This has been well worth the wait, an amazing amount of polish considering that it's only a beta release.
Learnt the ropes on some Chopin, challenged myself with a little Hip Hop, and then plunged straight into dubstep. The merits etc of this game have already been said really, so I'll move straight onto the suggestions.
1. The Double Vision Pro character. That idea has basically made the game for me. My girlfriend and I sat and played this game for 2 hours straight with that character. Inspired genius. At any one time we'd be shouting "Red! Red! Get that red!" at each other. But there's some things that could make it even better.
- I noticed that no matter who caused the pileup, the respawning meter appeared on the right hand side player. I know it's not hard to work out who it was, but it's just a minor thing that bugs me.
- The powerups, again, only seemed to go to the player on the right hand side (the one using the mouse)
- Not a suggestion for the character... but there should be a competition mode. Akin to Double Vision Pro, except battling eachother to get the highest score for that song. Perhaps have battle power ups as well?
- Allow both players to use the keyboard if they want to. I prefer the keyboard over the mouse, as does my girlfriend. Is there plans for a customise controls option?
2. Free Ride Mode. Such a great inclusion, but so little incentive to use it.
- Not sure what I want to say about this mode. I'd love it to be more... grabbing more immersive. Perhaps have more visuals for it? You could really go to town on the free ride mode as you wouldn't have to worry about the score, colour blocks etc.I found myself leaving it on when I was having my dinner, so maybe a setting to automate the car could be curious?
3. Just some general random ideas.
- Someone mentioned it earlier, but having songs mix into each other if the player could select multiple songs.
- Perhaps a mode where the song's beats/climaxes etc (the information it analyses already) could be used somehow to create NPCs that shoot at you. Maybe a boss battle?
- Sort of mentioned this before. But make the backgrounds more... active, more music influenced animations happening in the background. Pulsating oceans, or clouds that burst at one of the song's breaks.. Eventually let the Player decide how he'd like the beats to be represented. Flashing colours, pulsating car... could be quite varied.
- Last thing is the medals. I've noticed that the scores it sets you are rather small and easy to achieve. I'm thinking the algorithm for that should be a bit more harsh.
So aye, I absolutely adore this game and hope that you continue to develop it until you decide to go for an Audiosurf 2. And then continue to develop that. Seriously think that this is one of the most important game releases of 2008.
Never stop coding. Please.
Strings
Edit: Just read that one of the devs was surprised that people preferred the keyboard over the mouse. For me, it's because there's too few lanes to justify the inaccuracy of mouse input.
If there was a mode where you had like 6 lanes of traffic (please please do it), then you'd HAVE to use the mouse or you'd wear your fingers down to nubs heh.
