At some point I'd like to do an in-depth devblog post about the game's audio systems and how it all works, but for now here's the update notes:
New Features:
- Better support for music structure. Instead of escalating and reaching a plateau early, a run is now divided into music phases that allow changing things up further into the run.
- Support for lots more variations in looping sounds like drums (instead of simply looping sample A until it's time to loop sample B over and over, it's now possible to play e.g. AAABAAAB before changing to playing CDCD)
- Seamless audio transitions between the menu, pre-game and post-game screens to keep you in the flow
- Support for dynamic pattern and rhythm changes for the flashing backgrounds
- Support for flashing arena boundaries that can adapt to events
New Content:
- New sounds in both the EDM and ROCK SoundSets
- New dynamic sound effects that change the music as stuff happens (e.g. while the arena is in a shrunk state and while the big screen-wiping beam is active)
- Variations for looping sounds
- New harmonic progressions ( the guitars / the synth in the background)
- New: flashing boundaries, as well as new background flashing patterns
Bugfixes:
- In some cases tutorial enemies could follow you into the pre-game area. No more, They Shall Not Pass!
- The previous minor update broke the Spinning Beam tutorial. fixed.
- Various audio playback issues fixed.
What's Next?
I'm thinking I'll finally tackle the third game mode, "Progress Mode" for the next update. I intend to squeeze in a smaller update before that so it's not such a long wait, since I also will invest a bit of time in the Nintendo Switch port in the next two weeks.
I'm looking forward to doing another big audio pass and iterate in the future, because there's still a lot of unused potential in the existing systems (and some rough edges).
Changed files in this update