Creating a Note Style
Note Style Assets
In order to create your own note style, you will need assets for a variety of elements:
note: The general notes for the song. These display in the chart editor as well as in-game as the notes the player must hit.holdNote: The sprites for the hold notes which require the key to be held rather than pressed.noteStrumline: The notes on the strumline, which react when the player presses the keys, and provide visual feedback for when notes need to be hit.noteSplash: The special effect when the player getsSick!rating.holdNoteCover: The special effect when the player is holding a hold note.countdown: The assets (both the sprites and audio) for the countdown that happens before the song starts.judgementShit: The assets for judgements, which display how well you hit a note.comboNumber0: The assets for the combo counter, which displays when you hit a certain number of notes in a row.
These assets should be placed in your mod folder, ideally somewhere organized. They don't have to be in any specific location, just one that you can directly reference from your note style's JSON data file.
Note Style Fallback
Note styles use a recursive fallback system; essentially, you can specify just one or several assets for a note style. If a fallback note style is specified, the parent will be queried for any assets that aren't included. If the parent doesn't have an asset, ITS parent will be referenced, and so on. This allows you to easily make note styles which perform only slight variations on the style they are based on.
Note Style Data
A custom note style requires creating a new JSON file in the data/notestyles folder.
Below is the "funkin" (aka the default) note style json file assets/data/notestyles/funkin.json1
{
"version": "1.1.0",
"name": "Funkin'",
"author": "PhantomArcade",
"fallback": null,
"assets": {
"note": {
"assetPath": "shared:notes",
"scale": 1.0,
"data": {
"left": { "prefix": "noteLeft" },
"down": { "prefix": "noteDown" },
"up": { "prefix": "noteUp" },
"right": { "prefix": "noteRight" }
}
},
"noteStrumline": {
"assetPath": "shared:noteStrumline",
"scale": 1.55,
"offsets": [0, 0],
"data": {
"leftStatic": { "prefix": "staticLeft0" },
"leftPress": { "prefix": "pressLeft0" },
"leftConfirm": { "prefix": "confirmLeft0" },
"leftConfirmHold": { "prefix": "confirmLeft0" },
"downStatic": { "prefix": "staticDown0" },
"downPress": { "prefix": "pressDown0" },
"downConfirm": { "prefix": "confirmDown0" },
"downConfirmHold": { "prefix": "confirmDown0" },
"upStatic": { "prefix": "staticUp0" },
"upPress": { "prefix": "pressUp0" },
"upConfirm": { "prefix": "confirmUp0" },
"upConfirmHold": { "prefix": "confirmUp0" },
"rightStatic": { "prefix": "staticRight0" },
"rightPress": { "prefix": "pressRight0" },
"rightConfirm": { "prefix": "confirmRight0" },
"rightConfirmHold": { "prefix": "confirmRight0" }
}
},
"holdNote": {
"assetPath": "NOTE_hold_assets",
"data": {}
},
"noteSplash": {
"assetPath": "",
"data": {
"enabled": true
}
},
"holdNoteCover": {
"assetPath": "",
"data": {
"enabled": true
}
},
"countdownThree": {
"data": {
"audioPath": "shared:gameplay/countdown/funkin/introTHREE"
},
"assetPath": null
},
"countdownTwo": {
"data": {
"audioPath": "shared:gameplay/countdown/funkin/introTWO"
},
"assetPath": "shared:ui/countdown/funkin/ready",
"scale": 1.0,
"isPixel": false
},
"countdownOne": {
"data": {
"audioPath": "shared:gameplay/countdown/funkin/introONE"
},
"assetPath": "shared:ui/countdown/funkin/set",
"scale": 1.0,
"isPixel": false
},
"countdownGo": {
"data": {
"audioPath": "shared:gameplay/countdown/funkin/introGO"
},
"assetPath": "shared:ui/countdown/funkin/go",
"scale": 1.0,
"isPixel": false
},
"judgementSick": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/sick",
"scale": 0.65,
"isPixel": false
},
"judgementGood": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/good",
"scale": 0.65,
"isPixel": false
},
"judgementBad": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/bad",
"scale": 0.65,
"isPixel": false
},
"judgementShit": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/shit",
"scale": 0.65,
"isPixel": false
},
"comboNumber0": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num0",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber1": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num1",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber2": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num2",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber3": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num3",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber4": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num4",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber5": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num5",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber6": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num6",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber7": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num7",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber8": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num8",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
},
"comboNumber9": {
"assetPath": "default:ui/popup/funkin/num9",
"isPixel": false,
"scale": 0.45
}
}
}
There is quite a lot to unravel, let's break it all down.
version: The version number for the Note Style data file format. Leave this at1.0.0.name: The readable name for the note style, used in places like the Chart Editor.author: The author of the note style, aka the artist who created the assets.fallback: The note style ID to use as a fallback note style. Any assets not included for this note style will use the parent's asset instead."funkin"is the recommended default in order to use the default base game assets for anything that is not specified.assets: A list of asset data for each of the assets for the note style.- See list of assets that you can provide the data for.
Asset data is structured like so:
assetPath: The main asset path to use for this asset.scale: Specify the size of the asset relative to the original size. For example,2.0makes the sprite twice as big. Defaults to1.0if unspecified.offsets: Some animations may need their positions to be corrected relative to the idle animation.- Use an array of two decimal values, the first for horizontal position and the second for vertical position.
isPixel: Specify whether to display this asset as being pixel (disabling texture smoothing). Optional, defaults tofalse.data: The structure of note style asset data objects that depends on the asset you are going to edit.
Note Style Asset data is structured like so:
- For
note: List of animation data for theleft,down,upandrightarrows. - For
noteStrumline: List of animation data for each direction and it's variations, such as<direction>Static,<direction>Press,<direction>Confirm,<direction>ConfirmHoldreplacing<direction>with it's each and every corresponding direction. - For
holdNote: Currently has no list of animation data that can be set. - For
noteSplash: There is currently no list of animation data available that can be set. It is likely to be added in the future.enabled: Specify whether to display the asset. Optional, defaults totrue.
- For
holdNoteCover: There is currently no list of animation data available that can be set. It is likely to be added in the future.enabled: Specify whether to display the asset. Optional, defaults totrue.
Animation data is structured like so:
prefix: The animation name as specified by your spritesheet.- For Sparrow or Packer, check inside the data file to see what each set of frames is named, and use that as the prefix, excluding the frame numbers at the end.
- For Animate Atlases, use either the frame label or the symbol name of the animation you want to play.
offsets: Some animations may need their positions to be corrected relative to the idle animation.- Use an array of two decimal values, the first for horizontal position and the second for vertical position.
looped: Whether to loop this animation in-game. If false, the animation will pause when it ends, until the game commands the asset to do something else.flipX: Whether to flip the sprites of this animation horizontally in-game.flipY: Whether to flip the sprites of this animation vertically in-game.frameRate: A frame rate value, defaulting to24.frameIndices: Optionally specify an array of frame numbers (starting at frame 0!) to use from a given prefix for this animation.- For example, specifying
[0, 1, 2, 3]will make this animation only use the first 4 frames of the given prefix.
- For example, specifying