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Post by bartizanier on Jan 17, 2022 12:16:04 GMT -5
The Dungeon Rush is a creative challenge to complete a dungeon synth album in a fixed amount of time using a set of randomized parameters. There are no fees, no prizes, no winners or losers. The sole purpose of this challenge is to inspire on personal and community levels.
This Equinox Rush begins at the Northward Equinox, March 20 15:24 UTC.
Challenge Rules
This challenge consists of a set of randomized parameters.
The parameters will be generated by dice roll and posted online at the height of the full moon on March 18 7:20 UTC.
Here are the parameters we will use:
Time Limit (Days) (1d12) - we use 1d12 to determine the duration of the challenge. As with all elements of this challenge, we employ the honor system and ask that artists don’t start composition before the beginning of the challenge. Here we hope not to roll a one and may employ special rules if such is the case.
Instruments (1d4) - we roll 1d4 to determine how many instruments can be used. Can be hardware, software, or traditional musical instrument such as a guitar.
Tracks (1d4 + 2) - the amount of tracks allowed in your recording. “Drums” can be considered “one track” for mixing purposes, at your discretion.
Songs (1d6 + 1) - we roll 1d6 and add one to determine the number of songs.
Album Length (3d20 x 2) - we roll 3d20 twice to find a range that the total length of the album must fall within.
Theme - we will provide a thematic prompt for inspiration. It can feature heavily in the concept or can merely provide a starting place for the imagination.
Challenge Completion
This challenge is open to all and has no winners or losers and no prizes. It is purely intended as a personal challenge and something to share with the dungeon synth community.
To complete the challenge artists should post a link to their completed albums in the specified thread before the end of the time limit. Artists are of course free to pursue further tinkering with their albums for purposes of release after the deadline.
Upon completion artists will receive an Equinox Challenge emblem that you can attach to your album art to signify your success, if so desired.
Who are we?
We are two musicians who are new to the dungeon synth scene and were excited to share our idea for this challenge. We hope to give something to the community and welcome any and all feedback, opinions, and suggestions. Hails,
- Bartizanier and Earl Mildew
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Post by Straegor_DS on Jan 20, 2022 7:06:23 GMT -5
Wow this sounds pretty interesting, reminds me of the Game Jam type challenges that indie game developers often do to make small games. Tempted to give this a shot with my newly formed project - Straegor.
Fingers crossed for not rolling a 1 in the tracks though!
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Post by bartizanier on Jan 20, 2022 22:41:55 GMT -5
Wow this sounds pretty interesting, reminds me of the Game Jam type challenges that indie game developers often do to make small games. Tempted to give this a shot with my newly formed project - Straegor. Fingers crossed for not rolling a 1 in the tracks though! Great to hear! We are not sure what reaction to expect to this and are fully prepared for it to just be ourselves participating so the more the merrier.
You make a great point about rolling a "one" for tracks and we are talking about some alterations to the rolls. The three we are worried about in particular are tracks, days and songs. We are only doing this twice a year and it feels like rolling 1's in any of those categories would ruin the fun a little. We are committed to the random aspect but will probably change the rules to: days 3d6 (its less hardcore but people have jobs and families), tracks 1d6 + 1, and songs 1d8 + 1.
Cheers!
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Post by Straegor_DS on Jan 21, 2022 15:10:19 GMT -5
Nice! I 100% think those proposed alterations would be make a positive difference, gets my vote  My compositions are often on the verge of having too many layers and instruments so it'd be a nice challenge to do something more minimalist |
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Post by Tidemancer on Jan 23, 2022 2:21:15 GMT -5
Wow this sounds pretty interesting, reminds me of the Game Jam type challenges that indie game developers often do to make small games. Tempted to give this a shot with my newly formed project - Straegor. Fingers crossed for not rolling a 1 in the tracks though! Great to hear! We are not sure what reaction to expect to this and are fully prepared for it to just be ourselves participating so the more the merrier.
You make a great point about rolling a "one" for tracks and we are talking about some alterations to the rolls. The three we are worried about in particular are tracks, days and songs. We are only doing this twice a year and it feels like rolling 1's in any of those categories would ruin the fun a little. We are committed to the random aspect but will probably change the rules to: days 3d6 (its less hardcore but people have jobs and families), tracks 1d6 + 1, and songs 1d8 + 1.
Cheers!
With these revisions it seem far more doable for people like me with demanding day jobs  I'm very willing to try this, the set of limitations in particular will be a great way to find creativity under those constraints. |
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Post by bartizanier on Jan 23, 2022 14:25:30 GMT -5
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Post by Straegor_DS on Jan 24, 2022 7:42:10 GMT -5
Nice music! I'm enjoying the analogue synth arrangements very much  I think we can say the ruleset certainly works |
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Post by bartizanier on Mar 18, 2022 10:47:56 GMT -5
imgur.com/XN3ULuOThe Northward Equinox Rush is imminent and we are super excited to begin composition. Last night, bathed by the light of the full moon, I generated the following parameters: Days to complete the challenge (3d6): 14 (deadline April 3) Instruments used (1d4): 3 Tracks used (1d4+2): 4 Songs (2d4+1): 7 Total length range (3d6x2): 19 to 38 minutes I am super stoked on this roll, the parameters couldn't be more ideal. Prompt: “Belinde, a primal world of jagged mountains, verdant jungles, and azure seas. The world is primarily populated by humans, and a few dwarves.” The prompt is here to provide imagery, you can use it as much or as little as you want in your composition. If you want to roll your own unique prompt, use donjon’s Fantasy Locations generator found here: donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/random/#type=locationYou can also use the Equinox itself as an additional inspiration. The challenge begins at March 20 15:24 UTC so you can start composition then. We would love for people to join us in this adventure, don’t be trepidatious! I will definitely be participating. Earl Mildew sends his regards. Original post: www.reddit.com/r/DungeonSynth/comments/s694bm/open_challenge_equinox_rush_march_20/
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Post by bartizanier on Mar 18, 2022 10:48:56 GMT -5
Personal note, for my own entry I prefer to roll random instruments. I will be using Arturia's CZ, Logic EXS24, and Baritone guitar.
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Post by Angel on Mar 19, 2022 16:36:00 GMT -5
I will be sure to give it a go! No promises I will end up with something good haha 😃
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Post by bartizanier on Mar 20, 2022 11:52:47 GMT -5
I will be sure to give it a go! No promises I will end up with something good haha 😃 Excellent, the more the merrier! Keep in mind everybody its all for fun and theres no pressure to post your results if you're not satisfied. That being said, we'd love to see finished projects get shared at the deadline. Something we forgot to address in other posts: mixing/mastering can be done as much as you want after the deadline so don't stress about that. |
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Post by aldanpiper on Mar 25, 2022 22:17:08 GMT -5
Did this happen?
I’m bummed out I missed it.
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Post by myrrys on Mar 26, 2022 4:16:18 GMT -5
I am not sure if I have the time to actually do this, but it was fun just to throw the dice and figure out what I would do with the results.
Days to complete the challenge: 11 days
Instruments used: 3
Tracks used: 4
Songs: 5
Total length range: 28 to 44 minutes
Quite ideal here as well, I'm probably gonna do it them on a tape since 4 tracks fits that exactly. Total length is bit too much considering the song amount, but 30 minutes of 6 minute tracks isn't too bad. Gotta go properly ambient on some parts.
For the theme I used Donjon’s Random Fantasy Generator as well, and rolled from two different sets, "Wilderness" and "Worlds and Planes".
"Somewhere in the Sinking Sands. A rocky gorge cuts through the desert."
"Beala, a walled realm of labyrinthine canyons, desolate wastes and vast seas."
Quite inspiring combination! I think I am going to explore some middle-eastern/arabic scales and rhythms on this one.
Idea for additional rule: roll for a color(s) the cover art should be made of. Maybe for some additional details, like font. Critical failure = Comic Sans.
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Post by bartizanier on Mar 26, 2022 11:37:32 GMT -5
Love it. Yes - this is happening now. Don't worry if you missed it. We are planning to run the next one on for the Summer Solstice. Upon reflection, we were excited about this idea and our first idea was to run it in this way as a kind of organized challenge. But at this point, it might be even better to just say hey, this is a cool way of approaching creating an album, try it out if you like. And not worry about trying to do it as an event but instead just a type of prompt anybody can use at any time (which of course, people are free to do whatever they want).
TL;DR: maybe it works better as a method than an event.
Cool ideas for the cover art Myrrys! We love to hear new ideas for this. |
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Post by bartizanier on Mar 26, 2022 11:46:13 GMT -5
A brief journal of my experience so far:
- this time is way harder than my previous test run. Part of it is mental; in my test run I had a very casual attitude and was happy with whatever I was randomly coming up with. For the Equinox, I was so excited that I've unwittingly put alot more weight and pressure on myself, and I need to be conscious about letting go of that.
- unintentionally, my process is very different this time. During my test run, I just made one song a day, and pretty much finished the songs. For some reason this time I've been composing just motifs, riffs, and pieces of songs, then moving on, with a plan to come back and flesh them out in the second week.
- at first I was disappointed with the Belinde prompt, feeling it was fairly generic and uninspiring. But what I love using prompts is forcing myself to overcome limitations and be creative. With just a little bit of patience and thought, I've extrapolated the prompt into some cool narrative ideas that I'm using for my creation.
- forcing myself to use baritone guitar has been incredibly challenging. I'm not very good at blending synth and metal riffs, it doesn't come intuitively to me. Trying to keep the results sounding at least vaguely dungeon synth-y just makes it more difficult.
- I've found the best approach is to compose using keyboard and then double appropriate sections with the guitar. If I try to compose on the guitar first, I just come up with generic metal-sounding riffs. Composing with keyboard first, for me, brings melody and harmony to the forefront.
- when I'm blocked musically, return to the prompt
- when I'm blocked conceptually, return to the music
If anybody else is in the midst of this, hope you're enjoying it!
P.S. Shout out to Oblique Strategies. Check it out if you need help!
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I think we can say the ruleset certainly works 
