Another Friday, another preview. But this time, I attached answers to the questions that I received from twitter and PMs.

osu! Related Questions

AncuL, @VKyzo, @slainv_fr, @xXPausicXx, and 30 billion other people on the planet.

Q: When?

A: Dunnolol.

GenoClysm

Q: will stuff from osu!next slowly be added to cutting edge/beta/main builds in peices like the volume wheels, or will the updates consist of large overhauls, adding big chunks of the new designs at a time?

A: It’s entirely up to the devs. I believe some part of it is in small chunks, and some will be huge arse chunks.

@IPikachuU

Q: what about our Levels,highscores and Ranks, will we keep them?

osu!next is not a new game. It’s the same game with major design overhaul. So yes, you will keep them.

DNAmyte

Q: How many days since the project start :D willing to know

A: I have no idea actually. 2 years ago, maybe? Do keep in mind that I only do design, not development.

Jerry

Q: Will the current skins in the game be applicable to the future new design of osu! ? Or are we gonna have to create brand new skins to go with the new design?

A: Maybe. I can’t say much on dev related questions. The devs are doing their best to ensure backward compatibilities, but don’t be disappointed if it’s missing some functions.

DNAmyte

Q: Were you the only one involved in the project? or is there others?

A: I’m the only one who’s working on the design, while ppy and his fantastic dev team are working hard to develop ze stuffs.

DNAmyte, Blank

Q: What inspired you to create osu!next?

A: Hmm, I’m not really sure on how to answer this.

I believe it’s all started when I met ppy. I saw him working on some stuff, and I told him that whatever on his screen gave me cancer (gosh, I’m such a dick). He told me to design stuff for him, and I did, just because I wanted to prove a point that I can do better. That’s how it all started, I think.

When I comes to design inspiration, I took many inspirations from various other modern sites, and fantasy UI (FUI) from various games, movie and anime. Most of the initial designs will look like a frankenstein, so just to serve as a placeholder so that the devs can start working on something. Over time, stuffs will be polished.

P/S: I’m a FUI nut.

Kert

Q: Will we have an ability to make custom slider body “textures”?

A: Maybe. That would be cool, isn’t it?

@Ricofizz

Q: What does the osu!team hope to achieve with this update?

A: I’m not sure about the rest, but I personally want to see everyone cream their pants. Also, I’m hoping that the new design will encourage more people to play osu!

@Ricofizz

Q: What are your ideas on the future of osu!multiplayer?

A: We have great ideas, but we can’t reveal that yet.

@Acthalioth

Q: is the cursor still going to be skinnable/customizable?

A: Yes. I wouldn’t want people to set my house on fire.

@clydejallorina

Q: Will you please give us an overall look on the design process?

A: Hmm, this deserves it’s own post. I’ll write about it in the future.

@jason_colas

Q: Will my old skin work with the new version of osu?

A: Maybe. Again, the devs are doing their best to make it work.

@urlordandxavier

Q: Will everything that’s happening be supported on Mac and Linux, I mean you are doing this on a Mac soooo

A: Yes for Mac, but I’m not entirely sure about Linux. Not a dev and not confident to say about anything about it, lol. Ask ppy.

@NightStud1OS

Q: will the original style gui/hud still be availible?

A: Maybe.

@alphageek000

Q: Will osu!next have new features for supporters?

A: Ohohoho, yes. Oh hell yes. We have a lot of cool neat and fancy things just for you supporters. For example, supporters will be able to customise their cover photos in their profile page and gamertag. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I wish I can say more, but ppy hired snipers to wipe me out the instant I reveal more features.

@Quiesce7

Q: Do you have any tips for young osu! skinners?

A: Do research on colour pallettes. Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, Shades and many more.

Don’t go crazy on photoshop effects. Just because you know on how to use it, doesn’t mean you should use it. Remember, you’re showing off your design, not your photoshop use skills. On your free time, try to copy UI design from triple AAA games as practice and make sure it looked exactly the same. You’ll learn on why it looked great. Use your new knowledge on making new skin.

Also, I’ll use this opportunity to say that the new skinning system will be different in the future. It will allow you to do crazier things than now.

@ThaiB_H

Q: It will possible to downgrade to old osu! after the osu!next update ?

A: Nope. You wouldn’t want to downgrade osu! after the awesome, super optimised update.

@MineCraftian

Q: In an image I saw, there was a sticky note with “osu bullet design” on it. Is osu!touhou confirmed now? ;P Would be interesting!

A: ppy already answered this in his Q&A.

@Miterosan

Q: Why are you redesigning Osu! (did peppy gave you money and said DO IT!)

A: I never designed for a game before and I love taking new design challenges. Plus, so far, ppy is the only one who I’ve work with who fully trust my design decisions (that also means that if I fuck up the designs, I’m the one who’s taking the blame, not anyone else).

@Miterosan

Q: Why do you think you are a bad designer

A: Because most of the time, I’m not satisfied with my own designs. It takes a lot of effort for me to like my own designs.

@xXPausicXx

Q: How is it like to be a designer?

A: It’s mentally tiring. Design is not all about making things looks nice, but it’s all about sorting out everything in nice order for everyone else. Making things looks nice is very, very secondary. You’ll meet people who simply won’t understand you. You’ll meet people who thinks they know design but fails at basic principles. You’ll meet people who makes fun of you because they believe design is an easy thing. You’ll meet… a lot of people who don’t appreciate the things that you do, lol.

So, it is extremely important to love whatever you’re doing, not because of responsibility. And trust me, many do not have the oppurtunity to design something out of love. I am extremely lucky to be in a project where I have 100% control on design matters.

On work, I find myself 90% trying to figure things out, and only 10% doing actual work. Again, it’s not about making things look beautiful, but making sure everything is in nice order. I’ve been in the design industry for 10 years and I still don’t consider myself as a good designer; as I still make bajillion of design revisions over time.

Just because one knows on how to use a pencil or pen, doesn’t make one a good illustrator. Same goes with one who knows on how to use a design software, doesn’t make one a good designer.

There are days (DAYSSSSS), where my mind just went blank and refuse to work no matter how hard I try. I’d be staring at the screen and my notebook, thinking “how should I do this?”. Back when I was working in a design house, there were other designers that I can bounce my ideas with, especially badass seniors that I look up to.

I’m slightly jealous when the devs in studio went excited on new cool dev things and talk about cool dev things. I have no one to share my excitement when I found cool designer things, lol. I tried once, and they said there’s nothing special about it, lol.

Designing alone, the most reliable source of inspiration is the internet. Thankfully, I have enough offline human interaction to keep my mind from going crazy, lol. So… um… let’s go out for dinner? …anyone? D:

@ Newb1et

Q: What part of osu! did you enjoy designing the most? And what part was hard?

A: Who the hell give you the idea that I enjoyed this!? /flips table.

Lol kidding. I enjoyed designing the game UI more than web UI. You have to think a lot of things when it comes to web; browser compatibilities, performance issues, mobile view, bla bla bla. But, game UI, I WENT ALL OUT. ppy told me “just design, don’t worry about the implementation”. That line, made me go “I CAN GO INTO MY FINAL FORM”.

The hard part, is providing a design solution to a problem. And when you think of a solution, you have to ensure that the solution works for almost everything to ensure consistency. After that, think of a suitable design for it. These are 90% of my work. The rest 10%, is producing design mockups. It’s extremely, extremely stressful.

I enjoy seeing the hype osu!next received. Naturally, the devs get to see all of my work and I love seeing them shiting bricks when I come up with something cool. It makes me go fuwafuwa everytime I see good comments on my work. Motivates me to design more stuff. If this is an anime, imagine me rolling on the floor like a little girl after being noticed by senpai. All the stress? Fuckin’ worth it.

(Bad comments made me wanna jump of a cliff. I’m soft. I know.)

@Miterosan

Q: Do you have special forum rights? How often do you play osu!

A: Special forum rights? Maybe. How often do I play osu? Well, that’s a secret that I’m taking to the grave.

@Miterosan

Q: Are you able to programm too? What is you favorite feature request in the forums?

A: I used to code in C, C++ and PHP. Now, ppy is persuading me to code again, in C#, so that I could implement the designs myself instead of relying on the other devs. I’m running low on excuses on not to code now (please suggest me new excuses).

I have my favourites on the feature requests, but I’m not going to tell any. Heh.

Divaricate

Q: how does one become a part of such a great project? >w>

A: Be really good at what you’re doing, I guess?

@Bourdel7

Q: Hello ! Just a question : How many time do you work by week?

A: 40 hours per week.

Random Questions

DNAmyte

Q: Where do you live in Japan?

A: I live in Shinagawa, Tokyo. In a quiet residential area in the densely populated metropolis.

DNAmyte

Q:Been wondering, is it easy to get any gaming equipments? compare by price, is it cheaper?

A: Where? In Japan? You can just order anything online. The computer parts are slightly more expensive here than US.

@Congeenial

Q: Has your Japanese gotten better now that you’re living in Japan? Also, More Pics of Cats pls?

A: The progress has been horrible for me. Language is not my forte. My english is not even that great. Doing my best.

@LeelDaEel

Q: What are those pens and pencil you have the in the photo for the Q&A? Sorry for such a weird question!

A: Nothing special about it. From the left is Deleter Neopico-Line-3 0.03mm Fine, Uni Kuru-Toga 0.5mm mechanical pencil and some random coloured pen from Muji.

@:__dreamgate

Q: How do you take such nice pictures everytime?

A: Thanks. I spent a lot of time reading tips online, and experimenting on the things that I’ve read online. Protip: Train yourself by using a crappy camera and master photo composition. Also, stop don’t taking photos.

@Lsmrhsr, @Miterosan

Q: Tell us about your Nendoroid collection!

Q: How many nendoroids have you in total?

I’ve loved nendoroids ever since I was in university. However, back in my home country, I couldn’t afford it as they were 3x more expensive (yeah, our currently are kinda crappy T_T). Here in Japan, earning Japanese Yen, I can finally afford them. I’ve collected 15 nendoroids so far. I’ll only buy them if they’re ultra adorable, or ultra cheap. I’ll write a personal blog post about it in the future.

@bladesu88

Q: Where do you buy all your nendos and or other anime merchandise?

A: Most of the nendoroids are pre-owned, it’s cheaper that way (most of the time). Bought from stores in Akihabara or online.

@AkhlisRO

Q: Address, please? :D Gonna come kidnap you and make you work on something ^^ I have CATS!! Many!

A: Nah, I’ll pass. I’ll fill up this house with cats myself.

@_uliechan

Q: what do you find most alluring about peppy and why

A: The amount of effort he puts into.. anything. And being ultra efficient at the same time. It’s bordering inhuman. Maybe, he’s not human.

@nekodex

Q: porter robinson or madeon?

A: UHHHH…that’s a tough one. Porter Robinson remixing Madeon, and Madeon remixing Potter Robinson, I guess?

@Miterosan

Q: How is peppy

A: He’s cool.

@Miterosan

Q: who is that on your profilepicture? How is living in japan? how far do you belive to be (redesigning Osu!) (in percent please)

A: Which profile picture? The one on twitter? That’s me on the left, and @GrowHair on the right. Japan is lovely for me, so far. My work for osu! will never end as I will continue to design new things.

@Miterosan

Q: What’s your favourite joke? how long do you know @ppy? why are you so evil on Osu!next (keeping resulution low…)

A: I’m not sure on how to answer that joke part. I’ve known ppy for almost 3 years through mutual friends. Keeping the resolution low, is the fun part of teasing new features, heh.

@Miterosan

Q: Whats your favourite nicovideo / youtube / twitch, video / streamer?

A: Can’t say if I have any specific favourite channel. I subscribed to many channels but none of them is osu! related ^_^;;

@Miterosan

Q: How many questions did you expect to get? how did you get you name? what do you belive is your best drawing?

A: I only expected less than 20 questions.

Back at hometown, everyone called me “edo”. However when I came to Japan for work, there were 3 Edos in the office. So I had to use a different nickname, “Flyte”. It derived from a phrase that I used to say a lot back in school, “Go fly kite” (the polite way of saying “fuck off”).

I used to draw a lot back in school, but I wouldn’t call any of it “best”.

@Miterosan

Q: What’s your favorite anime/manga/novel?

A: For someone who watches at average of 5 series per season, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is on top of my list, and nothing comes close to it. I’m not so sure on manga, it’s hard to say. There’s a lot of good mangas I’ve read. I love Arthur C Clarke and Peter F Hamilton novels.

@Miterosan

Q: Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 or do you prefer linux or ubuntu or Mac?

A: Either Windows or Mac for daily use. Both have it’s own pros and cons. I only use linux for my servers.

@Miterosan

Q: What drawing tablet do you use? What is your favorite song? How long do live in Japan? .Whats your favorite food/drink?

A: I’m not using any drawing tablets as I don’t do illustrations.

I listen to a lot of songs, hence I have a lot of favourite songs. If I have to choose 2 songs, it would be Maaya Sakamoto’s Mameshiba and Vanessa Mae’s Emerald Tiger. I’m not sure on how long I’m planning to live in Japan. I love pizza, and bubble tea.

@korosu_nyan

Q: DO YOU LIKE PANDAS? (I don’t know alot about osu!next so i was wondering since when did you start this project?)

A: Not a fan of pandas, but a HUGE FAN of red pandas.

@OffZenitHMaster

Q: You watched K-On!?

A: Watched the anime and read the manga. Anime was good but I still prefer the manga.

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That’s concludes the Q&A. If you missed the oppurtunity to send your questions, HAHA SUCKS TO BE YOU. Not really, you can always bug me on twitter.

Alright, have a nice weekend people.