$250 competition for video game music

[tumbleball]

I've been an active appreciator of OCRemix for years - Chrono Symphonic and Voices of the Lifestream being huge contributors to that. But me talking about that is boring, let's talk about the reason you clicked this thread.

Sorry for soiling the forums with this too - if it's inappropriate around here, let me know.

Anyway, through ridiculously fortuitous circumstances, I have a competition up over at Minimum Noise. Short story - I need original music for a new flash game. Best track wins cash. So far everyone has submitted what they *think* is current video game music. As students of the art, you may be scratching your heads over some of the more bizarre choices.

Link time:

The game.

The Minimum Noise project and details.

Best track wins, and virtually defines all future music for the game (~6 more tracks). I'll leave your forums in peace now. Thanks for listening.

- Tony Downey

[Nabeel Ansari]

So far everyone has submitted what they *think* is current video game music.

I don't think there is any such thing as "current" video game music because a lot of "current" video game music comes in almost any style of music.

[Dj Mokram]

We appreciate these kind of classic video game ideals, but we'd really like to look far beyond that. Jazz, soul, electronica, trip-hop, orchestral, A Capella, who knows?

As for the size limit - I'm willing to say that *all* of the sound in the game should take up no more than 6 MB. And we're definitely thinking multiple tracks. I'd even go so far as to say a 1 MB track is a little large - but with mono sound and a lower (or variable) bitrate, that shouldn't be too severe of a ceiling.

Hate to be the downer, but it would take a magic act to have 6 elaborated songs from any of these genres fit on 6mb and still sound half decent.

Maybe people aren't sending you what they think is video game music, but what they think can fit on less than 1mb limit. i.e. MIDI files.

You'll be better off with one excellent 6mb song that loops forever, like in Canabalt, than trying to have a diverse music catalog with such technical constraints.

Good luck anyway.

[prophetik music]

most of that music wasn't that great, in my opinion, in terms of fitting into your game.

i think i'll submit something. i'm trying to choose between a few different styles, though. i might sub more than one.

[Skrypnyk]

neat game

[tumbleball]

I want to thank the prophet here, publicly, for submitting to the contest. It's a great, honest submission and I'm really excited about it.

In general, thank you to the community for their interest as well. If you can't tell, we know NOTHING about music. We are hoping that someone out there will, and will just nail our game down with the perfect ideal of music. Comments letting us know what we're screwing up on are vital, because otherwise we are ignorant clients who want everything with a million restrictions (i.e. the size restriction).

Hmm... may rewrite the contest to include (slightly) larger files...!

[prophetik music]

tbh, most flash games are mostly the audio, and some images. code doesn't take up much space unless it's particularly complex. so don't be frightened by file sizes.

my submission, for example, was 850kb, and it's a 54-second loop, at 128kbps. you could afford to go slightly lower and not kill your quality too much. most flash games i find sound like they're at 96kbps, which isn't great, but since it's mono it's a lot better sound than you'd get otherwise (even 128kbps stero is only 64kbps per ear, as opposed to mono where it's 128 on both).

[Lemonectric]

I guess I don't know anything about this kind of stuff. What's the benefit of mono if the stereo file is small enough?

Basically I finished something but I don't know how to export mono from FL Studio.

[ella guro]

I might try submitting one or two as well. They may or may not fit, but it's worth a shot anyway.

[Cyril the Wolf]

I may look into doing something crazy for this. I'm good at writing loops for stuff.

[prophetik music]

I guess I don't know anything about this kind of stuff. What's the benefit of mono if the stereo file is small enough?

Basically I finished something but I don't know how to export mono from FL Studio.

the point of mono is that it allows for better overall sound quality for the same filesize as stereo. in other words, why it sounds like balls when you listen to one side of headphones only.

[zircon]

I'll be submitting to this shortly, however I do want to say that I don't think mono is the best idea. Mono sounds "cheap". Look and listen to any of the following popular/successful Flash games:

http://armorgames.com/play/505/sonny - While some SFX are mono, the main music (battle theme, map theme) is all stereo.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/530748 - Stereo

http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html - Stereo

I just picked three out of a hat, but I could really find quite a few like this. I personally think lower-quality encoding is preferable over mono. It's quite audible on speakers, but it really makes a huge difference if you're on headphones. I think if you're really trying to make a premium game you have to have stereo music.

Just my two cents, though. I'll submit in mono for now.

[Xerol Oplan]

I might give this a shot. $250 is pretty much what I need to live for a month.

[prophetik music]

poop, there goes any chance any of us have of winning =)

[Arcana]

Maybe you'll be pro and submit a MOD that, while comparatively not as good as zircon's track, has five times the music?

[Less Ashamed Of Self]

neat game

I feel the same way.

[Kamasenin]

I just upped 4 pieces to check out. The pacing and action in your title seems like a Rube Goldberg Acme contraption. I put up a few pieces that may match what you're looking for. I also put up two alternate jazz style pieces that my suit you as well. Cheers!