MindWanderer

You can always try to get the FL Studio Remix Gauntlet run again. Those downloads came with the FLP's and could be very educational. I'm guessing, anyway, since I'm not an FL user (which sometimes makes me feel very left out).

Absolutely! As long as it doesn't succumb to medleyitis, which is a failure in execution more than in principle.

For a romanticized but less action-y ninja game, I loved the Tenchu series. I haven't seen a series where acrobatic stealth was done better. Moving in 3D is a whole other feel from Metal Gear games. I think of DmC as "combo-based action." God of War, Bayonetta, and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (haven't played any other 3D Castlevania games) would be other games in that sub-genre. Batman: Arkham is kind of borderline, the combo system is almost on rails unless you go for really high variety bonuses. I haven't played the new Ninja Gaiden games (one is on my shelf), but I understand those are similar; Metal Gear Rising seemed similar as well from the demo I played. Similar 2-D games I've played are Guacamelee and Shank. I've only played the older Dynasty Warriors games (2 and 3), but they were moving in this sort of direction. Not sure where those are at now.

Many times when I've done this before, participants have intentionally stuck to both aspects of the theme. That's up to them. I'm not going to specify a genre full stop. Some styles of music just don't appeal to people, and if I did that I expect I'd get a lot of dropouts. If this compo was primarily designed to force participants to step outside their comfort zones, then sure. But RWS barely requires a theme at all; the only real reason it does is so that people can't just pick up a mix they happen to have been working on already and just keep at it; they have to start something new. The main focus is just to have an excuse to get tips from someone more experienced than oneself. That said, "robots" is pretty broad when Mega Man is in the mix. I debated explicitly excluding Mega Man and its spinoffs, which immediately cuts out about half the robot games I can think of off the top of my head. I imagine most people on these forums have at least considered one Mega Man remix at some point, and may have one in production already. But that seemed pretty artificial. For the sake of variety, does everyone want to agree to avoid Mega Man?

Next weekend (April 3-5) marks the return of RoboGames, an international robot competition featuring a range of contests from LEGO soccer to bartending. The highlight, though, is the ComBots, featuring 220-lb juggernauts trying to tear each other to pieces. So while I'm off watching sparks, flames, and chunks of metal flying off titanium killing machines, you get to make music about it. Choose from one of the following: Use one or more sources from games about robots, OR Use any source and make something industrial or mechanical sounding, assuming you've even read this far and haven't already decided on Mega Man. Pairings thus far: Jonathan! with timaeus222 Anorax with Esperado Necrox with Cyril the Wolf YoshiBlade with Jorito Max Sparling still awaiting another Star signup.

For me, it was before "remixing" was even a thing. The Black Chocobo theme from FFIV and stages A and B from Super Castlevania IV were remixes and really got my attention, back in the early 90's. Later in the 90's, when I got internet, I discovered the Castlevania Dungeon, with the Akumajo Dracula Battle and Castlevania New Classic albums. I also downloaded a bunch of remix MIDIs from RPG Fan (or was it RPGamer?). As for the OST's I first thought of that made me want to learn to remix so I could do them, it's always been, for some strange reason, A Boy And His Blob and Skate or Die. I'll tackle those when I know I can do them justice.

If you have a preference, go ahead and state it. I'll make semirandom assignments if there are enrollees with no stated preferences.

It's not really a "lock-in," but the teams will be posted and the themes announced on Tuesday. It's on the ThaSauce page and in my sig.

Season 3, Episode 3: Super Fighting Robots! Next weekend (April 3-5) marks the return of RoboGames, an international robot competition featuring a range of contests from LEGO soccer to bartending. The highlight, though, is the ComBots, featuring 220-lb juggernauts trying to tear each other to pieces. So while I'm off watching sparks, flames, and chunks of metal flying off titanium killing machines, you get to make music about it. Choose from one of the following: Use one or more sources from games about robots, OR Use any source and make something industrial or mechanical sounding, assuming you've even read this far and haven't already decided on Mega Man. About ReMixing With the Stars ReMixing With the Stars is intended to give beginning remixers some support, encouragement, and mentoring in their quest to become great, and as a sidenote, to become posted remixers. Beginners are mentored by experienced remixers to push their abilities to new heights and submit collaborative works according to the theme of the month. Who's a "Star" and who's a "Novice?" There are no fixed rules on this. Originally, RWS treated anyone with an OCR mixpost as a "Star" and anyone else as a "Novice." Later it evolved so that anyone could elect to be a Star, but posted remixers couldn't be Novices. The reason was because a lot of really good remixers expressed a lack of confidence in their abilities and didn't feel they were good enough to mentor someone else, but RWS gets a lot more Novice than Star signups. Now anyone can sign up as either, but please be honest with yourself. If you have several direct posts to OCR, you're probably in a better position to give help than receive it. If you have a giant bowl of Wooden Spoons from PRC and mostly only win by default, the reverse is probably true. But if you feel that you're pretty good and your OCR submissions just get NO'ed due to minor nitpicks, go ahead and sign up as a Star if you want. If you have been posted but each submission takes you months and multiple resubmits, feel free to sign up as a Novice. Or not, it's your choice. If you're on the fence, bear in mind that being a Star is a much smaller time commitment. One caveat: This should not be your first attempt at creating music in a DAW. The Stars' job is to provide mixing, production, and arrangement advice. It's not to teach you how to choose or install a DAW, load VST's, work with a MIDI piano roll, arm your microphone, etc. If that's where you are right now, try PRC or MnP as a first compo. Rules Enrollment/Pairings: Stars: Sign up by posting in this thread that you're available. Mention any time restrictions or or other limitations you might have, or if you have any particular strengths you'd like to offer (playing a live instrument is a great one). Novices: If one or more Stars have signed up, just post to claim one! First come, first served. Get in touch with your Star as soon as you claim them, and get started on your mix. I encourage Novices to rotate between multiple Stars to get different learning experiences and perspectives, but if the same people keep signing up week after week, repeat pairings are fine. If there aren't any unclaimed Stars, feel free to post to say that you'd like one. Pairings for everyone who signed up within the official "enrollment period" will be posted at that time. However, if anyone wants to sign up after that, or can't find a partner until after that, they're welcome to join in. [*]Mixes: The Novice must be the primary remixer. Stars can contribute by giving advice, performing with a live instrument or vocals, and with production, including sample quality, balance, and minor arrangement adjustments to fix timing or dissonance issues. If you don't use the same DAW, you can exchange MIDIs or rendered stems. The Star may also contribute a short solo segment arranged entirely by them. No one other than the Novice and Star may help in any substantial way. You can use multiple sources in your remix, but at least 51% of the remix must be based on one or more qualifying sources. For example, if you use 3 sources, and only one fits the theme, but it's present in more than half the mix, then it's fine. [*]Submissions: All entries must be submitted to ThaSauce by the deadline. Check the ThaSauce page for the exact amount of remaining time (the image in my sig should also be correct). Give credit to your partner in the submission description, and provide link(s) to the source(s) you used. File sizes cannot exceed 20MB. If you have trouble uploading the file or getting a ThaSauce account working, post a link to your mix in this thread and I'll get it on there. If this is your first ThaSauce compo entry, don't do it at the last minute! [*]Voting: Use the ThaSauce page to vote. Entrants (Novices or Stars) may not vote for themselves, but your mix gets a bonus first-place vote if you vote. Support your partner by voting! The deadline is on the ThaSauce page (or in my sig, once voting has started). Previous Episodes Season 1 Compilation Season 2 Compilation [thread=40611]Pilot Episode: "Beginnings"[/thread] [thread=41556]Season 1, Episode 1: "Spooky!"[/thread] [thread=41864]Season 1, Episode 2: "Origins of Home Gaming"[/thread] [thread=42143]Season 1, Episode 3: Special "You Can Never Have Too Much Mega Man" edition[/thread] [thread=42485]Season 1, Episode 4: "Yesteryear"[/thread] [thread=42797]Season 1, Episode 5: "Ultra-Modern"[/thread] [thread=43124]Season 1 Finale: "Touched by a Star"[/thread] [thread=43437]Season 2, Episode 1: "Country Road"[/thread] [thread=43702]Season 2, Episode 2: "Tropical Vacation!"[/thread] [thread=45320]Season 2, Episode 3: Special "Wish on This!" edition[/thread] [thread=45909]Season 2, Episode 4: "The Need for Speed!"[/thread] [thread=46454]Season 2, Episode 5: "Pacifism"[/thread] [thread=46676]Season 2 Finale: "Rising Stars"[/thread]

Results are in! Tower of Giants! by Yoshiblade with Gario: 14 + 3 = 17 points A Castle Appeared Before Me by Necrox with timaeus222: 10 + 6 = 16 points Bleeping Hell by Jonathan! with Cyril the Wolf: 11 + 3 = 14 points A road towards destiny by supercoolmike with Esperado: 7 + 0 = 7 points Good work by everyone, lots of different approaches here. Per everyone's suggestions, I'll be opening up the next round for signups first, followed by the theme announcement next week.

Not really. D&D was based on Chainmail, which was a tactical wargame (like Warhammer). D&D was an effort to take that setting, make it so that you control a single character, and tell their story. That's why it was a "role-playing game," you literally played the role of the character. The term "role-playing game" wasn't unique to D&D at that time, either; it's used in drama and therapy, too.That's why you had not just three "physical" attributes, but three "mental" ones (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma), plus alignment (just Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic at the time--although that was perhaps based on Chainmail factions, I don't know for sure). Heck, Charisma is totally pointless unless you're interested in character role-playing. And the settings (Greyhawk and... I forget the other one) were also definitely intended as story settings. Although kicking down doors in a dungeon was definitely a big part of it. The stories were sort of like Diablo: you had a town base and you'd explore the dungeon nearby, because bad guys always based their operations in the dungeons. Then CRPG's started coming out. Early ones, like Akalabeth, were explicitly modeled on D&D. They had visible stats which improved over time, and you controlled a party of adventurers working together. Early CRPG's didn't have much of a story, but there was always one in there somewhere. As for my opinion... it's really a pretty silly term to begin with. You don't "play a role" in Gateway To The Savage Frontier any more than you in Pac-Man. Your characters are faceless, their significant actions are scripted, and their opinions are irrelevant. By that definition, Mass Effect is more of an RPG, despite the fact that the gameplay is that of a 3rd-person shooter. The way in which the term "RPG" is useful is in conveying expectations to potential consumers. But again, that means different things to different people. I have many friends who enjoy "RPGs" because they require no reflexes or precision. Others enjoy them for the deep, lengthy, complex storylines and world-building. Others enjoy the ability to customize a character's development in different ways and watch them "grow," improve, and become unique. But all of those are optional: Final Fantasy X-2, XII, and XIII require speed (although not direct control), Secret of Mana does afford direct control (although it's really slow), Dungeons of Dredmor has no story, and Final Fantasy IV has no customization. I'd consider all of them to be RPG's. I don't dogmatically require "leveling up" to be a requirement of RPG's, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a counterexample. I definitely don't think that having an inventory and leveling up define an RPG, though--I'd call the Castlevania games and Zelda 2 to be adventure games with RPG elements. (Interesting sidenote: Nintendo marketed Zelda 2 and 3 as "adventure" games. When the N64 came out and was criticized for not having any RPG's, and was losing market share to Sony and Final Fantasy VII, they tried to brand Ocarina of Time as an RPG. I think that's when it started to become such a fuzzy term.) It's better when everyone at the table knows what they're doing.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_2), Innocent Sin didn't receive a US release on the PS1, just the PSP. (And apparently Eternal Punishment didn't come out on the PSP in the US, just the PS1.)

Very liberal interpretation of "RPG" IMO, but it's consistently so. Other than the fact that Tactics Ogre was sold in the U.S. without the "Let Us Cling Together" subtitle, I can't think of anything you missed, and I checked some obscure ones off the top of my head.

You mean, like... [thread=35397]Sticky: Stevo's Newbie Guide to OverClocked ReMix[/thread]?Or the Frequently Asked Questions on the main site?

My apologies. Amended.

He's a great artist, but his work is pretty much covers and medleys. I personally doubt there's anything that would pass the OCR panel. I'm sure he could do it if he tried, though.

No problem, knock yourselves out!

Sacrilege! You can never have too much Mega Man. I like the idea of a multiseries Main Characters of Franchises compo as well, although what constitutes the main theme of many characters could be debatable. I've wanted to do a Castlevania compo for a while myself. Darkesword tournament mashup style, where each participant chooses a level or area from one of the games. Maybe with a few oddball rounds thrown in (like FFCC's Gilgamesh and Kuja cameos) to deal with odd numbers of participants. I was too busy to do it for a while, then there was AAC, and I figured Darkesword would be starting up another Mega Man one pretty soon, and I was just getting RWS restarted, so I didn't say anything. But I'd still like to do it. If Darkesword chooses a late Summer date for SFRG I might start it soon, otherwise I'll wait until after. Also I'd love a Robot Masters vs. Final Fantasy Bosses gauntlet, but Darkesword and Brandon have dibs on those franchises and I may be the only one who'd like that enough to run it.

My reasoning for allowing pairings to happen "live" was to reduce the need for commitment. PRC and MnP allow people to drop in whenever they see the round is open, and I wanted to make it so that people could participate even if they missed the sign-up period. However, since there seems to be strong demand that I go back to the old way, to clarify pairings and level the playing field, I can do that. Certainly this new method didn't help participation in episode 1! In that case, how do people feel about the Novice/Star assignments? Do people prefer to pick their partners or have them randomly assigned? Picking partners lets people match up DAWs, timezones, and preferred communication methods, but would decrease the number of different Stars each Novice would work with, over time, which I think is a valuable experience.

Awesome!Per the rules: I'm prepared to laugh heartily when I hear a solo segment roughly 1000% better than the rest of the remix.... Yeah, since folks will have limited time to learn a new tool for this compo, I'm deliberately choosing ones that have mostly features common to most synths, or that have only a few sliders. There are some nice-sounding ones out there that have dozens of arcane, undocumented fiddly bits that just aren't appropriate for this format.

I won't likely be able to commit to this, but I'll be listening and voting. It does seem like there's been a fairly steady decline in interest in these types of compo. The first GRMRB was amazing and had lots of high-profile remixers in the running, but it seems like each one has fewer, and more drop out.

"Last Battle" is on the unclaimed list? This travesty cannot stand! (Not that I can do anything about it myself... but still.)

Looks like the format was similar to PRC and not a reference to Iron Chef.

There are. Kids mostly, but I see adults do it on occasion. Also lots of people who lean their whole bodies when playing racing games.

That's cool. Any archive of that anywhere?