Criticism accepted, Calum. I didn't enter this hoping I'd win, anyway; I participated more for both promoting myself and for getting suggestions for improvement, which I've finally received for a particular mood of mine. XD Thanks again.

Thanks also for letting me know how I'm supposed to structure critiques. Will edit my prior post.

Now, my turn for commenting on other submissions. XD

Very nice 8-bit, SoundHound! Course, since you're not the only one to submit such a genre, I'm getting nervous about my use of orchestral music for this competition. XD

EDIT: Having learned how I'm supposed to critique, in regards to Soundhound's piece, I like the almost circus-like melody in the beginning reminiscent of the Pokemon credits music, but then I guess I was caught off guard by the change of mood as it progressed. Was this supposed to be a suite?

Towards the end, I also felt it got a tiny bit too scary for kids music; it sounded more like John Carpenter than, say, Alan Silvestri. Then again, there is a lot of hints of dark stuff in some kids material.....

Overall, while this is great music to my ears, I felt it got slightly too dark for the purpose of the contest.

Apparently, no one replied since, anyway. XDD

Here's my submission at 1 and a half minutes. Composed this in an hour. XD

http://soundcloud.com/sgtyayap404/cartoon-compo

I have the same problem on Soundcloud, Blink. Combine that with some people submitting, for instance, dubstep or house music for a group that is supposed to be dedicated to the '80s. Thanks for the concern regarding what to name the genre, though; I'LL be sure to follow it in the future.

Well, in my case, good news and bad news.

Good: having learned about this competition, I managed to make a short piece a little bit over a minute..

Bad: Can't upload it at the moment due to having a class. This also means I won't be able to listen to others' submissions until after class.

If you insist on helping me out with a future piece, feel free to.

Thanks for the comments, iamontx. The pauses in the classical piece is largely because I'm a fan of musical suspense. That, and I'm not good at writing lots of notes at once. Not yet, anyway.

The constructive criticism is also accepted for Moonlight.

Thank you all for the advice. It is deeply appreciated. Rest assured, I am trying to fight my depression, however difficult it is sometimes.

The only problem I can find is that it appears forums are the only place where people converse regularly, so, when it comes to finding a position for a game or mod, I don't know where else to go.

Not relevant to Bandcamp, but I may as well use this thread to promote my music, too.

http://soundcloud.com/sgtyayap404/classical-draft

This is something I made a few days ago in a desperate attempt to attract more game developers.

First of all, I don't care if this makes me look pathetic; I already have a bad reputation on ModDB, anyway...

I've been having serious depression, lately, due in part to the fact that I only have one part-time job other than my music. And for the latter, the only way I appear to get noticed by anyone is if I bump one of my ads so many times that people insult me.

So, a question to the other composers and composer-wannabes: what keeps you motivated?

While I'm sad to see that it's not your style, your comment is still deeply appreciated. Thank you for listening.

Heavy Price Paid - Halo 2 Soundtrack

Is the uni education (especially the CS) so bad in the US? I thought that here in Czech Republic it would also be just a paper needed to get a job but I actually learned quite a lot of useful stuff in the first year (especially about how HW works - circuits -> logic gates -> automatons -> CPUs, or how OSes work - filesystems, scheduling, caching)...

Well, having attended two schools for CS, I'll say that the quality varies greatly depending on the school.

I certainly hope that the quality varies from college to college. I had originally applied to my university in the hopes of being a computer science major, since my university is so full of itself with classical and jazz despite the growing electronic music scene, but quickly dropped out of that major because of the faculty in that department being unwilling to help me out. Half of the full-time faculty literally couldn't even speak English!

Sorry I didn't greet myself; couldn't find the thread when I first registered.

My real name is Chris Day, but I prefer to be known by my alias, Python Blue. I am hoping to be a game composer specializing in nostalgic music, though at this rate, my specialty cannot be an option.

I've played several games, but I must say that the games I like the most tend to be games made before Macs switched over to Intel chips, such as the Myst games. One major exception to this would be Amnesia: The Dark Descent, not only for the music, but also for its modding capabilities. This does not mean I don't look forward to what indie games have to offer, however, especially in the future when convincing graphics become more affordable.

I look forward to being in this community.

The first of these albums was made over a year ago. I was new to writing music, then, which is why I personally think they were produced terribly looking back at them.

http://sgtyayapproductions.bandcamp.com/

Prison of the Mind is my latest release, focusing mostly on '80s music, and I'm hoping to get enough funds to make a limited CD edition, so if anyone likes what they hear, even a purchase of an individual song would be appreciated.

Had made this somewhat sad tune the other day.

http://soundcloud.com/sgtyayap404/moonlight-final

Greetings,

My name is Chris Day, alias Python Blue. I've always been interested in games, especially the music for them, so I felt it best that I could pursue my interest in them for a living.

I have composed for several game mods, most notably custom stories for the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent, so I do have proven experience with game music. Below are links to my personal favorite pieces, both sets of which are for upcoming mod projects:

http://sgtyayapproductions.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-work-complete-soundtrack

http://sgtyayapproductions.bandcamp.com/album/war-of-the-servers-themes

My rate is completely negotiable.

Thank you for your time. If you wish to contact me via email, please do not hesitate: pythonblue(at)me(dot)com