Would just like to say as a fairly new SSFIV player who has just started to read up on combos I actually find this easier to read. An app that let you write, add and save combos to a database for each character so you could refer to easily on the fly would be really cool.
If I could listen to the notes play the beat of the combo that would be helpful. I like the way they do it in Tekken. Though its easier for me to hear the combo in Tekken 5 then Tekken tag. I can’t quite remember if Tekken six had the same sound effect as 5. It be cool if some device could record a players inputs. So that if they got the combo right once. They could listen to the beat of a successfully executed combo over and over again. I think all games should just have something like that anyway. Like Tekken! (Even though its harder for me to listen to the new sound effect…perhaps there should be multiple options to suite your learning style).
I’d like to listen to the beat. Cause I read sheet music incredibly slow. I don’t do it regularly but I remember that all cows eat grass!
I think you’re going to have real difficulty implementing a timing component since any style metronome is not going to jive well with arrhythmic combos. like you’ve got a metronome going, it’s clear from the metronome what the time is, then one of your inputs 3/64ths off from the downbeat. that’s going to fuck people up.
maybe the metronome counts you in and you get a visual aid showing you the speed of the bar. like a running head start before you get to the inputs. but I’d imagine you want the actual combo to move without a metronome aid.
the graph works fine but will be conceived of best as a DDR-style readout moving along a timeline at an expected pace, and not sheet music with a defined time signature I think.
This is a fantastic idea. Like a few people have already mentioned, the fact that you could read time between button presses is really important.
I’d be a bit concerned about compactness with this layout; for what you’ve shown now it’s not so bad but I’d think now about what happens when users try writing much longer combos with it. Would it be plausible to add a way to denote repeated parts of input and some means of inserting game-specific abbreviations/special symbols? Personally I’d also consider giving the punch and kick rows a slightly different tint so that all 6 buttons can be distinguished by color as well as their vertical position on the sheet.
Also if it hasn’t already been mentioned, you could consider having the viewer you’re developing generate input sequences as GIFs with a moving “highlight” on the current input in the sequence. This could be one way to distribute these input sheets in a way that shows timing directly and covers combos too large for the screen without requiring users to download a viewer.
it has great potencial guys! Just a thought… Could you make the graphic in a way that is easier to read the option selects in a game while silverlining the priority button?. Because neat combos looks great, but who nowadays only press the essential buttons? Everybody is always option-selecting stuff.