This week’s update is focused heavily on getting the Setlist Builder.
There’s also been some nice progress on Venue Mode, with more systems now feeding into Vibe Match, especially for custom songs that don’t have a defined genre.
New Feature - Setlist Builder in Online Jam Sessions
The Setlist Builder is now available in Online Jam Sessions.
That means players can now build out multi-song sets online instead of treating each song as a totally separate performance. This is a big step toward making online sessions feel more like actual shows instead of disconnected picks.
Venue Mode - Expanded Vibe Match Support
Additional song parameters are now eligible for Vibe Match in Venue Mode.
This is especially important for custom songs that do not have a defined genre, since previously there was less information to work from when evaluating how well a song fit a venue.
What Are Venues?
When Venue Mode is toggled on in the Setlist Builder, a venue will be selected at random.
Each venue currently has:
a name
an energy
liked genres
disliked genres
Energy
A venue’s energy can be:
Low
Medium
High
This relates to the BPM range that venue prefers.
Choosing songs with a BPM closer to the venue’s expected energy level will give you a better Vibe Match score.
For songs with no defined genre, energy is weighted much more heavily since there are fewer other defining features to evaluate.
Likes
These are the genres the venue prefers.
Choosing songs with those genres will increase your Vibe Match score.
Dislikes
These are the genres the venue would rather avoid.
You can still pick them, but your Vibe Match may increase less, or in some cases even go down.
Looking Ahead - Future Venue Systems
There is a lot more planned for venues in the future, and many more venues will be added over time.
Future venue considerations will include things like:
song tags
note density
instrument spread
and more
So while Venue Mode is already functional, it is still just the beginning of where this system is headed.
Setlist Builder Improvements
This patch also includes a lot of polish work on the Setlist Builder itself:
Added fancier animations
Hardened the UX flow
Added some placeholder art assets to Venue Mode
Setlist songs can now be re-ordered
Setlist songs can now be removed individually instead of having to clear the full set
Filling the setlist no longer starts the set immediately
Once the setlist is full, the UI now updates to tell you to press and hold Start to begin the set
These changes should make building sets feel a lot smoother and more intentional.
Looking Ahead - Setlists
Setlists are one of the core systems planned for the world tour mode. When you play shows in world tour, they will be majority setlists, and will performed in venues. So while the system is a just-for-fun thing at the moment, it's being added to free-play to give you a taste of one of the core gameplay mechanics.
In the future, set order will also become part of the equation.
When making setlists in venues, some venues may prefer:
a steady pacing across the set
songs that get faster over time
alternating pacing like slow / fast / slow
Other Changes
A few other useful improvements made it into this patch as well:
Song Selection UI slightly modified to accommodate the new setlist panel
Song preview pause / resume has been moved to Right Stick Click by default
Heat levels now update in real time, allowing players to see the heat for whichever difficulty is currently selected
Initial run tutorial was slightly reshuffled to accommodate the new UI layout and one additional gate was added explaining difficulty selection note that players will likely see these 2 difficulty popups one time as they won't have those flagged as complete yet, you can just skip past them
Fixes
This update also includes a number of fixes and additional hardening:
Fixed an issue with content sync sometimes getting confused when certain file paths contained duplicate songs
Fixed a number of issues with the Setlist Builder getting stuck
Additional hardening of the online join flow
This is a pretty important step for both online sessions and the longer-term World Tour direction.
Thanks to the community for the feedback, testing, and bug reports!
As always, keep jammin~
Frank, Restless Games