greetings!

that time of year is fast approaching - Advent Calendar 2024 is in two months! (from yesterday, sssh) thank you to everyone who suggested formats in last month's format suggestion thread... we'll see which ones we get, eh!?

this month is the BITPACK SUGGESTION period. your chance to have your idea appear in the advent calendar one day! either here in the thread or via discord DM to your hostists, me (damifortune) or kleeder (kleeder), post ideas for bitpacks to be potentially used during the Advent Calendar event. if something somebody posted sounds interesting to you, give it a liek, we pay attention to what seems popular too.

examples of stuff you could send:
- thematic text prompt (doesn't have to be Advent or Winter themed, but we will probably have some days that do this)
- fun restrictions of some kind, possibly with suggested formats for the bitpack. could be compositional restrictions, could be chip/polyphony/instrument restrictions, etc etc.
- SAMPLES! send us samples please, they'll get used on days where we have sample-based formats
- an iteration on a popular series (for example we did a YEA VIDEOGAME last year)

basically, anything that could potentially be used as an XHB bitpack, you can do. this battle is, after all, basically a timezone-friendly XHB. if you haven't partaken or seen this yearly event staple before, check out the Advent Calendar lyceum article! or check the old battles linked there for examples.

Hey! That's nice!

I'm just a bit unsure about making bitpacks that are specific to a certain format, like the furnace bitpack from last year for instance. The problem is that we don't know which format will be retained for the calendar...

Should we propose these bitpacks as if the related format was selected for the battle ?

sure if you want! general bitpacks are good too, as they would be the most likely to get used... or if you have a more specific idea in mind you can list some potential ones, or we (as your hostists) will also be thinking about what good formats for them will be

perhaps i should've just left it at "post bitpacks"!

mini bump ump

i think a bespoke bitpack would be nice.......................................
the prompt could be to create something freeform and/or generative (as in, randomly modulated) that also has a comforting winter feel.... the kind of muffled, quiet feeling of being warm in your crack in the wall while snow falls outside the window. would this be the first time bespoke has been a major format if it does appear..?

it would also be more enjoyable if there were a module restriction (ex. can only use 15 modules total, can only use 2 of each kind of module, etc..). i feel that would be much more conducive to the ambient style prompt since it encourages to do more with less

Should I send a Mega Man-style Famitracker instrument pack in? I think that could be neat.

by all means!

cool… so where exactly do we send these?

to me (damifortune) or kleeder (kleeder) on discord!

will do

[1 - any sample-supporting or midi music format, will separately provide possible samples]

It’s a Christmas-themed RPG! Compose a town theme for the North Pole’s village of elves. Your song must feature a jingle bell and/or a pizzicato instrument, but everything else is up to you!

[2 - any FM format]

Write a song for a snowy day that shifts from a peaceful calm to a raging storm.

Restrictions: you may only use 4 FM channels, including the percussion (if you’d like to include any).

—
note: if paired with Adlib, two paired channels for a 4OP instrument could count as one of the 4 channels. Up to the hostists on this

[3 any written format, plaintext might be easiest but others could work with some tweaks like adding graphics]

In homage to fanfiction forums of the 90s and 2000s, write a “bad” fanfiction short story featuring characters from any pop cultural references of your choice. Want it to be funny? Cute? Awful? The choice is yours. Remember, bad is good!
Your story must include a crossover from two universes that don’t belong together (e.g., Sonic the Hedgehog + Walter White)

For ideas, see the Bulwer Lytton Smackdown battles
https://jangler.github.io/botbsearch/?sa.x=0&sa.y=0&q=bulwer

These battles were inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest, where entrants aim to write a deliberately bad opening to a novel.
https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

BUMP !! keep em comin yall <3

[4] Neighborhood frog party

Vocal: hum a catchy tune

Any format: Craft a song that transitions from the cold, snowy outdoors into a warm, cozy house.


(I just realized this is kinda similar to Kilowatt's FM suggestion oops)

Any chip format: Boss battle against a giant snowman! Include 3 stages of intensity as the fight progresses (1 for each snowball)

Any visual format: Create an image of a fictional winter holiday from a different world. What traditions might it have? What do the people look like? Think about the world building and make it as absurd or realistic as you'd like.

an off the dome vocal idea:

You hear a knocking at the door... it's a group of carolers! As they open their mouths to sing, though, you realize this is no typical winter tune...

Compose a tune in the general style of a typical christmas carol, but with a unique twist!

A few SNES bitpack ideas from various games (or if not SNES then remix could work too):
-Last Bible III (relevant cuz christmas/bible analogy?? also really good samples and I already have a BRR pack made of it)
-Winter Gold (cuz winter)
-Winter Olympic Games - Lillehammer '94 (also cuz winter)

Musescore idea:

Write a movement from the following fictional concerto:
Musicologists have recently discovered a secret 5th Concerto of Vivaldi's Four Seasons! A hidden movement for a hypothetical season taking place between Autumn and Winter, known as "Silence" ("L'silenzio", in the composer's notes), meant to characterize the period after the leaves have fallen and before the snow has arrived, where all is still and grey.

Not sure if this format was even suggested in the previous thread but:

smw (Lunar Magic) bitpack:
Since the Mushroom Kingdom's climate doesn't change too much for the winter season, Mario is packing his bags and taking a trip to somewhere that will satisfy his vision of a winter wonderland.

Make a seasonally appropriate overworld map for Mario to spend his holiday exploring. (no levels needed)

Potential additional restriction: Use only 1 of the 6 submaps to make your map, not the main map.

I mainly mention the additional restriction since I wouldn't want people with more time just making a giant map compared to small ones, instead focusing on the details of a more limited map to make every part shine more.

Any music format ( I think lsdj would be really cool though):
Let's have a BotB rave; Write some house music.

(This could be expanded to any type of dance music if house is too specific)

Any music format: create a song using a mode trying to differ as much from how it is traditionally used. Example:

Ionian: make a sad song
Aeolian: make a cheerful song
Phrygian: make a relaxing song
Locrian: make a very melodic tune... etc.

Any music format:
Let's have a BotB ball! Create classical or baroque ballroom dance music (Waltz, Gigue, Sarabande, Minuet, etc.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_dance
For example, this Wikipedia page has a list of some of the popular dance forms in the baroque era

i find it funni this thread has like, 5 ppl who have submitted bìtpacks here :skull:
anyways, welcome to srb2er's mini bitpacks of confusion :p

tic-80:
make a small little art piece/demo
(music and interactivity is optional, but it shouldn't be a game)
(stuff like this

, or that

, or you could make a full on demoscene in like 1 day. i am not stopping you)

bytebeat:
create a song for an intro cutscene to a RPG.
"that doesn't sound that bad, besides it being bytebeat" you might say, and to that ill respond with this:
you. can. only. use. floatbeat. or. funcbeat (the former only accepts values of -1.0 to 1.0)
"what is floatbeat?"
so in floatbeat, "t" would be useless but "(t/128)%2" would make a weird saw cuz some of the results would be between 0 and 1.0 due to the %2, and the t/128 is there so it's not a high pitched squeel that wouldn't burn your ears :l

"what about funcbeat?"
...tbh idfk
return statement go brr ig
if you use it
insta 7/7 in all 5 /j

ascii art:
draw a port, but it's themed around an element

🗿 moaidea (30 Dollar Website):
Make an alarm/ringtone to remind you of/wake you up in time for the festivities!

music bitpacks
1
one note. (other notes are okay but they should all support the Chosen Note.)

2
draw a squiggly line. follow its contour with your song

3
silence is sexy

general bitpacks
1
mundane miracles

2
Europa Clipper is the first mission designed to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa. There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life may exist on Europa. The spacecraft will travel 2.9 billion km to reach Jupiter in April 2030. It will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa.

3
hate everything you love, love everything you hate

[any music format]
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y9HsWVTlyl7mpJAkSFig7q8AW2hKwuO3?usp=sharing

[photography]
Imagine you are a Christmas elf taking a break at work. For a certain reason (imagine what you want!), you decide to take a photo.

Note: if you never saw a Christmas elf, these are really short! They are no more than 20cm (8 inches) tall.

[any music format]
Some sample-based music composing tools can import raw data. This consists in interpreting a file of any type (jpg, pdf...) as if it was an audio file, thus generating unpredictable sounds.

A team of scientists in Greenland just managed to build a machine capable of processing aurora borealis into audio. What does it sound like?

the one note bitpack (1) by agargara should be fun!

Agreeing with the above, the one note idea in particular is cool, and I also really like the squiggly line song idea. Though I think given how formats work it'd need to be more like "draw a song based off of this squiggly line I made", or "make a melody line that looks like a squiggly line", or something, since you can't submit both an image and a song in one entry (I think?).

Got one, recording of voice/instrument playing a song

only a few days left to suggest bitpacks! kleeder and i are gonna start preparing The Schedule at the beginning of November!

don't forget to also send samples to me or kleeder

thank you all SO much for all the responses here, this is such a big list of options. we'll do our best to incorporate the responses in this thread in some way!

oh and again feel free to drop LIEKS on ideas you would like to see happen

dinosaur

Any music format:
Come up with a word (or multiple) that only uses the letters of musical notes:
A B C D E F G + H (what they call B in Germany)

You must use this sequence of notes somewhere in the music; try to give it a prominent role. Also try to base the mood of your song on the title.

Please include this word in the title or description of your song.

Any chip format:
Make nature sounds

[any music format]
Make a theme music for a movie called: Murder on the Polar Express.

"Make nature sounds" is a cool idea! It's good that it's for a chipist format, but to be more precise, I think it would be the most interesting with a format in which you cannot use samples like nsfc or sms