THE RPG MUSIC CHALLENGE - PHASE 1 RESULTS!

woww... I have to say there are some talented musicians in this contest :O
somewhere along listening to them I started thinking I was listening to an actual game OST and forgot this was for a contest lol

hmmm i'm gna take some time to listen to them a few times before making a decision :p

also, just a suggestion with regards to entry identities - maybe for an ultimately fairer contest, it would be wiser to reveal the winner of the whole contest first before we reveal who did what track??

I know it's a long shot but it might prevent last minute motivation loss if one entrant happens to be dominating the competition :p

Alright, after listening to all of them, I was fairly impressed by the lack of terrible shit. I was especially worried after listening to song #1 (sorry whoever wrote it). I thought there would be a couple stand out songs, and most that just got a ten second listen and turned off. However, this was (wonderfully) not the case!

I will review my top six favorites, then vote for the winner as I feel a few of the songs deserve a mention, even though they didn't win it for me.

Song 11:
This song made it to my final four, but in the end didn't sound lava-ish. It definitely had the temple feel going on, but not a hot one. The song was well composed, however and would work in a game, save one nit pick. The drums and strings sounded like they were in a concert hall (which is fine, it's a temple) but the flute sounded like it was in another room down the hall. Either way, great composing and a good listen.

Song 13:
This was last place in my final four. It caught the lava theme (which surprisingly VERY FEW of the entries did), but was marred by the distortion. The piano sounded like it was actually on fire (maybe that was the point?), and it took away from the song a bit.

Song 24:
HOT HOT HOT. This song was VERY well done, and was probably the best at conveying heat. It struck me as being a little more on the desert side than it did a temple, but even still, the Norfair-like influence caught and kept my attention, gaining entry into my final two spots.

Song 26:
*click play* I am in a temple in Golden Sun right now! This song felt a lot like a temple to me, but not quite as much a lava temple. That said though, the Golden Sun like sound definitely fit the mood and put it in my final two.

Those songs were my final four, and by the narrowest of margins, song 24 is my winner. It was really a toss up between 24 and 26, but 24 barely edges out 26 because of the heat the song generates (without visual aid).

Others:

Song 27:
If this competition did not have a theme attached, my list would change by a lot! My favorite song as far as simply listening to goes is 27. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for chiptunes, maybe it's because when a chiptune is done well it's better than TONS of music made with real instruments. This was a blast to listen to, but unfortunately it just didn't hit me with a lava wave.

Song 18:
Lavos is being summoned in the Tyrano Lair by Simon Belmont! This song was awesome to listen to. Great chord progression (even if it sounds a touch borrowed), good structure, and just plain cool. So cool in fact, that it was not lava-esque at all! This would have made my number two spot if there were no lava theme attached.

So my final tallies follow, and good job to a number of entrants!

Song placement for the lava competition:
24
26
11
13

Overall song placement with no theme:
27
18
24

Good work folks!

Entry 18 has the artist name in the song description :O

Edit: 16 as well! :O

Oh man, this was harder than I thought it would be.

My vote: Entry 26

I wanted to vote for Entry 5, but ultimately the instruments of Entry 26 fit the theme better.

Entry 1 is not a minute long, so I think it's disqualified? Entry 16 is a few seconds short of 1 minute, too.

19 is heavily "inspired" by a Zelda song. It's almost too obvious.

haha Yeah, Entry 27 is pretty rad. I have a feeling who might have made that one...oh wait, his name isn't on the list :o I'll be wanting to know who made that one.

Where's Dudesoft's entry? xD

*Does it really matter if we know who made the song? You're not supposed to be downloading them anyways. Just click play and listen.

My vote: Entry 9

Next round I will be sad, since there is zero possibility of a chip tune.

To me:
Lava = High-strung or stifling feeling.
Temple = Oppressive or solemn feeling.

My Vote: Entry 13.
It's actually the most melodic, memorable and well-written song. Composer experience exudes from it. Stifling and solemn feelings are perfectly delivered. I have a hunch about who made it :)

Runner-up: Entry 27. A great ancient-temple-built-inside-volcano dungeon song for a NES-styled platformer. The instruments and partitions fit very well together and I can hear the composer's experience. It gets the high-strung, oppressive and solemn feelings fine but I would have liked more bass.

Special mention to Entry 17 for making my ears bleed. The main instrument's high pitched notes are really annoying.

Special mention to Entry 23 for being what I would have least expected from a Lava Temple-themed song, while still being a pretty good track.