Audiosurf Air > Discussion

Thinking A Lot About Audiosurf

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Red21:
I'm a long time and huge fan of this game and was really thrilled by the announcement of a new game. I really want it to be better and more successful, and over the years I've thought a lot about how to do this.

One of the biggest problems with Audiosurf I have noticed is that it's essentially two games, mono and coloured. The mono game is simple and easy to get into, the others are more challenging and rewarding. Most of the friends I introduced the game to only played mono, loved it, but quickly got bored and moved on, becoming frustrated by the impossibility of getting high scores. Mono arguably looks a lot better as well, because it's more stylized and themed. It looks like an artistically made desert, whereas the coloured modes can look like one of those ice creams that kids make, covered with sprinkles and with everything that they like piled on, even if they don't taste very good together. I usually play pointman, and as much as I love it, it's not at all intuitive how to get the highest scores. I started off trying to grab a Paint power up, building up to 21 blocks, and then applying the paint for one huge score, completely unaware of all the chaining and other score multiplying systems hidden away under the hood. I found out about those later when I came on the forums.

You shouldn't have to do that. When you play Tetris, it is immediately apparent how to get the high scores, even if doing it in practice can be very difficult. It's easy to learn but hard to master. With audiosurf you have to choose between easy to learn (mono) OR hard to master (coloured). Why should we have to choose? Why can't we have one game mode that takes the best of both worlds?

So the biggest challenge to my mind is reconciling the two game modes into one experiece that
- Looks good (like mono)
- Easy to learn and intuitive (like mono)
- Lots of strategies (like colour)
- Big potential for high scores (like colour)
- Impossible to play "perfect" game (like colour)

That's not to say there can't still be lots of modes and characters, but I don't think anyone really likes having to make an either/or decision of style vs. variety, or simplicity vs. high score potential. There should be a core game experience that takes the best of everything people love about the modes we have at the moment.

My second point is to echo those made by some reviews: a little media player functionality would go a long way. Going through folders can be a pain if you do it a lot. I should be able to make playlists and stuff. There are lots of great media players out there as examples, so I needn't go into too much detail on this.

Finally, another thing about the game I find quite sad at the moment is that most tracks played on the same mode look very similar, when the game is actually capable of a lot of variety. We have options to invert colours, and change sound effects, but they don't really get used. I think a really smart thing for the game to do would be to give me options for the look of the song that I am about to play. So for example, if I play Purple Rain, I could specify beforehand for the game to adopt a purple colour theme. If I'm playing Ziggy Stardust, I could specify a "Stars" visual theme. Steamworks could then collect all the data on the decisions people made for each track and save the most popular one as the recommended mode. So If I buy the new Mastodon album, and I don't know what options to choose because I don't know what it's going to sound like, the game will default to the most popular options chosen by other people who've played it. There might have to be formulas working under the hood (ie, if 1 in 8 or your options is yellow, and people rarely pick it, the games still makes sure 1 in 8 tracks is yellow, by assigning it to those where it was most popular), but in principle I think this can work, and would really improve visual variety.

Hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope Audiosurf Air is great.

S.:
Post makes sense, except for the part where mono looks better than puzzle.

This is VERY subjective. Not sure how you're gonna blend mono and puzzle into one single mode though :/

Besides, Puzzle IS easy to learn, hard to master. Especially considering the fact that the tutorial teaches you puzzle and not mono. Simply make matches of 3.

aeminence:
There are technical skills and strategies to learn in order to get competitively high scores in Tetris that aren't so intuitive. Some brands of Tetris have a multiplier for consecutive line clears (combos), similar to the chain in Audiosurf. It'd be hard to find a mode rewarding if it were easy to master yet had high score potential, not to mention its contribution to the already present imbalance between modes atm.

blue_h3x:
Some good points, though I'll agree with S on things being subjective. There's a whole thread on such things here.

There would be no point a mode that was easy to pick up and high scoring, it would just break the game (more) and cause more imbalance. Although, another game mode would be good for a change.

GeoLuz:
Some good points regarding gameplay, but I'll have to say that puzzle looks better than mono and is more interesting. Puzzle takes quite a bit of time to master, most especially on elite. Therefore, a lot of practice is necessary and the puzzle mode was designed in a way that it's hard to master. I agree with the media functionality suggestion since it can make the game feel more like your music player.

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