Overview

StepMania is a free, open-source rhythm and dance game for Windows, macOS and Linux, built for both home play and arcade cabinets. First released in 2001 by Chris Danford and now maintained by a community development team, it plays DDR-style arrow charts on a keyboard, a USB dance pad or a full arcade control panel — and it ships with a built-in editor for authoring your own stepcharts.

Key Features

• Cross-platform engine — a portable C++ codebase that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, from a desktop PC down to single-board computers.
• Built-in step editor — create and edit your own charts in-game, with beat snap, area markers, timing screen and live note statistics.
• Dance pad and keyboard support — play with USB dance pads, arcade panels, keyboard, mouse or game controllers.
• Themes and noteskins — swap the whole interface or just the arrow art; the 5.1 branch keeps compatibility with existing 5.0.x themes and noteskins.
• Huge community song library — thousands of free community simfiles, plus courses, modifiers and gameplay modes (rave, marathon, endless and more).
• Runs on modest hardware — GPU-accelerated 3D graphics while still comfortable on older machines and small boards.

Why Use It

It is one of the longest-lived free rhythm games: two decades of community content, fully open source under the MIT licence, with no ads, no DRM, no in-app purchases and no account required. You can play it, theme it, extend it and even build and sell a cabinet around it. Stable releases are on the 5.0.x line (5.0.12); the current preview is 5.1 beta 2, whose headline change is the new Lambda default theme.

Use Cases

• Playing DDR-style rhythms at home with a dance pad or keyboard.
• Authoring and sharing your own stepcharts with the built-in editor.
• Building a home or arcade dance cabinet around the engine.
• Building custom themed music/rhythm experiences on top of the engine.

Platforms

Windows, macOS (OS X) and Linux.

Licence

Open source — MIT. The StepMania source code is released under the MIT licence, so you are free to use, modify and redistribute it (including commercially). Note that the songs bundled in the repository are CC-NC (non-commercial), and builds using the bundled MAD/FFmpeg codecs fall under the GPL.

Website

stepmania.com · Source: github.com/stepmania/stepmania

Similar open-source games

• SuperTuxKart — open-source arcade kart racing, also cross-platform and community-made.