Dashy's OpenTaiko Journal Vol. 002: 2025 is ending already???

Hello everyone! It's Dashy again.

The year is starting to come to a close and yet again, there's a lot going on with upcoming content... I wonder, why is it that such important things always happen with this game near the end of the year? In any case, I'm so excited to show little bits of what's been going on!

Progress on Open-World Memories V2.2

As you may be aware, there hasn't been a skin update for a little while. Part of the reason is simply because there's a lot I want to release all at once, but also, with OpenTaiko 0.6.1 in mind, this new version would best be released at the same time as it, given the new content!

First, I studied some other game's UI sound design a little with the purpose of making flashier, and more fitting UI sounds for the skin. Some are simple revamps, and some are entirely new (like a new balloon popping sound)! I think they came out quite well, I hope you all enjoy hearing them too. 

Additionally, I've made a few new dancers for the lower half of the screen, and new backgrounds too!

There's something that's been on my mind for quite some time now-- I really wanted to make a little character (or several little characters) that simultaneously can represent the "Forest" background and the "Spooky" background-- in other words, combining both nature elements and Halloween ones. I ended up creating these little guys, the "Forest Spirits", ghosts that take their form through leaves and a leaf mask.

They came out super cute! Given the variety in their animation  it wouldn't be hard to make them playable! If that's something you all would want to see, I'll gladly give it a try.

On another note, having all these backgrounds is important because soon enough, each song will be associated with a background (that fits it's topic or genre). It's good to have visual variety!

What about playable characters? 

When it comes to new playable characters, there's lots on the horizon-- Not including the possibility of playable Forest Spirits, there's a whole pack of new characters coming up soon! Fittingly titled "Reflections and Imaginations", the pack will include two characters based on people in the OpenTaiko community, and the two most popular characters from the character concept popularity form, "Walk forth, My Favorite!" The characters included will be Bol, Ryuto Setsujin, Mai, and Shadow Dancer.

 

I just finished Shadow Dancer a couple days before writing this blog post, and Mai is around 70% done as well. The other two characters were originally just
for personal use, but after some discussions and propositions from the owners of the characters, they will end up as publicly playable characters instead.  

What's on the radio?

A while ago, I sent a message out to the composers in the OpenTaiko Discord Server regarding making songs that represent characters, sort of as theme songs for them. Some are currently in the works, and one of them is completely finished! Taichenko made a song for AItritus called "Mechanical Heart", and it's a seriously cool song, please play it when it arrives in the game.

These character songs will not only be songs in the regular OpenTaiko Official Soundtrack Chapter, but also, in 0.6.1, these songs will also appear in a folder dedicated to songs for in-game characters! Isn't that neat!

Finally, it seems after it's long silence, the mysterious OPTK-HQ radio channel has been scheduled to play 2 new songs in the near future... I wonder what they'll be like...? 

That's all for now! Thank you for your continued support!

- Dashy, "888."