An open weekend challenge to produce a single piece of game music using the provided motif!

All skill levels are welcome (nay, encouraged!) to participate. Even if you've never made music before, you should take a crack at it! It's not as scary as it looks.

Join us on Discord to ask any questions, share your progress in the challenge, and talk all things game dev.

Special thanks to lilou_cormic for the cover image.

Motif

The motif is also available as an ogg file (clean piano), MIDI file, and printable sheet music when the challenge begins. Get these files here.

You are required to use this motif in your piece. This means exploring the given sequence of notes (pitch and rhythm) multiple times, exploring various transformations such as changes in pattern, rhythm, pitch, pattern, instrumentation, and so on.

Choose a Tier

When submitting, you will select a tier to describe where you are on your personal musical journey:

• Newcomer: You are either completely new, or have only tinkered with music software but never completed a song.
• Beginner: You've made a handful of songs, but are still learning the basics.
• Intermediate+: You're comfortable in your chosen production software and are becoming confident in your music-making skills. You might even be a pro!

Rules

1. Submissions must be made as an itch.io page. You can include the music as an embedded stream (e.g. SoundCloud, BandCamp), download (e.g. mp3, ogg), or a "game" that plays the music, whether web-based or download.
2. One entry per person. We encourage the production of multiple pieces for experimentation, but please only include one piece in the submitted page, and don't link to other new music on the submitted page.
3. The music must be a minimum of 30 seconds and a maximum of 2 minutes (120 seconds).
4. The music must loop naturally, as if it's intended for use as video game BGM.
5. This is a solo challenge, so collaboration and teams are not allowed.
6. The work must be entirely new with all of it made during the challenge. This includes planning, composing, producing, and so on. You should be working from "nothing."
7. The work must include the motif provided at the start of the jam.
8. The work must be "original" in the sense that it isn't a remix or arrangement of preexisting work, or an unaltered work generated by Artificial Intelligence. Samples, etc., are allowed, as long as the work is reasonably transformative (including the case of AI), and you have the rights to use all samples for public work.
9. You can continue editing the submission page after submitting, but uploads will be locked, so you cannot replace the music or upload new files until judging is completed

Prizes

Each category with at least 3 entries will have one winner announced and featured in the highlight video.

The overall winner will have the opportunity to feature their winning piece in an upcoming 8 Bits to Infinity Jam.

Schedule

Friday 25 October at 6pm ET: The challenge starts - make some noise!

Sunday 27 October at 6pm ET: Submissions are due and voting begins

Friday 1 November at 4pm ET: "Listening party" video released on Retro Indie Josh's YouTube channel

Sunday 3 November at 6pm ET: Voting closes and winners are announced

About Us

Hosted by 8 Bits to Infinity: a game development community dedicated to improving creative and technical skills through rapid iteration and honest, critical feedback. Join us on Discord, check out our website, and take a look at our past jams and challenges.

The man behind 8 Bits to Infinity is Retro Indie Josh (aka Joshua McLean): gaming content creator and music producer. Check out his game music (free for you to use in jams and commercial projects!) and YouTube.