History of osu! 2009

January

osu! makes its way to the iPhone as a port done by nuudles. The project was given its own subforum, now archived.¹

osu! iPhone's Title screen

Loading textures

Loading beatmaps

Options

Song selection

Song difficulty selection

Song scoreboards

Downloading songs

List of new beatmaps

Downloading beatmap screen

Gameplay

Pausing

Ranking screen

Highscore!

The osu! website's FAQ became translatable and voluntary contributors helped in making the FAQ accessible in multiple languages.²

In a huge update on January 26, osu! received many new features.³ Among these changes were new multiplayer modes Tag VS and Tag Team VS, as well as password protection for multiplayer rooms. Objects in the storyboard editor became modifiable in new ways via the transformation options vector scaling and flipping. While playing, hit lighting effects would emphasise a hit by splashing colours on the playfield. Furthermore, song progress also became displayable in the form of a pie. Additionally, a new beatmap sorting mode "Last Played" was added to the song select screen.

February

On 14 February, the fourth iteration of the osu! community meeting was held regarding how beatmaps should be moderated, a new upcoming localisation feature, and questions about expanding the osu! team.⁴

The kudosu system was implemented to ease beatmap modding in the ranking procedure. Mappers became able to reward people with points called kudosu for useful and constructive criticism. 3 kudosu points could be traded to 1 kudosu star, which could be used to increase the beatmap's rank in the Beatmap Appreciation Team (BAT) modding priority list.⁵

March

Three updates brought a lot of changes to osu! this month. The first one included filtering options for multiplayer lobbies, as well as a chat option to filter messages if offensive language appeared. If enabled, each chat message containing forbidden entries would be replaced with words defined by a certain list.⁶

In the next update published on 21 March, kiai time was added, enabling mappers to emphasise strong parts of songs with star fountains.⁷

On 26 March, osu! received support for the TaTaCon Wii Taiko drum controller and Wiimote game/menu control support (Catch The Beat only).⁸⁹

April

The number of registered users exceeded 100,000.¹⁰

May

A change in the kudosu system allowed users to gift kudosu stars to any beatmap, not just their own ones like previously.¹¹

Among other changes, osu! got an update this month adding widescreen support and the Autopilot mod. Enabling the Autopilot mod would take over the cursor movement and the player would only need to control the tapping.¹²

June

Due to a change to the beatmap submission system, users were no longer able to upload any modifications to a beatmap after it was modded. There were cases of beatmaps ranked by the BAT members not knowing they contained rule-breaking changes.¹³

Up to this point, osu! was only available in English. With the new localisation system coming into place, users became able to translate the game client. They could download a file containing the game's text lines, translate it into their language, and then ask for the file to be integrated into the game client.¹⁴¹⁵

July

On 14 July, osu! news became available as a RSS feed.¹⁶

Two updates this month brought a new mouse precision toggle option for low sensitivities as well as new command parameters and shortcuts to simplify storyboard scripting in osu!.¹⁷¹⁸

The server database was upgraded with an additional 32 GB SSD to support more storage going forward.¹⁹

After a first initial test for Taiko online rankings was done in March, ranking statistics became viewable per mode on the osu! website.²⁰⁶ Prior to that, only the osu! game mode had online rankings.

August

The Twitter account @osustatus was created to inform players about issues with Bancho and the website.²¹

osu! received a new LoopType parameter for looping storyboard objects and a Relax mod for the Taiko game mode in an update on August 12. Additionally, a pre-release version of AiMod, a tool for detecting issues in beatmaps, was published.²²

September

Updates this month integrated new features, where among the changes were widescreen support for song select,²³ friend support on the website,⁹ and the Taiko mascot pippidon would now be displayed in the top-left corner while playing.²⁴

As of 6 September, all Taiko scores were reset to allow for an improved scoring algorithm to be used.

October

A new ranking info screen was added which laid the groundwork for the ranking chart system implemented at a later point.²⁵⁹

The 10,000th beatmap was submitted, Imogen Heap - Sweet Religion by Larto.²⁶

In addition to osu! news in July 2009, the changelog became available as a RSS feed on 25 October too.²⁷

November

Thanks to an update to osu! published on 18 October, users became able to add comments to replays.⁹ Furthermore, it became possible to automatically upload a screenshot to the osu! servers by pressing Shift + F12.²⁸

Two milestones were reached this month. 50,000,000 ranked plays in total were accomplished on 15 November and as of 20 November, osu! had 200,000 registered users.²⁹³⁰

December

This month, the Mapping Assistance Team (MAT) was introduced. The MAT was responsible for selecting pending beatmaps of acceptable quality and recommending them for being ranked in the forum modding system by the BAT.³¹

An update to osu! introduced hyperdashes for impossible jumps in Catch the Beat, where players would gain additional speed for a short time upon collecting a hyperfruit. Additionally, a preview for a listing of online users in the extended chat console was implemented.³²

The Community Voice forum was added with the goal of asking the community various questions where users were able to vote in weekly polls.³³

References