As of recently, it's been six years since we first launched A Dance of Fire and Ice on Steam!

Over that time, we've received a tidal wave of support way beyond anything we could have predicted. Thank you to everyone who has played, left reviews, told their friends, and made videos about ADOFAI. Thanks to your continued interest, we've been able to spend all these years working on updates and improvements. Brick by brick, we've expanded the game into something much bigger than we had imagined in 2019.

One of those bricks has been the addition of Featured Levels. With Featured Levels, we're able to work directly with talented creators from the community to license their levels officially and put them into the main game. Up until this point, we've been adding "Classic-style" Featured Levels, which are levels that largely follow the mechanics and design ideas that we explored ourselves in ADOFAI.

Today, the first wave of Tech Levels is here!

Tech Levels are a different style of ADOFAI level. They follow new charting conventions, many of which were popularized by the custom chart community after we released our Level Editor. Sometimes, Tech Levels are more difficult than Classic Levels. Sometimes, they just ask for you to be ready for different shapes, rhythms, and tempos than you might be used to. Either way, you'll probably want to utilize more fingers on the keyboard while playing. For detailed explanation, please visit our knowledge base[7thbeat.notion.site].

Because so many people in the community love making, and playing, these Tech Levels…we wanted to bring a few into the game for everyone to try!

• New design of the Pause Menu: We've re-designed our Pause Menu to coincide with our continued development on the Nintendo Switch version of the game. The menu should be a smoother experience now, and better suited to controller compatibility.
  
• Sightreading Warnings: We've added warning tags to a few Featured Levels. These tags indicate the level was used in a community Sightreading Tournament. Because of that, they're quite hard to complete without missing, and are intended to be a test of high score. We've enabled No-Fail Mode for these levels, only for the first time you play them. See how well you do!
  
• We've fixed issues with the game running on Steam Deck
  
• We've disabled Asynchronous Input as a choice in the settings if you're using the Linux (or Steam Deck) version of the game. It was causing some bugs on Linux that we are still looking into.
  
• Minor bugfixes

In addition to the levels themselves, we're introducing a new "radar system" exclusively for Featured Tech Levels! This radar will identify the strength in level's stamina, speed, rhythm, and tech! Check it out in the new Featured Tech section in the CLS!

Please note that the gem difficulty of these levels are temporary / not final. We will be working the gem difficulty system in the future to allow for harder levels.

Backyard Sanctuary
Music by Tanger
Level by CausticLime

"This level, by CausticLime, is a chill, easy pseudo-focused tech level, suggested by various players for learning the basics of alternating with pseudos. Learning takes time, and mastery takes even longer, so relax, take your time, and let the power of practice do the work for you."

Turkish March
Music by W. A. Mozart (arranged by Misoguy)
Level by Misoguy

"A musical composition so old only some people of today know about it, Turkish March, has arrived in ADOFAI! This level, created by Misoguy, contains fast-paced patterns and magic shapes! Let your inner pianist flow through your hands as you march on!"

Feral [Hard] & [Insane]
Music by meganeko
Level by Ma6icCu8e

With the introduction of Featured Tech Levels, two new difficulties have arrived!

"meganeko returns with a 5-minute epic! Instead of one level, Ma6icCu8e has made different levels to suit all difficulties. They are all so interesting and varied that we wanted to feature all of them, for players of all skill levels. Hard difficulty is for players who beat It Go and need extra challenge, introducing pseudo-multitaps and key rolling to the mix, while Insane difficulty is for highly skilled players, featuring faster and more complex patterns involving pseudo-multitaps and key rolling."

R
Music by Plum
Level by KanoKaz & NumbEr07

"This is one of the most famous ADOFAI custom levels, with music by Plum, a very popular artist in the ADOFAI community. A 2020 collaboration between NumbEr07 and KanoKaz, this level uses Magic Shapes - the use of snails and rabbits to make kaleidoscope-like shapes with the track, while the players simply tap out a stream of consistent notes."

deleted
Music by linear ring
Level by Nephrolepis & ChyaRyam

This level has been completely remade in commemoration of its debut in the Featured Levels list!

"Through Nephrolepis and ChyaRyam's team effort, linear ring's unique electronic sound has been brought to life in ADOFAI! Complex patterns in high BPMs await in your pursuit of escape before the world gets deleted."

felys -final remix-
Music by onoken
Level by Editor AlriC

"felys is a 2002 classic that influenced and popularized Artcore, a mix of Drum & Bass and classical/traditional music. The song's lovely and graceful sound touched the hearts of listeners, particularly musicians who were inspired by onoken's music to produce their own Artcore music. Editor AlriC's elegant taste in VFX and charting allows us to experience its beauty visually in ADOFAI!"

Here's a new preview video showcasing this wave of Featured Levels:

Together with this update, we're also happy to announce our new team member! SaJabe has joined 7BG as our Tech Levels Lead! He will be curating and creating Tech levels for the game. This first batch of Tech featured levels is his first contribution. Please give him a warm welcome!

As always, thanks for playing!

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