R&B (Rhythm & Bippy) + Game Dev VODs (Patreon)

April is over, and it was quite a busy month!

We've been finally reaching out to some artists to get involved on Tough Bippy, and we're hoping to really start pushing the project forward with a lot of momentum thanks to that. We've been in the process of putting together reference sheets, as well as any other materials that the team can work off of as a starting point visually.

We have been working with a few musicians on some original songs for the rhythm game, with one in the process of being charted as a playable song in the first test build we'll be putting up. Originally we had been setting up charts for a song that we were in the process of getting licensed for the game - but it ended up a bit too complex of a situation so we've been working with a musician on an original composition for the first test build.

Our second game development stream VOD collection is up for download, and we'll be getting another one uploaded later in the month! This month will be going towards finalizing this song for the rhythm game, alongside readying our art team on Tough Bippy. We want to thank everyone again for sticking by over all this time - and we are extremely thankful getting to work with some really talented and cool people.

Thanks again for your continued support - now let's get to the updates!

We've been finalizing an original song for the rhythm game's test build. With some other musicians, we're still waiting to hear back regarding licensing. The Patreon test build features a pretty basic interface allowing the player to configure their settings or to try out the first test song on any difficulty using either 4 Button mode or 7 Button mode. We are currently in the process of finalizing notecharts for the first song alongside ensuring stability for the first build.

( The test build's start menu allows you to choose your mode, difficulty, or change your settings! )

Be sure to check out the configuration menu the first time you boot up the game, since you'll want to be sure things are custom tailored to your liking alongside having a first time A/V sync test to ensure gameplay is synced up properly. You're also able to change your settings around by opening up the Config.ini that is in the game's directory.

Display Settings allows you to change what resolution the game runs at, enabling v-sync, as well as what framerate the game's logic will be running at. Setting the Game FPS to a higher value will allow the game to be much more precise with your timing since the game will be taking more inputs per second. V-Sync will prevent screen tearing, but we'd recommend against its use if you want much more precise timing while playing.

While you can adjust volume levels in the Audio Settings menu - you can also locate two very important options here. Minimizing audio latency can be done by enabling ASIO Output, as this will have your audio hardware get exclusively linked to the game. We highly recommend using ASIO if you want to have the most synced up experience playing the game. Note Sample Prediction is used by the game to determine how to handle samples that play each time you hit a note. Turning this option off means that note samples will not be synced to the music so perfect timing may sound off based on your latency. You can also set Note Samples to AUTO if you want to disable use of individual note samples.

If you want to adjust where certain UI elements are positioned, the visibility of certain effects or parts of the game's layout, you can find all the options beneath the Visual Settings menu. You can adjust the visibility of the judgment scale, the brightness of the lanes in-game, as well as minor tweaks (like disabling the notes from bouncing to the beat).

Control Settings is where you can go to map your controls for keyboard or gamepad. If you want to reset your controls, a few different control schemes are available as presets to use. (Player 2's controls are not be mappable in the first test build.)

Be sure to use the A/V Sync tools we have available if it's your first time running the game, as it's important to have audio be offset accordingly with your setup. When reporting feedback, be sure to also enable the FPS Counter (under "Debugging Tools") and let us know what the game ran at on average.

All modifiers can be set within the Game Modifiers menu - we highly recommend first players figuring out what Note Speed works best for them! You may want to try a different note skin if the notes in-game feel too hard to read on screen. In later versions, you'll be setting your modifiers before heading into a song.

When we launch the test build - we'll make sure to give plenty of information and instructions in the Patreon post that accompanies it. Silver and gold backers will have access to the test build, and we're hoping to finish up implementation of the first test song during this month. When the build goes live we'd appreciate as much feedback as possible about how the game performed, how it felt, if the UI was easy to parse while playing, and what your system specs are. Our hope is that through a few test builds and receiving enough feedback, we can ensure the game running smoothly on most setups.

( Use the password wanwandev to access the newest stream VOD archive! ) ~ CLICK HERE

More VODs from our game development streams are now available so feel free to grab them by clicking here ! Game development streams will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays on twitch.tv !

Be sure to check back later this month when we upload more game development streams!

We've been working with some new artists we've brought onto Tough Bippy this month! Our goal is to start heavily prioritizing Tough Bippy and really get it moving. Priorities have been reassessed and we've structured our approach to the project very differently, as we are hoping to give a lot more room for flexibility to promise moving the game forward.

( Color palettes are able to work on our high resolution art similar to how they did with pixel art! )

One of the most major changes to Tough Bippy is happening visually - as the game is now utilizing much higher resolution artwork. While it may read as a visual upgrade, we're technically utilizing this new visual style because it takes significantly less time to output compared to the pixel art style we were utilizing previously.

( All our previous animation work can still be used - the process for clean-up is all that changed. )

Running at a higher resolution has granted a lot more openness towards the game's design itself, since we no longer have to focus our design on a fixed screen size. All of these changes have given us a much more lenient space to work within visually, and one that is much less limited.

It was a long road but we are really happy to have an opportunity to work with so many cool artists on Tough Bippy. We really want to thank everyone for their patience after such a long time, and we hope that we can put together something amazing here for everyone to play.

Thank you all again for your continued support. It has been very exciting working on moving things forward with the art team, and we're going to try the best we can now that we're finally at a point of being able to get things moving in the way we always needed to. We'll be uploading another stream VOD compilation to Patreon later this month, and we'll of course be doing some more game development streams on Twitch.

Our goal for the year is not only to give you guys a bit of something to play with the rhythm game test build around the corner, but to also have a lot happening towards Tough Bippy - allowing it to really begin to take form and move ahead as a project. While music plans changed a bit this month, we almost have a new song and chart prepared for the rhythm game so we can have a proper test up for silver and gold patrons.

We seriously cannot thank you all enough for sticking by, and we're really excited to have the privilege to work with so many talented artists on Tough Bippy. Stay tuned for more updates!

~DD