[AC] StepManiaX produced by Kyle Ward

It's nice that you guys are bridging the gap between Hard and Wild charts.

https://twitter.com/smxgame/status/1648551608094019586

Wait, step editor?

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I feel like I'm playing Dingbats.....

Alright, so not a lie, but an incredible amount of work over a very long period of time had lead to this.

This is something that is in beta with a few players and stepchart authors that are evaluating how everything works. It genuinely feels magical, and I can't get over how smooth it all works.



Not direct phone UI screens for the time being as that is evolving constantly, but as far as the editor goes, both of these charts shown in the video there were made within an hour of someone first picking up the editor for the first time, figuring it out with ZERO direction, published, and playable by players.

Don't suppose there's either a timeline on this being available to public players or a way to opt in to the beta is there? I know a few of us are itching to play around with making doubles stuff for it! Looks really well integrated into the UI (doesn't surprise me though considering how well designed the UI has always been!)

No timeframes right now, but not as long as most people would probably think, especially when we have it literally working and users using it right now.

We've got a good handful bashing into it to make sure everything is solid, and we want to make sure the game itself is obviously solid. So many underlaying systems were redone for something like this to exist and it's quite important it all functions, hah.

I wouldn't hold your breath regarding being an "insider" with access to beta stuff, etc. The SMX team endorses favoritism from all angles. That's why you only see members like Lightning, JBEAN, etc show up and support streams of players such as daaanty, x_dyl, Senpi, Jellyslosh, etc. They sub to them, donate money, follow, and extend invitations to exclusive stuff to them.

Makes sense...but they don't really want feedback or input from anyone that doesn't APC 23s for breakfast. They couldn't care less about balancing the game a bit or getting viewpoints from intermediate or beginner players. Somehow, the advice from these stuck-up "elite" players is good enough to speak for all players of all skill levels. /sarcasm

Visit the official SMX Discord if you think I'm lying. Watch how quickly and easily SMX crew turn on players if you speak out against them or mention any sort of problem or issue you have with the software or the hardware. Kyle Ward even snapped on Werdwerdus once for daring to have an unpopular opinion because it was "bringing bad energy" or some nonsense. Bad form. Not a good look at all. Werd did the most to spread the word of SMX at the start on YouTube and Twitch, way more than any other players. He was the one always streaming, always helping new players, etc. That dude never gets his dues in the community.

Anyway, they just don't take constructive criticism well from anybody that isn't in their "Favorites Circle". The SMX Discord reminds me of this other toxic gaming spot on the internet: ResetEra (an offshoot of NeoGAF). ResetEra is one of the most toxic echo chambers I've ever witnessed. People get banned left and right for the dumbest reasons, they hand banhammers out like Halloween candy. If you're not getting banned over there, you're getting belittled or harassed and bullied for going against the grain and daring to have a mind of your own. They don't endorse logic over there. They just want you to be part of the majority.

That's how the SMX Discord is. If you have anything negative to say about the game or any issues you might be dealing with, they talk down to you and try to brush it all under the rug and behind the scenes. They single you out like YOU did something wrong and you're crazy or lying. It's shameful.

So no, don't expect to get a beta invitation because they only let "the cool kids" be a part of stuff like that. If you wanna be part of that club, you have to have nearly zero social life beyond eating, sleeping, and breathing rhythm games, you must stream a dance game online 6 hours a day, and you have to be good at arguing with people Discord about asinine stuff like the millisecond timing differences between SMX/DDR/ITG/PIU/SM. Once you're good at those things, make sure you can APC 75% of the game's charts. Maybe, just maybe...you'll get them to notice you at that point.

Dude I’ve literally never played the game and had them respond to me. Maybe the fact that people like you keep trying to derail the thread with novels about how much no one on the team likes you every couple pages has something to do with you guys not being listened to. I don’t know, I’m not a doctor, but that might be part of it.

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Oh, hey again. Looks like a few points to address!

Streams: Have you considered the fact that Daaanty was a personal friend of mine long before SMX started? This also seems like a copypaste of your other post, so cheers on that one. Guess I can't have friends if I ever work on a game :V Also, while I respect those other players greatly, I.. don't sub to them on Twitch.

Also what does a single person on the team... subscribing to someone on Twitch... have anything to do with this?

Only hard level players testing - sorry, that's just factually incorrect. We have nearly 30 external testers messing with this stuff, including players and chart authors of all types and skills. Some of the testers are higher level players, yes, but we have far more "casuals" (absolutely not said as an insult) testing than that. We mostly need folks who are willing to actually test and provide feedback as well as accessing privately owned setups that are willing to deal with bugs so we don't end up pushing out broken builds to retail, public facing environments that could potentially cause damage to a business.

You are literally saying that it's "elitist" to not give this other person access, not realizing that their only cabinet that they have access to is a public location. That just screams armchair developer. Sorry, It's very important to test before sending out stuff to the masses. Not to mention that I have actively talked to Dancefreak directly about this already. Appreciate your enthusiasm, but it seems like maybe it's misdirected.

If you actually did see us in Discord, you'd know that a TON of stuff is opened up to players that isn't posted publicly, we're always engaging in great conversations, and the only time that someone has "snapped" was when some members were directly degrading and attacking community members in the server, and were timed out by some of the moderators. The Discord also has other community members that are moderators in there so not quite sure what you're getting at with that aspect. Only one person was banned for content ever in the server, and it was because they were posting incredibly racist comments (and also the crypto bots lmao). Out of anyone in there, the number 1 person that would never, ever attack anyone would be Kyle as well - do you think someone that "big" would do that to a community member, let alone in a server of other community members that would spread it like wildfire?

That, or if you are still in the server, I question why you'd be sticking around if you hate it that much or if any of this was true?

Also calling ResetEra toxic pretty much puts up all of the other red flags I need to know about your posting history, so maybe try posting on your main next time ;)

Our Discord is full of some of the most amazing community members sharing and playing the game, and It's been an absolute joy seeing it grow and having new players enter the scene. It really does feel great seeing the excitement that people are having with both the game and getting the hardware to use.


Honestly, yeah. Always happy to have a discussion, but when you've done nothing but repeat the same talking points that have been proven downright incorrect by members of the team, as well as people directly here on ZiV, let alone "your" only two posts on the entire website forum are here saying weightless nonsense, I don't think we have anything to discuss. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The lack of self-awareness in this phrase is astounding.

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I’m not sure who hurt you but this is the second time you’ve written a 1.5 page long essay on “how much SMX or the SMX team sucks” with said thesis papers being your only two posts on this site. I’m not sure what your deal is but you need to take a step back from the keyboard because this isn’t gonna fly here. This adds nothing to the discussion at hand and I’m not going to allow this sort of thing to continue so that this site continues to be the laughing stock of the community. It’s obvious you’re a burner account. Why don’t you post this on your main so we can see who you really are?

Anyways, this is some really exciting stuff! I’ve enjoyed my time playing StepManiaX whenever I have the chance to, and the ability to add custom charts to songs would be incredible. I’ve already got some interesting ideas I’d like to try out. Looking forward to when this goes live and keep up the fantastic work!

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Posts like this is why people think this site is awful.

Play something else if the game and its community is making you this tilted.

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Posting this before the thread gets too off the rails. Hopefully I don't need to lock it 😂

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holy shit, how have I not seen this one yet. Thank you hahaha

You've seriously got a problem mate. Thinking a closed beta for an advanced feature equals "elitism" and "favouritism" is one of the most main character syndrome things I've seen in the rhythm game community in a looooong time lmao

I bet if you actually had the bollocks to say who you were on the Discord we'd find out you were probably a jackass on there and you now have sour grapes over it.

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I only feel compelled to post a reply to that because it was quoting my previous post here, normally i'd just gloss over that sort of thing. But as someone who as categorically NOT one of the groups you mentioned that the dev team allegedly only talk to, I can say that since I reached out to Lightning with feedback I've been listened to and we've had a lot of discussions, even had an email from Kyle Ward himself with some suggestions. It also makes perfect sense the edit stuff isn't public considering if for example there was a bug that meant someone loaded an edit and it just froze the game or something nonsensical, it's all of a sudden a problem involving arcades as well so yeah, kinda something that has to be kept to private machines!

On another note though based on what I could work out from the edit video it seems pretty well done if you can play anyone's edits from your profile somehow! Rather than them being locked to individual accounts which was my initial worry with wanting to share them!

Yep! That's exactly how it works

Basically, you can browse published edits in the app and you "bookmark" the edits you want to play. Whenever you log into a machine, all edits you have bookmarked, as well as anything that you have made personally (published or not), are available. Both players will have access to all edits bookmarked by either player currently logged in, you can "like" an edit after playing it, and all scores shared on the edit are tracked and searchable by a 6 character code that you can use to verify the edit you are playing is the same.

If you are making an edit, it remains private to you until published, at which point the edit can no longer have the step patterns changed. You can even share unpublished edits to friends to test via a share URL, which they can then preview in-app or bookmark to play on their machine. Find something that you don't like? Change it in the app, log into the game, and your changes are immediately available.

It really feels magical.

Lightning that all sounds incredible. Even if I never see a machine in person I’m looking forward to the content that will inevitably come from this on YouTube.

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This. I'm pretty sure in the early days of ITG customs you could fairly easily just crash shit.

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