Pulsen

[wolfman2000]

I'll point out which comments I find to be constructive.

Pulsen doesn't seem to have a mac build so I can't see this up close for myself. Although I personally think it'd be worth checking out just for the appearance. I personally see the dark purple color scheme to be very appealing to me, if it was made into a 3.95 theme I'd get it in a heartbeat (Of course the chances of that are next to none, so not worth digging into).

Otherwise the charts look very DDR standard, nothing I find too fun or worth playing. At least some of the songs sound pretty interesting. And I have to give them credit for those custom made CD titles.

Partially constructive. I don't know which charts are being discussed in question or which difficulties. It's hard to make improvements without details.

If you actually want serious ideas for this game from a commercial standpoint:

Change the noteskins. DEAR GOD, CHANGE THE NOTESKINS.

What is wrong with the noteskins? This is not constructive.

As a developer and step chart artist for this project, I feel the need to clarify a few issues.

Also, I love how the programmers try their best to make it seem like they are more original, despite the fact that EVERYTHING was taken from SM5/SSC.

A number of features were developed for Pulsen originally, and then brought back to StepMania. Furthermore, a number of features were requested for Pulsen that were developed in StepMania first. Pulsen did not take everything. For that matter, they actually gave.

What difference does it make who gave what? You just said right there that SM can do a lot of what Pulsen does; how is that going to make people buy this exactly?

SM MaxX brings up a good point

I can see this game being good for casual players who are unaware of Stepmania as a whole (or even just unaware of sites like r21freak) but this game is not going to get a very good reaction on sites dedicated to sharing high-quality Stepmania charts like this one

I'm lumping the above two together, for they both equal a constructive comment. You guys are right in that perhaps trying to reach out to r21freak was not the best idea.

Casual gamers will not buy this as long as FFR, shitty and vomit-inducing as it is, exists and is playable for free. Maybe if you made it an iPhone game and programmed it to autogen steps for songs from your libraru, it'd sell, but that's the only way I see it succeeding in the least. As long as DDR, ITG, PIU, SM5, FFR and Dance Central exist, there is no market for what you're trying to sell.

This is constructive, for it gives a detail and idea. Unfortunately, I do not see how feasible it is to autogen steps completely from scratch.

[Insane Steve]

Aside from not being able to tell what direction they are facing half the time due to a somewhat ambiguous shape, not being able to tell what beat the note falls on because they change color too quickly and often, being subjectively ugly as sin, and causing epilepsy, nothing at all.

[Saturn2888]

Aside from not being able to tell what direction they are facing half the time due to a somewhat ambiguous shape, not being able to tell what beat the note falls on because they change color too quickly and often, being subjectively ugly as sin, and causing epilepsy, nothing at all.

Hello Insane Steve. Have you tried the Static style? That's more-closely aligned with the Note style people tend to use.

And thankfully, there are no reports of the noteskins causing anyone epilepsy .

[Psychotik]

And thankfully, there are no reports of the noteskins causing anyone epilepsy .

I find it disturbing that you find that funny.

[joe#2]

And thankfully, there are no reports of the noteskins causing anyone epilepsy .

I find it disturbing that you find that funny.

[Spooty Biscuit]

Serious question though, aren't there legal issues with charging for DLC? I mean, Roxor got the crap sued out of them, didn't they? Or was that for an entirely different reason?

[sudzi781]

I think Roxor's deal was that their upgrade kits could be installed on DDR mixes, which then led to the lawsuit.

[Insane Steve]

Aside from not being able to tell what direction they are facing half the time due to a somewhat ambiguous shape, not being able to tell what beat the note falls on because they change color too quickly and often, being subjectively ugly as sin, and causing epilepsy, nothing at all.

Hello Insane Steve. Have you tried the Static style? That's more-closely aligned with the Note style people tend to use.

And thankfully, there are no reports of the noteskins causing anyone epilepsy .

Ah, wish I'd known there was another, closer style. Whatever that looks like, switch to that as your default instead

[SM MaxX]

Serious question though, aren't there legal issues with charging for DLC? I mean, Roxor got the crap sued out of them, didn't they? Or was that for an entirely different reason?

That was for selling Konami's machines with the upgrade kits. It had nothing to do with the content (DDR and SM have COMPLETELY different coding in them).

[Psychotik]

Konami primarily claims that Roxor has infringed their dancing game patent rights, but also goes on to claim that the refitting of arcade cabinets "has been done in an infringing and unfair way".

[Xythar]

Okay, you guys want constructive criticism?

Scrap your Stepmania clone, go back to the drawing board and develop a new kind of music game instead of wasting time and effort duplicating an experience that people can already get for free. And no, having a few minor extra features, an average looking theme and ugly noteskin, and paying license fees for your music does not count as offering a new experience.

You should probably make use of the time you're currently using to create forum accounts and argue on the internet to do this instead. Posting here will not make your game better.

Hope this helps.

[SM MaxX]

Just want to throw out that they've had the accounts for almost a year.
But otherwise yeah that is what everyone here is probably thinking.

[CondorTalon]

Also, keep calm and carry on, CTalon. Gotta keep the Canadian rage inside.

Sumimasen.

[rikame]

Serious question though, aren't there legal issues with charging for DLC? I mean, Roxor got the crap sued out of them, didn't they? Or was that for an entirely different reason?

From what I understand they sued in the first place because of the upgrade kits, as sudzi said. However, they won not for that but because they had an incredibly vague copyright in the first place. ITG fell under its criteria and Pulsen would too, but honestly Konami isn't going to go after it unless it
A. Seriously cuts into Konami's share (not even ITG did this because it didn't necessarily detract much popularity from the franchise itself, so Pulsen should really be fine for that reason), because suing takes a lawsuit and lawsuits cost money.
B. Does something to seriously piss Konami off. Selling upgrade kits qualifies here.


For constructive criticism:

-Change the noteskin. I know you don't believe us but eww.
-Get a new idea. It's a four panel dance game. The difference between it and SM5 isn't large at all. Pointing out a dozen differences means little if their severities are tiny (they are)
-Fix the chart in the Youtube video in the OP (Dystopia of the Sun or whatever). It needs serious work
-Change the theme. Honestly, if you screen-capped any frame from the video and showed it to me I would assume that it was Stepmania. Many options have the same name as it's counterpart. The play-screen is oriented in exactly the same way as sm5. The difficulty showing in the upper-left hand corner even has the same setup as over half of the Stepmania themes I've ever downloaded. Orange, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, and Grey are not original.
-I notice that you scrapped the concept of graphics. I'm not exactly complaining, but the largest thing on the song selection screen is obviously a caricature of the step-artist. If it weren't larger by such a large margin I'd think "cool". Now I think "well, it speaks to priorities".
-The main criticism I'll give is that this game could easily be sm5 with a custom theme and noteskin. I think that point speaks for itself.

[Gpop]

Also, keep calm and carry on, CTalon. Gotta keep the Canadian rage inside.

Give him a laptop and OpenITG and that's your solution :V