InterviewsSpinShare

A Spinterview With Snepped: Snepped Moment

"My spin heavy charting style was originally a serious attempt at making CTM friendly charts, and I was the first to hate it."


Snepped is a charter known as much for his insane charts on SpinShare as the oddly quotable things he says. Though his charts are generally playable only by the top 0.1%, they are consistently a new challenge to those for which the skill ceiling would otherwise remain stagnant. Whether it be spin streams or eighth note Zick spins at 200 bpm, your wrists are likely going to be in pain after playing a Snepped chart. If you’re looking for the limits of playable charting, Snepped’s charts just about reach them.


What got you into Spin Rhythm XD? How did you find out about it? 

I was playing Muse Dash at the time but ran out of fun but hard songs to play. I wanted something similar to play while I waited for new charts to be added. After browsing Steam for rhythm games and sorting them by user ratings, I ended up pirating like 3 games. 



Spin Rhythm was one of them, and I honestly didn’t have much faith in it. It looked painfully slow for a rhythm game. It turned out to be the hardest rhythm game I’ve ever played, so I bought it the next day. I’ve barely even touched Muse Dash since.

What made you decide to chart for Spin Rhythm? 

At first I just wanted to play my favorite songs. I had 0 charting experience and I didn’t even bother setting the BPM for my first chart. I charted the whole thing by ear but never uploaded it. Now, I still chart for the same reason, but it’s also because I have mad cravings for speedy charts.

What’s your general process behind a chart? 

First, I set the difficulty to 99. I always sort by difficulty so now all my charts in progress sit nicely at the top next to the create chart button.

Before I actually start charting I ask myself who am I charting this for. 90% of the time the answer is “default freewheelers and me.” That way I can keep the speed and movement at a level I enjoy and hopefully a few freewheelers can too. I don’t think it’s possible to make CTM friendly charts as fast as I prefer but I would love it if someone proved me wrong.

If there’s a super fast ridiculous part in the song I will start by charting it first to see if I can actually make it playable and enjoyable without relying on basic match notes. If I fail to do this I will abandon the chart.

Once I’ve filled out the chart it’s in need of some serious playtesting. This phase usually takes another 3 hours. When I playtest I look for red flags in the chart. Sections that look easy that I fail more than once are usually a red flag. I also take note of how I want to play vs what I actually charted, and I will always prioritize how I want to play.

What makes you decide you want to chart a song, and what about that song influences the chart’s overall design? 

I spend a lot of time scouting for the perfect song. What I consider the perfect song is something with a lot of SPEED, POWER and a lot of OOMPH. But not too much speed, as my charting style would make them straight up unplayable. And unfortunately I really like fast music, which I didn’t even know until I started charting.

Even though I’ve mostly charted hardcore/hardstyle, my favorite genre is actually metalcore. I’ve been avoiding the genre for a while because I don’t think it’s a popular genre in this community, and they are usually a lot harder to chart. There’s a lot of tempo changes in metalcore and there’s nothing worse than tempomapping. I’ve abandoned several WIPs just because I refuse to tempomap.

Are there any other charts or charters that you look to for inspiration in your charts? 

20/3 and Stride have some really good hard charts and I will sometimes analyze them and try to figure out why I like them so much.

I also straight up yoinked the Zick spins out of Darnoc’s You Are The Miserable and now I’m pretty sure I make more Zick spins than anyone. But since they’re called Zick spins, I guess he can’t complain.

Is there any way that you would describe your charting style? What makes it unique, and what makes it similar when compared to other charters? Are there any patterns you’re particularly fond of?

I want to feel like I’m actually playing the song and snorting a line of matches just doesn’t feel like I hit a drum 10 times. I want practically every single sound to be charted to some kind of input, though I honestly don’t really care that much if I chart taps, holds, beats or spins. Right now I tend to chart a fuck ton of spins but only because I think it’s the easiest of all the inputs and it actually makes them readable and playable.

The thing that probably stands out the most in my charts, however, has got to be my 16th note spins. It’s probably one of the most hated patterns out there. Often times I have to make super fast spins to stay consistent with the chart or abandon the expected inputs and just make match notes instead. I genuinely have no problem dealing with these spins, I just snort them up like they’re not even there. Except for the ones in Goodrage, even I have to admit those might be a little much.

Swag and Jimbo make pretty similar charts just… Slower. I like them.

My favorite pattern is probably Zick spins, I also love beat taps with movement. Even though I have a whole arsenal of tap and beat buttons at my disposal, I really don’t like double tap or double beat. But I love triple tap or triple beat since I would take that as a signal to actually use my alt tap/beat.

Many of your charts feature fast 1-5 taps, quick beats, or spin streams. What makes you gravitate toward these patterns so much?

Everyone has some type of threshold where they abandon their consistency when the difficulty spike reaches critical levels. I don’t have a good reason to do the same when I can handle these patterns myself. Part of the reason why I can handle these patterns is because I have a god tier control scheme. I play freewheel so 1-5 taps aren’t that bad. I also click beats, which is faster than mashing the big clunky spacebar. As for spin streams I think I can handle them just because you’re only as good as what you play and I playtest my charts a lot.

Your charts are also notoriously difficult. Would you say this is more due to the songs themselves or your charting style?

Definitely my charting style. Now this might come as a shock but I like hard charts, especially the fast kind of hard charts. So I make fast hard charts. But most people don’t even like hard charts at all.

Since I tend to exaggerate with so many inputs, my charts will just naturally be really fast and hard. I will sometimes spend hours figuring out how to cram as many inputs as possible in the easiest way possible without having to rely on match notes. I playtest my charts over and over again looking for ways to nerf them in ways that don’t feel like I’m undercharting.

I’m also cursed with the ability to not be bothered by losing. This is a really bad trait for charting, as I’m totally fine with making something so stupidly hard that I can’t even pull it off. I have a self inflicted rule to stop myself from doing this, however. I won’t allow myself to upload any chart I can’t pass.

Among your charts, GOODRAGE sticks out as perhaps the one that best summarizes your charting style, albeit in a slightly exaggerated way. It has 9 reviews on SpinShare, and 4 of them are Recommended. What do you have to say about this controversial creation?

Ever since I changed my charting style to the spin heavy style that people expect from me, I actually thought all my charts were CTM friendly. That was the whole reason for changing my style in the first place. I thought I was a genius for finally figuring out how to make CTM friendly charts at speeds that I prefer, which I thought for a long time was impossible. Then one day I learn that every CTM player tap on spins for whatever reason. So I was stuck with a scuffed charting style designed for CTM players, that was only liked by a minority of freewheel players.

I lost my motivation for charting for a couple of weeks and then I said fuck it. I’m going to do some heavy experimental charts. And the first experimental chart I started working on was GOODRAGE. The idea behind this chart and why it turned out so ridiculous was that I wanted to make a chart so hard that I didn’t know if I could even pass it. But I also wanted it to be easy to read, because the hardest charts are always the hardest to read, so what would a chart potentially too hard for me to play even though I know exactly what to do look like?

And that’s how Goodrage was born. I didn’t actually think anyone was going to pass it, not because there was no one who could, but because even the greatest spin god at the time would have to grind it, and I didn’t think anyone would actually bother to grind it considering I filled it to the brim with the most sadistic spins I have ever created.

I’m glad I made it though, it’s a good meme.

HARDCORE TANO*C’s members are a common sight among the artists featured in your charts. What about their music drives you to chart so much of it?

They’re bangers, easy to chart and easy to read, yet fast so it’s easy to get the speedy readable charts I prefer. I feel like most hard charts are either from HARDCORE TANO*C or Camellia, which is why I’ve been charting more metalcore lately.

Your USAO charts seem to be a particularly popular few, and for good reason. What about USAO just fits so well with your charting style?

Good question, I’m not too sure myself. But every time I chart USAO things just line up. I often end up with much more freedom to choose exactly the type of patterns I prefer, so they don’t feel shoehorned in. This freedom fits very well with a charting technique I use in all my charts, where I add an unused difficulty slot. I’ll copy and paste the chart over to the other slot, change a pattern and playtest both patterns by quick switching between the difficulty slots to determine which is the most fun pattern.

I did this so much when charting Cthugha that it took me 20 hours to finish it. It’s the most time consuming chart I have ever made by far. I spent at least 12 hours playtesting different patterns.



Unlike many charters, who often will collaborate with other charters every so often, you only have 2 collabs to your name. One is with Baby_Jimbo, the infamous meme charter, and the other with Stride, who is responsible for many of the other USAO and HARDCORE TANO*C charts on SpinShare. Just what is it about collabs where you tend to avoid them?

Unlike almost every other charter out there, my charts aren’t exactly made for everyone. My charts are aimed at a small target audience of top level freewheel players who have a preference for speed. I feel bad ruining other people’s attempts at making a fun chart for everyone. But at the same time it’s hard for me to not go ham when charting, making it a stressful experience.

It’s well known that you have a dislike for “bronze league” charts in rhythm games. This dislike would be funny if you were unable to play anything above these charts. However, you have the skill to back it up, at least in Spin Rhythm. Just what causes this tendency to get so bored with more casual charts in rhythm games?

I have no idea, I assumed everyone played games at their maximum level. At first I couldn’t believe it when all these spin champs who I think are better than me would have fun playing the easy stuff. I always try to play games at the hardest difficulty, even when I suck at them. My first 10 attempts at Spin were on Hard difficulty and I failed out on 9 of them. I had a negative pass/fail out ratio for about my first 300 hours. I just like the feeling of overcoming a true challenge I guess.

Are there any other artists or songs that you love outside of Spin Rhythm? Any that you want to chart, but just haven’t gotten around to yet – or you just don’t think their music would be a good fit for Spin Rhythm? 

Most of the songs I like are not a good fit for Spin Rhythm. It’s almost all metalcore and some symphonic metal. Most of them are just too fast and/or long. Symphonic metal tends to be especially long. And some of the songs I like are way too heavy for casual ears.



Of your charts, are there any that you’re particularly proud of? Which one was the most fun for you to chart? 

Twisted Drop Party was probably the most fun to chart, I still to this day think it’s the perfect song for rhythm games in general. I believe that was when I first started using Zick spins and I did not hold back on the amount of them.

I’m not really proud of any of my charts, I definitely wouldn’t know which ones to recommend. I learned a long time ago that how I feel about my charts is not a good indicator for how others will feel about them. I can never tell when I’ve made a “good” chart, but I can usually tell when it’s going to be an especially “bad” one. This is why you’ll never see me upload a chart and go “This is a good one folks!”

The last time I actually believed I made a good one that people would like was Stronger. However, it turned out as one of my least popular charts. For almost an entire month after releasing this chart, there was 1 guy on the leaderboard for this song. And he had 400 points. It was the most depressing leaderboard I had ever seen.

Any charts that you consider your favorite, or any that you feel got overlooked? 

I still think Cthugha is really fun to play, that’s probably my favorite. People overlooked Stronger for a while, but then Jimbo got good enough to play it.

I have no expectations when I make a chart anymore so that would be the last one.

Anything that you have to say about the SpinShare community? 



So, is there any advice that you’d like to give for charters? Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

For new charters, read the steam guides on charting. Learn the basics of making a standard chart. Look at charts you like to play, familiarize yourself with the basic patterns and grab the most fun patterns you can find. Try using the Chart Analyzer, it worked great for me. Don’t make too crazy charts like I do until you got the basics down.

Don’t be afraid of people shitting all over your chart. Bad reviews are actually not the worst, the worst is when no one gives you any feedback whatsoever. If people take the time to let you know how much they hate your chart, that probably means they also care enough to tell you why if you just ask them. I’ve got a lot of good feedback from the naysayers.

One last thing: one pattern must be made illegal. Which pattern is now illegal?



Okay, I lied. One last thing: What’s your favorite “bronze-league” chart?


Enynine

Charter and Interviewer for SpinShare. Apparently.

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One Comment

  1. My favorite pattern is probably Zick spins, I also love beat taps with movement. Even though I have a whole arsenal of tap and beat buttons at my disposal, I really don’t like double tap or double beat. But I love triple tap or triple beat since I would take that as a signal to actually use my alt tap/beat. myhoneybakedfeedback

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