cat readme.txt
-lower world-
After ~10 months in development, lower world is released. This is a
pack consisting of 24 songs, selected and charted in a way reminiscent
of the early 2005-2006 keyboard charting style you would find in packs
such as CKMP1-3, F4/5, and KC1-3. Most notably, you will find no
hands/quads in all of these files, along with no mines, rolls, lifts,
and so on. The average difficulty is also relatively very low; the
hardest charts are around 18 MSD.
The motive for this pack wasn't nostalgia. It's because at the time I
was tired of checking new pack releases in Etterna and just seeing
dumps, pattern practice charts or the occasional artsy pack. I just
wanted to see more packs being released like the ones I like playing,
which are primarily old packs that just kept it easy and simple. So, I
took it into my own hands.
(I'll mention that I'm glad Deamerai is doing the EOKP series; it's
another step in the right direction.)
It is also because I've kind of gotten tired of the usual pack
format these days of just "get 20 of your friends to throw whatever
they have into a 100+ file megapack with little to no theming". I want
more small packs with a distinct identity. To me they're more fun to
play through, more interesting to chart for, and easier to recommend to
people. Also much more forgiving on slow download speeds (This pack is
81 MB!). So, I decided to make a pack that fit those characteristics.
In short, lower world is basically the kind of pack I wished other
people would make. Hopefully it will serve as a source of inspiration
to other in the future to create more concise and unique packs.
Now that that's all out of the way, the credits:
Step Artists GFX Artists
------------ -----------
Windoze Windoze
Zeta tony (la noche, Headshot!, THE SAFARI)
Cuckson nonyu (Kyourui no Shokuba)
DMRIw the creators of various existing gfx I reused
Misrule
nonyu
lyko
Satori
tony
And the chart list:
+---------------------------+---------+------+------+-----+
| Title | Charter | Std. | Hvy. | Oni |
+---------------------------+---------+------+------+-----+
| LION SUKI | Windoze | - | 12 | - |
| kyrka | Windoze | - | 12 | - |
| consider numbers 3 | Windoze | - | 11 | - |
| la noche | Zeta | - | 13 | - |
| Make Your Move | Zeta | 10 | 11 | - |
| Alastor | Windoze | - | 12 | - |
| GUILTY | Zeta | 11 | 12 | - |
| +i m a z i n e x o+ | Zeta | 9 | 12 | - |
| Summer Dance | Cuckson | - | 10 | - |
| Kyourui no Shokuba | nonyu | - | 12 | - |
| Jet Stream | DMRIw | 9 | 10 | - |
| Travelling Without Moving | Misrule | - | 13 | - |
| Headshot | Misrule | - | 12 | - |
| Donkey Punch | DMRIw | - | 13 | - |
| Hanafuda ~Kachofugetsu~ | Misrule | - | 11 | - |
| Digital Disaster | DMRIw | - | 11 | - |
| GRAB BACK | Zeta | 10 | 12 | - |
| Smells Like A Chocolate | lyko | - | 12 | - |
| 19,November | Zeta | - | 10 | 12 |
| Faster Z | Satori | - | 10 | - |
| Y-Gate | Zeta | - | 12 | - |
| Free Hand zero | Windoze | - | 12 | - |
| THE SAFARI | tony | - | 10 | - |
+---------------------------+---------+------+------+-----+
15 Likes
Like and suscribe and ring the bell and
Paq
was great working on stuff for this w you, grats on release
1 Like
i canāt clear äøꮵ HELPPPPPP 
1 Like
Played a few of the charts when the pack was still wip and i can say it was really good
it reminds me so much the charting of the oldschool players like zaghurim, blurk, kil to name a few people.
Pretty much i felt like i became again 14 years old by playing this pack.
1 Like
good paq
paqupaq
Very cool and faithful pack. Enjoyed myself a lot with it.
Wrote a full review: lower world review
Great job to everyone involved!
2 Likes
This is a stellar pack with a solid as heck song selection. Props to the chart authors on knocking it out of the ball park with the variety of charts offered given the specific structural criteria imposed by the pack (13-19 msd charts ftw >:D).
paq
1 Like
Real good pack, everyone should grab a snack of this release
hi tony
too many words did not read
play this pack to set acc scores. dont play it sleepy though
long dorky pack review: a much needed release to remind what the grassroots of this game is and to appreciate the history and nuances of old keyboard charting back when it was on buggy and restricted charting software (before DDReam). the community has really come far from the times of when charting was mostly restricted to being āDDR but on keyboardā and close-knit, though gatekept smaller sub-communites but they did make some of the most impactful packs.
i love the theming and the song selection fits perfectly to the title of the pack; some songs translating/describing religious themes from the oldest bms tracks; a few of the best of the oldest beatmania tracks; some of the oldest stepmania artist features (cmg utopia, family farce, vospi, zaghurim); and some tasteful, unique picks that i had to deep dive to find. the only thing i wish is maybe that the song list couldāve been rounded up to 30 but i suppose thatās what happens when you mention the current pack listings as late and the general communityās lack of interest in making conventional charts. i also regret not putting forth more effort into creating more than the 1 i tried to send, iāve been selfishly working on my own stuff. this is a golden pack. 9.5-10/10
*= stand outs / personal favorite
*19,November: your use of anchors and minijack transitions always ends with some really snappy patterns and rhythms that have a good-feel and i think thatās good-cool. 
the short tension lift-ups at 28s/36s in both charts to reflect the vocals stopping for that short moment is probably my favorite part along with everything else. 10/10
*Alastor: probably 1st or 2nd best song in the pack for me. really cool dark drum nābass song from old BMS and fits with the pack title and theming. from the build up of simple 8th notes, to 8th jumps and stream, to the first 16th stream being only alternating hands. as simple as that is, this song makes that intro section feel like the most fun i had in playing this game. the last half of the chart has A+ progression by trying to fit that simplicity of filling in jumps where there isnāt too much stream from the drum breaks or synths. switching the main instrumentation focus to the low bass-y head-bopping 8th drums we hear for most of the song is the coolest outro. 10/10
*consider numbers 3: fittingly 3rd song in pack and the number 3 has good and bad superstitions about it so also fitting to the pack title lol, 2deep. another banger chart and song with great progression, yamajet is really underrated. 10/10
Digital Disaster: very bouncy patterning and cool nuanced choices of when you permutate notes to keep the charting from being repetitive or completely mirrored patterns. really out of pocket choice that comes from stepmix 5 and another old stepmania artist. 9.5-10/10
*Donkey Punch: iām so happy i saw this when this pack released lol, tickled my nostalgia bone. comes from family farceās hopscotch mix encore pack from 2007 and his many aliases. it was also charted in keyboard ultimix as an x-mod keyboard chart. this definitely stands out as the hardest in the pack with tricky alternating wrist jacks, 32nd trills, snappy jumps, and some odd stuff to trip up the player, the ending rolls is a funny rude ending. 10/10
*Faster Z: gotta have a classical remix from a banya artist obviously. this was a cool find from ambie in one of her packs and the index charting here is very inspired to how banya was charted around that era. 9.5-10/10
*Free Hand zero: definitely my favorite chart in the pack. iām biased towards anything with swing so this was an absolute blast to play, and itās not an easy chart to stay consistent on either considering the one-handed triplets/swing. this reminds me of stuff like syntax egon or we met dat night. also thereās a cool .txt file in the file that goes in-depth of windozeās ideas here. 10/10
*look deeper: ??/10
*GRAB BACK: c1 being completely locked in on bass makes this pretty rigid to be accurate on but that doesnāt detract from how dang satisfying it is, and the tricky ending triplet vocals to create polyrhythms is a surprise but also foreshadowed by the couple times you charted 12th notes in the front half. NM has a more minimal use of jumps and the ending is a cool stripped down polyrhythm challenge with just the 12th vocals and occasional 16th drum kicks. 10/10
*GUILTY: 666 notes!! also the first song made under dj takaās āD.J.SETUPā alias. another satisfying one with back-and-forth, bouncy patterning. this one i consider deceptive because the song feels like it drags behind the percussion, not to mention the tricky polyrhythm jumpātrillsā. NM is also a really cool addition that strips the more rigid patterns and has similar bouncy patterns. 10/10
č±ę ļ½č±é³„é¢Øęļ½: the off-sync charting the piano in the beginning is a nice touch to this, and with a song using 20ths when the charting would probably be charted on 24ths or triplet 32nds. how did you find this song by the way? 9.5-10/10
Headshot!: tasteful pick considering itās renard and the title is fitting for the time and rise of FPS games around when stepmania existed. the mungyodance comparison didnāt come to me until reading martziās review either. this reminds me of m1dy gabba/hardcore songs that were charted by blurk and zaghurim. too abrasive of a genre for me personally but still perfect charting. 9.5-10/10
Jet Stream -On The Come Up!-: from family farceās hopscotch mix encore pack again. a cool juxtapose from donkey punch being the hardest in the pack, this one being the easiest. very simplistic and indexable much like Faster Z but a lot of jumps. 9-9.5/10
*Kyourui no Shokuba - Opening: zaghurim! cool song pick that i havenāt heard from him. plenty to like about this one. i like how the solo is charted almost indexable instead of closely accurate though i wouldāve liked that haha. i wouldāve also liked more jumps to reflect some of the louder guitar chords. regardless of those critiques, the charting āfeelsā old-school to me and you did a solid consistent job. 8.5-9/10
*kyrka: swedish word for āchurchā. classic trance from BMS to fit the vibe of the pack. the drum breaks being the only hold to being the 24th drum breaks at the end is an interesting progression thing, and the 24th minijack at the end is foreshadowed by the occasional 16th minijacks that are spread about the chart. 9.5-10/10
*la noche: spanish for āthe nightā. most deceptive chart that i feel rivals donkey punch but completely different skill set, much more tech streamy. a lot about this screams kil-esque to me; the midsection with the percussion being done in phases, one-hand biased bursts, removing columns, staircases, etc.. so many mechanical rhythms thrown at you to be purposefully tricky. the outro is nothing to sleep on either. perfect boss song. 10/10
ć©ć¤ćŖć³å„½ć: fun, catchy akira yamaoka pick and DDR-like song but from IIDX 9th style. dance-y and interpretative charting that goes to the vocals i think and general bass notes. this is growing on me the more i play it to be honest. 9.5-10/10
*Make Your Move: not sure if intentional but konami/max 300 number (573) of notes in NM chart personally i think you have the most consistent and best musical interpretation in charting, i canāt really say much more lol. the cooldown solo at the end is awesome. 10/10
*Smells Like Chocolate: such a cute and fun vospi pick, i love this and the 8thy charting has the best nuances to look for that really follows the music perfectly here while staying simplistic. the 16th guitar/vocal streams flow so well. 10/10
Summer Dance: the most in your face āsong that could be on DDRā ever. playing this on the arrow keys enhances the playing experience. i felt like you couldāve gotten away with more jumps but the lack of them also makes it appropriate for the song. 8.5-9/10
THE SAFARI: lion musashi is dj taka! also this song is his first use of that alias. the charting has effective bouncy patterns, and i love the tension slowly building to the really fun one-handed trills and jumps then lifting off that tension in the outro. 9-9.5/10
*Travelling Without Moving: burnout revenge for the pstwo. definitely one of the best charts and unique song picks, so much bouncy charting in this pack. i feel like a NM chart couldāve been done for this one, this is up there in difficulty with the hardest but itās still a different stamina based skillset and slower speed compared to donkey punch, free hand zero, la noche. surprising and fun record scratch left-handed notes at the end. 10/10
*Y-Gate: rivals best song with Alastor for me and is definitely an interesting pick from a rhythm game i havenāt been around to see mentioned. ez2on looks really cool and definitely appeals to some love for 6k. the best dance-y 16ths iāve played ever probably, i love so much about this. itās been fun but weāre movinā alongā¦ 10/10
*+i m a z i n e x o+: ok stargroup jungle artsy outro what are you doing in my 2026 stepmania pack? probably your best in the pack but i could say that about a lot of your charts in here. you just always know which patterns make instruments stick out and flow best. changing the percussion flow of the chart to reflect the direction of the piano in the first half and the 8thy bright piano synths(?) in the outro are my favorite parts. the NM chart simplifies a lot and focuses purely on the main instrumentals, probably harder than jet stream NM because itās a minute longer to focus on. 10/10
2 Likes
thank you for the review, iām glad you enjoyed the pack as much as you did.
re: this:
č±ę ļ½č±é³„é¢Øęļ½: [ā¦] how did you find this song by the way? [ā¦]
i sent them this youtube channel with a lot of old 2000s mp3s and midis from muzie and the like, and they found the song from there
1 Like
quick notice i should have mentioned earlier: there were a few updates silently made to this pack post-release
most of them were just metadata/readme fixes but one of the updates fixed a missing note in hanafuda. the pack was mistakenly ranked with the old version so itās been reranked with the new one. sorry for the inconvenience