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Another tidbit I'd add: If you pitch a perfectly reasonable rate, and they freak out about it, move on. Don't waste your time negotiating, at least not that much. If a game developer is not willing to pay a reasonable price for music, then they're not willing to get good music, which usually means they're not likely to care about conducting good business, hiring good artists or designers, or -- simply put -- releasing a good game. Also, if it's some first-time indie dev, and they're short on cash, remember that not all payment has to be monetary or up-front. You could request to retain full distribution rights to the soundtrack and have them put an obvious link on the game's main website to the soundtrack on Bandcamp (kind of a risk, but less so if you're confident in your music's quality). You could ask for services from their developers to help code and design your website. You could even work out some sort of word-of-mouth networking endorsement, and have the developer spread the word to other game developers about your services and their positive experience working with you. There are a lot of good things you could ask for besides money. Like Nabeel said, always get something out of it. It doesn't always have to be just money, but it should always further your goals.

The biggest mistake a dev can make is concealing their budget from the person they're entrusting with their audio vision. Unfortunately, a lot of devs "shop around." Treat yourself with some respect but be objective and sincere about what price will yield your best results. You can't deliver a killer soundtrack if you're on your third week of revisions for a single minute loop and you're now realizing that you're getting paid about 3 bucks an hour to write it. Think about your skill level, be honest in your evaluation of how well produced/professionally produced your music is (as honest as possible) and come up with an optimistic fee, be open to negotiation and maintain a firm minimum. If you have no credits, then money is probably not your primary objective for the work, that's important to evaluate as well. I definitely charged low when I was starting out, never charged as low as $100/min, but low. I had my minimums and sometimes that meant it didn't work out. Sometimes that meant the dude who was charging $50/min got the job, but they almost always SOUND like it too. I knew a guy who was trapped in $50/min, couldn't seem to work his way out, kept getting gigs by low-balling and then he grew a customer base of cheap devs looking for the bottom line. He was not happy with the work he did and he had to do a high volume to maintain a steady income, so he burnt up all his creative juices just trying to churn out 40-60 minutes a month just to pay the bills. Most importantly: NEVER, EVER POST YOUR RATES ANYWHERE--JUST DON'T DO IT. All rate discussions should be kept private in undisclosed email conversations with your client. The client will want you to disclose a rate immediately, but you cannot honestly estimate a rate if you do not know what kind of music you'll be writing, what the scope or duration of the project is, whether your client is expecting any live musicians, what KIND of production they're expecting from you, etc., etc., etc. It's not about holding something back from the dev, it's about being honest about what rate will yield your best results.

Hey, Rhino. Put me down for the 'Lost Woods,' if not taken. I'll provide a title soon. I have a voice-over idea for 'Ganon's Message,' too, if you're interested. PM me if you are. It may take some time for me to complete. You have a deadline? EDIT: Title suggestion: Agahnim's Grand Design or Of Pendants and Crystals

Just noting that I've only heard the "v2" version. Arrangement-wise, the RR4 source was adapted nicely for more of a disco approach, and the usage was straightforward enough through the vocals and synth lines where I didn't need to timestamp. The OutRun reference felt a little tacked on, but was integrated reasonably well enough, and pushed the source usage to a point where I could quit stopwatching. I thought the vocal mixing wasn't great. Not sure Jesse's vocals/tone are the right fit here; giving it an even more arier/ethereal sound to mask some of the pitch issues would have been best. That said, I also don't want to put him in a corner based on his tremendous FF6 crooning. In this mix, his vocals aren't entirely dry, and I hear the effects on them, but I felt like they were relatively too dry & upfront and didn't blend into the instrumental enough. They could be produced/processed in a way that sits better in the music. Right now, when there are (minor) pitch issues, it's way too exposed and obvious; it's nothing where you're like "Oh my God, oof", but there's some correction/smoothing out needed. The choruses sound the best in terms of smooth delivery from Jesse, so now it's just a matter of having those vocal sitting correctly in the overall soundscape. I also agreed strongly with Gario that the vocoded vocals should have been more understandable. Perhaps it's an "I know it when I hear it" subjective criticism, but I didn't think they had enough of an aesthetic where it was unimportant that they be intelligible. On a more important note, the mechanical string articulations first used from 1:23-1:37 & 3:46-4:05 strained credibility. And I know it's a disco track, but didn't think they sounded good in spite of that stylistic choice because the strings sounded too dry and weren't masked by anything else. Anyway, I've gone through the litany of issues I had with it. I'm not mega-enthusiastic about a YES because of the production, but we don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. I've given this 9 or 10 listens. What you have here is a reasonably good -- but not great -- execution of a very creative arrangement concept. While I wish the track had more clarity/sharpness and better vocal mixing, the arrangement carries it with good enough production execution. Ideally, I'd love for Jorrith to take another pass at the production if this version passed. YES (borderline)

I will post a few tracks. I claim Secret Found: Select Screen:

First the music. So I didn't listen to the Undertale track or the Wario track as I don't know the source. I think the two Bowser's Castle themes work very well to me. They balance chill and menacing very well, and the trance-like vibe to them is awesome. I honestly can't really think of anything bad to say about them. Help Me didn't go over as well for me, but I think that's more personal taste than anything about your talent. Which leads me to your channel... these tracks paled next to the two Horizon tracks you have posted. I haven't gone into much of what you had up, but those two tracks were amazing. Seriously. the remixes are good, but I feel like those two songs are so much more engaging and show your talent much better. Second, as someone who suffers from severe depression I can relate to the creative frustration that comes up. I write my music as catharsis usually, and those feelings worm their way into every facet of the music that I make. When I hear what I've made I can relate to the feelings instantly, so when I have an inability to make people notice and react the same way it feels like I'm worthless since the music is an extension of self. I can't speak for everyone, but for me the writing/recording process is a very personal, often very painful process and when the results go nowhere, it's hard to keep doing it. You've got talent, you've got ability. I understand the feeling of futility, of desperation better than i ever wanted to. Keep making music, I subbed your youtube and I'd love to hear more originals at some point. If you need someone to talk to, someone to bounce ideas off, I can't promise I can give great advice, but I know what it's like to feel that way. Keep writing

Wow. This thread has not been posted in for a while lol Anyways, 3.35 just dropped earlier this week and with it the Deep Dungeon was added, known as Palace of the Dead. It's a randomized series of floors with its own leveling progression and there's 50 floors. But the main reason I'm bumping this is to mention that the Yokai Watch event is starting this coming Tuesday. Super excited for that one.

here's my two more tracks: & ...I'm done taking tracks btw. lol.

If there was one more Castlevania game...the safe bet for me would be another game like Order of Ecclesia but Bloodstained could be that craving. I would love to see a 3D Castlevania done right, that is at its most faithful. I enjoyed Lament of Innocence when it came out but its level design was just bad, may as well have been procedurally generated. I tried Curse of Darkness about a year ago and I thought it was alright but the level design was killing it for me again, didn't even finish it. I always stick up for Lords of Shadow 1 as being a really good game with great music, it just isn't Castlevania...there's definitely elements that evoke the series and I really appreciate those though. Lords of Shadow 2 was a real missed opportunity, but damnit the soundtrack is awesome. The 3D Castlevania I want is pretty much Symphony of the Night, just done in 3D properly. I remember when the first Devil May Cry came out I would think to myself that if it wasn't split into missions then you have something of a decent castle location here with a metroidvania feel. It always baffled me why Konami could never at least do this. Now with games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I feel I want something similar in style but only taking influence - it needs to be Castlevania through and through. The story for me isn't a big deal as long as it serves the game well and gives good characters. I imagine entering a castle at night, it's very dark and it's thundering outside, some of the windows are open and the curtains are blowing in the wind, lightning is filling the room with light every now and then. There is no music, no enemies...you make some progress and get a feel for the game. Then something happens, maybe your first boss encounter or something and suddenly it brightens up, maybe all the candles suddenly light up and become active, the music kicks in with this glorious style of the old games, then suddenly you're able to explore so much more and you know this is the Castlevania you know done right. You start seeing classic enemies all gloriously modelled with their traditional attacks, maybe they have new AI patterns due to the game being 3D. Weak enemies try to mob you, large enemies vary their attack patterns. I mean...it is what it is isn't it lol, explaining the series as we know it. And if it's the type of game to have a Hard Mode Level 1 cap, I'm all for that! I particularly liked OoE's enemy mixups for that, getting through the forest at the start of the game was really fun to figure out.

Awesome job! i like the bubble bobble arrangement too

- took out the lone string, made it into an atmospheric(the atmosphere stuff represents the wind) solo piano Piece. *had a mental picture like this when I was tinkering with it(Link riding Epona of course):

Finished Product: -took out the oboe -Rebalanced the mix

JoY confirmed. Just a reminder: we're about to master the tracks. Any final updates to your tracks should be sent asap. Get ready to get hype.

I prefer my music at 24fps, anyway. It's more "cinematic" that way *adjusts hipster glasses*