Two new play modes have been added: Audioshmup and Basspusher. Audioshmup Surf your way through bullet hell! Audioshmup is about weaving through bullets while shooting at the boss (automatically). Shots from the center score the most points. Basspusher Introducing Bass Blocks! Ba
Two new play modes have been added: Audioshmup and Basspusher.
Audioshmup
Surf your way through bullet hell! Audioshmup is about weaving through bullets while shooting at the boss (automatically). Shots from the center score the most points.
Basspusher
Introducing Bass Blocks! Basspusher is a two-color puzzle mode with a new twist: the red blocks come from the bass in the music while the blue blocks come from overall intensity. With both of them on the track at once there’s a lot to push around and quickly form multicolor matches.
New skinning features
The skinning possibilities in AS2 have been massively upgraded thanks to work from community member DeathByNukes. It will be exciting to see what modders can do with these new powers - especially unity asset bundle loading. Details are here, with more coming: https://as2-doc.deathbynukes.com/
Audiosurf 2 is great on Steamdeck!
The joysticks are awesome, but I like surfing with the trackpads (and gyro) even more.
edit: Workshop is now fixed - thanks for the reports.
10 New Songs! Audiosurf 2 now comes with 10 more built-in songs (in the Recommended section of the song browser). Like the others, these are hand-picked as some of the best rides out there. The Murder City Devils (Rock) 5 Murder City Devils songs are now included with the game! T
10 New Songs!
Audiosurf 2 now comes with 10 more built-in songs (in the Recommended section of the song browser). Like the others, these are hand-picked as some of the best rides out there.
The Murder City Devils (Rock) 5 Murder City Devils songs are now included with the game! These songs have been inspiring me for years and were some of my most-listened back when the original Audiosurf algorithm was coming together. In fact, one of the first Audiosurf screenshots ever released was of Flashbulb (it has the song name at the bottom, but I wasn't able to find it). It’s so awesome for me to be able to share these songs here! The five songs are: Flashbulb, I Want A Lot Now (So Come On), Press Gang, Rum and Whiskey, and 364 Days.
Audioshield Theme (Epic) A new custom composition for Audioshield (that also plays great in Audiosurf 2)! Winifred Phillips worked hard to make sure the composition created great gameplay moments and it really paid off.
Break of Reality (Cello Rock) One of their most popular songs, Spectrum of the Sky, has been a favorite Audiosurf track of mine for years. In approaching them about licensing it, I discovered Helix which also creates great gameplay. Enjoy these two!
Surgeryhead (Electro) An up and coming Irish musician working in the direction of bands like Carpenter Brut. Audiosurf 2 now includes two really great tracks from him: Revelations and She’s a Runaway.
Audiosurf 2 now comes bundled with 8 songs from Hamster Alliance, _ensnare_, and Aaron Jasinski! These tracks are all great rides in the game. Have fun!
Audiosurf 2 now comes bundled with 8 songs from Hamster Alliance, _ensnare_, and Aaron Jasinski! These tracks are all great rides in the game.
Audiosurf 2 now comes bundled with 8 songs from Hamster Alliance, _ensnare_, and Aaron Jasinski! These tracks are all great rides in the game. Have fun!
Audiosurf 2 now comes bundled with 8 songs from Hamster Alliance, _ensnare_, and Aaron Jasinski! These tracks are all great rides in the game.
Local music files still work great, but online streaming isn't working in Audiosurf 2 right now. A big streaming update is in development. EDIT: Beta testing now open
Local music files still work great, but online streaming isn't working in Audiosurf 2 right now. A big streaming update is in development.
EDIT: Beta testing now open http://steamcommunity.com/app/235800/discussions/0/350543951938541110/
Local music files still work great, but online streaming isn't working in Audiosurf 2 right now. A big streaming update is in development. EDIT: Beta testing now open
Local music files still work great, but online streaming isn't working in Audiosurf 2 right now. A big streaming update is in development.
EDIT: Beta testing now open http://steamcommunity.com/app/235800/discussions/0/350543951938541110/
In 2008, Dylan Fitterer released the first game to support Valve s Steamworks platform (other than Valve s own games, of course). You ve almost certainly heard of it: Audiosurf , a music game that builds courses around whatever song you feed into its algorithm. It s fitting, then
In 2008, Dylan Fitterer released the first game to support Valve s Steamworks platform (other than Valve s own games, of course). You ve almost certainly heard of it: Audiosurf, a music game that builds courses around whatever song you feed into its algorithm. It s fitting, then, that Fitterer would also be releasing the first music game on Valve s SteamVR platform. The biggest surprise of Valve s VR games showcase was his new game Audioshield, which charges you with punching along to the beat as music flies towards your face. If you think that sounds like a workout, you are very, very right.
More Vive games
I saw 11 other VR games coming to the Vive at Valve's recent event. Read about all of them here.
I like to unwind with Audioshield, Fitterer said when we spoke at the end of Valve s developer showcase. It allows you to make it as much of a fitness experience as you want. You can hold back and play more conservatively, or you can really go for it and punch at the incoming meteors. And then you really are getting more of a fitness element, which is what I like to do. At this point I ve added style points, so punching actually rewards you in gameplay terms. You punch hard, you get bonus points at the end.
Where Audiosurf is all about moving forward, in Audioshield you stand still; the music, analyzed by Fitterer's algorithm and sourced from Soundcloud or your personal library, comes to you. Lines of light blue and orange orbs fly towards you, and you block them with glowing shields on each arm. The left is blue, the right orange, with a translucent aesthetic that would be at home in Tron Legacy. The orbs pulse with the beat as they approach. Blocking them successfully often requires rapidly moving each arm from left to right, holding for a moment to catch a long chain, then whipping to the other side to catch a stray orb, then back for another chain. It s already a workout, but when a song kicks into high gear, the orbs start flying at you from above.
Bombing at you, as Fitterer likes to say. VR Missile Command inside a neon rave, set to your own music.
Earlier in development, all the orbs bombed at you, but Fitterer decided to segment it—partially because thrusting the controllers above your head for the duration of a song is, it turns out, pretty exhausting. But the exercise involved isn t an accident. When Fitterer first started prototyping in VR, he built an exercise bike game.
I built this Bluetooth accelerometer and ziptied it to one of the pedals of my exercise bike, he said, laughing. I built this little version of Audiosurf I guess, where the whole idea was to pedal faster the faster the music gets. Which is kinda how I exercise, I do that anyway. So I built some software that scored you on that, and I never actually got to the point of putting you in the headset because there were too many other reasons this was a bad idea. But it was cool, in a way. It was noisy. I d want to compete with myself to get faster and faster RPMs.
"As Audioshield becomes more difficult, it becomes more physically difficult."
After that, he moved on to VR support for Audiosurf 2. But he found it too intense for newcomers.
I started thinking, how can I take this and make it comfortable for people who are new to VR, who haven t really gotten to the point where a sinking stomach feeling can be a positive thing? So I started with tricking your brain [about] what s moving. Am I moving, or is the track moving towards me? I eventually decided what I really want is a player who s in proper room scale VR who only moves when they move.
Playing Audioshield brought back fond memories of working out with Wii Sport s simple but satisfying boxing minigame, and it didn t even occur to me until afterwards that I must ve looked absurd punching into the air and swiping my arms left and right to block as many orbs as I could. I was immersed. Even so, as I was having fun in the moment I felt like the minimalist design may border on being too simple—that there s not enough going on in Audioshield to make me want to don a headset to play it.
Perhaps that s down to my expectations for rhythm games. Japanese rhythm games deliver sensory overload as you slap buttons and screens to the beat. Where were the other colors, the score pop-ups and combos and intense effects in Audioshield? Would those things make the game better?
My feeling right now is that no, it doesn t need that, Fitterer said. Or at least not yet anyway. The purple blocks are a chord where you combine your two shields to make the purple. There s more chords you could do, or you could use buttons to change individual shields. There could be four colors. There are a lot of ways to make it a more involved game. Right now I m not thinking that s the direction I m going to take. Not yet, anyway. Right now it s as it becomes more difficult, it becomes more physically difficult. It s more about perceiving farther ahead in the music, doing a better job of anticipating. The game is giving you all this information about the future, really, what s going to happen in the song. Getting to the more advanced levels of play are all about reading that future better so you kind of prepare yourself for the next move and the one after that.
There are no more images for Audioshield yet, so here's one of Audiosurf 2.
Much as I like the information overload in rhythm games, I ve never played one in VR before. And as we re learning more and more, what works outside of VR isn t always what s best in VR. I wanted more feedback on how I was scoring as I played the game, but maybe that would ve just been distracting.
There s challenges when communicating things to players when they re in VR without breaking them out of this close connection, Fitterer said. It s you and the music. There s a little fragility to it that I don t want to mess up.
Audioshield as it stands represents about six months of work, and FItterer hopes to have it ready to launch with the Vive in a few months time. There s currently only one environment in the game, and he hopes to add another one before release. I asked about modding support, which seems an ideal way to give Audioshield more variety.
I think you re right on, and what I found with AUdiosurf 2 is the community is there and they do fantastic work, he said. There are so many awesome skins on the Audiosurf 2 workshop. I d love to do that again. I don t want to promise that, though, because it s a lot of work. So we ll see.
New update now available with improved camera and hover dynamics. The feeling of speed is better than ever. In official skins (except Dusk), the camera now moves out farther and in closer. Improved vehicle hover feel Fixed Mac workshop downloads Fixed gamepad text input for comme
New update now available with improved camera and hover dynamics. The feeling of speed is better than ever.
In official skins (except Dusk), the camera now moves out farther and in closer.
Improved vehicle hover feel
Fixed Mac workshop downloads
Fixed gamepad text input for comments and searches
Enhanced contrast on the Neon and Mystical skins (High and Ultra quality only)
Improved blocks on the Classic skin
Fixed black scene objects when playing Mystical in Low quality
Improved puzzle grid texture when playing in Low quality
Mystical skin no longer uses block size increases right before collision
Workshop skins can now stop block size increases using the "allow_mod_block_scaling" attribute. See Mystical for an example.
Neon skin now fades terrain lines out with distance
Workshop skins can use the new camera dynamics with the cameradynamics = "high" setting.
Changed dethroned email sending address. Please check your spam folder and mark them as not spam.
The old versions of the Stadium, Neon, and Classic skins are available on Workshop if you prefer the camera to zoom less: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552497461 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552497757 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552498059
New update now available with improved camera and hover dynamics. The feeling of speed is better than ever. In official skins (except Dusk), the camera now moves out farther and in closer. Improved vehicle hover feel Fixed Mac workshop downloads Fixed gamepad text input for comme
New update now available with improved camera and hover dynamics. The feeling of speed is better than ever.
In official skins (except Dusk), the camera now moves out farther and in closer.
Improved vehicle hover feel
Fixed Mac workshop downloads
Fixed gamepad text input for comments and searches
Enhanced contrast on the Neon and Mystical skins (High and Ultra quality only)
Improved blocks on the Classic skin
Fixed black scene objects when playing Mystical in Low quality
Improved puzzle grid texture when playing in Low quality
Mystical skin no longer uses block size increases right before collision
Workshop skins can now stop block size increases using the "allow_mod_block_scaling" attribute. See Mystical for an example.
Neon skin now fades terrain lines out with distance
Workshop skins can use the new camera dynamics with the cameradynamics = "high" setting.
Changed dethroned email sending address. Please check your spam folder and mark them as not spam.
The old versions of the Stadium, Neon, and Classic skins are available on Workshop if you prefer the camera to zoom less: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552497461 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552497757 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=552498059
Today's Deal: Save 50% on Audiosurf 2 !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Saturday at 10AM Pacific Time
Today's Deal: Save 50% on Audiosurf 2!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
Achievements added Audiosprint mode got a new dark skin, "Hollow" Audiosprint is now an official mode Audiosprint added "Go Crazy" blocks where both buttons must be held Audiosprint scoring now starts at 1,000,000 and decreases with mistakes Audiosprint perfect runs get bonus poi
Achievements added Audiosprint mode got a new dark skin, "Hollow" Audiosprint is now an official mode Audiosprint added "Go Crazy" blocks where both buttons must be held Audiosprint scoring now starts at 1,000,000 and decreases with mistakes Audiosprint perfect runs get bonus points for efficiency Fixed multiple gamepad detection in Audiosprint mode Cheat reporting (flag icons) Minimaps shown on scoreboards Scoreboard minimaps show when points were earned with vertical bars Low bit-rate songs now use their own scoreboards Updated engine to Unity 5 Fixed rapid-pause exploit
Happy Halloween!
Free Demo!
Skin Issues: Some community skins will need to be updated, mainly if any elements now appear hot pink. For those, the skin's shaders need to be recompiled using Unity 5 (available for free).
Achievements added Audiosprint mode got a new dark skin, "Hollow" Audiosprint is now an official mode Audiosprint added "Go Crazy" blocks where both buttons must be held Audiosprint scoring now starts at 1,000,000 and decreases with mistakes Audiosprint perfect runs get bonus poi
Achievements added Audiosprint mode got a new dark skin, "Hollow" Audiosprint is now an official mode Audiosprint added "Go Crazy" blocks where both buttons must be held Audiosprint scoring now starts at 1,000,000 and decreases with mistakes Audiosprint perfect runs get bonus points for efficiency Fixed multiple gamepad detection in Audiosprint mode Cheat reporting (flag icons) Minimaps shown on scoreboards Scoreboard minimaps show when points were earned with vertical bars Low bit-rate songs now use their own scoreboards Updated engine to Unity 5 Fixed rapid-pause exploit
Happy Halloween!
Free Demo!
Skin Issues: Some community skins will need to be updated, mainly if any elements now appear hot pink. For those, the skin's shaders need to be recompiled using Unity 5 (available for free).
When I was a student Winamp was the MP3 player of choice, with its fancy music visualizations that transformed your songs into wobbling oscilloscope lines or exploding starfields or psychedelic tunnels of light. As a music lover I ve always been jealous of people who experience s
When I was a student Winamp was the MP3 player of choice, with its fancy music visualizations that transformed your songs into wobbling oscilloscope lines or exploding starfields or psychedelic tunnels of light. As a music lover I ve always been jealous of people who experience synesthesia, the wiring in their brains letting them connect sensory data so they see sound or hear colors. The visualizations in MP3 players were the closest I thought I d ever get to that sensation without drugs.
Until Audiosurf came along.
Audiosurf synchronizes with a song of your choice and turns it into a twisting rollercoaster that rises as the music builds and plummets when the tempo increases, filled with colored blocks for you to dodge or collect that clump together in the song s most intense passages. Most of the time you play as a spaceship that hurtles over these pulsing neon tracks against a backdrop of inky blackness or a sheer white void, but one of the changes in Audiosurf 2 is that it lets you select from a variety of skins, just like Winamp did. They alter the way it looks, while leaving the game underneath the surface the same.
Audiosurf 2's default look.
Dusk in the wind
My favorite of these skins is Dusk, which replaces the sci-fi neon aesthetic with something much more low-key. Your spaceship becomes a car driving down a highway as the sun sets, headlights pooled in front. Admittedly you re driving on a highway that bends into surreal shapes and contains power-ups at the start of the corkscrew loops placed at key changes and choruses, but it s a far cry from the this is what it s like inside Skrillex s mind all the time look.
Sometimes there s a mountain in the distance, and sometimes you drive through built-up areas with either squat dark blocks of houses or bright-windowed skyscrapers clustered together. Occasionally you cross a bridge, or an overpass will cross you. The grey blocks you dodge in Mono mode are replaced with the tail-lights of cars you swerve between as you drive toward the white light that s your only destination at the end of the track.
It gets a little odd when I play Audiosurf 2 s wakeboard mode with the Dusk skin. In this mode, rather than trying to time it so you fill the grid behind your car (or spaceship, or little dude on skis) at precisely the moment you hit a big power-up block for bonus points, you try to fill the grid when you hit one of the song s peaks so you can leap off the track, tricking through the air like a psychedelic Tony Hawk. It makes for an odd contrast to see your very ordinary car spinning above the highway while Bangarang plays, but it is undeniably fun.
Something about being in a car just makes music sound better, and it s not because of fancy subwoofers. Even the tinny speakers buzzing in the doors of my teenage friends cars as we d drive up and down the main street at night I grew up in a small town, there wasn t much to do sounded amazing at the time. The real world sliding past passenger windows is the original music visualization and it s still hard to beat. In video games I get a similar enjoyment out of tooling around open world games, whether I m listening to Atomic by Blondie while riding a scooter through Vice City or hearing the main characters sing along to the radio in one of the Saints Row sequels.
I don t even own a car, but Audiosurf 2 lets me enjoy the head-clearing sensation of hitting the road and cranking the stereo up, getting out of town and not looking back (except for when I need check how full my grid of colored blocks is).
Fans of the Audiosurf games love to argue about which music makes for the best levels. Hyperfast dance music and metal tend to be the winners, since both create tracks full of incident and sudden flourishes of heavy traffic. Songs like Dragonforce s deedly-deedly guitar epic Through The Fire And Flames and Moby s 10 Thousand , named for the BPM it reaches at its peak, will give you that if it s what you re looking for. I d argue that straight-up pop music creates the most interesting tracks, that strong beats, dramatic key changes, and big choruses make the kind of bouncing and spiralling Audiosurf levels that are the most fun to play, that corkscrew you off into the sunset at the precise moment the singalong bit starts. Here s a playlist of some of my favorites, a mixtape you can put in your car next time you go driving in Dusk.
Sia, Elastic Heart
Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (obviously you have the entire Greatest Hits in your car, who doesn t?)
Robyn, Konichiwa Bitches
Orange Caramel, Catallena (K-pop is even more dynamic and full of shifts than western pop, perfect for Audiosurf)
Kylie Minogue, Confide In Me
Gary Numan, Cars
Chvrches, The Mother We Share
The Modern Lovers, Roadrunner
Ohio Players, Love Rollercoaster
Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush doesn t know this but she s actually one of the greatest video game level designers of all time)
Sorry about the downtime that started about 7PM (PST) last night. Leaderboards, popular songs, song of the day, dethrones, and challenges are all working again. There was a power outage at the server hosting company.
Sorry about the downtime that started about 7PM (PST) last night. Leaderboards, popular songs, song of the day, dethrones, and challenges are all working again.
There was a power outage at the server hosting company.
Sorry about the downtime that started about 7PM (PST) last night. Leaderboards, popular songs, song of the day, dethrones, and challenges are all working again. There was a power outage at the server hosting company.
Sorry about the downtime that started about 7PM (PST) last night. Leaderboards, popular songs, song of the day, dethrones, and challenges are all working again.
There was a power outage at the server hosting company.
Audiosurf 2 has now officially launched! Thanks so much for all the great feedback and support during early access! Free Demo! Launch Update Now Available: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one s
Audiosurf 2 has now officially launched! Thanks so much for all the great feedback and support during early access!
Free Demo!
Launch Update Now Available: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one search box New Skins: Dusk and Mystical Plus tons more
Audiosurf 2 has now officially launched! Thanks so much for all the great feedback and support during early access! Free Demo! Launch Update Now Available: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one s
Audiosurf 2 has now officially launched! Thanks so much for all the great feedback and support during early access!
Free Demo!
Launch Update Now Available: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one search box New Skins: Dusk and Mystical Plus tons more
Launch Update Now Available Free Demo! New UI: Added: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one search box Plus tons more
Launch Update Now Available
Free Demo!
New UI:
Added: Completely new UI Dethroned Email Notifications Regional Leaderboards Search your music collection and soundcloud from one search box Plus tons more
Audiosurf 2 , the game which allows you to ‘ride’ your music on a neon futuristic racetrack, has left Steam Early Access today. It brings an updated Audiosurf experience, with new official game modes and skins alongside the 500+ already available on Steam Workshop. Not only that,
Audiosurf 2 [official site], the game which allows you to ‘ride’ your music on a neon futuristic racetrack, has left Steam Early Access today. It brings an updated Audiosurf experience, with new official game modes and skins alongside the 500+ already available on Steam Workshop. Not only that, but according to the developer the “UI is good now”, which is always a plus.
