Congratulations to SriK, moviemovies1 and fluidvolt! Their entries will become demos for the next full release of FamiTracker. Kudos to everyone else as well, I am amazed at the quality of the entries this time around. :)
Hello and welcome to the third installment of the Demo Compo series! Again, I will be responsible for hosting this competition.
For the uninitiated, the idea is the same for all installments: at the end of each competition, the best three entries will be promoted to Official FamiTracker demo module!
Also, every month we alternate between covers and originals, and the sound hardware to use will be different. With classical out of the way, we now enter the uncharted territory of expansion audio! This time, we're doing MMC5 Covers!
This also means that for the first time since the beginning of this series, DPCM usage is allowed! However - and I cannot stress this enough - entrants should ensure their entry is compatible with version 0.3.7 of FamiTracker (the latest stable release as of this moment). That means features like fixed arps and DPCM sample bankswitching, which are new in 0.3.8, are not allowed.
For full usage guidelines and restrictions, please refer to the rules below.
And without further ado, here is the list of contestants:
Contestants:
Ares64
BattleBeard
danooct1
fluidvolt
Gamma
Glitch_King
moviemovies1
MrFTBN
Nameless
psn
qazwsxedc
Raijin
Slimeball
SriK
Xyz_39808
rainwarrior
lvk
Green = Has submitted their entry Blue = Has submitted and voted Cyan = Did not participate but has voted
Rules and guidelines:
-All entries must be in FamiTracker Module (FTM) format only. You may provide an NSF alongside your FTM for exhibition purposes when the voting phase is over, but judging will be done using the FTM source file.
-Submissions are limited to only ONE FTM file per entrant. Subsequent entries will be disregarded (resubmission of the same entry is tolerated but discouraged - I'd rather you sit on your work until the very last minute if you think you're going to submit an updated version of your entry).
-Each FTM may contain up to three (3) subsongs, but they have to be related to one another. For example, covering a level theme from Donkey Kong Country 2, and including Diddy and Dixie's respective "level complete" themes is okay. Covering one pop song, one videogame tune and one demoscene module is NOT okay. I reserve the right to refuse any entry I find to be violating this rule. If unsure, ask questions before submitting.
-Entries must be compatible with the latest stable release (version 0.3.7), which will be used for judging entries.
-Usage of the MMC5 is mandatory (i.e. you cannot just enable it and just do nothing with it). Use common sense: if your tune only briefly uses the MMC5 for something like a sound effect, I'm probably going to refuse your entry. You have to actually make use of the expansion hardware you're given.
-Using the internal sound hardware is not compulsory, but since this contest features the MMC5 (which admittedly isn't as powerful as the VRC7 or N163), I think it stands to reason that you should probably use the entire set of channels..!
-Usage of any other sound hardware than 2A03 & MMC5 is strictly forbidden.
-Overclocking is allowed, but strictly within program limitations (e.g. clock speeds over 400 Hz are not allowed).
-Similarly, use of a cheat engine or of any sort of hex editing to overcome the program's limitations is not allowed.
-Originals are strictly forbidden.
-NSFs produced using other programs and imported into FamiTracker are not accepted. Again, I reserve the right to refuse entries I suspect of being the product of the NSF Importer.
-Similarly, MIDI->NSF conversions are not accepted.
-Anonymity is strongly encouraged to make voting as fair as possible. In keeping with this guideline, submitting modules written prior to the competition is strongly discouraged unless they were kept absolutely private up until this point.
Submitting & voting: NOTE: I will be in Europe starting May 27. I will still be hosting the contest but expect delays for compiling and posting the results. DC4 will start on time, however, and I will be back on time to tackle compiling and posting the results.
Worst case scenario I'll delay posting the results for DC3 and end up revealing the results for both contests at the same time. But I don't think I'll have to resort to doing that.
-On May 14, I will start collecting entries. Submission period ends May 22, 12:00 midnight, EDT. To avoid confusion, that means you've got until the end of May 21 to submit.
-Entries must be submitted to me anonymously. Emails to democompo@gmail.com are preferred.
-Entries will be renamed, and author/copyright info will be removed from them. When the voting period ends, the full pack will be redistributed with that info left intact (so don't remove it before submitting).
-Voting is also done anonymously (to the address above), and will be done as follows:
There will be two categories, Musicality and Technique.
Voters will mark each entry out of 10 for each category.
I will add up the two scores, and make an average of each entry's combined scores.
-In order for first place, second place and third place modules to be made official demo modules, they must receive a combined average score of at least 17, 16 and 15 respectively. This is to avoid the awkward situation where no entry is truly deserving of being a demo, but ends up in one of those positions due to lack of participation.
-Voting is compulsory for all entrants. Failure to cast your votes by the end of the voting deadline will result in a 1 pt. penalty on your final score. This is to prevent situations where I am stuck with only a small fraction of participants voting, leading to unfair results.
-Voting is optional for non-participants (but very appreciated).
-For those concerned with transparency and fairness, I will participate, but will not vote.
As always, let me know if you have any concerns regarding the way the contest is organised. And on that note, best of luck to all, and happy covering!
You say that the 3 songs, if you choose to submit that many, must somehow be related. Would covering music from different games in the same series work?
Extending that out a bit, what about the same composer / developer, but from different games?