like, comment, subscribe etc. if you want to catch an early look.
Jump in Jump in Discord for details on when the tournament is
Twisty track!
Twisty track is making a comeback. After many years of being absent (despite being a prominent feature of our Early Access trailer), we are putting the twisting flight paths back in the game. They do make the note reading slightly more difficult, but they make the game look a lot more awesome, and can be disabled in the accessibility options menu.
We had a few issues with world objective cutting through the track (clouds, crystals etc), but we have developed a dithering shader that fades objects as they collide.
All the track twists have been entered by hand, so if there's anything particularly egregious or busted, let Daverwob know and he will fix it up.
Two new tracks
We're up to 49 tracks! We may be able to slip another in before this patch to hit 50, which would be epic. The two new ones are similar in that they are both a little different.
First up we have The Kraken from Raise The Black Flag by Teminite. Definitely one of the weirder drops on the album, but tons of fun to play.
Next up we have a relatively unknown artist with a wild track - One Esk Nineteen by Praxis Axis. It's 6 minute, primal, dark and epic tune that balances analogue Moog synth arps and Balinese Kecak chanting samples. There's nothing quite like it, and we love finding these undiscovered gems. We hope you enjoy it when it finds its way onto the playlist (it's on the upper end of the difficulty spectrum).
Easy was always meant to be a difficulty that anyone could pick up and play, no matter your experience level with rhythm games. By the end of the track list, the levels actually got ridiculously hard for beginners. We witnessed many of our less gamery friends struggle with these, so as Easy didn't fulfil its role as a beginner difficulty level, we decided to redesign all of them.
We have removed scratch zones and added tap notes in simple streams, greatly reduced the complexity of colour swapping and match note movements, and reduced the number of multi spins.
New audio streaming technology
We developed a new way of streaming audio for the mobile Endless Mode. Basically it means the accuracy of how and when audio is played in the game is much higher and more efficient, making genuine DSP issues (hopefully) a thing of the past. It also means we can implement an endless mode in XD (something we've wanted to do for a while).
Graphical upgrade
One of the main ways we optimised the game visually with our recent work has been by reducing the number of cameras to one.
This has meant redoing the HUD (which was on a separate camera) to something a little more immersive, redoing the wheel mesh to be simpler (making it easier to add additional wheels in the future), and redoing the way the track appears in the world.
We are also redoing all the notes to be in 3D (instead of a mix of 2D and 3D)
Unfortunately when changing so many things at once, there's a lot of testing to do to make sure all the features work again. This is why our current patch is taking a little longer than hoped. Thank you for your patience!
Keep on spinnin'
Update 16 - 2 New Tracks, Search Feature!
Welcome back, Spinners
We have a small but excellent update for you. Two new tracks by Koven and Teminite, a long-awaited search feature (thanks to the modding community to giving us the kick up the bum to get this officially in the game) and a ton of optimisation work that should fix many stuttering issues which caused DSP errors and hitches mid-gameplay, reduce memory usage (especially with large volumes of custom tracks) by at least 50% (we have had reported up to 80% usage with some players), and improved loading speed with everything.
Lastly some news, Will has taken a new job at another local game development company PlaySide. We wish him the best in the future and we will dearly miss him and his adorable dog Remy.
UPDATE 16 - 2 New Tracks, Search Feature!
FEATURES
2 New Tracks! - Your Pain by Koven - we’ve wanted a Koven track in the game since licensing “Shut My Mouth” for the Monstercat DLC. It’s just so damn catchy, with intense vocals and some killer drops - Ghost Ship by Teminite - short and sweet, a real earworm with some savage drops, from his latest album Raise The Black Flag
Search feature - Located near the filtering button is a new search bar, simply start typing to search from track name, artist, feat. and subtitle fields - If a result contains less than 20 tracks, the tracklist wrapping effect is disabled - You can search for “create” to quickly find the option to create a new chart - Random is removed when searching
POLISH
Reset leaderboards for I See Lite XD, Metropole XD and This Is It XD as it was not possible to beat the top scores due to level data changing (a lower maximum available score from a previous update)
Many optimisations to reduce stuttering (and DSP errors) - Many of the DSP errors experienced by users weren’t actually audio related, they were frame rate stutters that caused audio desync
Removed mipmapping on track art (sharper tracks, some artifacting)
Fixed some un-equalised match note strings in Hot Pursuit (Hard)
Fixed some out of time tap notes in Body Fl0ating (Hard)
Improved customs loading speed and memory usage (by at least 50%)
Improved Korean video latency translation issue
Fixed an issue with Razor Sharp crystals colliding with note path
Slightly reduced the background reaction effect intensity of tap notes and right spins
Fixed a layout issue with extremely long track names in pause menu / results screen
Completing all expert / XD difficulties should now reward players with achievements for completing all normal / hard levels
BUGS
Fixed a bug where users would experience a black screen on startup, requiring restart
Fixed a bug where sometimes custom audio would not show up without a restart
Fixed a crash related to the background of I See Lite
Fixed a but with the date format when looking at past daily leaderboards
Fixed a bug where entering practice mode then restarting a track would clear metadata
See you next patch.
Small update - new track!
Happy new year everyone!
Small Update - A New Track
This isn't quite a big feature update, but we recently licensed a bunch of tunes from Raise The Black Flag - Teminite's epic pirate-themed album. Sam (Teminite) wanted to play some Pirate Afterparty on stream next week, so we fast-tracked the tune into the game, along with a few bug fixes.
Details below.
FEATURES
New track! Pirate Afterparty from Raise The Black Flag with a sweet underwater background - We also licensed 3 other tunes from the album to put in future updates (Ghost Ship, The Kraken and Raise The Black Flag)
2 new options menu tick boxes to allow leaderboard submissions for base game and customs (these were actually slipped in with a hotfix a few weeks ago)
POLISH
Updated French translations (consistency of “custom” word usage)
Improved speed and quality of custom menu scrolling
Updated Unity versions to hopefully reduce the number of DSP / garbage collector related crashes some users are experiencing
BUGS
Fixed “321 Go” animation and audio sometimes being cut off when a track is loading
See you next patch.
Update 15 - Achievements!
Merry Christmas, Spinners!
Our new "consolified" (and just all-round better) menu system is on its way, in the meantime we have decided to do a pre-1.0 implementation of Achievements!
Many thanks to our awesome Discord community who came up with many of these unique challenges and pun-tastic names.
We have also added slipped in leaderboards for custom tracks, and a new free track! Enjoy
Details below.
UPDATE 15 - Achievements!
We have 42 achievements for you! Some of these are simple, some will take a bit of skill and hunting. These will eventually tie in to a levelling up system, providing bonus goals for new players to gain XP to unlock tracks. Nothing super complex or fancy, just an alternate path to progress beyond just mastering individual tracks.
We also have a somewhat unexpected new track for this patch. "Prism Bucket" was written, recorded, mixed and mastered in a single day by the winners of the recent APRA / AMCOS composition workshop that Daverwob helped run. The tune is by Aussie artists Martiln and Mr Kapow.
On the reference list for the composers was a few tracks by Anomalie, so these two fired up Omnisphere and channelled their jazz chops into a very Anomalie-esque tune with a wicked trumpet solo that is super fun to play.
Many thanks to APRA / AMCOS for sponsoring the license for this track to be in the game.
There are a few other fixes, QoL updates etc. Patch notes below.
FEATURES
Added 42 achievements!
Added Steam leaderboards for custom tracks
New track - Prism Bucket
POLISH
Tap notes now have a simpler look
Added a slight texture to the target zone of the wheel for clarity
Edit Mode (customs) now has as many speed settings as practice mode
BUGS
DSP icon will no longer show before the track countdown is complete
See you next patch.
Update 14 - 2 New Tracks
Hey there, Spinners,
While we are working on our current big task (making the menus work properly for consoles / gamepad) we thought we'd release a few new free tracks and an update to our custom colour system.
We've also started implementing Steam achievements (which will be tied to a simple level up system in game for unlocking tracks) - so if you see some strange achievement popups, please ignore!
Details below.
UPDATE 14 - 2 New Tracks
Dance With Silence by Camellia is a tune we have wanted to include for a while, and like many Camellia tracks it fits the game perfectly. The level sits in the upper mid range of the difficulty spectrum and is super fun to play, so we hope you enjoy.
We met Aimee Francis recently at a songwriting workshop run by APRA / AMCOS which Daverwob was helping run. We checked out her back catalogue and liked "Show Me Love" for its uplifting, soaring vocals and pop vibe which we felt we needed after a year of long lockdowns and pandemic shenanigans, so we licensed it from her!
It fits nicely in our setlist on the easier end of the difficulty spectrum, as another option for players learning to transition from Expert to XD.
Patch notes below.
FEATURES
2 new tracks! - Dance With Silence by Camellia - Show Me Love by Aimee Francis
Improved custom colour system
POLISH
Fixed Metropole (XD) inconsistent lift off note pattern in the chorus
Adjusted a difficult hold note pattern early on in Mimic (Normal)
Fixed a same direction spin before and after scratch zone in Mimic (Expert)
Removed a lift off note at the end of Spin Cycle (Hard)
Fixed a same direction spin before and after scratch zone in Believe (XD)
Changed the look of spin notes to be slightly clearer
BUGS
Fixed beat hold / scratch zone particles being off-center
Fixed a bug where extremely long scratch zones would slowly lower frame rates
