Description



Summoner of Sounds is designed to be a series of interactive community events where video game music will be celebrated by the means of craftsmanship and community interaction.

Community members with experience in music production will be dared to participate in challenges testing their ability to perform well as a versatile video game composer, while the game developers with other areas of expertise are encouraged to to analyze the challenges, and provide the composers with commentary, feedback and constructive criticism.


Table of contents:

  • 1. Event Outline

  • 2. Event Schedule

  • 3. Licensing Rights & Submission Guidelines

  • 4. RMN as a Platform. What do I have to gain?

  • 5. Post-Processing Submitted Material

  • 6. Role of the Composer - Becoming the Summoner of Sounds

  • 7. Role of Other Developers and the Audience - You are not NPCs!

  • 8. Picking Favorites!?

  • 9. RMN Music Pack 2 and Guardians of the Groove







Summoner of Sounds consists of a periodically recurring series of challenges presented to the composers to participate in and for the developers and audience to engage in throughout the year.

Participants aren't obligated to participate in every challenge, but the more challenges you participate in, the greater the reward.

Presented challenges will test the composers' abilities to perform well as versatile video game music producers in a changing environment. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rules and restrictions, and a new concept where the composers will have to find a way to express themselves in.

The challenges may restrict and determine the video game genre that will need to be composed for, the game world setting to be composed for, a specific game instance to be composed for, or a specific manner to be composed in.

While the challenges will present a number of restricted aspects, each challenge will offer choice of freedom and room to stretch around in some of them.

Summoner of Sounds will be running for several months in total and challenges will be issued roughly once every month, or on a similar pacing.

Each challenge of the series will run approximately over the course of one month and the deadline of each challenge will be stated as the challenge and its ruleset are announced.
























Any work submitted to this event will be disseminated under a creative commons license as publicly usable in any way the end-user wishes as long as they attribute the work to the artist in their credits and that they also do the same themselves with any derivative work based on the artist's.

End-users of this material, and any derivative material, will not, however, be able to legally make any money from anything containing these tracks without the artists' express permission.


All works submitted to the event have to be 100% original work of the participants and must contain no copyrighted material, either compositionally or in terms of sampled sounds. Submitted works must contain no arrangements of any material of a different author, and they can not lift motifs from anywhere else, except possibly from the participant's own works.

Submissions should contain as little audio quality loss as possible, WAV file format being heavily preferred.





The RPG Maker Network offers an extensive network of gamers and game developers, both hobbyists and professionals.

This event series is designed to help the composers of the game development community come together, challenge their know-how and showcase their creative efforts, and the rest of the community to come in contact with the composers.

This event series won't have a panel of judges, and there won't be hand-picked winners. Participants are encouraged to challenge themselves and work together towards solving the presented challenges.

During the course of the event series, the composers will be creating video game music in various forms and manners, and build themselves a diverse portfolio while doing so.

The rest of the community is encouraged to provide feedback and impressions on this material and to be in touch with the composers, possibly giving them ideas, or request something specific from within the given ruleset.

RMN will bring the participants visibility, and the yields of each challenge will be shared on RMN's social media during the course of the events.



Each composer has a completely optional step to sign up for post-processing their submitted material.

In the post-process, the composer will be in touch with the event organizer who will help them personally by offering them feedback on composition and mixing details and assist them by creating alternate, OGG file format versions of their tracks with a coded-in looping point, which will enable seamless looping of their songs in the RPG Maker VX and RPG Maker VX Ace engines.

Enabling looping for the songs requires them to be composed in looped structure, with recurring sections.






Summoner of Sounds as an event series will present a series of challenges that will test your abilities as a composer to express yourself in a wide variety of restricted environments. This will help in readying you to have the tools and confidence to perform well as a composer in a wide range of video game projects.

Each challenge will introduce a different scenario where you may need to compose music for different game genre, imply a different game setting through instrumentation, cultural, and musical genre references, or approach the the task by expressing yourself with a very specific perspective in mind.

Some of these scenarios may, and most likely will, require you to research and learn new ways of designing video game music, but they will also encourage you to test yourself, and express yourself in ways that you haven't before, and you will experience the joy of discovering new sides of your creative self.

Summoner of Sounds is an event series that will be running for several consecutive months. It may sound intimidating at first, but you can decide which challenges you want to participate in. However, the more challenges you undertake, the greater the rewards.

If you want to achieve the very best yields, then the series will also test your ability to perform under pressure as you'll need to be undertaking all the challenges.

It will test your ability to practice your trade under discipline, not only when you are motivated, and it will test your adaptability at the times when you'll have to find your creative freedom and inspiration while you still have to make your visions meet with a set of pre-existing rules.

Remember, you are not alone! This is a collaboration event. You may work alone if you wish, but you are allowed, and encouraged to collaborate with other members. Do you have the same Digital Audio Workstation as the other participant? You can work together! And if you feel like discussing how to approach any of the issued challenges with the other participants, then nothing stops you.

Building an extensive network of colleagues and other practitioners of your trade will also work greatly in your favor!

Will you be able to take on the challenge? Can you become the Summoner of Sounds, or even something more?

Introduce yourself at the Composer Introductions!





Video game composers wouldn't be composing music for video games if there were no video games, and video games with no music, or audio, would offer us only an experience with half of the things to sense, than what they do with audio, so let's agree that sound design is an integral part of game design.

Video game audio does not only offer us audio clues on game mechanics, but music activates large parts of our brain on fast rate and communicates us a great variety of information, which married with the visual material will bring the gaming experience to a whole new potency.

That being said, video game directors should not underestimate the importance of solid audio design, and advanced communication with the audio designers plays a major factor at what the end product will communicate to the consumer.

Music helps to communicate ideas which aren't visually present, it may also underline and empower the visual ideas present, or it may change the way we perceive the visual clues completely when the marriage of the visuals and the sound refers to a completely new impression than what either part of the combination would carry across alone.

Video game directors need to be able to communicate their vision to the sound designers and together with them, find a way to communicate this idea to the consumers.

While the Summoner of Sounds challenges will introduce composers to predetermined rulesets, the rest of the community may still engage in the process by discussing each challenge and the methods fit to completing the challenge.

Everyone can take the role of a critic. You don't need to be educated in music theory or terminology to be able to tell whether you find a musical piece fitting for a specific game genre, instance or setting. Communication matters, even if you don’t have the most optimal tools for it.

Express yourself with your own words and impressions. A composer will be glad to hear any of it. Tell the composer what their music communicates to you: feelings, impressions, visual images or atmosphere, for example. Does their track fit the description of the given ruleset?

Everyone may also post ideas of any themes they would like to hear. If the ruleset permits, a composer may very well decide to compose your idea.


While there isn't a panel of judges, or winners for the event, everyone is still encouraged to show appreciation for entries submitted to the event.

Simple feedback and commentary alone is welcome enough, but if you really like some track, give it a star to mark it as your favorite! You can give stars for multiple tracks if you wish. Stars play a part in event visibility and achievement mechanics.

To reward composers with stars post a reply to the event explaining which track, or tracks you want to give favorites for. Attaching a star image to the post helps the process.

Image code for the star:
[img][url]http://rpgmaker.net/media/images/events/sos/sosstar.png[/url][/img]







As of today, one of the biggest, if not the single biggest achievement of the composer community of rpgmaker.net still is the release of our RMN Music Pack!

It's a great quality pack of music that we can be proud of, and an achievement that we were able to put together with collaborative effort and all thanks to the network and community that RMN is.

Reception of the RMN Music Pack was overwhelmingly positive and it has been a good while since its release, so it is time we set our sights on the future, and to the release of its successor, the RMN Music Pack 2!

The journey for RMN Music Pack 2 begins with Summoner of Sounds.

Summoner of Sounds is designed to work as a count down and prepare us to bring RMN Music Pack 2 to a whole new level.

While Summoner of Sounds works also as the countdown for the RMN Music Pack 2, Summoner of Sounds will still be the greatest undertaking of the RMN composer community as of today and it will challenge everyone's creative abilities.

Summoner of Sounds will be creating composers a portfolio, but it will also be creating the community a whole lot of great video game music!

If you like what the composers of the community do and you want to show your support to them, you can be directly in contact with them, but if you want to show your support to the community as a whole and help us arrange events such as the RMN Music Pack, Summoner of Sounds and the RMN Music Pack 2, you can now become Guardian of The Groove and donate to the cause!

Every penny counts and the money will be used first and foremost to have artwork to go with the music and then to offer rewards for participating members. Any extra funds to the cause will be spent on future RMN Music events.

To get the Guardian of the Groove achievement you have to PM Happy after the transaction goes through, so that he knows to apply the benefits to your RMN account.

Thank you everyone! Let's do our best!

Illustrations: カラカモ @ twitter / 烏鴨 @ pixiv
Event concept design, visual design, direction and supervision: Happy @ RMN / Matias Heimlander @ tumblr

Details

  • 05/01/2015 06:57 PM
  • 07/01/2016 11:59 PM
  • 3
  • Happy

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for Summoner of Sounds.

Teams Members Entry
Team Happy!
My Composing Stick is Ready
Team Meat
Sum On Her Off Sow And
Team Failed Harmony
Team Where Am I?
Team The Team
Out of practice, so let's get back in practice!
"Insert Team Name Here"
I'll Do My Best...
Chaos Harmony
Symphony Of Enthrea
Super Merengue Bros.
The Spoony Bard
Music for humanity
Bring back the dinosaurs
How do I Music?
Team Drass
Ark of the Arts
Team Koi
To the Beat of a Different Drummer
Team Toni!
Dysergy
Jingle Jangle Jingle
Ylmir
Azhthar
Team Amazing Hotdog
Firah
Team Last Minute Production
Ogarth Munchies
The One-Ghost Gaggle
Team Giznads
Fungus Happy
Maat Wants His Cap Back
Misoundthropy
Rastapopoulos
Sweaty Angle~~~ <3
OneByOne
Toms Introduction Team!
Team Midi
Legion of One
FoxAudio Creations (AKA Team Oh God Who Let the Furry In Here)
Happy Rainbow Panda Bears
Team Curry
Acidbath
Jar Studios
Aersia Sound Team
Plastic, Meat, Smoke, Metal, and Sugar
Team Megollyen
Niyane's Team
Team Unhappy!
The Sword Of The Crest Heart And The Bird That Learnt That Hope Would End One Day
Team Neutral!
Team Probably Not Appearing In This Event
Scion Genesis
Without Creativity
Team Random
Team Cheese
JStewartMusic
No Excuses!
Team currently busy but what the hell
Team Yup
Uncanny Warriors
Team Jawns AKA Boring Team Name
A Team of One
The Singularity
The Duke's Jukebox
Sound Master
Entry Status Key
  • - Pending
  • - Validating
  • - Accepted
  • - Rejected

Posts

Happy
Devil's in the details
5367

Chapter X: Rock Off Against the Void


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

In the previous chapter you were called in aid by the network, your task being to complete the ninth symphony of the network's late composer. The symphony is now complete and the concert series arranged for it was a big success! Everything's well!

Until suddenly, the scenery before you starts to twist and distort. Everything around you starts to dismantle into particles of prismatic light. What is this!? Is this the notorious curse of the ninth symphony!?

Your sight now completely consists of strange light, glowing in different colors. Abstract shapes and forms construct and dismantle everywhere around you. It's dark, it's light and then you discern outlines of something akin to a humanoid, forming in front of you. A voice in your thoughts speaks to you "I am void and now you shall become a part of me."

You automatically reach out for the holster of your instrument, but your hand trembles and the instrument falls to the ground, sending out a couple of disjointed notes. You can't help, but to notice that as a result of this the outlines of the humanoid form falter slightly.

You pick up your instrument and begin summoning the Sounds.

"You have composed your ninth symphony already, Summoner! You have created enough! This is your final destination!" The voice inside your head yells.

You continue playing your instrument valiantly, harnessing your imagination to repel the powers of the void. The form in front of you starts lashing out into different shapes.

"No! You cannot defy me! Come forth my minions! Lady Excusas! Deadly cyborg: Procrastinator Mk. 3!"

The rock off against the void has begun!

Composer: You pull out your big guns. You begin summoning the sounds fitting for battle!

Developer: It's time to rock out! What are the best battle themes? What even makes a good battle theme?


Challenge:

  • Composers: Your challenge is to compose a piece of video game music for a battle scene. The choice of video game genre and music genre is free!

  • Developers: What battle themes do you enjoy the most? What are the elements in them that stand out for you?



Track restrictions:

  • Impression: Fitting for a battle of any sort.

  • Instrumentation: No restrictions

  • Game World Setting: No restrictions

  • Video Game Genre: No restrictions

  • Game Instances: A battle scene



Submission rules:


  • Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

  • You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

  • You may update your submissions with further versions.

  • You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

  • You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

  • The challenge will run for one month and end 17th of June 2016

Good luck everyone!


Past challenges:

Chapter I: Light of Heart:






Chapter I - Light of Heart



You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has brought you to another new Realm where the Sound has disappeared. You look around you and everything seems pretty colorful. You could even say some of the very ordinary things appear cute!

You wander around and some places really make you feel homely. You come across situations that could be called quirky! Even comical! You meet people of whom some seem to be strangely witty, some plain silly, and can someone really be that poignant!?

Something about this place puts a smirk on your face. It feels charming. You feel happy. You feel lighthearted.


Composer: You grab your instrument and begin to summon the Sounds...

Developer: You set out to search for situations that have the most immediate need for Sound. You see your ally beginning summon the Sounds, but wait, are those the Sounds of this Realm? That will need to be determined!



Challenge:

Composers:

Find a way to convey some of the impressions of the flavor and compose a piece, or pieces of light-hearted video game music for any instance of any video game genre.

Developers:

Find a way to convey what makes video game music light-hearted. Be sure to let your composer allies know if they are any good at their job, or if they could use help at something. You may have some ideas for them as well.


Track restrictions:

Impression:

Light-hearted

Instrumentation:

Free choice. Mind impression.

Game World Setting:

Free choice. Mind impression.

Video Game Genre:

Free choice.

Game Instances:

You may compose for any game instance of any video game genre.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 1st of June 2015

Good luck everyone!


Chapter II: Assault Action:


Artwork by Djahal @ deviantart.com



Chapter II: Assault Action!


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has brought you to another new Realm where the Sound has disappeared. You look around you and find yourself in middle of combat! Adrenaline rushes in your head as you barely dodge an attack of a huge robot.

This is about survival! But what are those weapons? And what is all this technology and gear? Who are those soldiers? Should you try piloting a mecha? Or perhaps some other machinery? Are you familiar with any combat tactics? You join in the assault and engage in action!


Composer: You also grab your instrument and begin to summon the Sounds...

Developer: You set out to search for situations that have the most immediate need for Sound. You see your ally beginning summon the Sounds, but wait, are those the Sounds of this Realm? That will need to be determined!



Challenge:

Composers: 

Find a way to convey the setting and the mood described in the flavor. Compose a piece of video game music that fits a modern, or a futuristic, sci-fi military setting. The game instance you will need to be composing for is an assault type action scenario.

Developers:  

Solve what sort of music can be used for assault type action scenarios in video games and how to pump out some adrenaline from the consumers! Be sure to let your composer allies know if they are any good at their job, or if they could use help at something. You may have some ideas for them as well.



Track restrictions:



Impression:

Alerting, confronting


Instrumentation:

Your track may contain synthesizers, percussive elements and contemporary band instruments.
Classical orchestral instruments are allowed in the mix, but should not make up the most of the song


Game World Setting:

Modern or futuristic sci-fi military setting.


Video Game Genre:

Action Game, CRPG, Strategy Game, Tactical J-RPG



Game Instances:

You have to compose for an assault type action scenario.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 1st of July 2015


Chapter III: The Dark Ages


Artwork by thomaswievegg @ Deviantart.com


Chapter III: The Dark Ages

You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has brought you to another new Realm where the Sound has disappeared. You look around and find yourself surrounded by vast green forests and fields accompanied by occassional glimmering riverbeds. Further in the distance you spot some small villages and castles, and large mountains in the horizon.

The beautiful scenery leaves you with a bittersweet feeling of melancholy for a moment until you're suddenly struck with a cold breeze that quiets the nature. Now an oppressive feeling weaves its way to you as you recall various old folklores about mysterious beasts and otherworldly creatures.

You wouldn't mind being in a cozy tavern or at a town fair right now.

Composer: You grab your instrument and begin to summon the Sounds...

Developer: You set out to search for situations that have the most immediate need for Sound. You see your ally beginning summon the Sounds, but wait, are those the Sounds of this Realm? That will need to be determined!



Challenge:

Composers:

Find a way to convey the setting described in the flavor. Compose a piece of video game music that fits a medieval setting. Dark fantasy and folklore elements may be present in the setting as well.

You may compose for any game instance or location in medieval setting.

Developers:

Solve what sort of music can be used for a medieval setting, and what it is specifically in the music that makes you connect it to a medieval scenery. Be sure to let your composer allies know if they are any good at their job, or if they could use help at something. You may have some ideas for them as well.


Track restrictions:

Impression:
No definitive restrictions. Medieval, melancholic, opressive, beautiful, mysterious, old, folky.

Instrumentation:
Classical orchestral instruments and old renaissance instruments like lute, fiddle, hurdygurdy, harp, dulcimer and the like.

Game World Setting:
Medieval setting with folklore fantasy elements.

Video Game Genre:
No restrictions

Game Instances:
You may compose for any game instance or location in medieval setting.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 1st of August 2015

Good luck everyone!


Chapter IV: World of Traditions



Artwork by Reluin @ Deviantart.com



Chapter IV: World of Traditions


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has brought you to another new Realm where the Sound has disappeared. You look around and find yourself surrounded by very diversely dressed individuals.

Something about the looks of each person tells you that they come from entirely separate parts of this Realm and that each of them represent a different, a very distinct ancient culture, and a tradition.

In fact, these are the representatives of the greatest royal courts of this Realm, and each one of them wishes you to accompany them and return the Sound to their court and their land.

The question is: which land will you visit?


Composer: You choose your destination and grab your instrument.

Developer: You set out to search for situations that have the most immediate need for Sound. You see your ally beginning summon the Sounds, but wait, are those the Sounds of this Realm? That will need to be determined!



Challenge:

Composers:

Compose a piece of video game music that has world music influences.

You may compose for any game instance or location in the setting.

Developers:

Solve which settings and situations could greatly benefit from world music influence and suggest these to the composers. Be sure to let your composer allies know if they are any good at their job, or if they could use help at something. You may have some ideas for them as well.


Track restrictions:

Impression: No definitive restrictions. The song should be influenced by some traditional music ornamentation styles, or instrumentation.

Instrumentation: Free instrumentation, but the track should contain at least some ethnic instruments.

Game World Setting: No restrictions

Video Game Genre: No restrictions

Game Instances: You may compose for any game instance or location in the setting.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 15th of September 2015

Good luck everyone!


Chapter V: Modern Moods

Artwork by yuumei @ Deviantart.com





Chapter V: Modern Moods


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has brought you to another new Realm where the Sound has disappeared. You look around and find yourself seated in a flying aircraft.

You gaze out of the window by your side and see a huge metropolis sprawling beneath you. You spot some large and shabby industrial zones in the city, as well as tall and shiny scyscrapers and corporate-buildings, and some cozy neighborhoods and downtown shopping boulevards, too.

You also notice that even if the city view dominates the landscape, its borders can be seen a bit further ahead with fields, forests and a sea stretching far and broad behind it.

Suddenly an emergency strikes your aircraft and you are forced to evacuate. As you jump off the vehicle you're glad that you had the time to find a parachute, as well as your instrument; because there's no knowing of what sort of locale and situation you'll find yourself landing in!


Composer: As you have made your landing and taken a breather you pull out your instrument and begin summoning the Sounds for the situation, location, or for the characters present.

Developer: As you have made your landing you start wondering about how a modern situation, location, or characters could sound like. What could be included in these categories to begin with, anyway?


Challenge:

Composers:

Compose a piece of video game music that fits a modern world setting. Scifi and fantasy elements may be present in the setting. Usage of and references to modern musical genres and styles is recommended.

Developers:

Solve which modern musical styles should be used to refer to specific modern locations and situations, and think of scenarios that could work with more unconventional approaches as well.



Track restrictions:

Impression: Modern. e.g. Urban, industrial. Possibly usage of musical styles from 1960s to present day.

Instrumentation: Contemporary band instruments should make up most of the song: guitars, basses, drum kits, pianos, electrical organs, synths, horn sections, solo strings, solo winds, etc.

Game World Setting: A modern setting with or without scifi and fantasy elements.

Video Game Genre: No restrictions

Game Instances:

You may compose for any game instance or location in the setting.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 15th of November 2015

Good luck everyone!


Chapter VI: A Game Within A Game

Artwork by wylielise @ Deviantart.com






Chapter VI: A Game Within A Game


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Previously your journey had brought you to a modern day Realm, but as you now feel that you've already seen enough of it you decide to boot up a video game. As you turn the power on something strange happens and you find yourself being sucked inside! As you regain your consciousness and look around you, you find yourself in a game within a game! And the Sound is missing!


Composer: What sort of game is this? What Sounds does it require?

Developer: What sort of game could this be? What could the different games within games sound like?


Challenge:

Composers:

Compose a piece of video game music that fits a video game instance that presents a game within the game.

Developers:

Come up with different instances in video games that could count towards being games within games and could warrant for music that specifically underlines that. Think how these instances should be approached musically to underline the fact that they are games within games!


Track restrictions:

Impression: The theme should emphasize the fact that it is specifically for a separate game instance in the video game. E.g. a board game, a card game, or something of the like.

Instrumentation: No restrictions

Game World Setting: No restrictions

Video Game Genre: No restrictions

Game Instances:

You have to compose for a game instance that is specifically a game within the game, and has separate set of gameplay mechanics apart from rest of the game. The song should underline the fact that this is such a scenario. E.g. some sort of minigame, a card game, a board game, a dice game, betting, racing, or some other game!



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 15th of December 2015

Good luck everyone!


Chapter VII: An Open World


Artwork by Square Enix





Chapter VII: An Open World


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

Your journey has introduced you to a wondrous luxury known as the video games! Rest of your journey can still wait for a little bit longer, can't it? You have discovered a whole new type of video game experience: the Open World video games! But as you enjoy the exploration, immersion and the adventures on these vast landscapes, you can't help but to feel that you could retouch their soundscape a bit and create an entire new ambiance of your own!

Composer: You pull out your instrument and begin summoning the Sounds in a form that fits well for an Open World video game setting.

Developer: You start pondering on how music of Open World video games might differ from the music of some other video game genres.


Challenge:

Composers: Compose a piece of video game music that fits an Open World video game, such as an MMORPG, sandbox, adventure or any other Open World type game. Remember to give room for ambiance! The song should be suitable for exploration of an open world location.

Developers:

Figure out potential differences between video game music choices for Open World video games, and some other genres such as platformers or JRPGs for example. What sort of music works best for an Open World setting?



Track restrictions:

Impression: The song should fit to be a background track of any location where exploration in an Open World video game occurs.

Instrumentation: No restrictions

Game World Setting: No restrictions

Video Game Genre: Open World, Sandbox, MMORPG, Adventure, Western RPG, etc.

Game Instances: Exploration on an open world location.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 15th of February 2016

Good luck everyone!


Chapter VIII: Seizing The Feeling

Artwork by Kuvshinov-Ilya @ Deviantart.com




Chapter VIII: Seizing the Feeling


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

You have refreshed your focus in an environment rich with video games and you are now ready to continue your journey and to focus in the very essentials in your work. This comes handy because a mysterious stranger has approached the Regal Musicians Network with a special request concerning her companion who is lacking feelings of any sort. The stranger is asking your help bringing back her companion’s emotions.


Composer: You choose a specific emotion you wish to give to the mysterious stranger’s companion. What feeling will you choose? You pull out your instrument and begin summoning the Sounds.

Developer: Come up with a list of different emotions and the ways they could be musically expressed! Analyzing existing works will help your process!


Challenge:

Composers: Pick a specific emotion eg. Love, hatred, relief, anxiety, fear, etc. and a compose a theme for this very specific feeling.

Developers:

Come up with a list of different emotions that a video game narrative could evoke. Try to come up with ways to describe how each specific emotion could be expressed musically.



Track restrictions:

Impression: Bound to convey the desired feeling of the theme.

Instrumentation: No restrictions

Game World Setting: No restrictions

Video Game Genre: No restrictions

Game Instances: No restrictions, but the theme should specifically emphasize the chosen emotion.



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 1st of April 2016

Good luck everyone!


Chapter IX: The Ninth Symphony

Artwork by sandara @ Deviantart.com




Chapter IX: The Ninth Symphony


You are a journeyman, a Disciple of Sound and you have been tasked to solve a series of mysterious disappearances of Sound in the Realms of Melodies by the Regal Musicians Network.

The Regal Musicians Network is in a pinch. The most renowned composer of the network had recently completed her ninth symphony and arranged a series of concerts where the most famous orchestras would perform this magnificent piece of art.

However, the composer passed away in a tragic fire, along with most of the notations of the ninth symphony. The orchestras got some material to practice with, but not enough to warrant for a full performance! You, the aspiring star have been called in aid. This is your time to shine! You have one month. Will you be able to make the orchestras flourish and the concert series to be a great success?


Composer: You have to compose for a symphonic orchestra. In your repertoire of instruments you have strings, winds, brass, percussion, choir, organ, piano and other orchestral instruments. Can you make effective use of them?

Developer: How does orchestral music differ from other music? What strengths does it carry? What are the limitations? What goals are harder to approach with orchestral music?

Challenge:

Composers: Your challenge is to compose a piece of video game music using orchestral instruments only. The melody should be expressed with variety of instruments, or sections. Your audience will appreciate creative ornamentation.

Developers:

Come up with an argument speaking in behalf of orchestral music, or against it. Find examples of effective use of orchestra, or the lack of thereof.



Track restrictions:

Impression: Orchestral!

Instrumentation: Orchestral!

Game World Setting: No restrictions

Video Game Genre: No restrictions

Game Instances: No restrictions



Submission rules:

You agree that your submitted tracks will be shared under 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Render a track with as little audio quality loss as possible.

You may submit as many pieces as you wish, but rememeber that quality is what matters.

You may update your submissions with further versions.

You may contact event organizer and sign up for post processing of your track.

You may collaborate and interact with all the rest of the community to any end you wish. You are encouraged to share tips, viewpoints, references and material for inspiration.

The challenge will run for one month and end 1st of May 2016

Good luck everyone!

Yay! That sounds like a nice challenge to start! ~
Wallolalloolalloooo!! It's a shame that my keyboard broke ;_; but I can still kinda record it on my flute to use it as a base, I'm terrible when it comes to composing straightly on the computer. ~
Happy
Devil's in the details
5367
Hey guys! It's good to have the show finally up and running! I'm really excited about the coming challenges and all the music that will be created!

Don't forget to put the word out! Let's make this an awesome series of events and a real fanfare of videogame music!
I've always wanted to learn how to digitally compose music. Are there any free to use programs you could suggest for someone who is not experienced in music making?
I have no experience with composing or really time to screw with it in general, but I can definitely donate for the cause of more original creations. Always a good thing to see custom resources coming out of the RM community.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Let's make some happy!

Cecil, if you're just starting out there's an open-source program for composing music called LMMS. https://lmms.io/
LOOK AT ME
I'M GOING TO HAVE 3300 MS IN A FEW HOURS
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I'm horrible at music, but I'll be cheering everyone else on in this! ^_^ Go and make awesome songs! :DDDD
charblar
"wait you made this a career?"
3574
This sounds pretty fun I'll try my hand at it if I have time but I'll be glad to look over music!
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
Hmm... definitely a challenge as many of my soundfonts (Touhou, etc) are essentially off limit,s but I should be able to work with what I have. I'll also check out LMMS, but one of my biggest problems is getting the songs from my head onto the score and make certain i hit the right notes, but I'll try. *sings a tune into his mic and records it * Now... start my own team or join an existing?
We're going to make Sound Summoner seem like such a good idea it'll become the next micro-tuned, marginally-altered Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced job!
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
author=unity
I'm horrible at music, but I'll be cheering everyone else on in this! ^_^ Go and make awesome songs! :DDDD


This, I can't wait to see what some of the talented people here produce, and as always I can criticise anything if you want me to do so xD.
author=Cecil_Beoulve
I've always wanted to learn how to digitally compose music. Are there any free to use programs you could suggest for someone who is not experienced in music making?
author=Trihan
Cecil, if you're just starting out there's an open-source program for composing music called LMMS. https://lmms.io/
Yeah, of all the freeware music programs I tried out back during the MOG Music event, LMMS seemed to me the most complete music authoring tool, though the interface might seem intimidating to a beginner.
(e: it's also lacking a lot of MIDI functionality in its current version, which can be problematic depending on what it is you want to do. People mentioned quite a bit of software during the MOG Music Event, so be sure to at least check the "Updates/Links" section)

All works submitted to the event have to be 100% original work of the participants and must contain no copyrighted material, either compositionally or in terms of sampled sounds
Oh snap, y'all! Better check the sources on those freebie SoundFonts! Hahaha oh god...
GeneralUser SoundFont's ReadMe says its samples are clean and okay for whatever use, so that should at least usable. The acoustic/orchestral sounds on it are pretty good by freebie SF standards.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Whoa whoa whoa this is intense. This is a beautiful page. Congrats to all involved who organized it.

As for the rules of the first event, what does "mind impression" mean? Does it mean to keep in mind the impression that your music makes so that it fits with the style?

I'm going to make tracks so hard for this.
Happy
Devil's in the details
5367
author=CashmereCat
As for the rules of the first event, what does "mind impression" mean? Does it mean to keep in mind the impression that your music makes so that it fits with the style?

This is indeed what it means!

You can compose for any game instance, though, which in terms of mood and structure means you could compose a battle theme for J-RPG or a theme for a lamenting cutscene, or action theme for a platformer level to name a few, for example, but the approach needs to be light-hearted.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Edit: Never mind, CashmereCat helped me. First entry submitted!
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

I noticed some achievements for providing feedback. How will you keep track of that? Does all feedback have to be on this event page, or can it take place in the forums, or in personal PMs. Sounds a bit complex to me.
Happy
Devil's in the details
5367
author=kory_toombs
I noticed some achievements for providing feedback. How will you keep track of that? Does all feedback have to be on this event page, or can it take place in the forums, or in personal PMs. Sounds a bit complex to me.

Naturally only the feedback posted in this event thread can be tracked.

I wish there was some more advanced mechanics to tracking the process, but currently this is what we have to do with. I'd like to try and encourage the community coming together and collaborating, in any case.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359