Introduction

So, iDANCE! Positive Gaming, who I'm sure most of you know for ITG2 multiplayer and the Eurocup tournaments, have been working hard over the past years to put together their own entry to join the 4-panel dance game club. Now, a lot of you might not have heard a lot about it yet because it's a Multiplayer fitness setup and not a new arcade or console release, but I suggest you read on and learn a bit about the game as with any luck iDANCE arcade versions should next year be springing up somewhere near you!

The Game Itself

iDANCE has been mentioned in a previous news post, but back then very little was know about the product, and it hadn't really been seen by anyone outside of Positive Gaming. Since then though it's been debuted at the NECs Leisure Industy Week, and a lot more information has become available. I myself was lucky enough to be invited along to the LIW, and have since managed to have another go on the completed version of iDANCE. And I'll tell you all about my experience... As I said before, this particular version of iDANCE is a fitness game, and as such you shouldn't be directly comparing it's features and appeal to that of an arcade cabinet. Rather, you should look through the information here and use it as a guide to what the arcade machine might be like, and consider that most of the good features will likely be kept when it's finally released. The first thing I noticed about the game when I looked at it was that it was very 'clean', and very simple to look at and understand. There were no harsh contrasting colours, no fancy over-complicated backgrounds, and no booming rave music assaulting my senses in any of the menus. Almost as if it were trying to live up to the little 'i' at the beginning of it's name, most of the games screens have a plain white background, with all of the song information clearly visible and the players showing on the sides of the display. I'm sure this will be appreciated by the people who will play this a lot, as it is a very beginner friendly interface in that respect. Knowing who you are in the game is also pretty simple, with your mat being numbered and all of the numbers being next to your respective symbol ingame. All your scores and difficulties are mapped to your number so it's easy to keep track of. I shouldn't need to explain what all the song details mean as anyone who has ever played a dance game should know already, but I will say that each difficulty of song comes with a preset speed mod as you can see. It may sound silly, but all the ones I played were set to a very comfortable reading speed, and if you really don't like them you can change them. The difficulty rating also goes from 1-25, which may seem confusing at first but I was told 'it's very close to 'iDANCE difficulty / 2 = approx ITG difficulty'. So use that as guidance. I'll talk a little bit about the songlist in a moment, but once you've selected your song and gone into the game you'll probably have something to say about the graphics. iDANCE isn't based off of stepmania. The guys at Positive Gaming have instead coded it from scratch, using a 3D engine to noticeably show off the fact that arrows actually do have width. The backgrounds differ from traditional dance game backgrounds, with these ones instead panning around various 3D locations (including a tropical island, a school gym, and the top of a snowy mountain). It's different, but it's also nice to have backdrops to play on that don't distract you from the gameplay at all like ITG sometimes did. One small thing I will say is that the jagged edges are very noticeable on some of the graphics, but considering we're talking about an 80+ inch projection here, I might just being nitpicking. The songlist... this is the most important part of the game as a music game full of bad music would be most unplayable. Luckily, this is not the case! The selection is in fact very good, but at the same time it's also pretty unknown (at least to me). Included in the lineup are songs by some pretty well known artists like Shiki, Canblaster (under the alias Dr. Tanner), Digital Explosion, and Vospi. Even 'Oscillator X' has a couple of songs in there! But the trouble is, they're some of the best known artists in the game, and I'd be surprised is many people who this game was targeted at would know even one of them. Although they're not selling straight to the people who are going to be playing this product, it's always nicer to be able to recognise some of the tunes on there. Being able to tell people something like 'oh, 5,6,7,8 by steps is on there!' is likely to get more people trying it out then telling them an unknown song by an artist they've never heard of before. At the same time though, with this being such a widely targeted game it would be nice to get some artists who we all like to get a little more mainstream. Maybe if enough people enjoy it we'll start seeing more of Shiki or Vospi eh? That is the only gripe I have with the songlist though, and it's only a small one as people will look through the songlist and although they may not recognise anything, the selection of songs is so widely ranging (listen to Crocodiles for instance!), and at the same time so good, that it doesn't really matter. People will try things out and hopefully enjoy what's available. At the same time, there's nothing stopping possible updates to the songlist if they're needed or requested... I guess this is my cue to mention the stepcharts as well. Now I didn't play through the entire catalogue of songs... hell, I think I may have only played around 30-40 realistically (and I generally stuck to expert). But my view of them was very varied. Some I really did like, and I thought were really really fun or quite novel in some way. At the other end of the spectrum thought there were some that I didn't enjoy so much or just thought were badly done for some reason. With over 100 songs available, this is to be expected I guess... There's a wide range of step artists in the game, and each one will work with a different style. If you go to my youtube you'll see some of the videos I took at LIW, showing off some of the charts to songs. Honeytrap is a good example of a chart I think should be looked at again, and if you watch the video you will probably see why I say that. Lots of songs also had what I call 'determinator syndrome', where one or two sections of the chart were much harder than the majority of it. Although not bad on it's own, some songs didn't suit it and could have been consistently more difficult (or easier!) throughout and been better for it. Again though, considering that this is the fitness version it's not the end of the world. The difficult and below charts generally went to the music well, and it was only on the expert charts where I think people tried to be a bit too ambitious, and in some cases and messed up. I don't even expect many people in gyms to even be playing the difficult charts anytime soon, so the target audience probably won't be noticing that problem. With the arcade release so far away thought, there's a good 7-8 months at least for them to address any problems people might have with charts. With all the new look talked about you're probably wondering how it actually plays, scores you, and how you can mess with it, right? Well the game comes with a fairly generous selection of mods to keep things interesting, and I think it's pretty fair to assume that like the expert stepcharts and a lot of the difficult ones, these are more aimed at people looking ahead to an arcade release than for those at the gym. The speed mod system is what every player has probably dreamed of, with any 0.5x increment being selectable from 0.5x to 8x, or if that's not enough you can select the BPM you wish to play the song at in increments of 10bpm at a time! On top of that it has all the regular mods you'd expect form a dance game - noteskins, perspective mods (adjustable in increments of 10 degrees at a time), note size mods (adjustable in increments of 10% at a time), chart mods (left, right, mirror and shuffle were all there.), 'fun mods' like tornado and other such ones were there, mods that added notes/mines/rolls to the chart, and many more were available, but I can't remember every one of them. On top of that there were some other new things on top of what we expect. Holds, rolls and mines were all in attendance, but on top of that we have 'minefields', which look like an extended mine and takes away score the longer you're standing on it. Although there was no health bar here as it's a keep-fit game rather than a competetive game, the % scoring was still there so that you could see how you did compared to everyone else. It works a little differently to the ITG one in that it keeps an average % of your score based off of the number of notes you've hit so far, and adjusts it with every note you hit. Hitting an arrow with perfect timing will get you a 100% score after your first note, and as long as you continue to hit them perfectly that will continue until you get a 'great' or lower, and your score will decrease a little. It sounds confusing at first, but look over some of my videos and you'll get the idea. On the subject of scoring, there are currently 4 different gradings of accuracy in the form of stars.** 3 stars sit next to your pads individual box ingame, and depending on how accurate you are each note will be graded either 3 stars (gold), 2 stars (green), 1 star (blue), or 0 stars (red), and if you watch where the stars appear it will tell you if you're early or late. Gold and green stars keep your combo whilst blue and red ones will cause it to be lost. Also, if you step on a mine of drop a hold your whole box with flash red instead of just being black/grey. It's sometimes pretty difficult to keep track of your accuracy in this manner since you will need to watch your box as well as the arrows you're reading (with upto 32 people there can obviously be no big flashing letters appear to help you out), but if you're trying to keep fit getting 100% isn't likely to be your main concern. When the song is over all of your results come up, and things are pretty nice here. Alongside all the usual information (notes hit, total combo, etc etc), they've put in a graph that tells you how far from dead perfect each note you hit was. This is a very useful new feature in my opinion, and probably one of the first things I'd call to be kept in the arcade version. It also tells you what your total combo this session was, so if you're playing for a long time you can expect to rack up a pretty huge total combo. Phew that's a lot of information... Well, overall, I think this game is very good for what it is currently intended for. The fitness version seems to have taken most of the good features from ITG Multiplayer, and added them to a list of new good features that the PG have come up with for the game. Although the selection of music is a little unknown, it's good enough to hook people in and should be well taken to I think, and before the arcade releases the higher level charts have got a lot more time to be reviewed if the intended arcade market for them thinks that there are problems. I think that there are a couple of things that could be added (the ability for the person in control of the class to be able to create 'courses' of songs that can be saved and used later in lessons for instance), but little things like that aren't going to harm anyones enjoyment of the game, and are more a convenience than something needed. The game is still a strong product, and for a first release I am very impressed. If you get the chance to go and try out one of these setups, definitely go for it. Get a feel for the game, and get your own opinions on it. From what Ole has said they'll be eagerly watching fan feedback on the game, so your opinion should count! Also, you'll get a chance to play Crocodiles, which is never bad. ** I have a hunch this may be increased to 5 in the arcade release. Seeing some stuff I probably shouldn't have at LIW I noticed that in the metrics there were 2 other accuracy ratings that were disabled and called 4star and 5star.

The Songlist

I managed to get ahold of the entire songlist on my most recent play. Coming in at just over 100 songs, it's a lot more exciting than the 77 which were present at LIW with the extra additions. Songname - Artist 414 – N20 vs. Cell X A Sad Way – Flat 12 Above The Sky – iRave Aerial – DJ Azure Air – Shiki Angelus I – m00z Astrofalcon – Dr. Tanner Bass Force – Trance Tribe Behind the Horizon – Daniela Elger Bollywood vs Hollywood – Xaviaro Brother – Sunburn in Cyprus Collision – AJ DJ Call of Wilderness – Electron Chariot – Shiki Chaser - Shiki Crocodiles – Cat Jahnke Dance Electric – Sora Danvo Hotel – Vospi Dependance – Toby Emerson Dream Recorder – Palace of Pleasure Earth – Solid Inc. Echoes of Summer – Tranquility Groove Elder God Shrine – E-Racer Emilie de Ravin – Digital Explosion Epic City – The Flying Walrus Exciter – Tranquility Groove Fatal Surface – AJ DJ Fly by the Universe – 2Pro Form of an Angel – AJ DJ Full House – AJ DJ Fuzzy Bell – Alzarus Happy Song – Cat Jahnke Hardkore of the North – Dr. Tanner Here we Go – Inglow Hey Hey Hey – Psycho Sonic Cindy Honeytrap – Palace of Pleasure I forget you – Sara Rumar In The Hall of the Mountain King – Digital Explosion In The Night – Toby Emerson Incurable II – k-j-K Infinity – k-j-K Input Output – Neo Cartoon Lover Katana Fighter – Electron Keep Silent – Flat 12 Kleine – Shiki Kotiin – G-Powered Kristina – Mary Jane Kuuletko – G-Powered Lapis – Shiki Life – Sunburn in Cyprus Liquify – Toby Emerson Liquify (remix) – Dr. Tanner LMK’s Music Box – Dr. Tanner Logical Spy – Dr. Tanner Love – /DJS Mercury Lamp – Shiki Million Feelings – Floren Cristea Monstrum – Inglow My Girls – Shalaine Mezzo New Day – Amphibians Ninja Lad – KgZ Not 4 You – Neo Cartoon Lover Not For Sale – Inglow Off on you – Sara Rumar Orpheus & Eurydice – One Drop Does It Partie Deux – Digital Explosion Party Hard – Neo Cartoon Lover Party People – Oscillator X Phantoms – Toby Emerson Platitude – Onova Quickdraw – KgZ Revelations – Andy Tau Rock Robotic – When Machines Dream Safety Net – Oscillator X Saturn – k-j-K Sauna J – Palace of Pleasure See through deceptions – One Drop Does It Server X – The Callahan Shapes – Gabri Sharing – Xaviaro Sonic Stryker Vision – Dr. Tanner Stardance – Spaceangels String Interference – Alzarus Summer in Belize -2007- – Digital Explosion Sun Kanssas – G-Powered Super Collider – Oscillator X Svart Hjerte – Barske Karer Sweet Tornado – Vospi Teen Machine – Jeremiha Tek Drum – Ryan Blair Time Travelling – Xaviaro Turhaa – G-Powered Vae Victis – When Machines Dream Ville Hester – Palace of Pleasure Waking Up – Milow Wave Rip – KgZ When You're Gone – Neo Cartoon Lover We met dat night – Vospi Welcome to Funland – Dr. Tanner When You’re Gone – Neo Cartoon Lover Wishing Well – AJ DJ Your Smile – Sunburn in Cyprus

An Exclusive Interview with the Director of Positive Gaming

Back in August I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Birmingham Leisure Industry Week event to demonstrate and generally take a look at iDANCE. With In The Groove Multiplayer as part of their history, these guys certainly know what is needed to make a good dance game, so I thought I'd try and find out a little bit more about what they had planned for it. I approached Ole, the head of Positive Gaming, and asked if I could take him aside to answer a few questions about the product in general and where they wanted to take it, and he was happy to help out. This is what he had to say about the product. Mike: I'm talking to Ole Petter Høie, who is the Managing Director of Positive Gaming and is hopefully going to tell us a little about their new product, Positive Gaming iDANCE! Ole: Yes, we're very excited to be here at LIW, showing the product for the first time together with Pulse Fitness. We've been working on the idea of a Multiplayer Dance Mat system for about 4 years now, starting with out own prototype software, before collaborating with Roxor for In The Groove: Fitness Edition, and now finally presenting iDANCE. We've also taken all of the experience we've gained regarding what fitness centers and schools are looking for when it comes to a multiplayer system and incorporated it into our new product. Mike: So after working on the In The Groove 2 multiplayer system, what made you decide then to make the move to create your own? Ole: After the settlement between Konami and Roxor in 2006 we only had a limited time period where we could continue to sell the ITG as the publisher. It's like if you make a deal with a record company for music, then the record company has the right to publish that music for a certain time period even if they were to sell the rights to someone else, because you can't take away the publishers rights. So in the same way we've been able to continue for almost 2 years since the settlement, and we saw that Roxor Games had other plans and wanted to move in other directions that we could not fully relate to*. So we realised that it was required for us to step up to do things how we really thought they should be done, and in a way where we could control the future of the product and make sure all of the hard work from the all the people who make the game could continue, as we know how frustrating it was for us and for everyone involved in making the In The Groove product that it was suddenly just given away to somebody else without anyone having a say in it. At least this time we are in a position to make decisions and make sure to support the future of the product that we've worked so hard to create. Mike: So does that mean that you've taken on some of the team from Roxor who helped to make In The Groove, to help in your product? Ole: No, we've been very fortunate that we have communication with a lot of the dance game community, and have been able to get good advertisement on forums and such, and have had a huge interest from people wanting to participate in the project. Plus we already have a team of people who are among the greatest music game enthusiasts in the world who were with us already when we worked with Roxor, so we've just brought in more people like that. We have now got a team who is separate from Roxor, but who have still learned a lot from them. Mike: It's good to know there will be a good team behind it then! With such an enthusiastic team of people working on it, what new features have you managed to come up with that will make it stand out from the competition? I mean, obviously here you're showing off the fitness edition of the game, but most of the community are looking forward to an eventual arcade release and will be wondering what new features they will have to play with. Ole: Well, for this particular version we want to make it as exciting as possible for the target group, which at this point is kids in schools, leisure centers, and possibly various kinds of events where it would be appreciated. So for the multiplayer version of iDANCE we're trying to add features that would be suitable for those. The ability to play on 3 difficulty levels for instance so you can have a broad range of people playing at once. We've also tried to optimise the wireless solution so that the scores are at least somewhat comparable to arcade, although obviously the conditions in most schools and fitness centers will be better for play than they are here, (at the LIW centre) what with all the lighting and noise disturbance and wireless disturbance here. Our goal is to try and get it as close to the arcade feeling whilst still having it suitable for many people, which as you can guess has a lot of limitations. But we feel that the multiplayer version of iDANCE should be more fun for bigger groups of people and a more social game. We're also adding the capability for things like player tracking, a built in tournament system, workout modes and different things like that as features for the multiplayer version. We had a meeting in July with 18 people from all around the world just to get ideas for the arcade version and newer versions, and in addition to everything that has been put in here we had about 200 specific ideas for arcade, many of them which are in my opinion very revolutionary, so we're definitely working towards an arcade release and out target is to have it in 2009, most probably in about 1 year. It's very hard to say exactly though as there are many things that could influence the date. But we've had the right plans, gotten all the specifications together and have someone who is interested in making a cabinet for us. We've also gotten lots of specifications ready for the hardware and how to make that optimal for what we want to create. Mike: So I guess people looking at the product now shouldn't be basing their opinions of an arcade release off of it because you've got a lot of things you're going to change, and new ideas you're going to incorporate when it comes around? Ole: Oh of course. What I'm hoping people will look at it and say is 'Oh wow, this is really well done, and really fun for the format it's made for'. That's what we hope people will think because we've tried to bring all the core elements from past games, but we've also tried to add to it. For instance we've got the design. We think it's very modern, and it's the first 3D dance game, at least to come to multiplayer. We've built the program from scratch using a 3D engine, so it's not based on stepmania at all. We think this gives it the look of 2010 instead of 1998 or 2000. So mainly we hope people will judge it for what it is, and not compare it directly to an arcade product, and we also hope that people will see that there is a lot of potential for an arcade game there too. As I said, we've got a lot of new features planned for arcade, and I think that we can make the best 4 panel dance game ever on a first release. Also when we start shipping it out in a few weeks time, there will be 100 songs on there which will make it the biggest songlist on any first dance game release ever. Mike: Yeah, there are what... 77 songs on there at the moment? I was wondering where some of them had went as I'm sure that everyone looking over the footage will be wondering what happened to Air by Shiki. Ole: The version we have here at the moment is an advanced Beta version so what you see is almost complete, but we didn't want to spoil the entire songlist. Hehe, Air was taken away for a final review before release because we know that it is one of the charts that everyone has big expectations for since they like the original one,** so if we're making a new one we better make sure it's good. Mike: Hehe, are you saying that you didn't think the chart you had made for it was good then? Ole: No, I'm not saying that at all. At the end of the day we're perfectionists. We're very proud of what we're showing here and what we've managed to create. People have no idea how difficult it is to do this and how much money it costs too. So we're pleased with what we've done, but anything we see that can be done better we will try to improve. We take feedback very seriously too and we would appreciate it if the feedback was given with consideration that we want to release the best product we can, but we can't have all of the best ideas and best things in the first try. We're still the best in the world at what we do with the multiplayer, but in our opinion it can still be done a lot better and for us it will never be perfect. Mike: Well, given that you've got another year or so till the arcade release that's a lot of time to take feedback from this project... Ole: Until the first arcade release. We want to be doing this for many years and this is just the beginning Mike: Oh, so we'll be expecting an eventual iDANCE 3rd mix to be appearing then? Ole: Oh absolutely. But this is what people have got to understand - This is where we start. If you compare us with other machines then we think we are ready for that, but this is our first try. Look at other companies and they've been doing this for many years, and we feel we're already at the level where our product is comparable to others, and we're very proud we've managed to come so far in such a short time. I believe a lot of it is because of our contact with the community and how they've helped us, and I also believe that the community are a very important part of making sure that the product becomes better in the future. Mike: So can the community expect to hear from you, asking for suggestions for the first release of iDANCE next year then? Ole: Yes of course. We would like to have feedback and we would like to have suggestions from the players since they're the target audience. Of course we can't take and implement every single suggestion given to us. And it may also take time. If not everything is to peoples liking in the first try, it doesn't mean that if we agree with an improvement it won't happen, it'll just take time since it's a lot of coding to do and everything has to fit together. I just hope that the community won't underestimate what we're trying to do, and that we're the only company trying to facilitate so that the community will have a good 4 panel game for the future. I'm not saying that Konami don't do anything in that regard, but we're doing it largely for the community, and have community people on the development team. We're obviously still going to cater the game to beginners and improving players too, but without forgetting about the higher levels of players at the same time. Mike: Going back to what's on the product here today, I notice that a lot of it doesn't seem to be aimed at the 'fitness audience'. For instance, I don't expect to be going to my local school and seeing kids playing Hall of the Mountain King or Hardkore of the North Expert. I'm assuming as such that most or all of the songs and charts from this version will be on the arcade release, and that the higher level ones here are to show players what kinds of things they can expect when it is eventually released? Ole: Hehe, yes we've also decided to show that this is not just a fitness product. It is meant for arcade also and we have charts already that are on the level where expert players can really challenge themselves, and hopefully they'll be looking forward to getting the chance to see them on an arcade machine in the future. And of course before the arcade release we're going to have time to get even more music and charts done so that there will be a lot of completely new stuff on there as well. There's a lot of stuff that we can't discuss yet too that will be included in future plans, and it's all very exciting. Content, software, hardware, there's stuff in each and some of it is very revolutionary, and I think it's going to make us stand out from anyone else. Mike: Well on the subject of the hardware, what have you got planned for it? As you probably know if you ask any expert player they'll tell you that playing on an In The Groove 2 Dedicab is the current peak of 4 panel play. So would it be fair to assume that you're going to try and emulate that in terms of hardware quality? Ole: I can tell you that we've got a very interesting pad solution, but that of course we're going to be going for that kind of quality. We're looking to follow in the footsteps of those that have done it right, but I'm afraid I can't go into the details of it. But I can tell you that our idea is to make an arcade version that can be suitable for many different kinds of locations. So you could have a few different solutions depending on where the machine was, for instance bigger speakers and screens and more flexibility on things. Mike: So you mean that when you buy a machine you'll be able to customise some aspects of it like the speakers and banner and stuff? Ole: Yeah, some places might want a machine that is more aesthetically pleasing to their location. So for instance a school or fitness studio might not want too huge loud speakers and big flashing lights that a lot of arcades want, and some bigger arcades may want a bigger screen or louder speakers. Mike: That's quite cool, and I guess would help some places that didn't want to spend quite so much too. So saying that you are interested in following in the footsteps of those who have done it right, do you think you'll be adding the ability for things like edits, custom songs, USB support, and similar for it? Which, thinking about it would possibly lead the way for console/PC versions of iDANCE, since it's not using Stepmania and so edits probably wouldn't be computable... Ole: Well we're currently considering a lot of options around that. I mean, we would like to at least follow in the footsteps of In The Groove when it comes to the possibility of making new steps for different songs and things like this, but we haven't made final decisions on it yet. I mean, one thing we have to consider is that whatever we make we have to take responsibility for. So for instance if we make it possible to add unlicensed music, we would be responsible for it. So if say someone went and and added 10,000 songs from stepmania, then we may get in trouble if we've made a machine that would be promoting that you can do things like that. We don't want to get sued by loads of different companies for not thinking before we do something so for that reason we might have to be careful with several things we may have wanted to do. We understand the community may not want that, but we want to follow the good things that have been done, and not the bad things such as losing the rights to our software. Mike: So would you say it looks likely that iDANCE console version would look likely in the future is the arcade release takes off? Ole: It's certainly something we would like to see in the future, but it depends. There are several reasons why we're no sure what's going to happen, but we would definitely like to see it as a possibility for the community players to be able to play in their homes. Some people definitely want to do it, but at the moment we're going to take on one version at a time right now, so we'll just have to wait and see. Mike: Well, with all of this information I guess I should probably ask when can we expect to see the multiplayer versions in our local fitness centers? Ole: We're planning to start supplying on the 20th October, but the releases are going to be dependent on when places actually purchase the systems of course. Mike: Have you had a lot of interest and orders from buyers here over the past few days then? Ole: The UK is by far our largest market, and you can expect to see a lot of setups around from November. We're going to go into the US as well and we'll get orders there, which I think you'll start seeing around January. You'll also see the product in the middle east from November, and probably in Australia from January again. Mike: Not in more European countries, considering where Positive Gaming is based? Ole: Heh, yeah you're right. We'll see it in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany and maybe Holland before the end of the year. We're working on several others but there's a lot of different countries and I can't keep track of everything in my head right now Mike: Okay. Well, finally, Positive Gaming is also well known for it's yearly European tournaments, so I was wondering if you have any plans to integrate any kind of tournament system into the game itself? DDR has had it's internet ranking system, and over in japan it's had various E-amuse related tournaments for instance, so maybe something for the western audience? Ole: Well over the next year or so you will begin to see this in the multiplayer version, as in the ability to organise tournaments locally. For arcade we want to accommodate anything we can do, and try to make it as simple as we can for people to run tournaments, but what we'll probably do is have a tournament setup within the game, but also have a standardised Excel program that is made for iDANCE tournaments. We'll certainly be looking at adding more things that make it easier to run tournaments. In the long term our goal has always been to get both multiplayer and arcade online, and allow people to play against each other over the internet. This would obviously bring a whole new potential to the tournament scene and make for a very interesting future. Mike: And on the tournament note, have you got any information regarding plans for another Eurocup yet? Ole: When it comes to tournaments at the moment, we're still finalising the plans. We're probably going to organise another European Cup near Easter 2009 with In The Groove 2 arcade as the main event, but also with iDANCE multiplayer there for people to try. We'll probably introduce our tournament system for that as well, likely as a fun tournament but we'll see. Hopefully we'll also be looking to sponsor national champions to come from countries who run their tournaments in a way we can identify with, but that's obviously something that will cost us a lot of money. We've spent a lot of money in the last few years, but we've got faith we should start making a lot back now. Mike: That's good to hear and hopefully this years will be more popular than ever! Well, that's all I believe I have to ask... Thanks for taking time to be subjected to my questions, and I hope that iDANCE takes off so that we'll see a lot more in the future! Ole: No problem, we're hoping the same too. * - For those of you who don't know what Roxor moved onto ** - Reach's Air simfile is famous!

In Closing

Hopefully you've found a lot of the information here useful, and are as excited about a potential arcade release as I am. Although it's a fairly long way until potential release, and there are some things that need sorting out if it's going to get the praise it wants from the community, the team seem like they'll listen to what people suggest and take any critisism on board. Some charts do need improving yes, and maybe the songlist needs a few more recognisable licenses for arcade operators to even consider buying the machine, but with any luck things like this can be ironed out based on feedback from the fitness release. If you've got any opinions on it, wish to discuss the game, or offer any feedback, please do so in this thread and with any luck it'll be listened to. - Mike