^{(...and also a secret contributor...kinda)}

Ahem, hello there fellow party-mates. I'm Diskette. Diskette Projector. I'm an inspired project builder/contributor/or-anything-else-involving-creating-stuff, i do alots of creations in my free time, that allow me to use my creativity to create custom stuff, that may include levels in level-editors or buildings in sandbox games. By "inspired", it means that i like to try out new things that catches my interest, while for "projects", i do these on my own. Very rarely do i get to participate in actual projects, as i'm not used to working together with someone, and i don't know where to start.

But enough about me, as i could go on for 150 more words about my backstory, and this thread isn't technically about my background, is more about my love for TM.

So, a multi-chapteral story short, i knew Stepmania since the 3.9 days, but slowly lost interest in, for failure to find packs with good songs in them (Stepmix, bleugh), and i didn't liked the design of 3.9. This was...approximetily 5 or 6 years ago. Fast forward to several weeks before the release of Aeternum Obscurum (is that supposed to be a clever play on words with "Obscured Afternoon", AKA the motive of the current story of the TMverse?), I was inspired to try my hands on Stepmania again after all these years by an ITG community member, who i was always following his crazy mod tournaments through Youtube, and his name is WinDEU. I liked Stepmania 5's default theme a lot better than 3.9's, and i remembered seeing ponyficated themes on various community pony sites.

So i looked up Trotmania, and throughout some long internet browsing, i managed to find AND install both the original RiM and Chrystalize song packs. And yes, that includes the themes too. So few weeks later, i've found the migrated site (this one), and see that a third installment of the TM series, is getting near completion and release. I felt like i've arrived pretty spot on to see something bigger being published for the world to be hypnotized dance on. Then i saw TMIII has an actual lore going on, which i really enjoy stuff like this having an actual "theme" and story behind it. May not fully understand it yet, but i believe i have the basis understood. Liro should be a fanfic writer :3

So that's when i got fully hooked to SM5 and TM as a whole. I've managed to find, alongside the TM songpacks, good other songpacks, that i enjoy, and learned how most of SM's customization works, so i've started tinkering with some things. While i fully enjoy what the themes are as it is, but i like to personalize them to my personal preferences. I've made a list of what are the stuff i changed (so i can apply them again, when the theme updates), won't list them for now, and most of it doesn't mean to replace official suggestions towards the themes, as some are only just small changes. Will probably list them in a separate thread, that will work as a suggestion.

What i did contribute on the most, which i am proud of is this:
First of, another small information about me. I live in a communal home, living in small rooms, besides 9 other rooms, with people kinda like me, and a shared kitchen, living room, etc. So one day i was thinking, that i should maybe share my love of TM with the others. So i bought a Dance pad (which i was lucky i could find a GOOD and WORKING one at a reasonable price (Buck you, Speedlink), and talked with one of the guardians to schedule a weekly "Dance parties" here, for others to have fun. It was a success, some people are even enjoying, and slowly getting better at it, and what i also did is made them some songs to step on (which was my first time creating a stepchart, btw), which they like.

So there you have it. I love TM, i love the people behind the whole thing, but i only wish this was a more known thing. Granted, we're talking about an age-old rhythm game, that has been open-sourced by various dedicated people, and stupid retailers doesn't know what a good classic rhythm game is, but i want this classic thing, atleast the TM series, to be a lot more known to the internet.

Thank you for the series, and i'll look forward to some more.

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P.S.: Speaking of contribution, i think i would like to try to contribute somehow to this project. I'm no designer yet, i'm no musician kinda yet, but like i said, i've started to practice on creating stepcharts. I currently made 3 hungarian songs (for my people back home), and 1 Alex S. song. I'm willing to show off that (kinda incomplete) song, as a way to see what i did right and/or wrong, but also in a seperate thread. Dunno what else i could do to help the project, though.