Welcome to Dead as Disco Early Access! Thank you so much for jumping on the bus with us. For those of you already in the Discord, you know it’s already been a wild ride over the last year. So many playtests and patches, and so much feedback! From advanced beatmap UI polish to late night balance suggestions, you have already helped to shape this game so much.
But now it’s time to buckle up, because the road to 1.0 will be glorious.
Each season of patches is themed around a music festival, containing multiple update patches along the way. The Summer Flames Festival kicks everything off, with 3 major stops:
May: HOTFIXXXS
Update 1 – June
Our first update brings major additions to Infinite Disco and My Music. Highlights:
Custom Challenge Playlists linked to My Music
The return of Arena Swaps (new and improved)
Selectable Dances so you can customize your flow
New Arenas, Challenges, and Mods
And tons more
With every update, you can expect quality of life improvements asked for by you, as well as balance changes, ability improvements, narrative additions, and a list of additions too long to mention (honestly, I really can’t stop the team sometimes).
Update 2 – Midsummer
Midsummer turns up the heat with a major expansion to our rockstar wardrobe options, a wave of fresh memorabilia & collectibles, and a few summer surprises. We’re also planning to pair it with a mid-season balance and abilities pass based on your feedback.
Update 3 – Boss Idol Finale!
We finish out the summer with an XL patch dropping our first new Idol, along with everything you’d expect: full music video story level, new killer music, skills and signature ability, enemies, narrative, collectibles, fashion, and additions to the UGC tools.
Fall, Winter, & onto 1.0
Our Festivals will continue into the Autumn holiday season and through the depths of Winter, revealing new Idols as we go. With each festival we gain a clearer understanding of how close we truly are to 1.0.
We currently plan to launch 1.0 in 2027, with a massive launch patch focused on refreshing the experience for everyone, infusing the game with final secrets, and delivering the final narrative arc.
Along the Way…
Many Early Access features are bigger than any single patch, so let’s call them out:
New Idols / How Many Idols Are There? We haven’t confirmed the full roster of the band formerly known as Dead as Disco, but 4 of them are the Boss Idols available at early access launch.
Difficulty, Challenges, & End Game. These items will be added in pieces through many updates. New enemy variants, mods, enemy behavior, level patterns, and true hard mode are among the many pieces we will release over the course of early access. But the final end game battle against Harmony Corp (and true ending) will be saved for the 1.0 release.
Co-op Multiplayer. This is a big one, and we won’t release it until it’s ready. Our Beat Kune Do gameplay introduces a lot of new multiplayer problems to solve. Our goal is to add even more spectacle without sacrificing the flow that makes the gameplay so special.
Even More Music Coming. More licensed music, more covers, more streamer safe originals – the hits just keep on coming! We have an incredible year of music lined up for you.
Skill & Abilities. We’re just getting started. In addition to the new skills and signature abilities introduced with every new Boss Idol, we’ll be revising and expanding the existing skill trees over early access. The skills have already benefited tremendously from player feedback, and we don’t plan to stop now.
Leaderboards. As we listen to feedback and tune the game, the competitive landscape will naturally change, so we will employ a “Leaderboard Seasons” strategy. The names of the winners of each season will be saved in the community (and hopefully the game one day) so they can be celebrated properly before resetting the Leaderboards for the new season of balance.
Narrative, VO, & The Encore. The game will have full VO, but currently VO is limited to the story levels and tutorial. VO will be added to The Encore – our dive bar and music club hub – over time. New narrative arcs will be added as each Idol is revealed, but the final story arc won’t land until 1.0.
Replay, Editing, and Photo Support. We want to give our creators the ultimate tools to capture every moment and angle of the violent kaleidoscope. Photo mode will arrive sooner than replay, because replay functionality is linked to many of the same issues as multiplayer and will take time.
Automatic BPM Detection for My Music. We’d love for you to pop in a new song and for combat to “just work”. We’re looking into solutions, but for now you’ll still need to manually calibrate the beats per minute when you add songs.
More Mod Support. We have been blown away by the modding of the demo, and will continue to keep the game moddable during Early Access. We are also looking into the best way to support mods more officially, whether through a third party integration like mod.io, or something in-house. For now, it’s safe to say that we can’t wait to see what you do with the game, and we look forward to providing even more.
Additional Accessibility & Calibration Settings. Due to the vibrant nature of the game, we need to pay special attention to accessibility to keep Dead as Disco enjoyable for as many folks as possible. We also have to do it for two genres that both demand a lot of accessibility and calibration options: rhythm & action. But the good news is that Early Access is the fastest way to get the feedback we need to improve our settings. (Special call out to those of you waiting patiently for on-press attack options – it’s on the list)
And So Much More.
Thank you again for all the support and feedback that got us here, and for all it will take to get us to 1.0. It’s going to be a year to remember.
See you on the dance floor.
-Will Cook