- Dev Log #9 - Vibe Checks: Turning Music Into an Automation Objective - 29 May 2026
Hey Vibers,We’ve been hard at work trying to answer one of the toughest game design questions in Future Vibe Check since starting: How do you make music, something subjective, work inside an automation game, something built around objective outputs?Automation games are built around quantitative pressure. Items per minute. Belt throughput. Jammed outputs. Power usage. Layout efficiency. Players look at a system, find the bottleneck, rebuild it, and make the number go up.Music is not like that. A great song can be dense, simple, strange, aggressive, soft, repetitive, or chaotic. If we just tell players “make good music,” there is nothing concrete to optimize. If we force players to copy exact songs or solve a specific puzzle, we lose the feeling of creative freedom that is core to what makes making music fun. How do we make the music feel like your own but the factory you make feel like i…
- 🌊 Dev Log #8: Conveyor Belts Flow Like Water - 4 February 2026
Hey Vibers, Unwise here! 🎧 I’ve been heads-down working on the next FVC playtest, but I wanted to take a break to show you some visual updates that make the game feel more alive.First up: The Belts.In most automation games, conveyor belts are just infrastructure. Utilitarian. Mechanical. Usually the real-world version: rubber loops dragging items from A to B.But Future Vibe Check is also about music. In music, flow is everything. I wanted our belts to reflect that. Instead of a purely mechanical feel, I wanted them to feel organic and synced to the music you make.To achieve this “water-like” motion without melting your GPU, we couldn’t just slap a texture on a cube. We built a custom procedural shader from scratch.1) The Primer: What is a Shader, anyway?If you aren’t a graphics programmer, “shader” might sound like magic. Simply put: a shader is a small program that runs on your graphi…
- 2025 Recap: The Foundation is Built. Let's make 2026 LOUDER. - 1 January 2026
2025 was a great year for Future Vibe Check. We went from a quiet project to finally turning the speakers on to share what we've been working on. If you’ve been with us since the start or just joined the recent Playtest in December, I want to give you a big thank you. You are the rhythm section of this development that keeps me going. 2025 RECAP: The Year We Built the FoundationWe patched bugs, built key features, and started to better understand what makes FVC special. Here are the highlights:The Alpha Launch: We kicked things off with a Alpha demo and joined a series of festivals which helped us get started on the journey. Thank you to the Six One Showcase, Orbital Potato, Secret Sauce, Humble Games, and others who helped us spread the vibe this past year.The MIDI Revolution: We ripped out the old sound engine and replaced it with full MIDI support and Soundfonts. Now we have >300 ins…
- Major Update - Playtesting Live! - 12 December 2025
Hey Vibers! I’ve finally emerged from cooking in the development cave with the largest FVC update yet now accessible via a Steam Playtest on our store page. Playtest Access (here). The playtest update lays the foundation for the game to evolve to find the perfect Vibe!NOTE: This is separate from our previous Demo which will be released again in the new year. Use the playtest to play the latest!Music Making Improvements>300 new instruments to use! All backed by MIDI and Soundfonts for better sound!Real Music Expression: Now, you can control the duration of a note and how hard it is hit. You can even set it to sustain until the next node as well Explore 20+ new scales and use improved generation of leads, melodies, and chord progressions!Multi-Node Control: Now, you can multiselect nodes (shift + click) to modify duration, velocity, and travel time using curves. Also included is support f…
- Dev Log #6 - MIDI Part 1: A Musical Revolution Coming to Future Vibe Check - 2 October 2025
Hey DJs, Future Vibe Check has been a little bit quiet this month. However, that doesn’t mean the developer isn’t hard at work on the automation music game! I talked with Unwise on what they have been working on this month! Hey DJs—Unwise here. We’ve been hinting at it for a while, and now it’s time to pull back the curtain: Future Vibe Check is adding full MIDI support with Soundfonts in the next major iteration of the game (dropping soon in Discord for our playtesters and soon after in our Steam Demo). This post kicks off a short series covering what MIDI is, why it matters, and how it unlocks more expressive music-building inside the game.A Brief History of MIDI: Making the Sound of the Future, UniversalBack in the early 1980s, electronic music was exploding with synthesizers from companies like Roland, Sequential Circuits, and Yamaha. The problem? These instruments couldn't "talk" t…
- Dev Log #5 - Exploring Melody in Future Vibe Check - 4 September 2025
Hey DJs, Every time I bring up Future Vibe Check I think how cool it would be to make a factory of different theme songs. Future Vibe Check was featured in Tiny Teams which is a showcase exhibiting tons of games being developed by small teams. I talked to Unwise, the developer behind Future Vibe Check, about developing his first title in this short podcast! Something I have learned over the few months of working with him is that he is very knowledgeable in music theory and has the skills to blend that in with game development. Unwise this month wanted to talk about melodies in Future Vibe Check. Unwise here. Let’s talk about melodies and how we approach them in Future Vibe Check. This builds on top of our previous post on chord progressions which you can find HERE. 1. Understanding Melody: The Core ConceptIn music theory, melody refers to a sequence of pitches arranged in a linear fashi…
- Demo Update #4 - Fixes Galore + Become the LIGHT - 23 August 2025
Hey DJs – We broke 5,500 wishlists!! Woo hoo! Thank you to everyone supporting the game as we keep refining the vibe. Today, we have a healthy patch of fixes and one key feature addition. Become The LightNow, your power wires also serve as ways to transport you around the map! We will be adding this feature to all wires in the future so you can ride the wave whenever/wherever you want!UI/UXEasier Pitches: Fixed Vibe Node menu. Should be easier to select pitches across different aspect ratios without it auto closing. Also, don't forget that you can SHIFT + Click on nodes to set multiple pitches at once if you have the set pitch ability unlocked!Updated Indicator icons and underlying Indicator system.Settings/Performance:15% Performance Gain: Improved rendering settings, added more graphics options, and made key optimizations. Much more optimization to come!!SFX: Total Volume setting will…
- Demo Update #3 - Community Features! - 12 August 2025
Hey DJs—Unwise here with another update to the demo to support our participation in TinyTeams and the DebutFestival! Time to VIBE!Community Sharing Improvements!Upvote feature! Now you can upvote your favorite factories from the community!Filtering + Tags! Now, you can tag your saves as either a Cover, Original, or WIP. We have also increased the amount of Creative Mode saves to share to 15. Featured Panel Everyday, a new set of community saves will be featured on the main page. So, go out there, build a vibe, share it, and have a chance for everyone who logs in to see it!QOL:New camera rotation feature! See the world from new angles. Added dedicated bug reporting feature.Reworked and New Tutorial!Tons of other bug fixes and UI cleanup. What's Next? We are spending the rest of August on more QOL and stability. Next up is MIDI support, controller support, and improvements/reworks to some…
- ✨ Dev Log #4 - Connecting Music Theory, Symbology, and Gameplay - 31 July 2025
Hey Djs, Future Vibe Check joined the Secret Sauce Showcase giving a look at mediation mode!The community has been going absolutely wild with new songs put together in creative mode, which was a lot of what we wanted to show off. Anytime anyone posts a song clip in our Discord, it really hits me right. Unwise, the developer of Future Vibe Check, always gives deep and engaging ways he blends music theory into game development. Connecting Music Theory, Symbology, and Gameplay in Future Vibe CheckHey DJs—Unwise here with a deep dive into the artistic choices behind Future Vibe Check’s core machines in the new update: the Beat Maker, Key Maker, and Scale Maker. The goal here was to tie factory mechanics to symbolic representations of music theory and human perception, designed to make you feel like you’re crafting music with intention. Today, we’ll explore how these machines reflect the rea…
- Demo Hotfix #1 - July 18th - 18 July 2025
Thanks to all the vibers submitting bug reports! We got most of the critical ones fixed up with our first hotfix and expect another batch solved soon. Community Save FixesSharing older saves should work consistently now.Fixes to ensure your instrument choices are retained when other players load your creative save.Fixes to make sure your steam name will be displayed on a save you shared.Beat Maker and Inventory FixesPrevented stallouts at beat maker with crafting.Reduced chance of error with inventory deposits at visual crafters like the beat maker. Will be blogging about this later as there is some interesting nuance to our systems that allow for visual crafting, per item interactability, AND inventory interactions all together. However, this flexibility led to some edge cases being missed with the new update. Let us know if you still have any issues! Save/load FixesPower Wire Loading:…
- Demo Update - Community Sharing + Visual Crafting - 14 July 2025
Hey DJs—Unwise here with a big update to the Future Vibe Check alpha demo! We're thrilled to roll this out just in time for Automation Fest kicking off today (July 14th). This patch is all about making music-building more intuitive and shareable. 1. Community Save Sharing – Share Your Vibes!Ever built a Vibe so epic you wanted the world to hear it? Now you can! Players can upload and share up to 3 of their Creative Mode saves directly with the community. How it works: Head to the load menu, select your Creative Mode masterpiece, and hit "Share." Others can browse, download, and remix your setups in their own games.Pro tip: Shared saves include all your procedural music tweaks, so the vibe travels intact. 2. Visual Crafting Loop – See Your Music Come Alive!Core mode just got an upgrade with a revamped crafting system. Less inventory management and more visual building —now you see your m…
- ✨ Dev Log #3 - Chord Progressions in FVC - 1 July 2025
Unwise, the developer of Future Vibe Check, is toiling through the code and has been making changes from the feedback and bug reports received from the public demo. He wrote some of the changes in the Alpha Demo Post-Mortem talking about the stats and some of the things he learned! It is a great read. There is a demo available to check out on Steam and if you want to give feedback or see small updates from Unwise, then I would recommend joining the Future Vibe Check Discord! I talked with Unwise about Chord Progressions in Future Vibe Check.Hey DJs,Last month we cracked open the Dynamic Measure System—the global metronome that keeps every automation mechanic and music you produce aligned. Today we’re answering the first step of, “Okay, the clock is ticking… but what does the procedural music system decide to play?”The first part of that answer is chord progressions. They’re what give th…
- ✨ Alpha Demo Update #1 – June 2025 - 13 June 2025
The overall reception to our alpha demo has been awesome! We launched our first demo update today that addresses much of the initial incoming feedback. See below for more!Obtrusive Tooltips - Fixed (mentioned by 32 players)Pain Point: Our old tooltip system blocked the view when placing factories, especially when zoomed out. It was based on the concept of having inputs near the center of the screen, which proved to be a bad UX rule to follow for FVC. Fix: We moved the tooltips to join the rest of our HUD on the bottom panel and improved the layout so it never blocks the player's selection or placement process. Placement and Belts - Fixed (mentioned by 30 players)Pain Point: Players had a tough time placing belts quickly. In addition, they had trouble seeing the path of their belts and struggled with the positioning of certain belt setups.Fix: We reworked our placement system entirely wh…
- Dev Log #2: Deep Dive on Procedural-music (Timing) - 30 May 2025
Hey DJs, I hope you have been enjoying the Future Vibe Check demo! There have already been amazing creations made by the community! Make sure to make your own vibe in the demo if you haven't had a chance yet. Last month, we explained why we junked conveyor-belt sequencing for node networks. Today, we’re zooming in on our Dynamic Measure System—the bit of code that maintains timing across the player’s factory to ensure everything is synced to play at the right time. In one sentence: the Dynamic Measure System is the metronome that everything in FVC marches to—music, machines, and VFX. In one sentence: the Dynamic Measure System is the metronome that everything in FVC marches to—music, machines, and VFX.What’s a “Dynamic Measure” anyway?Most games treat music like a playlist: fire a clip, wait, fire the next. In FVC every bar of music is generated in real-time from tiny sixteenth-note ste…
- Future Vibe Check Demo - 22 May 2025
Hey DJs, It’s time to bring the vibes. Future Vibe Check demo is now available! Future Vibe Check joined Six One Indie where Buddy took a deep dive into the musical automation game Future Vibe Check where you don't just produce goods but produce music! Summoned by Infinity, you must rebuild reality. The call of endless optimization will be sublimated into sound. Automate the Vibe. Defend the Vibe. Become the Vibe. Check out the demo here and if you enjoy it, please give us a wishlist https://store.steampowered.com/app/3724990/Future_Vibe_Check_Demo/ Demo Contest I want to challenge you to make the best sounding world in the Future Vibe Check demo! Design and create the best sounding world to win a prize! To enter, join the Future Vibe Check Discord and enter your submission there! - riv otter
- Dev Log #1: Why Did We Ditch Belts for Musical Nodes? - 2 May 2025
Hey DJs, Last month, we revealed that Akupara Games is publishing our first automation game, Future Vibe Check. I talked with Unwise, the solo developer of Future Vibe Check, about what they have been working on. Hey everyone—Unwise here with a quick peek under the hood of Future Vibe Check. Early prototypes pushed music “items” along conveyor belts to an endpoint to be played. The inspiration at the time were sequencers and tracks in a DAW (desktop audio workstation) where there is a linear progression of time and music is played left > right. This seemed like a great fit with the concept of conveyor belts in automation games. This worked but there were two things missing. Since items moved on a ‘belt’ (similar to a DAW Track) it was hard to modify as music was being played. Music happened to you once parts arrived vs you engaging with the creation at runtime.The belt based system didn…
- Welcome to Future Vibe Check! - 12 March 2025
Hey DJs, I’m riv otter, the community manager for Akupara Games and I’m thrilled to introduce you to Future Vibe Check!! What we’re looking to do with Future Vibe Check! is a little different than your typical automation game. There’s a lot of psychedelic colors, a ton of philosophical inspiration, and the whole thing revolves around the music that you hear when you play. The soundtrack for this game is entirely what you make of it, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that I think you’ll really vibe with. If you want to get the inside scoop on all things Future Vibe Check!, including updates to the dev process and especially when we start putting a demo out for you to play, join the Discord: https://discord.gg/g5u6ZmMscu Check out Future Vibe Check! and wishlist it on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3525890/Future_Vibe_Check -riv otter
