ITG2 Testing - Impressions and Pictures!

Wompa164 · Trick Member Joined: 02 May 2002 Location: Dallas, TX

2 days ago I was invited to attend an extensive testing and input session of In the Groove 2 in Austin. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to play all the new songs on the new cabinet design and to represent the input of dance game veterans, I couldn't resist.I grabbed my camera, all of my clothes, and my USB key and I left for Austin.

I had seen pictures of the new cabinet design for the game convention that was held in Chicago, but seeing it up-close was just something else. The cabinet design was from the same company who develop the cabinets for Pump It Up Exceed series. The most notable change came in the form of a new display - the old screen has been replaced with an extremely sharp, crisp and vibrant 32"(??) flatscreen. The new arrow design and machine artwork are top-notch as well (as seen in the pictures below).

The interface feels pretty much identicle to the original, with the exception of new artwork and a nice IIDX RED-esque color scheme. My initial impression of the new songlist was one of disappointment, but that changed very quickly. As I continued to scroll through the new songs, I found myself saying 'Wow, that song sounds really frick cool' or 'I bet this song has really fun steps' with surprising frequency. I immediately recognized 3 familiar songs - Bumble Bee, Typical Tropical and Follow the Sun. I will say this right now - Bumble Bee steps on Expert (9 foot) are some of the most fun steps I have ever played. I also recognized an old trance-pop favorite, 'Space Man'.

I found a couple of really good (music-wise) songs were ruined by stupid stepcharts; they mainly contained annoying crossover-gallop steps that felt out of place or awkward. However, this was usually resolved by bumping down the difficulty to Hard. I didn't play a single song that managed to disappoint me completely - even if the Expert stepchart sucked as a whole, it still had it's moments. More importantly, the Hard stepchart usually proved to be extremely fun.

I also noticed that the difficulty ratings of the new songs were far more representative of the actual difficulty than they were in ITG1. In ITG1, I feel like many of the 10s could have passed off as 9s, and many 11s could have passed as 10s. This is no longer the case for the new songs - the 9s are difficult or tricky, the 10s are hard, and the 11s will bring some pain. I even remember playing some of the 8s, thinking "Wow, how is that not at least a 9?".

I spent a lot of time with ITG2 team members discussing marketing, expansion, and the future of the game itself. I was extremely impressed with their attitudes - they had incredibly open ears towards our suggestions regarding the game from both an arcade standpoint (suggestions on songs, features, etc.) and the community standpoint (tournaments, fans and marketing, etc). They were just great people to be around in general - they were well spoken, well informed, receptive and funny. I spent a lot of time shooting the poopy with one of the members - he was a personal physical trainer / game developer / Star Wars fanatic (like myself). Anyways, back to the point - I was left extremely excited by the company members that I spoke with, both for the future of In The Groove itself and the entire community behind it.

I played from 9pm-12am on Tuesday night, and from 3pm-10pm on Wednesday night. I made conscious effort to stay well hydrated and to take occasional breaks, as to avoid getting burned out so that I would be able to continue to play throughout the day. I also managed to rub the skin on my hand raw from clutching the bar while playing so many 10/11/12 foot songs. I got about 5 seconds away from beating Pandamonium on Hard (71.00%) before my brain shut down - I was satisfied with my accomplishment.

Big thanks to Roxor Games for letting us come out and play - they were extremely hospitable and were a delight to be around. I'm excited for the future of In The Groove and it's community - I think this is just the beginning.

Video of new song selections and gameplay (not me playing)

Alezay · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject:

I see plenty of bugs to be fixed but overall that had to be a great experience. I wish I couldv'e gone.
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Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

Yeah the game looks really great. Where is that located at? It seems like it's in someone's living room.

It also looks buggy too, but I know it'll be fixed by release. :] w00t, ITG2 looks awesome.
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cfusionpm · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: San Diego, CA

why is there 2 start buttons per side?

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nick. · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jul 2002 Location: Studio city, CA

one false move sounds horrible, like something out of a horror movie

Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject:

jbean3535 · Trick Member Joined: 08 May 2004 Location: KC Kansas

Very awesome. Thanks for sharing everything with us too. Very buggy but I bet it will be fixed within a month like it is supposed to be coming out.
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Rancidfish · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 4:58 pm Post subject:

A few interesting things I note about the interface.

1) The results screen seems to vary in layout depending on if the song you just played was from ItG1 or ItG2. Interesting touch... but I don't particularly like the look of things on the ItG2 screens. Everything has that "round one corner, square the other" look, and it looks really lame.

2) It seems that the "lifebar-o-meter" shows the entire song, even if you failed, now. Might they cut us not-so-good players some slack and show the results screen even if we fail, so that we can see where we failed, etc.?
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Kyrandian · Trick Member Joined: 24 Mar 2002 Location: Portland, OR

Rancidfish · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 5:31 pm Post subject:

Wompa164 · Trick Member Joined: 02 May 2002 Location: Dallas, TX

The directory of screenshots I took throughout the testing is here:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/wompa164/LJ/ITG2/Screenshots/

Kyrandian hit the nail right on the head about the interface - around 4pm on Wednesday the developers locked down the machine and remotely uploaded a new build version. It included updated menu art and graphics, interface tweaks, etc.

You can tell by the order of the screenshots. After the 4th screenshot (screen00004.jpg), it switches over to the updated interface for the rest of them.

cfusionpm · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: San Diego, CA

diddrstrait · Trick Member Joined: 01 Jan 2004

Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 6:19 pm Post subject:

Haha, I find that the banner extends outside of the corner banner thingy. I'm thinking the little "box" banner should be entirely curved and the banner just extended outwardly which made it look weird (ala curve + straight end).

What's with the weird little green question mark boxes?
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Ebisumaru · Trick Member Joined: 06 Jul 2003

The real question is, how do we know which start/sort button is which?

ninjafetus · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 6:46 pm Post subject:

Wow, that's cool. I really am jealous of you, though, because I love to do that. It's not that far away from Lubbock, and I feel like I could give some good feedback

Oh, well, if any betas get released in Texas again, I'll make another roadtrip like I did for ITG1

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Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 6:55 pm Post subject:

Did the San Francisco party already happen? If so, where's the information and stuff for that?
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Plaguefox · Roxor Staff Joined: 21 Oct 2002

Hello, hello!

The two buttons will, in the final cabinet design, be colored green and red.

The upper green rectangle will be the universal start button -- the one we're all used to. The lower red one will act as a context button that simplifies many tasks throughout the game's screens. For instance, it will take a screenshot for you in the results screen, brings up an option menu on the Pick Your Tune screen, and lets you summon forth demons from the eighth level of the underworld on the title screen. It's really a useful addition, since it saves you from having to press left and right together in quite so many places.

The visual bugs are due to that particular copy of the game being in a state of constant flux. Or that might be the demons. I'm not sure.

In any case, the screenshots themselves are in no way indicative of the final product.

Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:42 pm Post subject:

Okay, any news from the San Francisco party that apparently was last night? =OO
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Heffenfeffer · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Location: Las Cruces, NM

Yes! Finally a red button to answer some interface issues. Here's hoping that it will somehow control difficulty without having to resort to the archaic and often accidental double tap of up and down.

Also, I've came up with an interesting idea for the red button (erm, if you guys haven't thought of it yet)...since you can change mods during a song, how about let pushing the red button during a song operate mods? For instance, say you can set up two different sets of mods before you pick a song - that way when you pick Vertex, you can set 1.5x and 0.5x - and use the 1.5x for the majority of the song and tap the button to get at 0.5x when the ludicriously fast part starts.

Or, in battle mode, have a little Street Fighter-like bar on the side showing what mods you'll send to your opponent, and tap the button to send them. (I'm assuming that Battle plays a bit like Dance Magic - admittedly I don't have that much ITG experience.)

Perhaps set the red button so that it turns on/off handclaps during a song so that people know what they're aiming for on particular parts.

Anyway, just a few off-the-top-of-my-head ideas...I know that some of them could well be considered heresy from DDR veterans, but I think it's time for a change.
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