A new month dawns, and so too does another dev meeting guestpost. Like clockwork, or calendar-work, if you’re so inclined.

This month’s meeting was probably our largest yet, as the some of the new early-bird contributors (affectionately dubbed the LAZERhawks.. by me) were invited to sit in and give their piece on the way their projects were going. Many a warm welcome was given. Here’s what went down:

• LAZER development continues at a steady pace (still), but a little slower than was originally hoped. The LAZERhawks and the core developers hope to get a usable build (without online features) onto a CE release stream at some point within the next month. The conclusion of the LAZER project is pretty much essential to future osu!next development as it makes a lot of systems and features significantly easier to implement later on down the line, so time spent getting it right is ultimately better for osu! as a whole. This isn’t going to turn into another “osz2” type Soon(tm), we promise!
• A number of performance improvements for general OpenGL use on the Windows platform are slated to be merged in later this month. Not much else to say other than all the performance, all the time.
• The new forums continue to draw closer and closer to full release. With the addition of a last set of moderation tools, the new forum system is teasingly close to being rolled out fully, pending a few other features in osu!web that are yet to be done. Expect it to happen soon! That being said..
• osu!web development is not happening as fast as we would like. We’re always looking for new web developers to contribute towards the web face of osu!next - simply consult the github issues page for the current outstanding bounties to see what work needs to be done, if you’re interested.
• Within the next month, new beatmap submissions will be moving over to using the “moddingv2” system that was trialled earlier last month. The QAT will oversee this new system (as was their role’s original intent) and will help the developers by providing feedback from users and anything else that could be used to help make the new system better.
• Lots of new achievements incoming. We’ve got one “showcase” planned for a bunch of entry-level medals, and then we’ll start unveiling the new fiendishly difficult “hush-hush 2” type achievements on a weekly basis. Some of them are easier than others. Some are going to need serendipity for people to even get them. One thing is certain - and that is people are going to love them. Oh, and there’s a bunch of progression achievements slated to be released for every gamemode seperately within the next month, so look forward to that, too!
• We’ll be significantly broadening our scope for music artists who are willing to work with us. We have plans to provide the community with hundreds of official tracks (eventually) on the back of a long-held vision for creating a unique music scene around osu!. If you know of any artists who produce high quality music that could readily be mapped (or is just suited for rhythm games in general), please, let us know in the comments!
• The Chart system as a whole is being considered for a massive overhaul. Inspired by the “courses” the Mania community has taken to making for itself, we’re thinking about introducing new relevance and meaning to the charts in a similar format, though the idea is very much in its infancy at this point. Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled!

Meanwhile, flyte is slowly dying under the creative strain of drafting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of medals. I regret nothing.

See you next month!