Z-I-v Summer Contest 2018

Honestly this just sounds like your personal preferences aren't matching with everyone else's and you don't like that.

These contests don't consider multiple ways to chart, and since everyone has their own tastes, it's impossible to make a simfile to appeal to everyone, be it song choice, step patterns, or overall difficulty. It's just not going to happen unless you severely limit any or all those things and as a result cut down on the total entries.
However, I also feel it is a disservice to say that most of the winners having a 9 footer is why they are winning each week. Touch My Body deserved a win for more than just the hardest chart. That 5 was such a fun chart.

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It's exactly why they win, actually. People vote for harder charts more than they do easier charts, they don't play lower difficulties below cause it takes more time, so ultimately you may only get one or two shots to impress someone enough to vote for you. Personally, I just vote for whatever I think are the best overall simfiles regardless of difficulty. Ideally, a 5 should have as good a chance at winning as a 10, but personal preferences will never allow that to be reality.

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I hope you didn't mean to come across as hostile in that opening line because that's how it read. I'm also prone to overanalyze things, though, so maybe I'm just sensitive.

Personally, I don't know if I have a "preference". I'm not particularly picky when it comes to music genres in general (my playlists are a mess), and I've stepped hard charts before (are we gonna act like Hypergore Flying Squirrel Stick Disappeary Genius didn't happen) and voted for them on many occasions. There are very few times where I've disliked files for being "too hard". However, there are plenty of instances where I've disliked files for being hard for no reason (i.e.: there's a rift between the attitude of the song and the intensity of the steps).

I'm not saying files should appeal to everyone; I'm trying to say the opposite. I'm saying I wish contests like the SC were used as a time for exploration for steppers to push their boundaries and the boundaries of simming in general. Instead, we have weeks where 80% of entries are eerily similar genres (mostly of the electronic variety) with crossovers and jumps left and right, and after playing those for weeks, you can't expect those files to not feel derivative of each other.

Lastly, I don't doubt people submit fun charts for the easier difficulties, but you and I both know that most of the people voting for those 9-footers are not playing all the easier difficulties if any.

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@ddrstepper I don't know how frequently I'm in that 80% but trust me, I don't like to bleed in with the crowd as much as you think. I do nonsense such as this specifically because I like it, not quite because the people playing it might.





Okay, I know what to submit for this week. I got 44 hours, this should be easy.

Nico Nico Nii! Whoops, wrong Nico.

As this is the last round of the main Summer Contest and I'm not sure if I'm going to be entering the VIP room or not, I really tried to make my file for this week the best it could be.
is a level 8 but I tried to make it fun and interesting. This tune is one of my Pop'n favorites not just because it's good musically and its character (Nico) is absolutely adorable, but also because I've always found its charts in Pop'n to be super-fun to play. I tried to capture that same fun and spirit in these charts.
Repeated arrows in and are to be played as jacks!

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aka the ending theme for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable but not the same cut because it's only a minute long.

@Cuzco You bring up a good point that I probably should have mentioned in my first post for everyone to read, but you mentioned it and it's really important; everyone should first and foremost step for themselves and not for the voters, whether that be for contests or personal projects. My initial post was just a means of prompting a few questions: Do submissions sometimes blur together for anyone? Is there such thing as a "safe" genre or stepping style in these contests ("safe" meaning more likely to get votes)? Has anyone else ever started a file and either dropped it or didn't submit it thinking it "wouldn't get votes"? Do you think there is room for experimentation? If I haven't made it clear, my answer to all of these are yes, but I'm also one person. All of what I've had to say comes from a place of curiosity, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

It's interesting to hear what some of you have had to say. Hopefully some more people chime in.

In other news, I'm going live on Twitch in ~10 minutes to judge [Deja Vu] files! Come in and join the fun!

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Absolutely, but I don't necessarily think it always has to do with files just being bland. I've probably played over 1,000 different simfiles over the years since I first took part in Tournament of Immortals 4 back in 2014; after a while you tend to pick up on all the different Stepmania tropes and everything starts to repeat itself. At the end of the day there's only so much you can do with four arrows.


The safest submission is a 9-footer BEMANI original.


Funny enough, it tends to be the files that I don't think will get a lot of votes that get a lot of votes, and the files I think will get a lot of votes don't actually do as well as I thought they would. If I've learned anything, it's that my own opinion means diddly squat and I should just release whatever the hell I want to release.

I tend to drop files pretty quickly though if I'm not personally happy with how they're turning out. I started working on something today, and not even 10 minutes later I threw it in the garbage because I couldn't even get the first few measures to be remotely fun. It wasn't even going to be for a contest - I've already got a pretty good idea of what I'm submitting to the VIP rounds, that song was just because I'd been thinking of stepping it for a while and I thought this was a good time to get started.


I don't think there's as much room for experimentation as some people like to claim. As I said before, there's only so many things you can do with four arrows. If you can find room to do something really different with a song, great! If not, that's fine by me, as long as the file is still fun and the steps do a good enough job of accenting the music.

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While I'm done judging [Deja Vu] files, I'm about to take a look at [ZIv Academy IV] files on Twitch because I didn't get a chance to look at them during the voting period and it's always my favorite week, so I wanted to play through them. Just letting people know in case you want to hop in that stream or if you wanna check the stream upload later.

(And Gameoson, once I'm done with this stream I'll definitely reply to your response! )

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Unfortunately, I may not be able to upload anything for week 10. Work caught up with me and I'm so tired and lazy.

I'll still try to work on other step charts over the Summer. ;3

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um so I just noticed that Let Go for Tonight from ZIv Academy week has no audio uploaded. I'm such a flop lmao, I'm just glad ian's already locked into VIP Room so I didn't fuck up his chances.

The custom ZIP does have everything though, so at least I was able to salvage some votes!

Definitely going to the VIP room, huh? Wow. Look how far we've come. But there's still one more main week, and I ain't skimping out now!


From the album JP-H/D#04. (Wait, didn't I do one from #05 too? Can just two in a set be called a rut? Oh well.)

One of my favorite tracks out there--I may have been a little too literal with the challenge chart, but I hope it's still interesting enough to play. Hard Dance beats make it difficult to pick which notes or instruments to stick arrows to, but they at least get the Dance part right. Oh, and I'm thinking of picking three important milestone songs from my evolution of music-listening throughout the years for VIP too, so get ready!

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OK now that I don't feel brain dead from streaming for three hours straight last night--

@Gameoson I guess you make a good point in the sense that part of the reason I might be feeling a Certain Typa Way™ is probably because I've been doing this long enough to see what is capable of Stepmania, so I definitely get why that might make me "numb" to certain stepping styles and tropes.

Even still, I feel like what I miss most from earlier SCs (2012, 2013 and even 2014) was the sheer amount of song variety in the submission pool. That said, I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that this was also when people could submit up to three files, allowing people the opportunity to submit at least one file which suits their style better, and at least one other to experiment and receive feedback on said experimentation. And here I mean "experimentation" for an individual step artist by stepping something out of their comfort zone, because you're right that "there's only so much you can do with four arrows," but a step artist can have breadth. The stepartists that I've admired the most--Silverhawke, GariK+, Akira, even DDRDAIKENKAI to mention someone who is still active--have all demonstrated the ability to make 7/8-footers as well as Boss files, so none of their work ever felt stale (unless you're DDRDAIKENKAI after having stepped BoA four weeks in a row) (jk ily and BoA dont get me wrong). I'm not sure exactly what made me go in this direction, but I guess what I want to say is while I hope people are stepping what they want and not what others want, I hope they're also willing try something new every now and again.

Also,


Sidenote, I just updated the .SM for Egoist cuz the offset was off. If you've already downloaded the file, either re-DL the .SM or manually change the offset to -0.315, ty. :*

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You make a fair point here. Every individual tends to fall into their own style and it's good to try and branch out and try new things.

Votes might be a tiny bit late since I'm only getting online now and I still gotta count up a whole bunch of votes.

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Honestly, how many times I submitted songs from Haikyuu!! to the contest until now (that's including this song)?
Anyway, I'm gonna had a sleep right now since tomorrow is the first day of school for me.

All right! Week 9 results... HAS COME!!!

The winner for Week 9 is... Gloss (Niteloop Flip) by CuzcoBlocko with 27 Points and winning the tiebreaker with Two +4's! Welcome to youkoso VIP room!
Taking 2nd place is... illuminate by Gameoson with 27 Points and One +4, Two +3's tiebreaker!
Taking 3rd place is... The Gangnam Avenue by ddrstepper with 27 Points and One +4, One +3 tiebreaker!

You can check the result in here!

Some couple of notes:
- There is a three way tie in the podium! Wow, that's pretty interesting battle to the top.
- Three people got null point. Ouch...
- Funnily, I've placed on 8th place again in Gameoson's week. It is such a coincidence? Probably.

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Funny thing is, Cuzco would have walked away with the VIP spot regardless of how the tiebreaker played out since ddrstepper and I are already in the VIP room.

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Daffa I sent my votes 2 hours before to Pandemonium.

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...Crap, I was hoping this wouldn't happen.

Okay, if you sent your votes to Pandy, take a screenshot of your PM and send it my way so I can verify that it was sent before the deadline. He's not online right now so I can't ask him. Sorry about this!

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