The Next Special Update (January/February 2020)

[Latios212]

The results have been announced here and the new project thread is now up here!  Thank you to everyone who took part in nominations and voting!


Hello everyone!

Here is how we're going to choose a theme for our next special update. Any user can suggest ONE theme by posting here. The one hard restriction we're going to place this time is the following:
- The theme cannot be limited to a single game/series or musical style.

Other than that, anything is fair game (within reason, as decided by the staff). This can be something straightforward like "underwater" or "food" or something more silly like "track title starts with A" or "track starts in E minor". Try to aim for something that is fairly well represented across all video games and musical styles - see our Halloween or Winter updates for how a theme can encompass a large variety of pieces from many different games and arrangers.

Nominations are open for one ONE WEEK from the time of this post. After that, there will be one week of voting, two weeks of arranging, and two weeks of reviewing - more details to come later.

So, that said, suggest away!

If you're curious, some background on why we're changing things up from previous arrangement projects

Looking back on previous arrangement projects, they dragged on for ridiculously long periods of time because:
- Motivation was low. This was due in part to low community involvement (sheets were mainly submitted by a few people who liked the game) and due in part to burnout after working with the same soundtrack for the entire project. By having a broader theme more people would be interested in submitting a variety of sheets, and people wouldn't become tired looking over them because they represent all kinds of musical styles.
- We didn't have a schedule. This allowed us to postpone wrapping things up indefinitely, which naturally led to letting them go on for years.

[close]

List of suggested themes:
- "Final boss battles"
- "Boss battles"
- "First main area themes of open world-esque games"
- "Food/cooking"
- "Themes that use acoustic instruments"
- "Arcade games of the 80s & 90s"
- "Travel"
- "Credits themes"
- "Opening/title themes"
- "Music about music"
- "Unlikely heroes/protagonists"
- "Aquatic"
- "Nostalgic"

[mastersuperfan]

(Final) boss themes?

[mikey]

Valentine's day is just around the corner.  We could mark the occasion by arranging boss battle themes?

THAT NINJA

[PlayfulPiano]

First main area themes of open world-esque games.

Examples: Forgotten Crossroads for Hollow Knight, Shinshu Field for Okami, etc.

[Yug_Guy]

I think an update based around food/cooking would be pretty neat.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

I think themes that use acoustic instruments might be nice, if a bit broad.

[LeviR.star]

I think it would be a good idea to assemble a set of arrangements from arcade games of the 80s & 90s, and possibly later. Classic Namco games, like Pac-Man and Galaga, have limited representation on the site, and games everyone knows, like Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, have a ridiculously low number of sheets.

This would give our arrangers a wide variety of games to choose from, as many different franchises and companies have graced the arcade industry at least a few times. Less-daring arrangers could take on early 80's titles with simpler soundtracks, and seasoned NSM veterans could arrange whatever they want. I believe that this update has a clear enough theme while still allowing for plenty of variety.

EDIT: 2222th post FTW

[Code_Name_Geek]

What about songs themed around travel? Flying, riding, train stations, fast travel themes, that sort of thing.

I think an update based around food/cooking would be pretty neat.

I like this idea quite a bit too.

[thatoneguy]

These all seem like such great ideas! All the ideas that I thought of broke the one rule, or get so close to breaking the rule that they might as well break the rule. I can't wait to see all the choices when it's time for voting!

[Maelstrom]

(Final) boss themes?

I like this, and it makes me want to add a "normal battle" theme too.

[Maelstrom]

Other idea: music about music. All songs need to have something musical in the title, or be used in the game explicitly for the music itself. Examples are rhythm game OSTs, rhythm minigame songs from other games, and song titles include things like A Beautiful Song (Nier Automata), Etude for Ghosts (Mother 3), or Conflict's Chime (Bravely Default).

[Latios212]

These are good ideas guys ^^ (For myself, I haven't decided on one to suggest yet...)

Maelstrom - do you want that to count as your suggestion?

[davidchihlas]

Credits themes?

[SlowPokemon]

I'm gonna second Maelstrom's thing, like music that's written in a specific musical genre or says a genre its name.

[Zeila]

I like these ideas already, but for completeness we could add "opening/title themes" for suggestions