Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Hey guys, How's it going? I just decided to come along and join the forums up. My friend here Findarian referred me to here because I just started making gimmick files. I had him post here for me because I was unable to post on this account until today. So with that said I'll be updating this thread with my own gimmick files :)

What are gimmick files?
Gimmick Files are stepmania songs that include, BPM changes, Stops, Pauses, Course Mods and other sort of tools to make the song even more difficult. It also adds a new fun experience to playing DDR/Stepmania

How do I play the steps?
You must play the songs under marathon mode as it is a course file. Playing the song normally does not include the gimmick tools because the game mode doesn't allow it

My Stepmania Makes a Noise whenever an effect happens.
It's best to use Stepmania with a skin like ITG2 which disables the noise when a course change happens. These files are also playable in Stepmania 5 but is not recommended.

What stepmania version should I use?
3.95 with a skin that disables sounds in marathon mode
5

Do I play this on keyboard or on pad?
I make these files specifically for Pad, if there is a song that is nearly impossible to beat on pad, let me know and I'll tune down the difficulty of the steps

Here is the link to the original thread my friend posted for me http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...d.php?t=123116

If you have any feedback or criticism please let me know. Anything to help me create better gimmicks. I hope you guys like it :)

Changes

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

New song!

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

No, please do not delete or lock that other thread. The other thread was for "Gimmick Files" just in general. This one is for your own creations.

If the other one were for just your gimmick files exclusively it would have been labeled as such.

Welcome to FFR by the way :)

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yeah... Findarian, My friend didn't get the memo. I wanted to have him change the title.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Well, sorry. :-/ I took it (and I'm sure others did too) to be a general discussion of gimmick files, just in general.

You can use this thread for discussing your files and the other can be for general gimmick files.

Also, no hard feelings I hope. :)

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yeah I read your post as well as others about gimmick files. I mean everyone has their own taste in how they look at it. Unfortunately I was unable to give you that satisfaction with my work ): is there anything you can give me to help me become a better gimmick file maker?

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Well, it's a lot of personal preference you must understand. I'd say keep gimmicks to a minimum or to certain emphasized portions of the chart (say, when there's a major change of direction in the music). Also I'd stick with just speed up/speed down, stops, disappearing/reappearing arrows/mines, mines-to-arrows/arrows-to-mines, and rolls.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yeah definitely, I guess simpler is more. This is my first time making gimmicks so bear with me. I do plan on doing speed up/speed down, stops, disappearing/reappearing arrows/mines, mines-to-arrows/arrows-to-mines, and rolls in the future. Although like you said. Some of them won't work unless its Stepmania 3.9 nothing older or newer.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yes, unfortunately. And you'll need to figure out how to do the tricks by examining existing files that used them since they kind of rely on glitching stepmania itself. Not something builtin to Stepmania.

And do continue your work and have fun. :) The most important thing is that you enjoy what you're doing.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Oh yeah these are fun to make, very time consuming but worth it once you see your work in the end. Do you make Gimmick Songs?

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Nope, I haven't. I've not really tried my hand at the whole stepping side of things. I might at some point though. Only thing I've ever stepped is a song I made a long time ago, just as a first try kind of thing. That stepchart probably doesn't even exist anymore since I never uploaded it anywhere and I've lost a lot of older data.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Just wanted to tell you, since I don't think anyone has mentioned this to you yet, the one problem I have with your files is not that you overdid the gimmicks, it looks cool and I don't mind if you go crazy with the gimmicks. The problem is that the file needs to be readable, and not once you memorize it you can read it, but like ability to sightread and do well sort of read it. That was what made Windeu's files so great, no matter how crazy it got all it took was good reaction times to do it on your first try, and you felt awesome for doing it.

So that's all I have to say I guess, the gimmicks you're using do really look cool you definitely have that down, you should just make sure that your gimmicks don't make it so you can't possibly have read the file on your first try so that no one has to spend hours memorizing the file or something.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yeah man, this is my first time doing this and I've looked at WinDEU's gimmicks over again, so I'm gonna try to tune my future songs down.

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

I think I did a pretty good job making the gimmicks go well along with the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZydZadoAf0

although I did sacrifice redibility

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

these files are actually really, REALLY cool, but it blows that you had to use coursemods for this.

i'm working on figuring out how to do effects like this in the sm5 editor since it lets you add effects with in-program options. only problem at the moment is not being able to change the % effect numbers.

also maybe it's just that i've been working with xmods lately but reading both of those files was pretty easy

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Yeah man, for me, coursemods are the only way to do things right now

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

Changed a few things with a song

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

can't you do those mods in sm5 without courses now anyways? or are there still certain mods that don't apply to that

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

in SM5 you can apply mods but, as far as i can tell, you can't change the percent of the effect, and that's kind of key to making mods like that

Re: Tekzaport's Gimmick Files
 

last time I check you could do it in sm5 without courses, I could be wrong tough