No Love For This Game? It Could Be So Great!

[deadman_uk]

I purchased this game over a year ago and while I still love it to bits, I feel no love for it. I have noticed nothing new since I purchased it, apart from a few bug fixes (which are always welcome). I am thinking if some care and love were put into this game once again, it could be improved dramatically. I am not talking so much about gameplay, more do to with the visuals and interface.

If the Audiosurf creator doesn't want, or hasn't got time to spice up this game, why can't the public do it? Not only would it bring in more money via purchases but we, the loyal fans would get a more polished game. Please vote in the poll above. Things I think would be nice:

- Menu revamped to improve flow and speed
- Scrollbar within song browser improved (very clumsy)
- Ability to search a song within song browser
- Ability to type the first letter of a song/artist and the song browser takes you there AND then being able to use the arrow keys to move down the list (without it reverting to the last song name)
- Ability to retag your songs in game after setting a score
- Ability to preview a song before playing
- Ability to set a default directory
- Improved visuals and more variety of in game background

There is a game I played called Frets on Fire and the community came together to try and improve it and boy, what they have now is amazing. I believe the Audiosurf community can achieve something similar if the SDK were to be released. Here is a comparison:



Would my suggestions be nice do you think? I even think people would pay again just to have these features, I know I would!

[Laserrobotics]

Well, your comparison is a bit flawed because FoF was an extremely basic game that simply allowed a lot of modding freedom.  Audiosurf is already pretty fleshed out, and has a considerable amount of modding freedom as well.

Also, a lot of the stuff you suggested has either been done or is invalidated by a couple different addons people have made, the one I use being ViRUS's YAAP.

On another topic, how do you get the backgrounds on FoF?  Couldn't find anything like that when I was dling stuff for it.

[deadman_uk]

Well, your comparison is a bit flawed because FoF was an extremely basic game that simply allowed a lot of modding freedom.  Audiosurf is already pretty fleshed out, and has a considerable amount of modding freedom as well.

Also, a lot of the stuff you suggested has either been done or is invalidated by a couple different addons people have made, the one I use being ViRUS's YAAP.

On another topic, how do you get the backgrounds on FoF?  Couldn't find anything like that when I was dling stuff for it.

FoF needed a lot of work to get it how it is today, Audiosurf has reached half it's potential already, but still a lot of room for improvement. The FoF community has done much more than just enhanced the visuals. They have made the game almost the same as Guitar Hero, with 90% the same features... you can even use a guitar in game. I agree Audiosurf is pretty fleshed out, but visually it could look so much better and I strongly believe the points I made about the interface are valid.

I fail to see the comparison between "YAAP" and my suggestions. The only thing I can say is YAAP has a playlist option, but it's other feature are of no interest to me. I don't want to hide the road, the blocks, the songtitles, I don't want to cheat the game by increasing the amount of white blocks or play with 4 lanes. If a lot of stuff I suggested already exists, please show me where.

About the FoF background, you can download guitar hero wallpapers or custom make your own and put them in the correct folder in the FoF directory. The game will then cycle through the backgrounds on each song. I got my game to be almost exactly the same as Guitar Hero, with all their songs, as well as hundreds of custom songs. You need a new build of FOFix too. I still prefer Audio Surf though, I just wish it got some love.

[blue_h3x]

YAAP allows song browsing, continuous playing and song tagging to make use of the extra 'hidden' modes of the game.

You can change the visual of AS easily enough as well, with a few mods floating about and a tool made by myself (see ASTMan).

The major hit would be the closed source premium game engine AS is based upon. To allow community modding (past what is available already) the community would need to buy a licence for this software and Dylan release the encrypt/decrypt keys for the game files.

I'd like to see more in the game, but for this game I don't see it as much of an option.

[Mincus]

Frets on Fire is open source, so it's not an 'SDK' it's the full source code that's free for anyone to download, modify and submit patches for. It doesn't really compare to Audiosurf's closed source nature.

As hex pointed out, even if Dylan was willing this wouldn't really be practical.
Audiosurf uses Quest3D.
Quest3D is a very expensive package.
It pretty much ends there.

Additionally I simply don't think that the Audiosurf community is large enough to support this. The biggest issues with Audiosurf are not the visuals, but the niggling little bugs like it losing performance over time, having huge memory leaks when reloading textures, taking 10-15 seconds to close after clicking quit and as you mentioned the 'jump to song' resetting when using arrow keys/mouse wheel.
Some of these bugs are easy to fix, some require some pretty deep investment in time (the performance issue one for example I think would require an engine rewrite, I don't think Questviewer is capable of improving on it) and I would question if there are enough people in the community with the technical skills (and the time) to fix these.

Honestly, I don't think Audiosurf needs any visual improvement. It looks good enough as it is. There are some additional customisations that could make it look cooler (being able to change the road model, ship models, scenery models) but ultimately the visuals are of a high enough quality right now.
I would also question again whether there are enough people in the community to create the models/etc to truly enhance the visuals rather than just change them.

The short answer to all this is that it's not likely to happen and even if it were it would require anyone working on it to buy Quest3D (http://quest3d.com/index.php?id=156) for which the cheapest version is €599 (might even need one of the more expensive versions). Much as I love this game, I don't love it €599.

If someone in the community were willing to go along with an engine rewrite, it might be possible. But that's a bit of a dodgy issue with all the indie clones flying around these days and it's unlikely they'd get the music analysis software identical.

EDIT: Misread, it's not €599, that's the upgrade edition. It's €1249 for the cheapest full version.

[S.]

1: Buy AS
2: Play AS
3: Play AS some more
4: Play AS, but with YAAP and other addons
5: Get bored of AS
6: Stop playing AS
7: Play another game.

It's as simple as that. If you're at phase 5, then accept that you are and move on to phase 6.



On another node: I see where you're coming from. But AS is fine as is IMO (except for some balancing issues). All other stuff would be nice to have, but there's a workaround for that (or if there isn't, it isn't such a big deal anyway).

If the SDK got released, I'd be happy. But I'm not willing to force Dylan to do it. It's his choice.

[Cadiuro]

Eagle, you forgot phase 8: Repeat from step 2.

Also, I'm also not really asking for a mayor overturn of the game. After all, it's an indie-game from 2008, made by a very select team and it had a lot of updates and changes while it was still "hot".

I do agree that there still are some serious bugs and balance issues out there, but they don't bother me enough to get annoyed with the game because of them.

[ViRUS]

The only thing I'm worried about is Audiosurf's compatibility with the future.
I mean, you have to run a freaking .bat file when using some AMD 6-core processors; I wonder how will Audiosurf handle new operating systems/hardware...

[blue_h3x]

Will be like all those dusty games from days of old.

[deadman_uk]

Is there any chance of Dylan making an Audiosurf II and selling it as a separate game? Would the money be enough motivation?

[blue_h3x]

Was mentioned before, though there's no official word. We're probably more likely to see Duke Nuken Forever 2 than Audiosurf 2.

AS2 would have to have a major reason for people to buy it, the genre is rather stagnant at the moment. The elite hardcore fans would buy it but that's hardly going to sell a million copies like AS did. Just UI tweaks and bug fixes would not warrant a new game, so extra play modes would need to be developed.

[chimaeraUndying]

As much as I hate to jump on this bandwagon,

... extra play modes would need to be developed.

Online/LAN co-op! Also, Dylan could just pick the five or so best balanced characters from the character suggestions thread and implement those, as well.

Perhaps something like Beat Hazard's survival mode as well, where the game runs through your entire music library and you play until you overflow - no scores on it, though. Some sort of "Time Survived" acheivement/profile badge might do it.

Deeper player modifications (being able to customize one's ship further is the one that springs to mind) would also  probably help it sell better.

[GeoLuz]

Was mentioned before, though there's no official word. We're probably more likely to see Duke Nuken Forever 2 than Audiosurf 2.

AS2 would have to have a major reason for people to buy it, the genre is rather stagnant at the moment. The elite hardcore fans would buy it but that's hardly going to sell a million copies like AS did. Just UI tweaks and bug fixes would not warrant a new game, so extra play modes would need to be developed.

I think it's more likely that there is a greater probability of Duke Nukem Forever 2 than Audiosurf 2 because of the popularity of the franchise's icon, Duke Nukem. Audiosurf seems to be in need of something new, something fresh. It's been nearly 2 years since the October 1, 2009 update. Something new would not necessarily warrant an Audiosurf 2.

[deadman_uk]

I don't see my suggestions being so much of a problem, I certainly am not asking for new content, but I welcome it, if created.

[S.]

One word:

Hats