15 10 2007
What’s happening with Frets On Fire?
As you might have noticed, it’s been awhile since we’ve put out a new version of Frets On Fire and generally things have been a little dormant around the project. I hope to somewhat clarify the situation with this post.
Well, first off, rumors about the death of the project have been greatly exaggerated. We have a new version in the works and at this point it is nearly finished. This time around the focus has been on performance optimization and general bug fixes, so no major new features are being introduced. Hopefully we’ll have the new packages up later this week.
That said, in the long run our intention is to gradually move Frets into a maintenance mode and concentrate more on our next game project. It’s been a blast working on Frets On Fire, but at the same time all these other awesome game ideas have been fighting for attention in our respective heads. This does not mean that we are abandoning Frets completely; the only implication is that major new features will probably not be implemented by us in the near future.
I’ll try to write something more about the new game as it materializes. In the mean time, you might want to check out this General Games Podcast, where I’m interviewed by Justin Amirkhani about all things Frets On Fire.
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Oh no!!
Hm, it seems like, before you stop making major changes, you guys should check out the various gameplay mods at FretsOnFire.net. They’ve got one with multiplayer, and other things. And also, there’s even a mod with a drum track. That’s rather tempting, isn’t it? Oh well. I guess the non-official programmers can take the development further, since it’s open source.
Yeah, put at least RF-mod in!
- Various bugfixes and performance improvments
- song.ogg obsolete, guitar.ogg can be used for it
- Guitar Hero tracks (Bass, Rhythm, …)
- Multiplayer
- Various small additioons, like optional better HOPO and strumming systems, song timer, lyrics display, green stars for 100%, additional song.ini information, …
It just recently has been ported to version 1.2.451
It’s totally understandable that the UV team wants to work on other projects. Even if FoF could be better, the concept is pretty straightforward so every features someone could add to it is,even if it’s a ‘cool’ feature’ pretty unnecessary for regular players.
So the only question I have is: what to do with modifications that imply modifications of the scoring system? I believe no modder would want to be the one who destroyed the world charts by allowing a higher multiplier or such. If you ever consider to put the frest on fire project ‘on the ice’, maybe you could consider letting the administration of the world charts to some forum (coughcoughfretsonfire.netcoughcough) so it would make it easier for new players uploading scores with the default url to get those scores modifying mods. I know we can already have our own charts website (I have mine) but the problem is in the default values and the accessibility of the mods
But all this said, long life to UV, you succeeded in making me waste a year of my life, rocking my keyboard
I want that FOF became a great game for pc. I want a version that uses direct X (yeah, but only for windows) using some effects, configuration to powerfull machines users, a option that i can use a style of guitar in-game (using a png image file), support HT Tecnology, because in my computer in some parts run slowly (no exagero)(Extreme edition 3.40 Intel). Xtian christiansaona@msn.com
Like there is no time to wotk on new FOF features, you should just woirk together with Rogue-F and Hering… They have sucedded ion implementing long awaited stuff, without any support from the official devs… If you joined with them, even for a final debut, it would be awesome!!!
Raph,
You raise a good point about the mods and their effect on the World Charts. The right way to do it would be to have a separate charts site for each mod, and the mods should be written with this in mind (i.e. change the default upload URL or report the active mods to the server somehow).
We have no objection to handing over the charts administration to a member of one of the forums; they have a much better understanding of what’s going on in the modding community than us anyway. If someone interested in this is reading this, please get in touch.
I have sent an email to Sami expressing my interest to take over active development of the FoF codebase, but not heard any response.
I’ve also offered to take over handling the world charts as well (I’ve got plenty of BW and servers in my cabinet).
I figure I’d also say so here in case that email is never looked at.
-Alex
Thanks for the reminder Alex. I’ve now sent you a reply.
Hope that’s a affirmative one. It is now well proved that Rogue-F is more than capable of handling the project, and of implementing new features, and it’s also proven that he means no harm whatsoever. He has been with us from the begging. Since you guys won’t (might?) not be able to handle it, give it to the next best bet. And Rogue-F is that bet.
So… is Alex the new world chart admin? I can see a server change (www.prison.net), and it seems we’re back to the previous version of the chart (that’s good, I like those position numbers beside my scores
)
Piccia,
Yes, the Charts have now been transfered to Alex’s dedicated server, so the previous performance problems and score expiration issues should be gone. Alex has generously also agreed to help us in other ways too, which we’ll probably detail in a separate announcement.
First off: Fantastic game
It’s really nice and slick looking and great fun to play (even if you do look a bit of a twonk brandishing a keyboard 
I’m fairly new to Ubuntu,but I’ve been using Linux on and off for years – but I’ve had great trouble getting amanith and pyAmanith working so that FoF works to its full potential. I’ve been unable to find a fix, so some kind of FAQ from someone (dev or otherwise) would be of fantastic help. Keep up the good work!
I’m really missing this program. It still works, but I long for updates.
I understand the developers wish to move on, and I understand. Thanks for the fish!
Still, I wish the developer ecosystem had developed to the point where 1 or 2 developers leaving would not kill the project. I love this game more than many other Linux games, even FreeCiv!