v0.302 Emoji Expansion, Online Song Rotation, and more

New Feature - Emoji Wheel Customization

Players can now choose from 32 emojis to add to their emoji wheel.

The emoji selection will definitely continue to expand over time, and this is going to be a major area for future unlockables. The same goes for things like alternate hit effects.

To be clear, I’m not talking about microtransactions here - think more along the lines of in-game currency, achievements, and other progression-based unlocks.

New Online Feature - Rotating Song Selection

Online lobbies now use a rotating song selection system.

• The host picks the first song

• Then the next player picks

• Then the next, and so on

For the entire session, the host’s song list is used as the shared library.

This should help online sessions feel a bit more collaborative and give everyone a turn to steer the jam.

Timpani Re-enabled

Timpani has been re-enabled for player selection.

It is still fairly untested, and things may get a little strange with timpani rolls in particular, but for now the instrument is unlocked and available again.

This is something I want to keep refining in a future update.

Fixes - Online, Ornamentation, and Playback

This patch also includes a number of fixes and improvements:

• Bug fixes for online play syncing during song selection

• The player join chime will now play while in the lobby

  • Previously it only played if the host was in song browsing mode

• Emojis can now be used all the way through the end score state

  • Previously, once the song ended, emojis could not be sent until returning to the lobby

• Fixes to the ornamentation system

  • Some ornament notes were being swallowed by the chord collapsing system, causing strange behavior

• Fixes to pitch modulation in the background orchestra

  • In some cases this could fail if the MIDI used a different pitch bend method

• If the host skips the score roll-up, all players will now skip as well

Under-the-Hood Improvement - Hit Effect Refactor

This one isn’t very visible on the player side, but the hit effect system has been refactored to be more modular and more performant.

This work lays the foundation for future custom hit effects for things like:

• Perfect/Good/Bad/Miss word art

• Hit Spark (currently it's a circular pulsing effect)

• Particle effects

So while this patch doesn’t add those options yet, it moves things in that direction. This is another area where in-game unlockables will likely be introduced.

Looking Ahead - Progression, Improved Online Presence, and Custom Soundfonts

I'm keen to hear the community's thoughts on progression. The current idea is to implement a "Performance Points" like system similar to Osu. This way, players have a more concrete way to track their personal growth over time.

In an upcoming patch I'll be adding a feature to improve the online presence of other players via miniature lanes complete with notes and slimmed down hit effects. Currently, you don't see the other players' notes, which takes away some of the fun and chaos of a multiplayer jam session. Look forward to updates on this front!

I’ve also been experimenting with custom soundfonts quite a bit. They won’t be in this patch, but I think this is very likely the next big feature coming to Tomo Jam. I’m currently targeting May for custom soundfonts.

Thanks as always for the feedback, bug reports, and continued support.

As always, keep on jammin~ Frank,

Restless Games