Notecharting Overview

The general assumption is that most people who read this guide come for the bulk of it, which is to learn how to make notecharts. Before you begin to make notecharts, you have to ask yourself some questions first.

For people who are casually making charts for their own personal purposes, the basics should be more than sufficient. For those that are a little bit more serious about their work and would like it to be accepted by a wider audience, notecharting is a subform of art. Since a chart represents a listener's perspective of a song, there is a great deal of techniques, creativity, and skill that is applied in order to influence the player to perceive the music the way the chart artist wants them to and immerse them in the music. Having only 4 or 6 keys to work with sounds very limited, but the right techniques, combined with psychological trickery, can create some very beautiful and smart ways of connecting the notes to the music. Before you start making notecharts, you need to have a clear idea of what your goals and expectations are and know how far you are willing to go. However, it's possible that as you read through the lessons and play the game more, your ideas and concepts about notecharts will slowly begin to change, and you will redefine your objectives. Check out examples of other people's work and try to understand the "how" and "why" of their design and use those same techniques for yourself.

Here, we provide evidence that the chart's design impacts how you hear the song. These are two charts of the exact same song made by the exact same person. Play up to and through the highlighted sections of each one, and see if you hear the song differently on each playthrough. (Even if it is too difficult for you to play, you can still get a sense for this point by just watching the chart!)

Notice that the first one focuses more on the bass synth and percussion, while the second one focuses more on the high-pitched "popping" synth instrument. Your brain subconsciously hears those instruments louder when the visual and tactile elements line up with them!

Those that are more serious about their work should have a better understanding of the rhythm simulation genre and what people look for in a chart in order to improve their concepts and understanding of making notecharts. We will talk about some of these questions below.

What makes a chart good?

This depends on why you are playing the game. Perhaps you care about the musicality of a chart's design. Then a quality chart is one that is accurate in terms of issues such as sync and correctly transcribing specific instruments or tracks, and more importantly, flows well and highlights the song's particular features and qualities. If you care about having a technical challenge, then maybe the song is more of an after-thought and the patterns themselves matter more. Different people will prioritize these perspectives to different varying degrees, and it is that specific distribution in addition to personal taste that dictate what someone subjectively enjoys.

What do other people look for in a chart?

Depends on the person/community. For casual players, they prefer a well-produced game that offers a balanced, reasonable challenge, while still exhibiting the fundamentals of musicality. Other players who are more competitive tend to play for scoring, and in general appreciate more difficult charts and a technical challenge, regardless of musicality. The players that are more musically conscious towards the genre may be able to appreciate how a chart can capture the feel or "essence" of a song. However, this does not mean that the other players won't ever be able to notice the nuances in the charts you make, it simply means that they generally will be less conscious of these things. Overall, the majority of players can appreciate musicality at a certain baseline level, and do appreciate challenges for the thrill and personal improvement as well, and so a chart that appropriately utilizes the ideas laid out in this outline tends to be more well-received and well-liked. These are typically the most important goals of a chart, and achieving these goals naturally creates fun charts, but can vary wildly subject to personal opinion. Understand your intended audience when you plan to publish a chart.

How can I stand out?

If you give everyone the exact same song to make a chart for, it should be quite obvious that every chart would be unique and different from the others. The goal of the notechart artist should be to develop a personal style and create the best charts possible through that style. That is what makes charts playable, enjoyable, and distinguishable. This is what separates the good charts from the great charts.

KBO doesn't have a theme of specialization, which allows for near-limitless techniques that chart artists can use, giving the chart artists a lot of freedom compared to other rhythm games, thus making it easier to create quality charts with a lot of personality and expression. Also note that while the lessons here are catered specifically to teach the design of charts for the current game mechanics of KBO, some of the lessons you read can be applied to rhythm gaming in general. With a good understanding, many concepts can be easily transcribed for applications to other rhythm games.

So when you are creating your charts, you should have a clear focus of your goals, find your own way of achieving them, and optimize it. But most of all, have fun with it. If you have fun, then chances are the people playing your levels will have fun as well.