Autumn Jam V: The Final Frontier

Blog By Dr0nk #chipjam

Have you ever laid on your back at night, gazing at the many stars in the sky and wondering what mysteries lie beyond our solar system in the vast reaches of space? Do you ever dream of vast alien civilizations with their own unique cultures and biology? Or do you perhaps fantasize of exploring distant planets, and mapping their strange, alien geography? We’ve all had our own questions about what might be lurking out there, waiting to be discovered.

In this new Chip Jam, we will answer those questions, and discover what lies beyond.

For those asking “What’s a Chip Jam?”, they’re friendly competitions we host where chiptune musicians compete to make the best song possible given a predetermined set of rules or a theme. We do this to improve our craft, show off our talent, and to just have something to do as a community. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate, no matter if you’re the greenest chiptuner in the scene or an experienced vet.

For this Chip Jam, you will pick a celestial body (a planet, a moon, an asteroid, or a man made creation like a space station, or a derelict ship, etc.), and you will make a song based off of it.

Perhaps you could write a sad, somber tune about a planet long ago made uninhabitable by their own climate change disaster, or a grimy theme for a crime planet found on the edges of galactic civilization. Maybe you could make a work song for asteroid miners to hum along to as they extract valuable minerals from the interior of a giant space rock, or an adventurous track for the first habitable exoplanet humans have managed to send a colony ship to.

Let your imagination run wild, and then condense that imagination into a baller track of your design.

Rules:

  • Song MUST be chiptune or chiptune-adjacent.
    • Defining what is and isn’t chiptune is impossible; if you can make a decent argument for why your track counts as chiptune, we will allow it.
  • Collabs are allowed in groups of up to 4 people.
  • Only one song per entrant.
    • If you do a collab with somebody, that counts as your one song.
  • Song must be submitted in .wav format
  • Songs MUST be your own original creations. No covers or remixes allowed.
    • Plagiarism is not tolerated in this community. If you are found to have plagiarized someone’s work in a Chip Jam entry, you will be banned from our Discord server and blacklisted from participating in any future Chip Jams.
  • You may not submit any previously finished tracks to this Jam. WIPs that have not been released are fair game.
  • You may NOT put a song in our Discord server's #WIP-feedback channel for critiques, nor any other Chiptune discord's feedback channels. You may ask people privately for critiques and opinions.
  • Tracks MUST be submitted by 11:59 PM, December 31st, 2022
    • The Baker Island Clause is in effect: if it is still 2022 in any time zone across the world, you may submit your track even if the date has already rolled over for you.

How to Submit:

Once you are finished with your track, go to the submission form linked below and fill it out. Don’t forget to attach your song!

Click Here For Submission Form

If for whatever reason you need to resubmit a track or remove your track from the competition, you can get in contact with us by emailing chiptunecafe@gmail.com or by DMing Drake on Discord (Agent Smith#2330). DMs will likely get your problem resolved quicker because Drake is a foolish, stinky man and, as a result, forgets to check the CC email as often as he should.

Post Jam

On New Years Day, we will have a livestream at https://www.twitch.tv/chiptunecafe starting at 6:00 PM EST where we listen to all the tracks. After this, the voting period will begin. There will be a votepack and an additional form released (links will be available on the website and on our Discord server) where you can vote for your favorite tracks. You’ll be able to vote until the end of the week on January 7th, and we’ll announce the winners of the Jam as soon as possible afterwards both on our Discord server and on the site.

As with previous Chip Jams, all entries will be put up on the CC Bandcamp as a compilation album free of charge for everyone to listen to. We highly encourage you to post your songs to your own platforms after the Jam has concluded! If for whatever reason, you want your track to be taken off of the Bandcamp page, you can get in contact with Drake via Discord (Agent Smith#2330) or email (chiptunecafe@gmail.com).

Final Notes

Always remember, at the end of the day, these Chip Jams are less about the competition and more about the chance grow as artists and to make something beautiful together as a community. Don't stress yourself out over it! We're here to have fun and grow, not to punish ourselves for worthless internet brownie points.

I wish all of you who are competing good luck, and have fun composing!