Updated the third-party library "BASS" on Windows and Linux to its latest version, for Steam Deck compatibility.

[ 2022-10-26 13:17:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape 2 is now available in Early Access!

Run to the rhythm of your own music library! Melody is back, with vastly improved audio analysis algorithms! Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1829470/Melodys_Escape_2/

Key Features

• Use your own music library: works with any digital music file from your hard drive. MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, M4A and many more DRM-free formats are supported!
• Includes 14 licensed music tracks with hand-mapped levels (with various musical styles)
• Works with almost all music genres and styles!
• Each action input is synchronized to the music
• New music analysis algorithms, with vastly improved tempo detection!

I hope that you enjoy this sequel to Melody's Escape! Your feedback is very much appreciated and welcomed on Melody's Escape 2's Discussions Forum and the official Discord server melogold Loc meloblue

[ 2022-09-30 16:05:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape 2 is releasing in a week from now, on Friday September 30 in Early Access on Steam! Make sure to WISHLIST it now if you don't want to miss the release! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1829470/Melodys_Escape_2/ I've also setup a Discord Server for the community, feel free to join us here:
While you wait, here are previews of 2 songs included with Melody's Escape 2, each highlighting a different musical and play style, one focused on the beat and the other focused on held voices: Shirobon - Fox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIClsuNuQ4 aeseaes - Any Body https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZAbbpO3Pr0 See you next week! meloblue melogold Loc

[ 2022-09-23 19:58:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today I would like to talk about the Character Customization in the upcoming Melody's Escape 2 (early access). Many of you have asked me if Workshop will be supported once again, and the answer is yes! I love the creativity of the ME community! While the Workshop support won't be available at the release of the first Early Access version, it will be one of the first priority on the roadmap. In Melody's Escape 2, you will have access to many customization options to change the appearance of Melody:

• Character Skin selection
• Character Color Schemes (you can select from a wide variety of color palettes that will automatically work with any skin)
• Hairstyle selection
• Headphones selection

The selection will be limited at first, as my main focus was on developing the game itself, but more skins will be added during Early Access! (as well as the Workshop feature) Make sure to [WISHLIST] if you would like to be kept up to date! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1829470/Melodys_Escape_2/ Some examples of cosmetic choices:


Loc meloblue

[ 2022-08-18 19:09:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, it's been a while! meloblue I am pleased to announce the sequel to my music game: Melody's Escape 2! melogold Melody is back, in 3D and with vastly improved audio analysis algorithms! melohp Check out the trailer on the new Steam Store page for ME2: (and be sure to [WISHLIST] if you would like to be kept up to date!) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1829470/Melodys_Escape_2/
Thank you, and I hope that you will enjoy this new musical adventure! Loc meloblue

[ 2022-06-11 19:01:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape has left Early Access and has now officially launched! I would like to personally thank the community for all the amazing support and feedback received during this Early Access phase! ːmelogoldː This 1.0 update adds 6 amazing music tracks from Shirobon. ːmeloblueː (including the song from the game's trailer, "Regain Control"). Each track's obstacle course was meticulously manually mapped for perfect synchronization with the game. Loïc

[ 2016-05-20 19:16:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape has left Early Access and has now officially launched! I would like to personally thank the community for all the amazing support and feedback received during this Early Access phase! :melogold: This 1.0 update adds 6 amazing music tracks from Shirobon. :meloblue: (including the song from the game's trailer, "Regain Control"). Each track's obstacle course was meticulously manually mapped for perfect synchronization with the game. Loc

[ 2016-05-20 19:16:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Major Changes

• Added 6 amazing music tracks from Shirobon! (including the song from the game's trailer, "Regain Control"). Each track's obstacle course was meticulously manually mapped for perfect synchronization with the game. You can find those songs in the "Bundled Music" menu in the Music Selection screen.
• The main menu now has music ːmeloblueː

Minor Changes

• Reduced the terrain's "waviness" height ranges in Flying intensity, as it was too high in some cases.
• The game now still runs at full speed when its window has lost focus.
• "Double Low Tempos" adjustment mode (used in Intense difficulty and Custom) now only works on <=88BPM tracks instead of <=91BPM.
• Fixed a bug preventing a track to load from cache when it only had "Walking" intensity for its entire duration, or no obstacles at all.
• Updated track cache format. This will invalidate previously cached tracks and force a new analysis of each song when played.
• The font size for the "toggle favorite" and "play all" text elements is now bigger.
• Fixed not being able to exit the "Credits" menu using the Esc key or Back button.
• Added an "Audio" option to disable the main menu's music.
• Disabled the F1 to F5 "debug" keys, as it was conflicting with some players' "Screenshots" key. You can enable them again by using the "-debug_function_keys" command line parameter.
• Updated the FNA framework on Linux and OSX

[ 2016-05-18 18:48:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Major Changes

• Added 6 amazing music tracks from Shirobon! (including the song from the game's trailer, "Regain Control"). Each track's obstacle course was meticulously manually mapped for perfect synchronization with the game. You can find those songs in the "Bundled Music" menu in the Music Selection screen.
• The main menu now has music :meloblue:

Minor Changes

• Reduced the terrain's "waviness" height ranges in Flying intensity, as it was too high in some cases.
• The game now still runs at full speed when its window has lost focus.
• "Double Low Tempos" adjustment mode (used in Intense difficulty and Custom) now only works on <=88BPM tracks instead of <=91BPM.
• Fixed a bug preventing a track to load from cache when it only had "Walking" intensity for its entire duration, or no obstacles at all.
• Updated track cache format. This will invalidate previously cached tracks and force a new analysis of each song when played.
• The font size for the "toggle favorite" and "play all" text elements is now bigger.
• Fixed not being able to exit the "Credits" menu using the Esc key or Back button.
• Added an "Audio" option to disable the main menu's music.
• Disabled the F1 to F5 "debug" keys, as it was conflicting with some players' "Screenshots" key. You can enable them again by using the "-debug_function_keys" command line parameter.
• Updated the FNA framework on Linux and OSX

[ 2016-05-18 18:48:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Changes

• The camera's (and Melody's) position in time is now based on a smoothed high-resolution timer instead of directly using the playhead position of the music, preventing "choppy" scrolling if the audio driver doesn't allow per-frame precise reading of the track's position.
• Added an Audio and Video Latency Calibration menu (and test) in the options. You can now fine-tune latency compensation if you are playing on a HDTV or with a delay-inducing sound card (please note that delay compensation will make Melody either pause or "skip" at the beginning of a track).
• Added an option to switch the art of light orbs to a full circle instead of a partial one (in the "General" options menu)
• Fixed an issue with the tempo dection algorithm when using a non-MP3 format (FLAC, OGG, etc.) that in some rare occurences might have resulted in problems detecting the correct tempo. All previously "cached" tracks will be re-analyzed once played again.
• Amplified the default volume of "orbs" and "obstacles" sucess sound effects in "All Sounds" mode.
• Added a gamepad option to select the desired gamepad device ID (this is useful if you have more than one connected or on some Linux systems where some mouses and keyboards are detected as gaming devices)
• Fixed a crash when trying to load custom Mods with an invalid folder structure.
• Failing to read a specific sub-folder due to permission issues should not result into an empty folder list anymore.
• Updated the FNA framework on OSX and Linux (this should improve performances)

[ 2015-09-28 18:49:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.3: Latency Calibration and Smooth Scrolling

Changes

• The camera's (and Melody's) position in time is now based on a smoothed high-resolution timer instead of directly using the playhead position of the music, preventing "choppy" scrolling if the audio driver doesn't allow per-frame precise reading of the track's position.
• Added an Audio and Video Latency Calibration menu (and test) in the options. You can now fine-tune latency compensation if you are playing on a HDTV or with a delay-inducing sound card (please note that delay compensation will make Melody either pause or "skip" at the beginning of a track).
• Added an option to switch the art of light orbs to a full circle instead of a partial one (in the "General" options menu)
• Fixed an issue with the tempo dection algorithm when using a non-MP3 format (FLAC, OGG, etc.) that in some rare occurences might have resulted in problems detecting the correct tempo. All previously "cached" tracks will be re-analyzed once played again.
• Amplified the default volume of "orbs" and "obstacles" sucess sound effects in "All Sounds" mode.
• Added a gamepad option to select the desired gamepad device ID (this is useful if you have more than one connected or on some Linux systems where some mouses and keyboards are detected as gaming devices)
• Fixed a crash when trying to load custom Mods with an invalid folder structure.
• Failing to read a specific sub-folder due to permission issues should not result into an empty folder list anymore.
• Updated the FNA framework on OSX and Linux (this should improve performances)

[ 2015-09-28 18:49:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Game Changes

• Changed the look of light orbs. The new look should hopefully alleviate the "motion-blur" feeling induced by LCD monitors with high latency, as they have less contrast than the old ones and softer borders.
• Light orbs explosion in Running intensity now pack a bit more punch.
• The new in-game sounds now play at the same volume regardless of the movement mode intensity.
• Fixed an issue with track caching resulting in difficulty mix-ups if a song had been played with "Custom" difficulty settings.
• The Steam Workshop items checking/downloading screen now only happens once per session, so you can quickly switch skins without waiting if you have a lot of subscriptions. Using the "Go to the Steam Workshop" in-game menu will reset that state and make it check again the next time you visit the "Customize Appearance" menu.

Performance Changes (mostly targeted at lower-end GPUs)

• Anti-Aliasing on Windows is now slightly faster and toggling the option on/off doesn't require to restart the game anymore.
• Added "Graphics Quality" presets in the "Performances" option menu, to easily switch between Low/Medium/High.
• Modified "low FPS" detection (below 50FPS) to interrupt the game and show a warning screen allowing the player to automatically lower graphics quality to gain performance (as the obstacle timing/hitbox suffers when performances are poor and that has quite a negative impact on the gameplay, delaying button/key inputs).
• Added a "Low FPS" warning label below the heart score during a game if the FPS counter is enabled in the options and the FPS is too low.
• Added a new system to detect if the GPU drivers launched the game using the integrated GPU on dual-GPUs computers (usually laptops), to suggest to the player to launch the game using the "gaming" GPU instead.
• Added a global variable to the .exe targeted at NVidia Optimus laptop, to tell to the driver to use the NVidia GPU instead of the integrated one. If you own an Optimus laptop, I would love feedback on whether or not this feature is working!
• All available GPUs detected are now listed in "log.txt" inside the game's installation folder.
• Updated the FNA library on Mac and Linux builds.

[ 2015-06-24 18:57:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.2: New light orbs and performances fix

Game Changes

• Changed the look of light orbs. The new look should hopefully alleviate the "motion-blur" feeling induced by LCD monitors with high latency, as they have less contrast than the old ones and softer borders.
• Light orbs explosion in Running intensity now pack a bit more punch.
• The new in-game sounds now play at the same volume regardless of the movement mode intensity.
• Fixed an issue with track caching resulting in difficulty mix-ups if a song had been played with "Custom" difficulty settings.
• The Steam Workshop items checking/downloading screen now only happens once per session, so you can quickly switch skins without waiting if you have a lot of subscriptions. Using the "Go to the Steam Workshop" in-game menu will reset that state and make it check again the next time you visit the "Customize Appearance" menu.

Performance Changes (mostly targeted at lower-end GPUs)

• Anti-Aliasing on Windows is now slightly faster and toggling the option on/off doesn't require to restart the game anymore.
• Added "Graphics Quality" presets in the "Performances" option menu, to easily switch between Low/Medium/High.
• Modified "low FPS" detection (below 50FPS) to interrupt the game and show a warning screen allowing the player to automatically lower graphics quality to gain performance (as the obstacle timing/hitbox suffers when performances are poor and that has quite a negative impact on the gameplay, delaying button/key inputs).
• Added a "Low FPS" warning label below the heart score during a game if the FPS counter is enabled in the options and the FPS is too low.
• Added a new system to detect if the GPU drivers launched the game using the integrated GPU on dual-GPUs computers (usually laptops), to suggest to the player to launch the game using the "gaming" GPU instead.
• Added a global variable to the .exe targeted at NVidia Optimus laptop, to tell to the driver to use the NVidia GPU instead of the integrated one. If you own an Optimus laptop, I would love feedback on whether or not this feature is working!
• All available GPUs detected are now listed in "log.txt" inside the game's installation folder.
• Updated the FNA library on Mac and Linux builds.

[ 2015-06-24 18:57:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Sound effects and text popups

• Added in-game sound effects (all are optionals and can be disabled!). By default only "errors" sound effects will play, but you can enable them for all obstacle success and hearts in the "Audio" options menu.
• Added sound effects and animations for the hearts score animation during the post-track score overview.
• Added "TOO LATE" error text for failed obstacles which didn't receive their input in time. Pressing the wrong button will instead display "ERROR" (and play a different sound too), so you can distinguish between timing problems and incorrect input.
• Added a small timer to prevent spamming multiple "ERROR" messages and sound effects when repeatedly pressing incorrect buttons (for visual feedback purposes only, it still resets your score multiplier everytime)
• Adjusted floating-text popups positions and made their transitions smoother during intensity section changes

Skins

• Added 2 new skins: "Prototype (Inverted)" and "Black Dress"
• Modified all default skins to make the "shadows" on the background legs/arms much lighter
• Added the default hair texture to the sample hairstyle mod folder (it was missing on Windows builds)
• Updated the "sample skin" texture

Misc Changes

• Reverted the Running section ground border to "grass", as it was better looking and the alternative didn't help with the "blur" feeling encountered by some players (as I incorrectly assumed it would).

[ 2015-05-01 21:32:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8.1 Sound effects and new skins

Sound effects and text popups

• Added in-game sound effects (all are optionals and can be disabled!). By default only "errors" sound effects will play, but you can enable them for all obstacle success and hearts in the "Audio" options menu.
• Added sound effects and animations for the hearts score animation during the post-track score overview.
• Added "TOO LATE" error text for failed obstacles which didn't receive their input in time. Pressing the wrong button will instead display "ERROR" (and play a different sound too), so you can distinguish between timing problems and incorrect input.
• Added a small timer to prevent spamming multiple "ERROR" messages and sound effects when repeatedly pressing incorrect buttons (for visual feedback purposes only, it still resets your score multiplier everytime)
• Adjusted floating-text popups positions and made their transitions smoother during intensity section changes

Skins

• Added 2 new skins: "Prototype (Inverted)" and "Black Dress"
• Modified all default skins to make the "shadows" on the background legs/arms much lighter
• Added the default hair texture to the sample hairstyle mod folder (it was missing on Windows builds)
• Updated the "sample skin" texture

Misc Changes

• Reverted the Running section ground border to "grass", as it was better looking and the alternative didn't help with the "blur" feeling encountered by some players (as I incorrectly assumed it would).

[ 2015-05-01 21:32:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

• Added Trading Cards to the game! (and smileys/backgrounds/badges)
• The Workshop is now public and visible even if you don't own the game.

Game changes

• Added new border decorations for the ground on Running and Flying mode. The reasoning behind this was that the grass was a very high density repeating pattern, scrolling very quickly accross the screen, and it may have an effect on the "motion blur" feeling that some players are experiencing. The new borders are much more streamlined and should feel more easy on the eyes.
• Added a "zoom-in" feature, you can now select "120%" as zoom value in the General options menu.
• Slightly shifted light orbs' position towards the ground in Jogging and Running sections, so that it's easier to focus on both orbs and obstacles at the same time.
• The game will now detect streaks of very low FPS (<30FPS) and suggest at the end of the track to the player to disable Anti-Aliasing or Post-Processing to alievate performances issues.
• Added new character skins "Uniform" and "Prototype" (a copy of my "Classic Melody" Workshop item)

Interface changes

• Added "Favorite Folders" to the bottom of the main folders list. This menu choice automatically extracts and lists all the different folders from your "Favorite" tagged files, allowing easy access to your common music folders.
• Added help tooltips to most options items.

Misc changes

• New on-disk track caching format, which now stores obstacles and track intensity data directly (and for each difficulty density type) instead of the music audio profile, reducing the size of cache files by a factor of 10. This change greatly speeds up track loading from cache, especially for very long tracks, and solves very rare cases where the cached version had different obstacles than the first "live" analysis, due to floating point rounding issues. All previously cached music files will now need to be re-analysed again.
• Fixed a potential crash scenario related to manually modified Workshop mods folder names

Linux

• Updated libbass to 2.4.11, which has improved compatibility with recent PulseAudio versions. Hopefully this should fix the audio garbling issues encountered by some users.

Mod Studio (Windows)

• Fixed the Hair Editor's treeview size when using Windows magnified text size above 100%.

[ 2015-04-21 16:36:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update v0.8: Trading Cards, public Workshop and more

• Added Trading Cards to the game! (and smileys/backgrounds/badges)
• The Workshop is now public and visible even if you don't own the game.

Game changes

• Added new border decorations for the ground on Running and Flying mode. The reasoning behind this was that the grass was a very high density repeating pattern, scrolling very quickly accross the screen, and it may have an effect on the "motion blur" feeling that some players are experiencing. The new borders are much more streamlined and should feel more easy on the eyes.
• Added a "zoom-in" feature, you can now select "120%" as zoom value in the General options menu.
• Slightly shifted light orbs' position towards the ground in Jogging and Running sections, so that it's easier to focus on both orbs and obstacles at the same time.
• The game will now detect streaks of very low FPS (<30FPS) and suggest at the end of the track to the player to disable Anti-Aliasing or Post-Processing to alievate performances issues.
• Added new character skins "Uniform" and "Prototype" (a copy of my "Classic Melody" Workshop item)

Interface changes

• Added "Favorite Folders" to the bottom of the main folders list. This menu choice automatically extracts and lists all the different folders from your "Favorite" tagged files, allowing easy access to your common music folders.
• Added help tooltips to most options items.

Misc changes

• New on-disk track caching format, which now stores obstacles and track intensity data directly (and for each difficulty density type) instead of the music audio profile, reducing the size of cache files by a factor of 10. This change greatly speeds up track loading from cache, especially for very long tracks, and solves very rare cases where the cached version had different obstacles than the first "live" analysis, due to floating point rounding issues. All previously cached music files will now need to be re-analysed again.
• Fixed a potential crash scenario related to manually modified Workshop mods folder names

Linux

• Updated libbass to 2.4.11, which has improved compatibility with recent PulseAudio versions. Hopefully this should fix the audio garbling issues encountered by some users.

Mod Studio (Windows)

• Fixed the Hair Editor's treeview size when using Windows magnified text size above 100%.

[ 2015-04-21 16:36:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch update v0.7.4.0: New skin & haircuts + mod editor

Major Changes

• Added a mod editor/studio. You can now very easilly create your own skins, hairstyles and color themes and edit them all in real-time (Windows only).
• Added "slow-mo" jumps in running sections, for very specific occurences where the music's energy drastically drops during a few seconds. Those jumps can be identified on the song preview graph by a blue vertical dashed line (note that they are quite rare and mostly found in electro music)
• Added new hairstyles: "Long Twin Tails", "Short" and "Braided Ponytail"
• Added new skin: "White Dress"
• Added new color scheme: "Dark"

Modding Changes

• You can access the new Mod Editor in the game's installation folder, under the name "ModStudio.exe". I will soon write a tutorial on how to use this tool, but it should be quite simple to grasp the basics if you're already familiar with Melody's Escape custom content creation. The main advantages are real time color editing and texture reloading.
• Added a "belt" skin element for the character skin (empty on the default skin). This element is drawn above the legs and is tied to the position of the "pelvis" element. You can use it for instance to draw a skirt above the legs
• Hairlocks are now drawn above the static sprite of a haircut.

Minor Changes

• Added some noise/dithering to the sky's background gradient, so that the gradient horizontal lines are less noticeable and to get a slightly more gritty visual result.
• Removed the background gradient in menus screen as it resulted in visible horizontal lines with some color schemes.
• The flying mode's backgrounds were slightly offset so that they don't intersect visually with the orbs anymore, for better visibility.
• Hair movement now flow more naturally for all animations where Melody rolls (especially with very long hairstyles where it was too stiff before)
• Flying mode is now slightly faster and running mode is now slightly slower
• Multiple changes to the default color palette
• Fixed folders with a dot "." character in their name being shown as playlists in the music selection menu
• Fixed scrolling the music list with LB/RB shoulder button (or PgUp/PgDown keys) being able to overflow if the list was small.
• Removed the "disable dynamic hair simulation" performance option as its cost was quite minimal compared to its high visual quality impact.
• Fixed fullscreen mode issues when restarting the game on Linux
• The Mac port is now using universal binaries, which should fix Workshop Skin loading issue that prevented some players from running the game after subscribing to a skin.

[ 2014-11-20 19:06:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch update v0.7.4.0: New skin & haircuts + mod editor

Major Changes

• Added a mod editor/studio. You can now very easilly create your own skins, hairstyles and color themes and edit them all in real-time (Windows only).
• Added "slow-mo" jumps in running sections, for very specific occurences where the music's energy drastically drops during a few seconds. Those jumps can be identified on the song preview graph by a blue vertical dashed line (note that they are quite rare and mostly found in electro music)
• Added new hairstyles: "Long Twin Tails", "Short" and "Braided Ponytail"
• Added new skin: "White Dress"
• Added new color scheme: "Dark"

Modding Changes

• You can access the new Mod Editor in the game's installation folder, under the name "ModStudio.exe". I will soon write a tutorial on how to use this tool, but it should be quite simple to grasp the basics if you're already familiar with Melody's Escape custom content creation. The main advantages are real time color editing and texture reloading.
• Added a "belt" skin element for the character skin (empty on the default skin). This element is drawn above the legs and is tied to the position of the "pelvis" element. You can use it for instance to draw a skirt above the legs
• Hairlocks are now drawn above the static sprite of a haircut.

Minor Changes

• Added some noise/dithering to the sky's background gradient, so that the gradient horizontal lines are less noticeable and to get a slightly more gritty visual result.
• Removed the background gradient in menus screen as it resulted in visible horizontal lines with some color schemes.
• The flying mode's backgrounds were slightly offset so that they don't intersect visually with the orbs anymore, for better visibility.
• Hair movement now flow more naturally for all animations where Melody rolls (especially with very long hairstyles where it was too stiff before)
• Flying mode is now slightly faster and running mode is now slightly slower
• Multiple changes to the default color palette
• Fixed folders with a dot "." character in their name being shown as playlists in the music selection menu
• Fixed scrolling the music list with LB/RB shoulder button (or PgUp/PgDown keys) being able to overflow if the list was small.
• Removed the "disable dynamic hair simulation" performance option as its cost was quite minimal compared to its high visual quality impact.
• Fixed fullscreen mode issues when restarting the game on Linux
• The Mac port is now using universal binaries, which should fix Workshop Skin loading issue that prevented some players from running the game after subscribing to a skin.

[ 2014-11-20 19:06:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape is now available on Linux and Mac, as a native port using FNA/Mono. Everything should be functional, except for a few issues with fullscreen mode that will be fixed in the next patch, and "drag'n'drop" which isn't working yet. If you encounter any issues on those platforms, please don't hesitate to post them in the Linux and Mac support thread. If the mouse isn't responding correctly after switching to fullscreen, you can use the keyboard to navigate the menus.

[ 2014-09-02 20:57:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape is now available on Linux and Mac, as a native port using FNA/Mono. Everything should be functional, except for a few issues with fullscreen mode that will be fixed in the next patch, and "drag'n'drop" which isn't working yet. If you encounter any issues on those platforms, please don't hesitate to post them in the Linux and Mac support thread. If the mouse isn't responding correctly after switching to fullscreen, you can use the keyboard to navigate the menus.

[ 2014-09-02 20:57:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

New "Anti-aliasing" (MSAA) option

Disabling AA (in the "Performances" options menu) greatly improves performances on low-end machines (especially on Intel HD GPU laptops), at the cost of jagged edges on long obstacles (please note that this change requires a restart of the game). If you were previously struggling to run Melody's Escape at 60FPS, you might wanna try to disable anti-aliasing and re-enable backgroud visualizations and/or post-processing (to medium) for the eye-candy effects, as without the antialiasing it might now run smoothly at 60fps! This option will default to OFF on integrated GPUs. However, the GPU's type can only be detected by the game after that the setting has already been applied, so the first time that you run the game after this update, if the option was auto-set to "OFF" you still need to restart the game for it to take effect! Effect preview:

Other changes

Added a sound menu option to disable the audio preview when selecting a music.

Tons of behind-the-scenes changes to the engine to prepare for the Mac and Linux port of the game (coming soon! :) ) Update 0.7.3.1 Fixed BASS addons for additional formats not being loaded by the music engine Update 0.7.3.2 Fixed custom skins not being loaded when restarting the game

[ 2014-08-28 12:40:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

New "Anti-aliasing" (MSAA) option

Disabling AA (in the "Performances" options menu) greatly improves performances on low-end machines (especially on Intel HD GPU laptops), at the cost of jagged edges on long obstacles (please note that this change requires a restart of the game). If you were previously struggling to run Melody's Escape at 60FPS, you might wanna try to disable anti-aliasing and re-enable backgroud visualizations and/or post-processing (to medium) for the eye-candy effects, as without the antialiasing it might now run smoothly at 60fps! This option will default to OFF on integrated GPUs. However, the GPU's type can only be detected by the game after that the setting has already been applied, so the first time that you run the game after this update, if the option was auto-set to "OFF" you still need to restart the game for it to take effect! Effect preview:

Other changes

Added a sound menu option to disable the audio preview when selecting a music.

Tons of behind-the-scenes changes to the engine to prepare for the Mac and Linux port of the game (coming soon! :) ) Update 0.7.3.1 Fixed BASS addons for additional formats not being loaded by the music engine Update 0.7.3.2 Fixed custom skins not being loaded when restarting the game

[ 2014-08-28 12:40:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

New "Playlist Mode"

• Added "Playlist Mode", to play multiple songs in a row (albums, folders, playlists, favorite/recent files, etc.). When you have multiple songs displayed in the Music Selection menu, simply select "play all files" ("P" hotkey on keyboard and "X" button on controllers) If you want more controls over the played tracks and their order, you can use your favorite music player to create a .M3U playlist and then access that playlist from the Music Selection menu.
• Added an option in the Pause menu to skip to the next song in the list.
• "Autoplay" songs in Playlist Mode now start automatically after loading, allowing you to select multiple songs and have them all play without any required input (great for playing music in the background and enjoying the game as a visualizer!)
• "Autoplay" songs don't show the end stats screen anymore.
• Added support for multiple files drag'n'drop (to be played in Playlist Mode).
• In Playlist Mode, files that cannot be played due to an error (file format, deleted file, etc.) will be automatically skipped instead of showing the error screen.

Difficulty Changes

• Complete overhaul of the Overload difficulty. I wanted to have a much bigger density of orbs in Overload and I wasn't happy with the artificial difficulty of simply requiring difficult inputs constantly for solid obstacles. Now the Overload tracks will have twice as much orbs and less solid obstacles (especially noticeable in "Tempo" sync mode), and require Direction/Color Tandem inputs instead of "Mix" (The Direction/Color Mix is still available in the Custom difficulty settings for those looking for an extra challenge). Please let me know what you think about this new Overload mode in this discussion thread!
• The input window in Intense mode is now a bit wider.
• The orb density in Energy Peak mode for Medium Difficulty is now lower
• Slightly increased the speed of flying sections again
• The setting "Double Low Tempos" now only affect tempo values below 91 BPM instead of 101 BPM.
• Added an option (in the "General" menu) to disable the usage of a distinct "Direction" purple color for solid obstacles in Intense mode (a cosmetic change only, you still need to use the correct arrow input).

Other changes

• Removed the "tempo confidence" percentage from the Track Loading Screen, as it was too confusing and not linear; a lot of players assumed that 50% meant that only half of the song would be on sync when instead it would mean a near perfect sync.
• You can now press the "backspace" key (or "back" gamepad button) during a track and at the end stats screen to replay the song.

[ 2014-07-20 14:33:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

New "Playlist Mode"

• Added "Playlist Mode", to play multiple songs in a row (albums, folders, playlists, favorite/recent files, etc.). When you have multiple songs displayed in the Music Selection menu, simply select "play all files" ("P" hotkey on keyboard and "X" button on controllers) If you want more controls over the played tracks and their order, you can use your favorite music player to create a .M3U playlist and then access that playlist from the Music Selection menu.
• Added an option in the Pause menu to skip to the next song in the list.
• "Autoplay" songs in Playlist Mode now start automatically after loading, allowing you to select multiple songs and have them all play without any required input (great for playing music in the background and enjoying the game as a visualizer!)
• "Autoplay" songs don't show the end stats screen anymore.
• Added support for multiple files drag'n'drop (to be played in Playlist Mode).
• In Playlist Mode, files that cannot be played due to an error (file format, deleted file, etc.) will be automatically skipped instead of showing the error screen.

Difficulty Changes

• Complete overhaul of the Overload difficulty. I wanted to have a much bigger density of orbs in Overload and I wasn't happy with the artificial difficulty of simply requiring difficult inputs constantly for solid obstacles. Now the Overload tracks will have twice as much orbs and less solid obstacles (especially noticeable in "Tempo" sync mode), and require Direction/Color Tandem inputs instead of "Mix" (The Direction/Color Mix is still available in the Custom difficulty settings for those looking for an extra challenge). Please let me know what you think about this new Overload mode in this discussion thread!
• The input window in Intense mode is now a bit wider.
• The orb density in Energy Peak mode for Medium Difficulty is now lower
• Slightly increased the speed of flying sections again
• The setting "Double Low Tempos" now only affect tempo values below 91 BPM instead of 101 BPM.
• Added an option (in the "General" menu) to disable the usage of a distinct "Direction" purple color for solid obstacles in Intense mode (a cosmetic change only, you still need to use the correct arrow input).

Other changes

• Removed the "tempo confidence" percentage from the Track Loading Screen, as it was too confusing and not linear; a lot of players assumed that 50% meant that only half of the song would be on sync when instead it would mean a near perfect sync.
• You can now press the "backspace" key (or "back" gamepad button) during a track and at the end stats screen to replay the song.

[ 2014-07-20 14:33:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

- Obstacle timing accuracy ("perfect", "good" and "ok") is no longer displayed on the left part of the HUD, but is now shown in the form of floating texts next to Melody, to make it possible to pay attention to the timing accuracy without being distracted. By default it only shows "errors" (failures), but you can configure it in the "General Options" to show each obstacle's timing accuracy. - The background lights are now more accurately synced to the frequency spectrum of the music - The ribbon trail behind Melody (on long obstacles) is now smoother and with a new texture, and it starts a bit sooner when sliding on obstacles - The transition animation from "walking" to "flying" is now smoother - Added an option to toggle FPS, in the "Performances" options menu - Slightly increased the scrolling speed of the background in flying sections, as well as the fog's brightness - On keyboard, screens waiting for "any key" input to continue now only look for gameplay-bound keys presses, "Enter" or "Space", allowing to take screenshots if you've bound the Steam screenshot key to something other than the Function keys - Switching from keyboard input to gamepad input during a track will now work when pressing the d-pad or using the thumbsticks (it only worked with the color buttons before) - Pressing buttons during the intro walk will not trigger failures anymore

[ 2014-05-07 19:58:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Complete rework of the "Flying" sections I wasn't happy with the current state of the flying mode, as it was too monotonous and didn't feel as "powerful" as it should to represent the most intense parts of a song. This was in part due to the lack of solid obstacles (requiring more complex inputs in Intense and above), and also due to the lack of distinct character animations and background visualizations to enhance the experience. So I've completely scratched it and made a new flying mode with a new theme! What I really liked about the old mode was the possibility to have a very high orb density, which isn't possible with solid obstacles in-between due to the animations' length, so the compromise I've found was to have solid obstacles only for long held notes, and orbs for regular notes. Flying sections should now feel much more intense, and very long ones found in music genre like metal should feel more appropriate. Please let me know in the discussion board if you have any feedback. Others - Double arrows mix (Overload difficulty and Custom) are now inverted automatically when using a gamepad. You can still invert that result using the General options menu - If a respawn would happen during a transition, it will now happen right in the middle of the transition instead of afterwards, giving you more time to anticipate the next obstacle - Fixed the resolution change confirmation screen not applying video changes beforehand - Fixed failure animations being horizontally offset in Intense and Overload difficulty - Removed debug information from the window's titlebar Quick Patch: v0.7.0.1 - Flying sections are now slightly faster in all difficulties - Cleaned data files with references to the old flying mode (for faster game loading)

[ 2014-05-03 15:45:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Music Selection Menu improvements - Added "Favorite Files" list and functionality (indicated by a small heart in the top right of each Music Info window) - M3U playlists can now be browsed like folders (in the folders list, with the "[playlist]" prefix) to select indivual songs inside them. - Changed "B" button behavior on gamepad to not exit the music selection menu directly but simply go back one level in the interface (so if you select a music, pressing B will go back to the music list) - Going back one folder level from the "My Music" folder now takes you back to the main folder list instead of the "User" Windows folder Interface improvements - The video adapter used by the game is now displayed in the Video options menu. - Added a timed confirmation dialog when changing the video resolution or the window mode (to avoid crashes or black/white screen bug on some systems) - Fixed keyboard key "None" being autoset on some systems when trying to remap keyboard controls - Fixed a bug allowing to upload empty items to the Workshop - Selecting a new hairstyle in the Customization menu will now enable the "Dynamic Hair Simulation" option if it was disabled in "Performances" options Others - Fixed tails in Walking mode not always filling up to the very end when the next light orb was too close

[ 2014-04-20 11:40:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

- Added Workshop support, to share and download skins, hairstyles and color schemes! This is still in beta testing, and the Workshop is only visible to owners of the game at the moment. Please join us in the Discussion board if you want to give feedback about that functionality. - Modified the folder hierarchy and file names for mod support to support Workshop integration. All previous existing mods will need to be renamed correctly and move into the correct Mods folder for them to work again. - Modified the "boost" animation to make it smoother - Fixed difficulty selection menu not remembering the last difficulty choice and defaulting to "Autoplay" when using a gamepad or arrow keys - Fixed a rare issue where a song with constant running wouldn't end with a walking section - Modified the camera offset at the end of very long jumps in running mode to better anticipate incomining obstacles after landing - "Halve High Tempos" mode (used in Relaxing) now only triggers on songs above 154BPM instead of above 140BPM - Removed F10 key "debug" windowed functionality

[ 2014-04-13 15:58:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

New difficulties! - Added a new "Custom" difficulty: Create your own difficulty thanks to a set of gameplay rules (Want to play with a single color but at the same speed and density as "Intense"? Or play on Intense with the old "Direction + Color" tandem? Now you can!) - Added a new difficulty: "Overload", with a new input method (Direction and Color mix for solid obstacles). This difficulty is experimental and not finished, its obstacles density will be fine tuned with future updates. - Added a new held/slide obstacle type: "Boost", in Running mode Custom Content - I'm still working on the workshop integration, but in the meantime you can join our new Customization sub-forum to enjoy and share community-made skins, color themes and hairstyles! Additional changes and bug fixes: - Arrows sprites are now bigger to improve visibility - "Direction and Color Mix" and "Direction and Color Tandem" now have a new "double arrows" icon. Its color/direction order can be inverted in the options menu - Modified the "hold" indicator as the old one wasn't effective at communicating that you had to hold the key - Fixed cases of audio stuttering during music preview in the selection menu - Fixed Autoplay vibrations not triggering - Fixed a very rare case where a track wouldn't end with a walking section - Fixed fire effect behavior when background scrolling is disabled

[ 2014-03-12 13:07:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Complete rebalancing of each difficulty: - Relaxing: reduced movement speed and orbs density (especially when walking). Music above 140BPM gets its effective tempo halved. - Normal: Slightly reduced movement speed and orb density (especially when walking) - You can now use either Color buttons or Directions keys in Relaxing and Normal difficulties - Intense mode input change: obstacles with arrows now require only a Direction key press, and have their own distinct color. Light orbs still require a Color key press. - Intense mode: augmented orbs density by 50% in Energy Peak's Flying parts. - Intense mode: Music below 90BPM now has twice the amount of obstacles in Running and Flying parts (doubling the effective tempo) Added support for the right thumbstick on gamepads, binded to Color keys. - Pressing a direction keys outside of obstacles now correctly cancel the score multiplier. Interface changes: - Added auto-scroll/repeat feature if you hold Up or Down keys in the music selection lists. You can also use PgDown and PgUp (LB/RB on gamepad) to scroll a complete page at once. - Music files will now play as preview once selected in the music list - Added the ability to go back to the music selection menu once a song has been analysed (in the track loading screen). - Added track intensity profile preview in the track loading screen. - Added error screens for common audio errors. - Big performance boost for the fire effect visualization in Running mode (this was previously dropping a huge amount of FPS on some computers)

[ 2014-03-06 15:55:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

- Balanced orbs hitboxes to be 50% larger in Relaxing, and 25% larger in Normal. - Fixed blur on monitors with a high refresh-rate. The game logic cycles and FPS are now uncapped, allowing to VSYNC at your monitor's true refresh rate, greatly reducing ghosting/blur effect on monitors with a refresh rate above 60Hz. - Reduced default zoom level in jogging, running and flying modes, to enlarge the field of view and reduce eye-strain. - Added a zoom option in General options to help reduce eye-strain. - Added a FPS counter to the game. A bad FPS would impact your music timing perception, so the counter will turn red if your computer is struggling to keep up (in which case you should disable "Post-Processing" to ease the GPU load. You can also boost performances further by disabling "Background Visualizations"). - Added an option to disable background scrolling or set it to half-speed. - New particle effects. - Improved drawing quality at resolutions above 1280x720. - Improved performances on resolutions below 1280x720.

[ 2014-03-03 11:25:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Melody's Escape is Now Available on Steam Early Access and is 10% off!*

Run, jump and slide to the rhythm of your own music library!

In Melody's Escape, advanced audio detection algorithms transcribe the energy that you feel when listening to music into a synchronized gameplay experience, with a captivating and dynamic obstacle course. The game will adapt in real-time to the intensity of your music and change the movement mode accordingly, from walking during very calm parts up to all-out flying when your music explodes!

*Offer ends March 6th at 10am PST.

[ 2014-02-26 17:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]