Most of the work currently being done goes into the upcoming new song browser but isn't ready for you to try, yet. But we've also done work in a few others areas and that's what this release is about:
Holodance now has Trading Cards
I feel really bad now ... because ... Trading Cards have been available since August 27, 2017, and I only told the people in our Official Holodance Discord Channel. For lack of an official announcement with a lot more details: We have 9 trading cards, themed with our environments from both Story and Free Mode. When you complete a set and craft a badge, you can get one of 5 profile backgrounds and one of 8 alphabet-based emoticons ... that spell out HOLODANCE. Which also lets you write things like HELLO, or DANCE, or DOODLE.
The badges themselves are themed in the five elements, so that's based on Story Mode.
Story Mode, Level 5 Preview
There's ongoing work on Story Mode, Level 5 - and we're hoping to get some feedback if you don't mind the spoiler (Level 4 is not ready, yet, so jumping right into Level 5 in its current state can be a spoiler), here's some more info: Early Access / Spoiler: Level 5 Animation Preview on Alpha Branch
Flashing Lights Comfort Setting
Also, we did some work on the "I feel comfortable with ... Flashing Lights" comfort setting. This should now be fully functional in the Virtual Clubbing environment (which is the environment that does have quite a bit of flashing lights). This is not just about photosensitive epilepsy but there are actually quite a few people that don't like or feel uncomfortable when there are flashing lights. So when you uncheck that box, which means you don't feel comfortable with flashing lights, the intensity in Virtual Clubbing is significantly reduced.
If you don't uncheck that box, you get a warning before entering that level. I hope the warning isn't annoying for anyone but it's certainly less annoying than going into this level unprepared, if you are sensitive to flashing lights.
JSON-Files Documentation
We store quite a bit of information locally into JSON files that you are free process whichever way you like ... like ... you could review all of your sessions, including how your scores came about. To make this process easier, we have added a few readme-files in a readme folder in the game installation folder. This is fairly technical stuff, so probably not interesting for most people - but those who are interested will hopefully like it ;-)
Full List of Release Notes
- Fixed bug we introduced in previous version that caused the note source in all the environments from story mode (except Level 10) to almost immediately go way above the player, making those environments unplayable.
- Improved choreography in Experimental Area / Level 2: Instead of doing a full 360° from the "forward-facing" position, which is really awkward, Vayusah now first goes 180° to the left, then 360° to the right. That way, the maximum angle turned from the forward-facing direction is 180° but we still get a 360° turn section. Also, the choreography now ends forward facing for this song, so the animation after the song doesn't end up with Vayusah flying away from the player before he says good-bye.
- Removed movement in Experimental Level 2 because it was confusing. Currently, this is only about testing the playability of the rotations of the dragon around the player. Movement will be there in advanced levels in the actual game and we may also add this back here at a later point in time, but for now this does not make sense.
- Dancing animations in the experimental levels no longer rely on root motion. Instead, after each animation, we check what kind of rotation / movement it was and then apply that as a discrete rotation / translation. As cool as root motion is, it actually turned out to cause a lot of trouble for the animation workflow, so as much as we can, we replace it with another approach.
- Finished the implementation of "Likes Flashes" comfort setting and also added an epilepsy warning before entering the Virtual Clubbing environment, if the "Likes Flashes" comfort setting is active. If this is disabled (i.e. player says "I don't like Flashes"), the main lightshow in the Virtual Clubbing level won't show up (this starts when you have activated the 4x multiplier by catching 48 orbs in a row without missing one). Basically, if you have been clubbing in real-world clubs with light-shows and feel comfortable there, entering Virtual Clubbing should not be a problem for you. We don't have actual stroboscopes in there - just moving spot-lights that flash on and off. But still, better be safe than sorry!
- Story Mode: Major progress in the preview of Level 5. The gameplay mechanics (outside of the actual song which is not ready, yet) now are pretty much solid; most of the animations are done except for polishing and there are a few jumps here and there due to incomplete animations. But we're getting there now, and fast.
- "I feel comfortable with ... Flashes" is now called "I feel comfortable with ... Flashing Lights" which is probably more clear. Also, when this is deactivated, the Particle Intensity (from the Virtual Clubbing performance settings) is clamped between 0.0 and 0.2, so while you can still get the effect in that mode, it is much more subtle than it is when you have "Flashing Lights" activated.
- Added READMEs with documentation for some of the JSON-files we use to persistently store various kinds of information locally. All those documentation files are under the folder README in the game folder (where Steam stores the game).
- Fixed an issue with how the "actualBonus..." values were stored in the recordings that make processing these values in 3rd party apps much more complex and error prone.
- Updated animations in Level 5.