Topic: Dungeon Music Contests?

[Lelygax]

Theme > Genre.

[darkmanx_429]

Good. More people seem interested in this.

I prefer to start this contest on January (new year, new contest in addition to the older ones) so that we have the entire month of December to polish out the rules, judging, etc. and choose the appropriate winning trophies (unless you want the same shiny golden bat).

Considering January is right around the corner I am open to this. I mean technically we could start a little earlier if we get all the rules ironed out.

Speaking of which what rules would you guys like to vote for?

[Chernabogue]

Rules:
- any genre is acceptable
- no deadline extensions
- voting though a forum poll (1 thread for competition discussion, 1 for voting and discussing results -- then, 1 thread for next month's compo, etc.)
- no judges, but mods or a designated member should organize the compos and prevent problems
- the winner chooses next month's theme
- the winner can enter the following month, but his entry should be counted as bonus

I strongly suggest Jorge to create a new subforum for compos.

[uzo]

The first thing that comes to mind with this is, perhaps every month is pushing it for the amount of work involved. Especially if you want any sort of quality coming out of this, given the varying levels of experience and skill between the community.

It's hard to make 'less time consuming'/'scaled down' musical contests than say, sprites, where we can decide one time to sprite a turkey instead of a Dracula Final Form.

Maybe do one every 2 months or so?

That's just my thoughts on it. It would be nice to see, though i wonder how many people here can even make music.

[darkmanx_429]

The first thing that comes to mind with this is, perhaps every month is pushing it for the amount of work involved. Especially if you want any sort of quality coming out of this, given the varying levels of experience and skill between the community.

It's hard to make 'less time consuming'/'scaled down' musical contests than say, sprites, where we can decide one time to sprite a turkey instead of a Dracula Final Form.

Maybe do one every 2 months or so?

That's just my thoughts on it. It would be nice to see, though i wonder how many people here can even make music.

Good point, but people could surprise us. Maybe we should do the first one with a month deadline and if it seems like it's not going to be enough time extend it and then do contests every 2 months? (Depending on how many entries I get for the 3-D contests I may do something similar..)

And I think we have quite a few people on the Dungeon that can make music, they are just scattered throughout the different threads and we've never seen them all come together as an collective until now...

Rules:
- any genre is acceptable
- no deadline extensions
- voting though a forum poll (1 thread for competition discussion, 1 for voting and discussing results -- then, 1 thread for next month's compo, etc.)
- no judges, but mods or a designated member should organize the compos and prevent problems
- the winner chooses next month's theme
- the winner can enter the following month, but his entry should be counted as bonus

I strongly suggest Jorge to create a new subforum for compos.

I like the added incentive for the winner to be able to choose next month's theme! That's definitely a plus as well as getting the award that basically guarantee's varied choices for each month and we have many a clever members of the dungeon!

I also like that the Winner of the previous month basically has to wait a month before their entry can be counted towards a contest.

I still think we should have judges though as we have alot of musically inclined members on the Dungeon that could judge. Same rules would apply judges could submit an entry but it would only be counted as a bonus.

One mod(s) could oversee the contest each month, as well as compiling all entries into a zip available for download.

[Dracula9]

Or we just make Jorge the perpetual music judge. 

There has to be some sort of judging, Chern, otherwise how can a winner be determined?

[Chernabogue]

Or we just make Jorge the perpetual music judge. 

There has to be some sort of judging, Chern, otherwise how can a winner be determined?

The one with most points wins. Simple as cake.

Also, one month seems waaaaaay enough. Dwelling of Duels does monthly compos, and people have around 3 weeks to remix; and they're doing really great stuff.

So how about: 3 weeks of mixing, 1 week of voting?

[uzo]

Maybe its enough for you, but not everyone is at the same skill level. If someone new wants to get into it, the month deadline could feel intimidating.

[darkmanx_429]

The one with most points wins. Simple as cake.

Also, one month seems waaaaaay enough. Dwelling of Duels does monthly compos, and people have around 3 weeks to remix; and they're doing really great stuff.

So how about: 3 weeks of mixing, 1 week of voting?

The week of voting is mainly for all the judges schedules to synch so we can do our write ups. If, I recall we didn't have too much of a problem with last month.

I say give the participants a full month and the judges only 4-5 days for actual judging.

[Chernabogue]

I'd personally keep the whole contest in one month, so the deadlines will always be the same. I think 25 remixing days + 4-6 days of voting/judging would be enough.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I like Chernabogue's proposed rules.

I could do the mod thingy for starting the contest thread and the polls (as what I've started doing for the sprite contests).
But for the zip file compilation... I need someone to do that for me. I can copy paste the links, though. hehehe.

Maybe Jorge can give out the very first contest theme since he is the music man of the forum.
I'm thinking of having all contests on its own sub forum. I'll talk to Jorge on this.

[Chernabogue]

Let's organize this like DoD:
- the mod in charge of the competition the theme on the first few days of the month (usually on the 1 or 2)
- let approx. 25 days to remixers to arrange their track -- no extension
- people can talk about the theme on the thread, or ask question -- collaboration should be accepted, but people cannot enter twice
- on deadline day (or before), remixers should send their DL link to the mod in charge of the competition (MediaFire, MEGA, etc.)
- on voting day 1, the same mod posts a new thread with a timed poll and a zipped file of all songs (or the direct DL links)
- 4-5 days of voting: the winner is the one with most points
- the winner gives his/her theme to the mod via PM
- the mod creates a new thread for the new theme on the 1st or 2nd day of the month
- repeat.

[VladCT]

What's the average level of skill on DoD? I'm kinda with Uzo here in that I'm not certain 3 weeks would be enough for newer guys.

[Shiroi Koumori]

I prefer 2 months for the length of each contest. = less work for me, more time for the contestants. 

[Chernabogue]

What's the average level of skill on DoD? I'm kinda with Uzo here in that I'm not certain 3 weeks would be enough for newer guys.

Depends. You have artists that work in pro bands (like PuD), and total newbies. They impose that contestant play a live instrument to submit a track though (so no direct MIDI rips). They usually get 15 entries with a one-month deadline (even more sometimes -- some free months get around 40 entries!).

I prefer 2 months for the length of each contest. = less work for me, more time for the contestants. 

The risk with 2 months is that people will be discouraged/not interested by that long deadline (I personnally do*). Let's try with one month for the first time and then we'll see. (BTW, OCR holds WEEKLY compos, and even newcomers enter such compos).

(*If you want my personal opinion, I think a compo shouldn't be too long. If it's too long, people will forget/lose interest, and won't focus on it. Most of the time, people will either rush at the end to complete something, or won't enter. I participated in lots of music contests, and people tend to prefer shorter deadline. That works the same for projects.)