Future of Phase Shift - The road to Steam
May 20, 2018 17:08:10 GMT
David, Bluzer, and 19 more like this
Post by knapman [FD] on May 20, 2018 17:08:10 GMT
We have been talking about the future of Phase Shift recently. It has been really cool to see 8 years down the line people are still discovering and enjoying Phase Shift, something we certainly wouldn’t have predicted when we first started.
So we have been throwing around ideas for a long time now, but there have always been a lot of problems to address, some that were looking too large to manage before, but situations are always changing and here we are talking about Phase Shift again.
We have our personal targets we want to hit, the core pillars of getting a larger update together. Along with this we’ll be interested to hear from the community and work out what issues would be good to address. Right now we are specifically talking important improvements for an initial release, not long term wishlist functionality.
This thread will serve as a milestone plan, along with a way to get some feedback and gauge community interest.
One of the key goals (as given away by the title) is we’ll be bringing the game to Steam, this is core to moving forward, attempting to make the development of the project a sustainable effort. If we can make this work then it will allow us to really push the project forward.
Links
Charting progress
Anything below (that isn't being worked on already) let me know if you would like to help out.
New songs
Even the trees - Progress Avenue (in progress)
Wrong side of dawn - If I ever loved
Wrong side of dawn - The Grinders Tale
Existing songs with parts missing
Songs missing real drums
Nightmare Lyre - Psychosis (remix)
Freen in Green - Subterrain Steps
Songs missing dance
Nightmare Lyre - Psychosis (remix)
Freen in Green - Subterrain Steps
The Spin Wires - Girls Like You
ashglen - Let Me In
TRSOLP - Spur of the Moment
Current milestones / Task Progress
Ready
In Progress
Not Started
Song Progress
The current song goal for a first steam release is 8 songs minimum, with a maximum of 3 songs by the same artist for the first release, just to ensure variety. It is likely not every song we currently have will be usable in the steam release and if we can't hit the target then we'll need to add new songs to get this release out the door.
Songs usable
To be confirmed
Songs not usable
Artists / Bands
Brad Sucks
On Corinthians
Freen in Green
The Spin Wires
TRSOLPBBWPSAGASOASS
Even the Trees
Wrong side of Dawn
Nightmare Lyre
New Nobility
Attacking The Mind
Blair Zuppicich
Druox
Lockdown
Mad Mav
Muldjord (CC4.0)
Obsidian Shell (CC3.0)
Puppetz
SoulEye
Wooden Toaster
Lukhash
DalekSam
Goal progress
Beta release song target
Early Access song target - tbd
New song guidelines
We are looking for music so if you have music you would like us to put into the game feel free to contact us, but please check against our general guidelines.
Production quality - The songs need to be produced to a suitable standard, see the current game setlist as general reference. Any songs that sound like a generic midi would not be suitable as core setlist tracks. Multi-tracks are preferable.
Legal - We are looking for original content and we need to be talking to the owner of that content, if you have a label, they will need to be involved. We can not use covers. At this time we would only be able to agree to CC Attribution or comparable licenses.
Charting - Tracks need to be suitable to chart to all the primary gameplay modes so the core setlist can properly showcase the game (real keys / real guitar are not required).
Feedback / Requests
We'll do this in a more organised way later, once Early Access kicks off properly. This is just to keep notes of some of the early feedback so it doesn't get lost (these are not confirmed tasks, just things to review). At some point we may look into a Trello, certain tasks we will need to validate community interest to get them on the active task list etc. We will go over more specifics later down the line.
FAQ
Q. What does this mean for the non steam version of Phase Shift.
A. We don’t plan to hide or remove the old version, if people want to keep using the original / free versions then we are happy for people to do that.
Q. What will happen with the online functionality of the original version.
A. In the short term online should continue to be fully functional, at some point the paid hosting will expire but even after this time online can still be used with friends through the direct IP connection option.
Q. How much will the steam version cost?
A. This is to be worked out, but it will be cheap, expected sub 10quid range.
Q. I donated towards development of Phase Shift, do I need to buy the game?
A. As a thank you for supporting us, the plan is for all donors that supported the project before the time of this post will get a free steam key, including donations below the set price of the game.
We do need to confirm what we can and can’t do here, but assuming we are able, we will get his sorted out. We will provide more details as we figure things out.
So we have been throwing around ideas for a long time now, but there have always been a lot of problems to address, some that were looking too large to manage before, but situations are always changing and here we are talking about Phase Shift again.
We have our personal targets we want to hit, the core pillars of getting a larger update together. Along with this we’ll be interested to hear from the community and work out what issues would be good to address. Right now we are specifically talking important improvements for an initial release, not long term wishlist functionality.
This thread will serve as a milestone plan, along with a way to get some feedback and gauge community interest.
One of the key goals (as given away by the title) is we’ll be bringing the game to Steam, this is core to moving forward, attempting to make the development of the project a sustainable effort. If we can make this work then it will allow us to really push the project forward.
Links
Charting progress
Anything below (that isn't being worked on already) let me know if you would like to help out.
New songs
Even the trees - Progress Avenue (in progress)
Wrong side of dawn - If I ever loved
Wrong side of dawn - The Grinders Tale
Existing songs with parts missing
Songs missing real drums
Nightmare Lyre - Psychosis (remix)
Freen in Green - Subterrain Steps
Songs missing dance
Nightmare Lyre - Psychosis (remix)
Freen in Green - Subterrain Steps
The Spin Wires - Girls Like You
ashglen - Let Me In
TRSOLP - Spur of the Moment
Current milestones / Task Progress
Ready
In Progress
Not Started
- Improved online song checking, client shared song handling.
- Move over to a song library database system, to fix the extended load times when large song libraries are used and allow for better song management.
- Improve performance in the song list menu when too many songs are in a single folder.
- Improved load times of long songs.
- Solve the inevitable multiplayer service shutdown once and for all, move the online system over to Steam, include extra functionality such as friend invites etc.
- Improvements for servers when playing with higher latency clients
- Move achievements over to steam.
- Steam project / store setup.
- Identify and solve key stand out issues raised by the community, quality of life improvements.
- Investigate other suitable steam functionality.
- Add missing donor names to credits - let us know if your name is still missing.
- Explore hit window polish – this would be driven by community feedback.
- UI cleanup / polish.
- Investigate the bundle songs for a steam release, secure rights to a selection of songs to use with this version. We may need to get new songs if needed. Ideally have at least 8 for first release.
- Look into 6 fret guitar mode.
Song Progress
The current song goal for a first steam release is 8 songs minimum, with a maximum of 3 songs by the same artist for the first release, just to ensure variety. It is likely not every song we currently have will be usable in the steam release and if we can't hit the target then we'll need to add new songs to get this release out the door.
Songs usable
To be confirmed
Songs not usable
Artists / Bands
Brad Sucks
On Corinthians
Freen in Green
The Spin Wires
TRSOLPBBWPSAGASOASS
Even the Trees
Wrong side of Dawn
Nightmare Lyre
New Nobility
Attacking The Mind
Blair Zuppicich
Druox
Lockdown
Mad Mav
Muldjord (CC4.0)
Obsidian Shell (CC3.0)
Puppetz
SoulEye
Wooden Toaster
Lukhash
DalekSam
Goal progress
Early Access song target - tbd
New song guidelines
We are looking for music so if you have music you would like us to put into the game feel free to contact us, but please check against our general guidelines.
Production quality - The songs need to be produced to a suitable standard, see the current game setlist as general reference. Any songs that sound like a generic midi would not be suitable as core setlist tracks. Multi-tracks are preferable.
Legal - We are looking for original content and we need to be talking to the owner of that content, if you have a label, they will need to be involved. We can not use covers. At this time we would only be able to agree to CC Attribution or comparable licenses.
Charting - Tracks need to be suitable to chart to all the primary gameplay modes so the core setlist can properly showcase the game (real keys / real guitar are not required).
Feedback / Requests
We'll do this in a more organised way later, once Early Access kicks off properly. This is just to keep notes of some of the early feedback so it doesn't get lost (these are not confirmed tasks, just things to review). At some point we may look into a Trello, certain tasks we will need to validate community interest to get them on the active task list etc. We will go over more specifics later down the line.
- Vocals
- Pitch based real guitar support
- Mute vocal option (we have vocal volume control from main menu - assuming this is talking about something on the fly? or potentially an option that auto disables whenever not at native speed?)
- Ghost note (soft note) / Accent gems / Muted note (it could be good to go over handling of accents vs current rim note from a proper drum players perspective - this was some experimental stuff that we certainly could use more input on)
- Avoid breaking the law
- option to set range of pedal CONTROL_CHANGE values
- trello
- shared / valid song sorting for online
- click track / metronome
- coop career
- 6 fret guitar support
- 4 lane pro drums
- HO/PO open note
- server controls - kick option - song check before allow join
- show ping
- no sound spectator mode if player doesn't have song
- customs - midi share
- server log improvements (any specifics?)
- song format support - chart sgh tgh rb3con
- support custom fonts (we support custom fonts - but fonts are image based fonts)
- leaderboards
- multiple song folders
- lastfm / discord integration
- remove pitch / neck speed change in speed modes
- key binds
- use steam avatars
- theme option to show hitcount
- apng / mjpeg / avi as objects
- replays
- accuracy based score mode
- freestyle drum mode
- real drums extra notes - 1 extra tom / 2 extra cymbals
- real drums - cymbal choking, extended support for zones - rim / edge / bell
- Improved scaling - fullscreen for top down view
- Scoring based on the early / late / perfect hit timing result
- Alternative PS activation on drums that can be triggered at any time
- quicker ui setup for multiplayer?
- DJ Hero style turntable mode
FAQ
Q. What does this mean for the non steam version of Phase Shift.
A. We don’t plan to hide or remove the old version, if people want to keep using the original / free versions then we are happy for people to do that.
Q. What will happen with the online functionality of the original version.
A. In the short term online should continue to be fully functional, at some point the paid hosting will expire but even after this time online can still be used with friends through the direct IP connection option.
Q. How much will the steam version cost?
A. This is to be worked out, but it will be cheap, expected sub 10quid range.
Q. I donated towards development of Phase Shift, do I need to buy the game?
A. As a thank you for supporting us, the plan is for all donors that supported the project before the time of this post will get a free steam key, including donations below the set price of the game.
We do need to confirm what we can and can’t do here, but assuming we are able, we will get his sorted out. We will provide more details as we figure things out.