Project Loved is the voting platform that promotes beatmaps to the Loved category. It is run primarily by the Project Loved Team.
Beatmaps are moved to Loved by a nomination and voting process.
Members of the Project Loved Team called captains regularly nominate beatmaps for a specific game mode. These almost always come from submissions from the osu! community.
To submit a beatmap for Loved, please visit the beatmap submission page of the Project Loved website and fill out the form. The submission may be viewed under the listing of its respective game mode along with the others. Below are the listings where these submissions can be viewed:
Nominated beatmaps are then posted to the Project Loved forum, where community members may vote whether they want the beatmap to be Loved or not. Maps reaching a specified threshold percentage of "Yes" votes at their polls' end time will be moved to the Loved category:
Mode | Requirement |
---|---|
osu! | 85% |
osu!taiko | 80% |
osu!catch | 80% |
osu!mania | 80% |
There are some very minimal criteria that need to be met for beatmaps to be nominated for Loved. Each game mode has its own specific criteria for Loved beatmap nomination and priority, but all modes follow these rules:
Although many Pending and Work-in-progress beatmaps meet these criteria, few are voted into the Loved category due to the more selective nomination and voting requirements.
Beatmaps entering the Loved category are required to follow some additional rulesets:
Additionally, in order to keep the audio quality of the song at a reasonable level, beatmap audio files should have an average bitrate of at least 128 kbps.
Any problems with these rules are usually sorted out while the beatmap is up for voting.
Starting from February 2023, beatmaps of the osu! game mode considered for Loved will follow these new categories as well as the rules and guidelines below, which are similar to the ranking criteria, but adapted for the more lenient process Project Loved is known for.
Every month, beatmaps are chosen according to 9 categories, with the goal of ensuring variety for every selection of beatmaps by the captains.
Category | Explanation |
---|---|
Popular Playcounts | Popular beatmaps in the community, with at least 100,000 playcount. |
Outstanding Oldies | Beatmaps submitted more than six years ago. |
Small Spectacles | Outstanding beatmaps as determined by the captains, with less than 5,000 playcount. |
Daredevil Difficulties | Beatmaps known for extreme difficulty, nominated with the goal of fostering competition among top players. |
Ranked Rejects | Beatmaps with full spreads that follow ranking criteria, yet never reached Ranked status. |
Gameplay Gimmicks | Beatmaps with unconventional gameplay gimmicks, such as via storyboards or Aspire-like mapping. |
Meme Monstrosities | Beatmaps popular for their humorous content, or with focus on local communities' subcultures. |
Second Shots | Beatmaps rejected in past Loved votings, receiving a second chance. |
Chill Champions | Beatmaps that are casual-friendly, with no difficulty above 5 stars. |
Additionally, up to three wildcard beatmaps may be chosen from any category, adding to a total of twelve beatmaps per month.
For any questions regarding what goes in each category, contact the osu! Loved captains.
All rules are exactly that: rules. They are not guidelines and may not be broken under any circumstance.
.osu
file instead of the .osb
file.Guidelines may be ignored under exceptional circumstances. These exceptional circumstances can be justified by an explanation as of why the guideline has been ignored and why not ignoring it will interfere with the overall quality of the creation.
There are no strict rules governing which maps a captain must nominate for Loved, but generally the nominated maps are very well known and appreciated by the community (as the title "Loved" implies). Sometimes a beatmap will also be preferred if it is significantly older than others or contains beatmaps with unique and high-quality mapping styles.
All of the organisation and planning for Project Loved is done in the #osu-loved
channel of the osu! Discord server. There is also a #project-loved
channel in the osu! Community Discord server. Any questions, concerns, or suggestions may be directed there.
In addition to the discussion channels mentioned above, there are dedicated hubs for each game mode: