12 Songs with Several Tracks Each
The standard version of Holodance will come with 12 songs in the electronic / techno / dancehall style. However, over time there will be other musical styles added via paid-DLC musical theme packs (if you're an artist and want to have your music on Holodance: contact us!) Each song has several tracks, like a bassdrum, the hihat, a bassline or some synth playing a melody. As these tracks have different rhythms and complexities, there's a natural progression of difficulty within each song. Once you have touched a minimum of notes per track, the next more difficult track within the song becomes available. Once you have all tracks of a song completed, the next song becomes available which will be longer and more difficult.
How to Touch those Notes
There's different ways of "touching" notes that match the instrument of a given track. For percussive instruments like drums, the notes come flying towards you in the form of orbs that you just need to touch with the right timing. Notes for softer instruments as well as very fast instruments will come as paths that you need to follow with just the right pace. Finally, there will also be stationary orbs that you can tap in any sequence - you just need to get the rhythm right. Find more details about the Holodance gameplay mechanics on Wikipedia, and details on how scores are calculated in Holodance in the Guide on Steam.
Collaborative Multiplayer (not quite ready, yet)
Holodance has a collaborative multiplayer mode where you can play songs together with friends or strangers (who will then become friends). The score is added up, so the more people you have in a session, the more maximum score is available. In this symmetric multiplayer mode, which is tied to the story of the game, you can have up to four players per session. We will also have an asymmetric multiplayer mode (in fact, probably this will arrive first), where one player "throws" the orbs, while the other is responsible for catching them. The thrower won't have to worry about timing because we will use the beatmaps for that ... and don't think you can cheat by having the thrower simply not move - we track the distance covered and that has an effect on your score.
So when will you shut up so I can give you my money?
If you don't mind playing an Early Access title that is not completely finished, yet, and if you do have an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers - go right ahead and:
Buy Holodance at its Early Access price on Steam
Holodance is currently being developed full-time by Jashan Chittesh (game-design, coding, music production) and Samuel Hajek (concept art, modeling, animation). We also have more artists like Finn MK (musician), Efe Tozan (musician), Roy van Dorn (set-design), Anne Stokes (concept art for the blue mother of all dragons) and Gary Haus (modeling) helping on a project basis. Be sure to register your email or register on the site, join the discussion in our forum and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and join our group on Vimeo to follow this project's progress.
We can't wait to holodance with you!