djpretzel

1. More DYNAMIC: we plan on integrating our workshop with the rest of our database so that drafts, unsubmitted/unapproved mixes (if the artist desires), etc. appear alongside featured/approved content - in other words, a hybrid/mashup of our current system with something more immediate.

2. BIGGER. We plan on expanding the site to serve as more of a general resource on VGM, and that vision has not yet been realized. We've been working towards it, though, so don't be surprised when it happens.

3. BETTER. Current website is not responsive, we got no mobile app, current design has been in place for far too long... logo will stick around, domain name will stick around, but we need a bit more than just a new coat of paint - the next version of the site should be a lot more modern & really encourage exploration.

There's no real ULTIMATE goal as all of the above goals are infinitely perfectible via iteration, so we just need to be a bit more agile... it's tough when real life keeps getting in the way :)

Jeanne D'arc for PSP... though Sixto promised me he'd finish his arrangement at some point :)

Objectivity is both:

1. Very explicitly the goal.
2. Entirely impossible.

... so we can't require it of judges, we can only require that they strive for it, and that they are able to explain themselves relative to our own submission standards. Music is personal, subjective, messy, beautiful, crazy, elegant, and everything in between, and evaluating it with any sort of a formal rubric is a daunting task. Nevertheless, we've refined over the years what we're looking for, we've challenged our own preconceptions, we talk about it a lot internally, and we think the music we post to the site is a pretty good reflection of what we explicitly/publicly shoot for & express our standards to be.

I'm vaguely OCD; at the time, retrogames.com would occasionally post news about a C64 remix or something someone had done, but it was rare, it was almost always EDM, and it was usually C64 or Amiga, as those computers had strong European fan arrangement scenes prior to OCR's existing. I wanted a website that could, at least in theory, aggregate such efforts, and which would focus not on any one specific computer or console system, but on ALL video games, and not on any one musical genre/style, but on ALL styles.

That, plus I lived in my parents' basement, so you know... free time.

I also wanted to improve my own musical skills, and felt like arranging music I loved & was passionate about was a pretty good way of motivating myself to make that happen.

So there were a few motivators, but I didn't know it would pick up momentum and that I'd still be doing it 15+ years later :)

Well, at the time B&R was started, I already had an idea for a 'Devil's Lab' mix, so I called that song. As it turns out, that idea never really worked out, and I went through 2 other versions before landing on the approach that ended up on the album. A lot of my creative process involves starting arrangements, figuring out that I hate them, throwing them out, and starting over from scratch :)