A quick explanation for those who do not know what this is. Holodance is a VR game, which allows osu maps to be played in VR.
Reviews from people who play osu, who happen to have vives have been great.
Links to the store page on steam and the official website are below.
http://holodance-vr.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/422860/
The creator's twitter is @jashan https://twitter.com/jashan

This is not what I am here to talk about though.
I want a discussion, on whether or not a high-quality port of osu, with a few gimmicky add-ons, should be allowed to cost $10? (It is 75HKD for me, so I did the steam conversion to get 10 USD)

This could be great, as it means the development could be faster and more stable, especially on such a new platform. It would be very hard to be free, since testing it requires an office, or some place. There is currently no system like being a supporter like in regular osu, however it could be implemented to reduce the price if it gets some capital. Peppy has acknowledged it's existence, so we can assume that permission was given was given.

However, there is a problem. Currently, our osu lives in a legal void, where the distribution of copyrighted music lives on the fact that the music is simply secondary to the game, the emphasis is on the beatmaps, and that osu is FREE. Also, many osu players play osu as it is free. This game may not have the audience it needs to have a self-sustaining community.

I dunno, but argue sensibly about it below XD.

mindmaster107 wrote:

I want a discussion, on whether or not a high-quality port of osu, with a few gimmicky add-ons, should be allowed to cost $10? (It is 75HKD for me, so I did the steam conversion to get 10 USD)

The history of Holodance is a little different (I'm the developer ;-) ): It's a native Virtual Reality rhythm game with some built-in songs, plenty of environments, a story. Eventually, it will have its own in-VR beatmap editor (to build fully 3D beatmaps, which will give you full 3D sliders). We were already in Early Access when one of our players asked if we could add osu! beatmap support. At that point in time, I didn't even know osu! existed (pardon my ignorance ;-) ). In fact, I just had to play a few sessions to even be allowed to answer this forum posting ;-)

As I think it's really important to listen to player requests and one of the limitations we're dealing with was limited, licensed content, I contacted Peppy about the idea of adding osu! beatmaps support to Holodance and he seemed to like the idea. I was still super-busy adding native content to the game so months passed until I actually got to it.

One of the things I really loved about osu! and why I have added osu! beatmaps support before other formats (StepMania was also requested) is that it has Sliders which are basically a "2D version" of a mechanic we've even had in some of our earliest prototypes (long before I knew that those are even called "Sliders" in osu! ;-) ): Holodance - "Following Arcs in Space" ... that video is ages old, the game has changed "a little" since then as you can easily see from current videos ;-)

So that's the background that Holodance is coming from. It's a full rhythm game on its own that also has support for osu! beatmaps, even though at the moment, I certainly think that playing osu! beatmaps is the most worthwhile way to spend your time playing Holodance - I hope that this is temporary (not because playing osu! beatmaps in Holodance will become any less fun but because I believe there's something cool about having a rhythm game and beatmaps that fully designed for VR).

mindmaster107 wrote:

Not only this, but should the creators of Holodance work closer to the osu community, rather than being a bit distant? Maybe some acknowledgement from peppy and the development team may quell the suspicion they are ripping off a free game, and selling it for 10 USD.

As you can see from this posting, I'm doing my best to work as closely with the osu! community as I can. I have sent Peppy an email before even starting and kept him updated with the status of osu! beatmaps in Holodance. I'm not sure he actually has tried it but he certainly has a key for the game (of course ;-) ). He also mentioned Holodance on Twitter (two times, as far as I can tell: 1, 2), and replied to a question about it on Reddit. Before adding certain features, I check back with him first (some ideas, he didn't like and suggested I follow another approach which I'm doing).

We also have quite a few osu! players some of which I'm working very closely with. For me, it's not always easy to find the right balance because during the last few months, I almost exclusively worked on the osu! integration of Holodance and still have a "native" part of the game to complete. In other words, I have delayed our own, native in-VR beatmap editor for many months to make sure people coming through osu! have a better experience playing our game. I don't regret having the priorities like that at all but it's the perspective I see this from.

EDIT: Fixed typos. Added some links.

JashanChittesh wrote:

mindmaster107 wrote:

I want a discussion, on whether or not a high-quality port of osu, with a few gimmicky add-ons, should be allowed to cost $10? (It is 75HKD for me, so I did the steam conversion to get 10 USD)

The history of Holodance is a little different (I'm the developer ;-) ): It's a native Virtual Reality rhythm game with some built-in songs, plenty of environments, a story. Eventually, it will have its own in-VR beatmap editor (to build fully 3D beatmaps, which will give you full 3D sliders). We were already in Early Access when one of our players asked if we could add osu! beatmap support. At that point in time, I didn't even know osu! existed (pardon my ignorance ;-) ). In fact, I just had to play a few sessions to even be allowed to answer this forum posting ;-)

As I think it's really important to listen to player requests and one of the limitations we're dealing with was limited, licensed content, I contacted Peppy about the idea of adding osu! beatmaps support to Holodance and he seemed to like the idea. I was still super-busy adding native content to the game so months passed until I actually got to it.

One of the things I really loved about osu! and why I have added osu! beatmaps support before other formats (StepMania was also requested) is that it has Sliders which are basically a "2D version" of a mechanic we've even had in some of our earliest prototypes (long before I knew that those are even called "Sliders" in osu! ;-) ): Holodance - "Following Arcs in Space" ... that video is ages old, the game has changed "a little" since then as you can easily see from current videos ;-)

So that's the background that Holodance is coming from. It's a full rhythm game on its own that also has support for osu! beatmaps, even though at the moment, I certainly think that playing osu! beatmaps is the most worthwhile way to spend your time playing Holodance - I hope that this is temporary (not because playing osu! beatmaps in Holodance will become any less fun but because I believe there's something cool about having a rhythm game and beatmaps that fully designed for VR).

mindmaster107 wrote:

Not only this, but should the creators of Holodance work closer to the osu community, rather than being a bit distant? Maybe some acknowledgement from peppy and the development team may quell the suspicion they are ripping off a free game, and selling it for 10 USD.

As you can see from this posting, I'm doing my best to work as closely with the osu! community as I can. I have sent Peppy an email before even starting and kept him updated with the status of osu! beatmaps in Holodance. I'm not sure he actually has tried it but he certainly has a key for the game (of course ;-) ). He also mentioned Holodance on Twitter (two times, as far as I can tell: 1, 2), and replied to a question about it on Reddit. Before adding certain features, I check back with him first (some ideas, he didn't like and suggested I follow another approach which I'm doing).

We also have quite a few osu! players some of which I'm working very closely with. For me, it's not always easy to find the right balance because during the last few months, I almost exclusively worked on the osu! integration of Holodance and still have a "native" part of the game to complete. In other words, I have delayed our own, native in-VR beatmap editor for many months to make sure people coming through osu! have a better experience playing our game. I don't regret having the priorities like that at all but it's the perspective I see this from.

EDIT: Fixed typos. Added some links.

Thanks for your opinion, and some facts which backs up your legitimacy! I will update the master post.

I would still like to have a discussion on how legal your game is. Osu has some dedicated musicians which make osu-friendly music, but since many songs we have are copyrighted, should the osu-support on your game be allowed to thrive?

I think just wait and see would be the best course of action.