The Future of Stepmania

[Arch0wl]

Here I'm going to talk about three things:

1. Why Stepmania has lost much of its activity (or keyboard Stepmania if you want to be specific)

2. What things make Stepmania active or inactive

3. How it could become more interesting, active or not. That is, what new frontiers there are to cross.

I.

There are a variety of reasons for why SM is no longer active like it used to be. But then, "Sequence", a DDR-like game by Iridium Studios, had a pretty active community even though it had a very low skill ceiling relative to Stepmania and no incentive for community participation. So obviously, something other than just "it's a music game" made Stepmania lose activity, because Sequence is a music game with a lot of fan interest and arguably less depth.

If you've kept up with my life you know that I write a lot and that I've also written a good deal of game-related content. One of my major works right now that, hopefully, will lead to consulting gigs is a manual for how to "gamify" nearly any kind of medium -- and what factors you must take into consideration when doing so.

In it, I discuss in-depth how standardization is extremely important if you want to have long-lasting incentivization. I think standardization is the #1 obstacle SM has faced throughout its history, and the main reason why it never saw any kind of serious activity.

When I say "standardization" I mean:

- agreed upon "rules of the game": what playing styles will you use, what is a good stepfile, how will the game be scored, what will you weight for a "good score" (combo? timing? miss count?), what kinds of things are impressive

- centralized authority. FFR has served this role for a while, but even on FFR there was a good deal of chaos and indecision as to what playstyles should be dominant over others. (FFR could have solved this very early on by switching to QWEIOP instead of left-down-up-right, since the former is inarguable.) By contrast, compare FFR's conundrum to how weightlifting competitions handle it: the form that you must use for your lift is standardized by the people who organize the competition.

- a clear objective for what the game is going to be. Stepmania has never been able to agree on whether it's a keyboard game or a pad game, and it tries to be both. By contrast, something like O2Jam is very clear on how it intends you to play the game.

You may be asking why O2Jam didn't succeed, since it seems to do all of these things well. O2Jam's problem was less things like this and more that it didn't monetize its model well and didn't organize its team effectively. Stepmania is a free game, but O2Jam was a game that attempted to sustain itself by making money off of in-game purchases. ("Freemium.") In addition, O2Jam had an identity crisis: it tried to be casual, but the upper echelons of gameplay were anything but casual.

One of O2Jam's errors, which I'll briefly touch upon, was in the use of keysounds. The success of non-keysounded games like Sequence and quasi-keysounded games like Guitar Hero seem to suggest that keysounds do not make a major difference in the success of a game. So even if you're a stickler for things like this, you can quasi-keysound files like Guitar Hero does and that will be sufficient. At the upper levels of difficulty, this meant that an O2Jam staff member would have spent entire days keysounding a file, when they could have been doing other things. This is an extremely inefficient use of labor for a task that produces minimal return. You can survive one inefficient allocation of labor like this, but on a large scale it will screw over your game's sustainability, and O2Jam certainly felt that on a large scale.

II.

No central Stepmania authority can exist because Stepmania itself is controlled by Stepmania.com, which is not explicitly a keyboard game.

If you wanted to make Stepmania popular again, here is what you'd have to do:

1. Make a new game entirely. You could call it Stepmania Ultimate but for the sake of this guide and hilariousness I'll call it Arch0wlmania.

2. Arch0wlmania is explicitly a keyboard game. It is not intending to imitate any kind of real-world musical equivalent, and the game's notes are considered abstractions of the music. The act of making a stepfile is closer to the act of dancing or visualizations like this one in that you are trying to get a deeper connection to the music via technology, not imitate someone playing the music. In addition, the creators have designated should be played in a row format (say, UIOP) rather than an arrow key format. You can make index files if you want, but that's not the standard.

3. The Arch0wlmania website has a defined style guide for how stepfiles are to be made. This style guide isn't that rigorous. If standards for stepfiles become too strict, you fire the strict judges and get more lenient ones. This is because after a certain point ("this file vaguely goes to the music and is synced well enough"), there are diminishing returns on stepfile standards. The time invested adhering to a very strict stepfile style guide could be better spent making more stepfiles and expanding the game's library. So nothing too intense -- sort of how O2Jam wasn't that strict with its charts.

4. The Arch0wlmania website sells an inexpensive USB controller that allows for 10-key play on a layout that is similar to Q-W-E-R-V (left hand), B-U-I-O-P (right hand), except the V and B keys will be sized more like the Backspace key. This is the standard, and no one can quibble saying that their keyboard didn't work or they're playing on a laptop or whatever. If everyone is playing on the same controller, you know exactly what factors went into getting a score.

5. The Arch0wlmania staff are very clear on what type of modes reign over others. So 10 key > 5 key (one hand) > 4 key (one hand) > 7 key > 6 key > 5 key (two hand) > 8 key > 9 key > 4 key (two hand), mostly due to traditions that have developed and how those modes are conducive to improvement on the 10 key mode. Which is to say, you will gain more reputation points (as a submitter) by making files in the staff's preferred game mode, especially since leaderboard points will be higher for files that are in the game's preferred mode. The "official" mode (that is, the preferred tournament mode) is 10 key.

6. Implement gamified incentives for player participation, and active leaderboards/hierarchies. I could write (and am writing) a book/manual on this, so I won't go vastly into detail. Needless to say, you can read the "stretch goals" part of HabitRPG's kickstarter and you will get a better idea of how this should be.

Many of these features exist in bits and parts over FFR and other music games, but it took forever for them to exist and they don't exist cohesively as part of the game's structure.

III.

There are a few areas Stepmania has not touched upon to the same degree it has touched upon 6key and 4key files:

- dedicated one-hand files (that is, [space]-I-O-P and [space]-U-I-O-P for 4-key and 5-key one handed play respectively)

- 7-key files (some exist, but not much)

- 10-key files (this is the last frontier without implementing footpedals, since this is as physically many keys as you can press at once -- any additional keys add forearm/elbow movement, but they do not actually increase the number of total finger presses)

If Stepmania were a dedicated keyboard game, instead of having the current layout that it does, it would have a feature like this:

- You enter the options mode and you're able to select the number of keys you want to play for your game mode (ranging from 4 to 10). If you select 5 or under, you specify if you want to two-hand or one-hand. If you specify one-hand, you'll be able to select left-hand or right-hand and map your thumb key, which will be a visually larger in-game note than the rest of the keys. If you select two-hand, you'll specify if you want thumb key(s) or not.

- You can store as many key layouts as you want, but only one can be activated at any given time. You can configure these at the song select screen if you wish.

- You are able to switch between the number of keys at the song select screen, as if sorting through difficulty. This is in contrast to switching between the number of keys as a "game mode."

- Stepfiles would have a connection to the database they are uploaded to. So if you get a score on that file, it uploads your score to the database with information on how you played the file, and if you change the file, that score is no longer valid.

Doing this would allow these "frontiers" to be explored more easily, since it would make competition on those particular modes less of a hassle and switching between modes very easy to do.

Closing

Unfortunately, I have neither the resources nor the skills to make all of these things happen. My talent area is bizdev primarily, not programming or graphic design. Maybe someday if I have a large amount of disposable income I could make this sort of development a reality, but until then this looks like a pipe dream.

That said, if you've ever wanted to wonder how Stepmania could change or what it could change into, I think this is a good starting point.

[dAnceguy117]

Thanks for posting this topic! Those are really interesting ideas. I'll just list some of my own thoughts concerning particular details.

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

If you wanted to make Stepmania popular again, here is what you'd have to do:

1. Make a new game entirely.

Is that a valid statement? We might be going more in the direction of "how to make a commercially viable StepMania-like game." Certainly, though, the best way to establish an expansive audience would be to start from the ground up.

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

3. The Arch0wlmania website has a defined style guide for how stepfiles are to be made.

You might be interested in reading a guide written by stargroup. The guide isn't coming from a "centralized SM authority," to be sure, but the idea seems to be similar.

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

The "official" mode (that is, the preferred tournament mode) is 10 key.

Do you think the learning curve would be adequate for a wide range of players? I know some other modes are there, but I feel like the "official" mode would hoard everyone's attention. IIDX didn't gain much traction (at least, in the States) due to the insane amount of time required for most players to reach a decent skill level, as far as I'm aware. I imagine 10-key would face a similar problem.

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

- You enter the options mode and you're able to select the number of keys you want to play for your game mode (ranging from 4 to 10). If you select 5 or under, you specify if you want to two-hand or one-hand. If you specify one-hand, you'll be able to select left-hand or right-hand and map your thumb key, which will be a visually larger in-game note than the rest of the keys. If you select two-hand, you'll specify if you want thumb key(s) or not.

Would each mode have its own set of charts? That sounds like a ton of work.

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

- You are able to switch between the number of keys at the song select screen, as if sorting through difficulty. This is in contrast to switching between the number of keys as a "game mode."

SM5 has implemented this feature. (Thank heavens.)

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

- Stepfiles would have a connection to the database they are uploaded to. So if you get a score on that file, it uploads your score to the database with information on how you played the file, and if you change the file, that score is no longer valid.

I believe stepmaniaonline.net satisfies all of those criteria.

To me, there are other factors which prevent SM and similar rhythm games from reaching high levels of popularity.

Platform - SM requires users to become familiar with a bunch of directories and different types of files. FFR, KBO, and Thirdstyle all utilize(d) arguably dated Flash technology. The hassle of initial configuration can drive away many potential players. I want to say the most popular rhythm games today are developed for mobile devices.

Exposure - How the hell would people discover any of these games? Back in the day, most of the fresh blood came from either "free DDR" web searches or word of mouth. Serious advertising campaigns might be the only way to gain an initial popularity boost, which would hopefully lead to people talking about these games again.



Pondering these ideas can be a lot of fun. Personally, though, I'm mostly content with playing SM and FFR for what they are now.

[CypherToorima]

This doesn't seem to make stepmania more active. It seems more like creating a new rhythm game.

Originally Posted by a0

If you wanted to make Stepmania popular again, here is what you'd have to do:

1. Make a new game entirely. You could call it Stepmania Ultimate but for the sake of this guide and hilariousness I'll call it Arch0wlmania.

I agree with a more centralized, structured style guide. At the same time though, I figure that's what these megapacks are for. A couple judges looking over submissions means a cohesive pack (hopefully, anyways.) I remember if someone released a shit file, people would say it was shit and then move on. So a "global" panel doesn't seem necessary, for stepmania anyways. For this new game you're proposing, I can see how starting out with some basic rules would help make sure most of the charts would be of standard quality.

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by CypherToorima

This doesn't seem to make stepmania more active. It seems more like creating a new rhythm game.

we should be doing this anyways

[Arch0wl]

@Cypher: Creating a new game is the point. You'd have to create a new Stepmania entirely to get anywhere.

I don't think this can currently be done on a volunteer basis. It was able to happen in the past because of the fanbase created by DDR, but DDR is dead now. You would need some kind of startup capital to allow people to work on this sort of thing full-time, and good luck with that.

@danceguy: I agree with Platform -- that's something I should have included, thanks for mentioning it. Platform is extremely important, and you don't want to go on any technology that will be old hat five years from now. This is why I suggested the USB option, because tablets are increasingly becoming a dominant market area.

I also completely forgot how bizarre the idea of adding songs is to non-Stepmania players, thank you for reminding me. smzip should have been mandatory and folders are a terrible idea; tags work a lot better.

Finally,

I agree with a more centralized, structured style guide.

Don't get hung up on this point.

The only reason I mentioned that is because it allows the game to establish what their "style" of charting is, since all games tend to have one. My initial charting of Gaussian Blur had to be revised, for example, for being "too IIDX-like." Port something from O2Jam in IIDX and it's equally weird.

But file theories like

- pitch relevance

- key designation (not sure if this has another name -- the idea that one instrument should stay on one key, or a set of keys)

- note proportioning (again, not sure if this has a name, but it's the idea that if you have a single note in the song, you should use a single note in the chart, not two-at-once, even if it "sounds" big.)

- instrument consistency (making a name up for this, but the idea that you cannot switch what instruments you are following arbitrarily, which SKoR's files do sometimes)

- note realism / rhythm realism (again, really just making shit up here, but the idea that you can only use rhythms or notes that actually exist in the song)

and are arbitrary judgment calls. Which is to say, there isn't really any indisputable reason why files which do some or all of these things are preferable to files that don't do any of these things. Mostly it's because you've become accustomed to one technique or another. I personally cannot stand files that use "instrument consistency" to any great degree. SKoR's files were ADHD as hell in this sense and I loved it.

but I mean, "note/rhythm realism" seems to be the most essential of all the above, and even that's up for debate. If you've played Guitar Hero you may be familiar with the red snake, which is a string of very fast notes that don't actually exist in the song. How many people complained about this? Not any amount that would matter -- in fact, the "cultural" value (in the sense that it became a known thing to players and discussed extensively) was greater than what it would have been if they never used it.

If I were a game creator I probably would not place much importance on these things, because these have zero effect on how popular the game becomes. So the purpose of a style guide is just to say "these are broad guidelines for what we want, but you are not limited by them." Stepchart minutiae is one of my least favorite aspects of the Stepmania community because of how much of a drag on output it is.

[shakesoda]

StepMania (as an engine) is not inherently unfixable. I already went down the road of writing a new engine and came to this conclusion.

Throwing the baby out with the bath water isn't the only way to solve problems, it's more of a cop-out. Everyone involved with StepMania/stepmania.com (hi) is willing to work to make things better, for what it's worth. We've got big community problems and a lack of centralization leading to all kinds of splintered crap and everyone hating everyone, but that too can be addressed.

You don't destroy the human race because you don't like North Korea.

p.s. I would have never seen this thread had someone not linked it to me, why is this (only) on FFR?

edit: I know speaking in analogies doesn't make a very compelling argument on my part, but I think it's the easiest way to convey my point. I'd much rather approach things from the side of fixing what we've got.

[Arch0wl]

I only posted it on FFR because I used "Stepmania" as shorthand for "keyboard Stepmania," which is implied on here. Which is to say I don't think you can have a game that is inherently tied to DDR (in the sense that quasi-DDR modes are still supported) which generates the same kind of activity that you find when everything is centralized around one particular kind of playstyle.

I think SM is great as it is and you do a great job of achieving everything you've set out to do with the program. Try not to read this as "Why Stepmania is bad" but rather "these factors keep keyboard Stepmania from becoming a major online video game"

[shakesoda]

Sorry then, read too much into it. I do agree that focusing on specific things helps, although I think making (more) compelling updates to theme and gameplay and having a better editor would do loads of good.

I don't know if you had the same inactivity in mind as I do, but things have been nearly silent since the whole coin mode fiasco a few weeks ago. We're a couple devs shorter now.

[kommisar]

We should be moving all our operations to StepMania.com really to maximize traffic. 99% of
People don't step files, they just casually play the game. We are mostly all
Very capable simfile artists and we could set the standard for keyboard (or pad) files on the website, start projects and have a boom in activity which might be slightly lacking on the forums. Most other communities operate on the main site, why don't we? Ffr is a different game and operates on it's own. But our tiny StepMania community here won't be able to sustain itself very long

[Arkuski]

I think moving operations to stepmania is a really good idea. Osu! is doing pretty well because they have one centralized location for everything. Then again, they're hosting copyrighted music and stepmania isn't.

[Reincarnate]

I think the lack of centralized authority is by *far* the most crucial point. It's so far above the rest that I can't stress it enough.

Digging up an old post of mine:

8. Hard to answer this question. I would take after Steam's example and try to build a lot of the core functionality into a main app where you could participate in communities, play the games, download songs, etc. Getting people to go online and set up folder systems and look for bumper backs and troubleshoot theme issues via forums is tedious and timeconsuming. It's also one of the reasons people dislike using Linux -- ain't nobody got time for that. Most people aren't hackers who want to fiddle around with shit. They want to jump in and get things moving ASAP. The rise of the console/mobile markets only puts more pressure on the need to keep things simple and easily accessible. Also, one of the main reasons I stopped using Stepmania is because *every damn song stepped nowadays is complete shit*. I don't give two squats about things like color theory or dumpstream flow or whatever. Of course, there are other major issues with the rhythm gaming industry at large but this answer is getting too long so I will stop here

I agree that moving operations to Stepmania.com would be a wise idea (or at least making a new game entirely). Right now, everything is so free-range and splintered. The lack of standardization completely kills incentives on all sorts of fronts: Why bother making a file if only a few people on some forums will play it? Is it even considered a good file? Who actually plays this game anymore? If I make a theme, is it actually going to be something people can install? Am I wasting time with crap that is outdated? If I play the game, where do I get songs/files from? How can I share scores and see if I am doing any good? What incentive do I have to get better? How would a newbie every hear about this game, and what incentives do they have to stick with it?

In pretentious Wharton-speak, we basically call this problem "having too much differentiation in a deregulated/decentralized market that is no longer newly penetrable." In other words, we've all seen rhythm games before. We know what they are and how they work. But there's no way for something like Stepmania to ever regain popularity again at this rate when everyone is pretty much doing their own thing, and when much more popular gaming alternatives exist.

Another big problem is that the centralized forces like FFR that *do* exist have been perpetually mismanaged and improperly funded. It also doesn't help that FFR is basically catering to the veterans/elites right now in terms of files released. I don't play anymore but I peek into the score threads and it seems like every other file is a BRRRT-BRRRTT-BRRRRRTTTT breakcore ass-stream WRECKYOTENDONZ stuttercock 18-footer dumpladen bukkakeflash shtistorm. Not very newbie-friendly.

I don't even know wtf Stepmania.com does nowadays. As far as I know, it's just a place to download Stepmania. And that's a problem.

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

It also doesn't help that FFR is basically catering to the veterans/elites right now in terms of files released. I don't play anymore but I peek into the score threads and it seems like every other file is a BRRRT-BRRRTT-BRRRRRTTTT breakcore ass-stream WRECKYOTENDONZ stuttercock 18-footer dumpladen bukkakeflash shtistorm. Not very newbie-friendly.

My fucking word, post of the year 2013 is already decided. Literally we need another like HUGE "easy songs" batch really badly.

Someone's gonna bring up how a lot of these kind of charts were released during the official, and compared to the amount of "hardshit" realeased in the past year, realize FFR is still pretty behind in terms of Quality easy charts to interest the newer players.

And yes, quality matters. A lot.

That's the one thing Thirdstyle has done very (in comparison to FFR) well is cater to a newer community of players by giving them proper ranked songs to score on. every time something batshit hard is put out. (With the occasional Fury of the Storm such chart to stand on it's own.)

Also, someone's gonna say it, but yeah, I like easier charts. I hate that stupid HAH FRAMER FUCKED BUZZ BUZZ HAND STREAM OVERLAYERED FOR DIFFICULTY shit. Stuff like that regardless of how well it's stepped on a technical aspect, are still dumb to me.

I'll be honest though, I don't play SM enough to comment on anything about it other than honestly, you can still keep it the way it is as a multi-styled game, as aforementioned by someone else, Osu! is doing quite the job of handling a lot of game modes which all require different styles and even have multiple styles within the game modes. (From my limited understanding of the game that is.)

The other thing you all are talking about is a central authority and yeah, that'd help I imagine. But only if like step-packs could be released in the style of beatmap packs. (I favor this system a lot actually.)

It seems like the Osu team has their shit down (to a point) and Stepmania should kind of follow that example if you asked me.

[Arkuski]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

I don't even know wtf Stepmania.com does nowadays. As far as I know, it's just a place to download Stepmania. And that's a problem.

They have some pretty inactive forums and downloads of oooooooold .smzip files. I actually posted a pretty similar thread here.

[kommisar]

Lately people have been encouraging multiple charts to cater to all audiences, but we aren't advertising said files in the right places at all. People come to ffr to play ffr, not StepMania. And it's totally true that ffr is catering to more experienced players because they're the only ones who post on the forums and give feedback. Gives the impression that people are playing a lot when in fact it's the same 20 people

[ddr_f4n]

Lower difficulties for keyboard files would really help make them much more beginner friendly, I see way too many expert/heavy only charts that only higher end players could even pass.

That's why I hate keeping files like that. I always put full difficulties because I try to broaden my audience even more to even the most casual of players.

[stargroup100]

so basically I agree with arch on almost all points except for charts not needing to be technically accurate

there's really no dispute to the fact that a technically cohesive chart is generally more well-received and enjoyed by the public than one that is not, this has been proven again and again, and therefore there needs to be some sort of standard when it comes to controlling chart quality

if we want to be taken seriously, we have to be serious about our game. this is different from being snobby or pretentious, I understand that. but you still need to set these standards

of course, this is talking about the "main game". anyone can make an fps map but it doesn't mean it is a viable stage competitively. similarly, anyone can make a chart, and people are encouraged to share, as this is basically how a community even grows. but the main game needs quality control

[dAnceguy117]

I'm seeing two different topics being discussed here.

1) conceptual groundwork for a commercially viable, StepMania-like game
2) ways in which we can grow the existing communities

There should be separate threads for these topics.

[Crazyjayde]

Just want to add quickly that even though standardization and centralization are two major aspects that are definitely a problem in the loss of exposure/accessibility of SM related games, there's a bunch of other aspects that are problematic.

One issue I struggled from the beginning is the complexity of notions of gameplay and mainly how they are integrated in the game. As an example, the wide variety of speed mods leaves the newcomer confused, having barely any reference to start with. While it is important to keep a balance between casual and experienced gameplay, I think we need to make a priority of what is truly essential to the game. The nature of rhythm games is to be simple and to the point since it relies mostly on your motor skills, which most DDR/SM influenced games do not often achieve. I'm not suggesting a removal of those features, but mainly a more precise definition and delimitation of the content presented.

Basically, SM is a big clusterfuck and it's hard to play without having studied the game beforehand. And even though there exists games with fundamentals that are complex to comprehend, at least they offer an organized center of information which we can refer to.

Originally Posted by kommisar

Most other communities operate on the main site, why don't we?

Occupy Stepmania 2013

[kommisar]

Originally Posted by dAnceguy117

I'm seeing two different topics being discussed here.

1) conceptual groundwork for a commercially viable, StepMania-like game
2) ways in which we can grow the existing communities

There should be separate threads for these topics.

I think they sort of go hand in hand. If we want to grow a community we have to make the game more appealing

[Izzy]

Putting my bias aside, I believe stepmania online is an important aspect for attracting new people. Every popular game today has an online system.