OutFox Serenity Guidelines

A simfile in the OutFox Serenity project consists of three components:

  1. Music
  2. Charts
  3. Graphics and visuals (including, where applicable, Lua-scripted effects and modifiers)

After an initial review to ensure they meet the requirements, all music submissions are offered to step artists and designers via our Discord server (although you are more than welcome to make charts and/or graphics for your own music too).

Music guidelines

  • Must be licensed under a a free content license that allows for unrestricted distribution, modification, and commercial use. We recommend using the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) or Attribution-Share Alike (CC-BY-SA) licenses, as they are common and recognized terms;
  • Must be your own original work (no remixes/covers, unless they’re based on public domain media like classical music pieces; You may also remix other participants' submissions);
  • Cannot contain copyrighted material (e.g., using samples/stems from copyright-protected media; Samples and other stems obtained from services like Splice is okay);
  • The song's content can be a maximum of "PG-13" in intensity;
  • Ideally, length should be around 2 minutes for step game types (e.g., pump, dance) and up to 4 minutes for non-step gametypes (e.g., gh, pomu, bemu);
  • Provide your submissions using a lossless format like WAV or FLAC (we’ll handle the conversion process);
  • Have a good mix and mastering to make sure it will sound good on most audio setups. If you have trouble with mixing/mastering, try asking other artists for help.

Chart guidelines

  • Always create a reasonable number of difficulties: not everyone can play a 13 but a 5 is not appealing to everybody;
  • Use the provided template simfiles as a base to create your charts (they already have proper BPM and offsets applied);
  • You agree to license your charts under the CC-BY 3.0 or 4.0 license, attributed to the chart's authors (be sure to fill out the author field on each difficulty!);
  • Multiple chart artists can (and should) cooperate on the same music: having different minds work on the same job will get it done faster and improve variety;
  • Do what you want: tech, mods, stamina, gimmicky, freestyle, doubles… whatever your heart desires while still keeping a variety of levels;
  • You can make charts for all gametypes: you are not limited to only dance or pump (see the full list here);
  • The following rules apply to specific game types:
    • gddm: holds, mines, and rolls are not allowed.
    • gdgf: mines are not allowed
  • Don’t forget to tell if your step charts are for pad/mat or keyboard/controller play; 
  • Provide your submissions using the SSC format.
    • for modcharts, put the .ssc and all the scripts/assets used in a single .zip file;
    • use .bms/.pms for keysounded bemu/pomu charts.
    • use .dtx for keysounded gddm/gdgf charts.
  • Make sure only your difficulty has any changes, your submission should not impact other charts or the main chart header.
  • There can be more than one chart with the same difficulty, however, there can only be a max of 5 charts of the same difficulty and 2 charts of the same difficulty by the same author.

Graphics guidelines

  • Graphics must be your own original work _or_ comprised using material either in the public domain, or licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY or CC-BY-SA license. If you include third-party content, place the required attribution in a credits.txt file in the song directory;
  • You agree to license your graphics under the CC-BY 3.0 or 4.0 license, attributed to the graphics' author. If your graphics incorporate CC-BY-SA-licensed material, your graphics must instead be licensed under CC-BY-SA to comply with the license;
  • Each song must have a Banner (512x160), a Background (1280x720), and optionally a jacket (square resolution, at least 512x512);
  • Background videos (720p30) or animations are optional;
  • Provide your submissions using the PNG or JPG format (for images) and H.264-encoded MP4 (for videos); 
  • The graphics' content can be a maximum of "PG-13" in intensity, but we would recommend keeping things work safe.

Submission

If you're interested in submitting content for future editions of OutFox Serenity, you can visit the OutFox Serenity on our Discord server or GitHub repository.

Registration and content Submission

Now that you have read the guidelines, please use the online form to register or to submit songs.

Submission Form

By participating in this event, you agree to follow the guidelines described above. Content that does not meet the guidelines will not be included in the community pack. Giving feedback to other participants is wholeheartedly welcome, but remember to always be constructive and respectful, and remain in compliance with the Project OutFox community guidelines. Our community is designed to be a positive environment for everyone: keep drama out of the discussions, and do not harass, slander, threaten others for any reason. FAILING TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION. 

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate and feel free to contact OutFox Team members for more information.