Hey, all! The time has finally arrived! After 3 months since our last 0.14.1 update and 6 months since the first alpha registrations, we're proud to announce that the new multiplayer update (0.15.0) has been released, and round 2 alpha registrations are now live!

Steam Alpha Testing Registrations

Alpha Registration Status: Open Registrations for the Quaver alpha are now live! To join, head over to https://alpha.quavergame.com, and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be prompted to login with your Steam and Discord accounts to authenticate who you are and to register for the alpha. This time around, we're giving 1,000 Steam keys, so make sure you are following the requirements listed below, and register quickly! Please note that in order to join alpha and receive a key, you must meet the following requirements:

• You must be a member of our Official Discord Server.
• You must not already be an alpha tester.
• You must be at least 13 years of age.

NOTE: After signing up, you will be placed on a wait list to be accepted. Once accepted, you will receive a private Discord message with your Steam key and more information to get started. We're very excited to see new faces in the world of Quaver, and we hope you are excited as well!

0.15.0 Multiplayer Update

We've just released version 0.15.0 of Quaver which brings to you our new multiplayer mode! In multiplayer, you can create custom lobbies and play with up to 16 players in online battles which includes three game modes such as:

• Free-For-All - The player with the highest performance rating at the end of the match wins.
• Teams - Two teams. One winner. The team with the highest average performance rating will win the match.
• Battle Royale - As the match goes on, the player with the lowest performance rating gets eliminated from the game. The last player standing wins.

This multiplayer was also built to support competitive-oriented and casual play out of the box! Included it has features such as:

• Over 20+ Customization Filters and Chat Commands - Add filters for selecting maps such as the difficulty range, allowed game modes, maximum song length, long note percentage, and so much more!
• Automatic Win Count Tracking - When a player or team wins, the server will automatically keep a record of how many wins they have. There is also the option to manually set win counts. This is especially useful in competitive environments.
• Built-in Referee System - Ever wanted someone to manage tournament matches but don't want them to get in the way of the scoreboards? You can designate a player to be the referee of the game to do just that!
• Real-time Score Tracking - On our website, you can view the scores of multiplayer matches in real-time as they happen.
• Previous Match History - Similarly to real-time score tracking, you can also view the results of previous multiplayer matches on our website.
• Two Health Systems - We offer either a classic health regeneration system upon death where you have to reach 100% health in order to revive yourself, or a life-based system where if you die, you lose a life.
• Free Mod & Free Rate - When activating free mod, a player can use any modifier that does not change the speed of the map or converts long notes. With free rate, players in the game can use any speed they choose.
• Built-in Team Chat - When playing with teams, you have access to a special #multiplayer-team chat channel to communicate with your teammates.
• Auto Host Rotation - You have the ability to turn on auto host rotation where after each match ends, the server will automatically choose the next player to be the host of the game to select a new map.
• Multiplayer Wins Leaderboard & Profile Stats - We've also implemented a new fun leaderboard that displays how many wins players have in multiplayer. Furthermore, your multiplayer win-loss record is now displayed on your profile.

We put a ton of effort into this multiplayer update and are still looking forward to expanding upon it further. Make sure you give lots of feedback, and request new features you would like to see!

New Default Skins

With this update, we've also introduced 4 brand new default skins into the game including an arrow skin, two bar skins, and a circle skin. These skins work for both the 4 Keys and 7 Keys game modes and are more suited to the theme of the game. The legacy skins have since been removed from the game. These skins were created by our beloved graphic designer and ranking supervisor, Janko. Be sure to thank him, and tell him he did an awesome job!

User Interface Updates & Improvements

We've also made some improvements to our UI. Overall, it follows more towards the design we will end up implementing in the UI overhaul. The theme leans more toward the darker side and aims to visually create more breathing room for elements on the screen. You should also notice that navigating the menus is much faster and optimized than before.

Map Pools

On our website, you can now find a handy new page titled "Map Pools." With this feature, you can now create your own playlists of maps and share them with the world! You can use this feature to create a list of your favorite maps, a collection of hard maps you want to pass, or even use them as a way to share maps to be used in tournaments. At the moment, you can currently create up to 10 map pools, and fill them with up to 100 maps. We will of course have more options in the future to create and add more! Although bare-bones, we're planning on expanding on this feature immensely, so please let us know what features you would like to see out of this and how we can expand upon it.

Other Additions & Bug Fixes

As with all updates, we love to improve the game by adding more quality of life improvements and bug fixes. Additions & Improvements

• Added a DeadNoteColor skin configuration property to customize the color of missed long notes.
• Added a number display that shows the player's current performance rating in the top-left of the screen.
• Added a setting to toggle smooth accuracy number display changes.
• The numpad +/- now works for rate changes in song select.
• Added a chat badge and color for game contributors.
• Added an option in song select to delete maps.
• Added an option in song select to select a random map.
• Added Discord Rich Presence for the map downloading screen.
• Added a ComboPosX skin configuration property.
• Added keysound and sound effect support.
• Added options in the settings menu to fix sound effect latency on Linux machines.
• Changed the blur intensity on the song select screen.
• Added the difficulty range to maps in the download screen.
• Removed the alpha warning screen.
• Added the ability to instantly exit replay watching on pause.
• Added a playercard in the main menu.
• The game now uses the Steam overlay browser by default to open web pages.
• The game now brings the player to the download screen if they do not have any maps when clicking on single player or multiplayer.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash when failing to login to the server.
• Fixed Discord Rich Presence clearing on score submission.
• Fixed issues with number display scaling and positioning.
• Fixed the AccuracyDisplayPosY skin config property not working.
• Fixed the grade display aspect ratio.
• Fixed the keys per second display not updating immediately on key presses.
• Fixed the ColumnLightingOffsetY property not working properly.
• Fixed a crash during editor play testing.
• Fixed replays not exporting properly.
• Fixed the game crashing on stacked notes with autoplay.
• Fixed replays and autoplay not having the correct score when lagging.

Conclusion

As always, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading the patch notes for this update! We're very excited to see tons of new faces in the Quaver alpha tester program, and we're even more excited to hang out in multiplayer with all of you! Now that a lot of the bigger features are out of the way, you can expect updates to happen on a more frequent basis. We're planning on doing very great things with this game, so we hope you guys will stick around for the ride! Happy keyboard smashing! - Swan