The history of my PrismRhythm theme's development, from as far back as I'm able to reach, mostly told visually in song select and eval screenshots.
As you can see, the theme has improved DRASTICALLY in the over-a-decade I've been putting effort into making it look nicer; hopefully this will allow those who are curious (or don't know how much has actually gone into it) to appreciate the journey it has been on all these years.
Before we get started on the history of the graphical theme, though:
As you can see, the theme has improved DRASTICALLY in the over-a-decade I've been putting effort into making it look nicer; hopefully this will allow those who are curious (or don't know how much has actually gone into it) to appreciate the journey it has been on all these years.
Before we get started on the history of the graphical theme, though:
About the Inspiration: PrismRhythm, the Visual Novel (May 2010)
What's the game?
Originally, PrismRhythm (obviously all one word, no matter what VNDB tries to tell you) is the 4th moege erotic visual novel produced by Lump of Sugar, a huge name in the visual novel industry. The game was released on May 10th, 2010 (it's plastered all over the game's official website to this day). The game is about a guy managing to enroll in an all-girls school (as ya do in an HVN), in this case St. Beltina Academy, because he saw a "fairy" in the forest one day who ended up leading him there. Since the actual game revolves around dancing and the all-important Algaro de Monde Festival to pay tribute to the giant water-bearing tree seen in the title screen's background, called the Spring Snow, there is much talk of dancing (and of course the girls actually dancing) in the game, lending easily to the notion of pairing it with the concept of rhythm gaming.
Who're the girls?
Anyone with even a passing interest in VNs would be curious who the girls are, so, from left to right, the route girls pictured below are:
* [Silver Hair] Gin Mizune (shy/curious oddball)
* [Brown Hair] Elsterrier Marigold (the archetypal nice girl)
* [Purple Hair] Kasumi Tokitou (the chill older cousin senpai type)
* [Green Hair] Lia Berlioz (very energetic and outgoing, considering she's a bookworm)
Is this game available for purchase today?
If you're 18+ and going "this sounds like a VN I'd play!," DLSite offers a legit digital download for a bit over $40, though the game has never received an English fan translation patch, so you'd have to go get yourself a text-hooking program such as VNTranslator that will translate the dialogue for you as you play (the typical way English-speaking players manage to play Japanese-only visual novels).
Originally, PrismRhythm (obviously all one word, no matter what VNDB tries to tell you) is the 4th moege erotic visual novel produced by Lump of Sugar, a huge name in the visual novel industry. The game was released on May 10th, 2010 (it's plastered all over the game's official website to this day). The game is about a guy managing to enroll in an all-girls school (as ya do in an HVN), in this case St. Beltina Academy, because he saw a "fairy" in the forest one day who ended up leading him there. Since the actual game revolves around dancing and the all-important Algaro de Monde Festival to pay tribute to the giant water-bearing tree seen in the title screen's background, called the Spring Snow, there is much talk of dancing (and of course the girls actually dancing) in the game, lending easily to the notion of pairing it with the concept of rhythm gaming.
Who're the girls?
Anyone with even a passing interest in VNs would be curious who the girls are, so, from left to right, the route girls pictured below are:
* [Silver Hair] Gin Mizune (shy/curious oddball)
* [Brown Hair] Elsterrier Marigold (the archetypal nice girl)
* [Purple Hair] Kasumi Tokitou (the chill older cousin senpai type)
* [Green Hair] Lia Berlioz (very energetic and outgoing, considering she's a bookworm)
Is this game available for purchase today?
If you're 18+ and going "this sounds like a VN I'd play!," DLSite offers a legit digital download for a bit over $40, though the game has never received an English fan translation patch, so you'd have to go get yourself a text-hooking program such as VNTranslator that will translate the dialogue for you as you play (the typical way English-speaking players manage to play Japanese-only visual novels).
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Comparison to PR19:
The song select wheel's items are based upon the visual novel's choice panes. 
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Comparison to PR19:
The mod menu is based upon the visual novel's own option menu. 
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With the inspiration out of the way, I can now get to the reason you probably clicked this page - the theme's history and how it's looked over the years.
PrismRhythm 9+ (April 2013)
I wasn't streaming on Twitch yet at all (this was in my pre-Twitch-streaming era by more than a year and a half, though I knew of the platform and was watching others on it), though this was shortly after my 10th simfile pack was released.
As far back as I can possibly reach - to the best of my knowledge, anything before this has been lost to time. The theme was still basically in its infancy, and I was absolutely obsessed with cloth texturing back this far. I was also still using a different bitmap font. I have no idea why this is version 9 (as opposed to some other number before 9), what changed from 8 to 9, or anything like that - all I know is that I made a note in my Screenshots folder long ago that said this was version 9+. Difficulties were named differently in this build to go along with PrismRhythm's theme of dancing (they're all dance names). The eval screen numbers... are just ugly, I'd say - I can't stand to look at them today. The grading system was also straight-up ITG's.
As far back as I can possibly reach - to the best of my knowledge, anything before this has been lost to time. The theme was still basically in its infancy, and I was absolutely obsessed with cloth texturing back this far. I was also still using a different bitmap font. I have no idea why this is version 9 (as opposed to some other number before 9), what changed from 8 to 9, or anything like that - all I know is that I made a note in my Screenshots folder long ago that said this was version 9+. Difficulties were named differently in this build to go along with PrismRhythm's theme of dancing (they're all dance names). The eval screen numbers... are just ugly, I'd say - I can't stand to look at them today. The grading system was also straight-up ITG's.
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PrismRhythm 10 (November 2013)
I still wasn't streaming on Twitch yet; this was around the time my 12th pack came out.
So I grew some slightly better sense with the eval screen, though not by much; the percentage is much more legible, but I went from using names to baked-in judgment images for the breakdown, which has historically never worked all that great (even in more recent times). ITG grading stayed for the time being as well. I managed to make gauges for the song select screen, which improved in pretty much only that particular way - the difficulty names stayed for some reason, as did the bitmap font. I started putting the stepartist CDTitle on the song select screen.
So I grew some slightly better sense with the eval screen, though not by much; the percentage is much more legible, but I went from using names to baked-in judgment images for the breakdown, which has historically never worked all that great (even in more recent times). ITG grading stayed for the time being as well. I managed to make gauges for the song select screen, which improved in pretty much only that particular way - the difficulty names stayed for some reason, as did the bitmap font. I started putting the stepartist CDTitle on the song select screen.
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PrismRhythm 11 & 11+ (May-June 2014)
Streaming on Twitch is still a few months out yet; this was after my 13th simfile pack was released.
I finally grew enough of a brain to start putting the version number in the corner in its own special little box for the purposes of better tracking, which makes history much easier to discern from here on out. I did away with the baked-in judgment images in the eval breakdown, as well as adding the background image for the song name on the eval screen (a feature that, despite that image changing, remains today), alongside adding the time and date to the eval and song select screens. ITG grading remains. This version also added panes for the player designations in the bottom corners of the screen. Nothing else of huge note changed on the song select screen.
I finally grew enough of a brain to start putting the version number in the corner in its own special little box for the purposes of better tracking, which makes history much easier to discern from here on out. I did away with the baked-in judgment images in the eval breakdown, as well as adding the background image for the song name on the eval screen (a feature that, despite that image changing, remains today), alongside adding the time and date to the eval and song select screens. ITG grading remains. This version also added panes for the player designations in the bottom corners of the screen. Nothing else of huge note changed on the song select screen.
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PrismRhythm 12 (June 2014)
As stated above, streaming on Twitch starts happening in a few months.
The very first seeds of what would eventually become the PrismRhythm theme as it is known today start to take shape, with the first newer, smoother iteration of the eval screen's large breakdown pane and difficulty icons (themed after the PrismRhythm girls - Kasumi, Lia, Elsterrier, Caroline, and Gin). I managed to get my first awards made and working, though you can see they look very rudimentary. ITG grading is still present. The song select screen has basically not changed at all (I probably didn't feel it was time yet, or didn't think I could yet, or something).
The very first seeds of what would eventually become the PrismRhythm theme as it is known today start to take shape, with the first newer, smoother iteration of the eval screen's large breakdown pane and difficulty icons (themed after the PrismRhythm girls - Kasumi, Lia, Elsterrier, Caroline, and Gin). I managed to get my first awards made and working, though you can see they look very rudimentary. ITG grading is still present. The song select screen has basically not changed at all (I probably didn't feel it was time yet, or didn't think I could yet, or something).
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PrismRhythm 13 (September 2014)
Right before I started streaming on Twitch, and still following pack 13's release.
The rest of the background images for the smoother, more modern look take shape - the song select screen's difficulty pane is now smooth, and the song artist/BPM/length info now has a pane. The eval screen finally has grade models that aren't star-based like ITG, beginning to truly differentiate it from its original progeny.
The rest of the background images for the smoother, more modern look take shape - the song select screen's difficulty pane is now smooth, and the song artist/BPM/length info now has a pane. The eval screen finally has grade models that aren't star-based like ITG, beginning to truly differentiate it from its original progeny.
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PrismRhythm 14 (October 2017)
My Twitch channel is in Season 5. I was focusing so hard on speedrunning in Seasons 1-4 that I wasn't producing new simfile packs at the time, meaning pack 13 was still the latest pack released, making it a rather lengthy unintentional hiatus from charting. (Pack 14 would come out a few months after this though.)
Things start getting more serious. The step stats panes on the song select screen actually become way nicer, and the eval screen gets a new percentage font again for the first time since PR10. This theme iteration was also the first where I slapped the timing window and DP information onto the top of the eval screen, and grading information across the bottom. You don't see it here, but this was also when I developed both my AcePro noteskin's tails, and also the PrismRhythm Ver. 2 judgment font that became the default for the theme.
Things start getting more serious. The step stats panes on the song select screen actually become way nicer, and the eval screen gets a new percentage font again for the first time since PR10. This theme iteration was also the first where I slapped the timing window and DP information onto the top of the eval screen, and grading information across the bottom. You don't see it here, but this was also when I developed both my AcePro noteskin's tails, and also the PrismRhythm Ver. 2 judgment font that became the default for the theme.
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PrismRhythm 15 (May 2019)
My Twitch channel is in Season 11. The last pack I'd released before this point was 15, with pack 16 right around the corner in July.
Changes from 14 to 15:
* The timing windows were revised from earlier iterations of the theme, and remain as revised to this day.
* My old notes simply state "huge graphical overhaul," and a lot did change - just from what I can see with my own two eyes:
>> Eval banner frame is no longer cloth-textured.
>> New right-side award graphics for the eval panes.
>> New layout for the player step stats pane on the song select screen; it finally takes the general form it's in today.
>> New bottom-corner player designation/memory card check panes.
Changes from 14 to 15:
* The timing windows were revised from earlier iterations of the theme, and remain as revised to this day.
* My old notes simply state "huge graphical overhaul," and a lot did change - just from what I can see with my own two eyes:
>> Eval banner frame is no longer cloth-textured.
>> New right-side award graphics for the eval panes.
>> New layout for the player step stats pane on the song select screen; it finally takes the general form it's in today.
>> New bottom-corner player designation/memory card check panes.
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PrismRhythm 16 (October 2020)
My Twitch channel is is Season 13, and pack 18 had come out just a few months prior to this theme's release.
Primarily, PrismRhythm 16 was the big font revolution; the look of the vast majority of the theme's commonly-seen text changed.
Changes from 15 to 16:
* Mostly a completely new primary bitmap font; the theme now uses VAG Rounded BT, and given how difficult it is to make such a new bitmap font, chances are that it's going to stay that way for at least a very long time.
* The eval screen's percentage font also finally changed to the one still in use today (Hiruko).
* The timer font also finally changed to Hiruko.
* The upper-left screen headers evolved (though they aren't yet what they are today).
Primarily, PrismRhythm 16 was the big font revolution; the look of the vast majority of the theme's commonly-seen text changed.
Changes from 15 to 16:
* Mostly a completely new primary bitmap font; the theme now uses VAG Rounded BT, and given how difficult it is to make such a new bitmap font, chances are that it's going to stay that way for at least a very long time.
* The eval screen's percentage font also finally changed to the one still in use today (Hiruko).
* The timer font also finally changed to Hiruko.
* The upper-left screen headers evolved (though they aren't yet what they are today).
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PrismRhythm 17 (March 2021)
My Twitch channel is in Season 14, and this theme iteration was released smack in the middle between packs 19 and 20.
Changes from 16 to 17:
* Difficulty designation panes were changed to those I'm still using today.
* The only other thing any of my other explicit notes say is that "other minor graphics" were changed as well, though I don't remember off the top of my head which in particular were changed.
Changes from 16 to 17:
* Difficulty designation panes were changed to those I'm still using today.
* The only other thing any of my other explicit notes say is that "other minor graphics" were changed as well, though I don't remember off the top of my head which in particular were changed.
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PrismRhythm 17+ (January 2023)
My Twitch channel is in Season 15, I un-retired from stepartistry, and this was the first thing I ended up actually doing when I returned, before pack 21 came out.
Changes from 17 to 17+:
* Explicitly, all that changed was the song select screen.
>> Totally reworked the song wheel item graphic.
>> Completely new song wheel highlight.
>> Reworked the difficulty selection panel, including updating P1 and P2's cursors.
Changes from 17 to 17+:
* Explicitly, all that changed was the song select screen.
>> Totally reworked the song wheel item graphic.
>> Completely new song wheel highlight.
>> Reworked the difficulty selection panel, including updating P1 and P2's cursors.
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PrismRhythm 18 (April 2023)
My Twitch stream is still in Season 15; this theme iteration was released about in tandem with pack 21.
If PR17+ was the song select screen's time to shine, PR18 was the eval screen's.
Changes from 17+ to 18:
* Changed the headers in the upper-left of the screen to the style I'm still using today.
* New Short/Long/Marathon "balloons" for the song select screen.
* The eval screen's song/artist pane takes the form it's in today.
* Changed the main evaluation pane itself and all of its elements.
>> Totally new set of grade graphics; there are distinct visual differences (that aren't just colors) between V, S, and A/B/C. The design of the honor pins on the S1H and S2H grades is also new.
>> Totally new right-side award graphics.
>> Totally new breakdown designation elements. (I tried baked-in judgment graphics again here, and it once again didn't look nearly as nice as I'd hoped.)
If PR17+ was the song select screen's time to shine, PR18 was the eval screen's.
Changes from 17+ to 18:
* Changed the headers in the upper-left of the screen to the style I'm still using today.
* New Short/Long/Marathon "balloons" for the song select screen.
* The eval screen's song/artist pane takes the form it's in today.
* Changed the main evaluation pane itself and all of its elements.
>> Totally new set of grade graphics; there are distinct visual differences (that aren't just colors) between V, S, and A/B/C. The design of the honor pins on the S1H and S2H grades is also new.
>> Totally new right-side award graphics.
>> Totally new breakdown designation elements. (I tried baked-in judgment graphics again here, and it once again didn't look nearly as nice as I'd hoped.)
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PrismRhythm 19 (August-October 2024)
My Twitch stream is in Season 16 (where it is today); the latest pack release before this theme iteration was 21, though hopefully work starts on pack 22 soon.
Changes from 18 to 19 that were in 19's initial release on September 11, 2024:
* The new "M" grade was introduced for a 99%. S1H and S2H were shoved down to 97% and 98%. (S is still 96%).
* The baked-in judgment images were done away with on the eval screen for a cleaner look.
* I added selectable judgment fonts.
Changes in the September 29, 2024 hotfix:
* Hotfix explicitly to fix some visual problems with my ITG remake judgment fonts.
Changes in the October 5, 2024 update:
* I finally managed to get the "Misses" designation to show up again for miss combos; thus the Miss Combo graphic finally got updated.
* The PrismRhythm girls' ornaments have returned to the difficulty panes. This is the first time they've been on there since PR13, they look better now, and you still have the option to go into the Graphics/[Difficulty Pane Selections] folder to fetch the ones without the ornaments if you'd prefer to change things back to plain panes.
* Since I finally bothered to obtain the visual novel again, I re-recorded all of the few sound effects that actually came from the visual novel (the song wheel changing songs, and the confirm/cancel sounds, as well as the "red button" sound).
* Of all things, the demo loop was finally given a bunch of love:
>> The quality of the videos on the Company and Intro screens was improved. Yes, the like 5-second logo video saw an improvement - it's the very first thing you see when you boot this theme, so even it should look as nice as possible.
>> The Intro screen's information displays were all changed to remove all of the ITG2 graphics; the "how much stuff is in the game" numbers were replaced with my timer font (Hiruko), the giant "2" was replaced with the PrismRhythm logo, and the "ring" graphic (the oval behind the "Presents" text) was changed to one which matches the theme way better.
>> 2 screens were straight-up taken out: Memory Card because nobody at home would use one, and Advertisement, because ITG3-Project.com is defunct these days and I've got nothing good to replace it with.
>> The How to Play screen was put back in (it had been crashing before, the last times I'd tried to re-include it, and it just works now for some reason; I never did figure out whatever was originally wrong), and was made a bit nicer by moving the BPM off-screen, moving the song/pack/difficulty displays, and including showing the difference between holds and rolls and how each is to be performed.
Changes from 18 to 19 that were in 19's initial release on September 11, 2024:
* The new "M" grade was introduced for a 99%. S1H and S2H were shoved down to 97% and 98%. (S is still 96%).
* The baked-in judgment images were done away with on the eval screen for a cleaner look.
* I added selectable judgment fonts.
Changes in the September 29, 2024 hotfix:
* Hotfix explicitly to fix some visual problems with my ITG remake judgment fonts.
Changes in the October 5, 2024 update:
* I finally managed to get the "Misses" designation to show up again for miss combos; thus the Miss Combo graphic finally got updated.
* The PrismRhythm girls' ornaments have returned to the difficulty panes. This is the first time they've been on there since PR13, they look better now, and you still have the option to go into the Graphics/[Difficulty Pane Selections] folder to fetch the ones without the ornaments if you'd prefer to change things back to plain panes.
* Since I finally bothered to obtain the visual novel again, I re-recorded all of the few sound effects that actually came from the visual novel (the song wheel changing songs, and the confirm/cancel sounds, as well as the "red button" sound).
* Of all things, the demo loop was finally given a bunch of love:
>> The quality of the videos on the Company and Intro screens was improved. Yes, the like 5-second logo video saw an improvement - it's the very first thing you see when you boot this theme, so even it should look as nice as possible.
>> The Intro screen's information displays were all changed to remove all of the ITG2 graphics; the "how much stuff is in the game" numbers were replaced with my timer font (Hiruko), the giant "2" was replaced with the PrismRhythm logo, and the "ring" graphic (the oval behind the "Presents" text) was changed to one which matches the theme way better.
>> 2 screens were straight-up taken out: Memory Card because nobody at home would use one, and Advertisement, because ITG3-Project.com is defunct these days and I've got nothing good to replace it with.
>> The How to Play screen was put back in (it had been crashing before, the last times I'd tried to re-include it, and it just works now for some reason; I never did figure out whatever was originally wrong), and was made a bit nicer by moving the BPM off-screen, moving the song/pack/difficulty displays, and including showing the difference between holds and rolls and how each is to be performed.
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