What is this, anyway?

What's a minigame jam? These are smaller-scale, shorter composition-based game jams that, much like the OST Fragments Jam (first one will be held in January!), task you with writing hypothetical video game music based around a theme & in this case, an optional challenge. 

What's a challenge? Anything from a synthetic scale (whole tone, octatonic, etc), to a form (rondo, theme & variations), to a focus on a particular instrument or instrument family (i.e. write something for woodwinds). 

What's a theme? A semi-vague phrase that will (ideally) guide your creative process when you're thinking about your made-up game's concept & the sound you want to go for with the music you compose. It's purposefully left up to interpretation & is meant to be as un-restrictive as possible.

Details

For this minigame jam, we ask that you compose at least 2 minutes of music, consisting of however many tracks you'd like to write.

There are no restrictions on genre or style, meaning that you can compose whatever your heart desires. Orchestral, heavy metal, jazz... Anything goes!

Your files must be in .wav, .mp3, or .flac on itch.io, but we'd also highly encourage you to upload your project somewhere else for ease of listening. Options include but are not limited to:

• Soundcloud
• Bandcamp
• Youtube

Here is a fantastic resource if you want to embed a playlist directly into your itch.io project: Blamscamp. 

Please submit a screenshot/screen recording of your DAW with your submission! If you have a score and want to submit a PDF of that as well, that'd be cool. I just want proof that you actually made the thing you're submitting.

AI use is not permitted!

This goes without saying but everything you submit to this has to be wholly original. 

If I confront you about AI being used in your entry and you refuse to update it, I will remove it. This includes but isn't limited to generative AI use for thumbnails/covers, which is not allowed for this jam. 

What can you do instead? Go outside and take a picture, use an existing public domain piece (with proper credit!), ask your friends to draw something for you... Lots of options out there!

Challenge & Theme

THE CHALLENGE: POINT-BUY ORCHESTRA

Let’s go on a shopping trip! You have a set amount of points that you will have to exchange for instruments, which you’ll use for your composition. Each instrument costs a different amount, generally based on what instruments are more frequently used in orchestral scores (the more it’s used, the more it’ll cost).

There’s no requirement for what instruments you have to use! I encourage you to try to keep the ranges, colors, and techniques that these instruments can play in mind.

YOU HAVE 15 POINTS TO SPEND! Each instrument or instrument section will cost between 1 and 5 points.

INSTRUMENT	POINT COST	INSTRUMENT	POINT COST
Flute	3	Soprano Saxophone	1
Oboe	2	Alto Saxophone	2
Clarinet	3	Tenor Saxophone	2
Bassoon	1	Baritone Saxophone	1
Horn in F	3	Guitar (Acoustic or Electric)	2
Trumpet	3	Drumset	3
Trombone	2
Tuba	1	Synthesizer (1 grand staff)	3
Timpani	4	Organ	4
Unpitched percussion (2 inst.)	3	Harpsichord	4
Pitched percussion (1 inst.)	3
Harp	2	Full Choir	5
Piano	5	Solo Soprano	3
Violin 1	3	Solo Alto	2
Violin 2	3	Solo Tenor	3
Viola	2	Solo Baritone or Bass	2
Cello	3
Contrabass	2	Any other instrument that wasn’t listed!	1

Additional notes!

• If you pick oboe and want to use english horn or heckelphone (for some reason) instead, you can do that! As long as they don’t play at the same time, it’s okay. Same goes for flute & piccolo (or alto flute, etc), clarinet & bass clarinet, trumpet & piccolo trumpet, etc.
  • This also applies to guitar & bass guitar.
• You can also “buy” an instrument multiple times. If you want to spend all of your points on flutes, go for it. Want three pianos? Awesome. Follow your heart.
• Your ensemble has to be consistent between all of the pieces you choose to write, if there are multiple. That being said, you CAN have one instrument play in one piece and not another.
  • i.e. flute for your overworld theme but no flute in the boss theme.
• It’s okay if you have leftover points.

Make sure you list the orchestration of your piece in your submission!

Remember, the challenge is entirely optional! You can choose to ignore the challenge and follow the theme only, just make sure to make a note of it in the submission form.

THE THEME: TBA

How will ratings work?

There are four categories that your entry will be rated by: General impression, creativity, quality, and adherence to theme, They're defined as follows!

• General impression: How striking or memorable was the entry? 
  • Did you feel compelled to listen to the end? Effectively, did you like it?

• Creativity: A really subjective category! 
  • How much or how little you feel the composers were thinking outside the box. Is this a fresh and new soundtrack or something that you feel like you've heard before?

• Quality: This refers to the quality of the composition itself  
  • How well orchestrated is the music? Is the music idiomatic to the instrument it was written for? Is it interesting?
  • How balanced is the mix? If there are multiple tracks, do they sound good together?

• Adherence to theme: How well did the entry fit the theme?
  • Ok, this one's self-explanatory

The rating period will last for a week after the jam ends and is restricted to just people who submitted something. This is to try to prevent rating manipulation.

You can edit your project page after you submit to the jam but please know that your files will be locked until the ratings period ends.

Note: Teams of up to four composers are allowed.

Will there be prizes?

Unfortunately, no. I am a full time college student and do not have money! Unless pictures of Pumpkin, my cat, count as a prize. Then yeah, there's a prize ☻

We'll consider adding actual prizes in the future, but for now this is really low-stakes.

Join our Discord server!!

Want to meet fellow composers? Want to form a team? Want to lurk in chat without ever sending a single message? Join our server!

Need to contact me directly?

If you're having issues submitting or have any questions that this page doesn't answer, don't hesitate to contact me! I'll probably take a moment to respond, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.

• Discord: residentcrypt1d
• Instagram: @residentcryptid
• Email: residentcryptid@gmail.com

This also goes for any business inquiries. I tend to respond the fastest to email & Discord messages.

Good luck, everyone!