Ruleset 

Guidelines that have been changed/added from FOF III: Profulgent Lysis will be marked like this (excluding links).

All times are in the GMT-5 timezone.

Team Guidelines

• Teams must consist of 1 - 8 members.

• As of FOF IV, team members (excluding the leader) are no longer required to join The Memorial Discord server to participate, but it's recommended to do so.

  • Information regarding FOF IV, as well as all submissions, will still be posted in the Discord server.

• You’re allowed to be a member of multiple teams, however we do not recommend doing so.

• Your team must at least have the following roles:

  • Composer

  • Charter

  • Illustrator

  • Everything else is optional.

• All teams are required to make 2 or 3 submissions.

• Teams created with the purpose of insulting, defaming or threatening specific individuals/groups or The Memorial will be disqualified.

• You are allowed to be in a team under an entirely different alias. However, you must disclose this via the Registration Form.

  • You can choose to reveal your identity in the Result Announcement, or be hidden for the entire duration of the event, even after the results.

• All team members are prohibited from using any official Arcaea assets and any form of generative artificial intelligence on any aspect of a submission.

• Collaborating with people outside your team on any aspect of a submission is prohibited.

Registration Guidelines

Due to major changes in the event, registrations will now happen though a Google Form.

• The team member that registers the team is considered the “leader” of said team.

• You must have your team name, tagline, and team member list prepared before registering.

  • The team member list should consist of preferred names of the team members, as well as Discord usernames.

    • Any information regarding your FOF team will be sent to the team leader via Discord DMs. Please enable your direct messages if you haven't already.

  • You can also optionally send in a banner; please check the section below for more information.

• If you’ve made an error in your registration, please edit your registration and notify The Memorial or one of the staff members in Staff Contact Info.

• When you register, The Memorial or one of the staff members listed in Staff Contact Info will DM the leader to confirm your registration.

Regarding Banners

Banners are optional and can be submitted during team registration or later via contacting one of the staff members in Staff Contact Info.

You can also submit a banner even after the Registration Period before your team submits a submission.

If you choose to submit a banner, please follow these guidelines:

• The file size limit for banners is 10MB.

• There are no limitations on banner resolution.

• Any media format that is able to be embedded in Discord is accepted, including GIF and animated .webp files.

  • If the banner image format is unsupported by Google Sites, it will be converted to a different format exclusively for the FOF IV website. The Discord forum will keep the original file.

Banners that do not comply with these guidelines will not be added to the FOF IV website & Discord forum. Team Members will be asked to adjust the banner to meet the guidelines.

Song Guidelines

• Songs will be judged mainly based on how good it sounds to the voters.

  • Technical factors like mixing / composition / etc… may be taken into account depending on voters.

• Your composition must be completely original, must not have been previously released anywhere, and may not be a remix, even if it’s of your own work.

• Song length should be 1:30 minimum, maximum length is not limited.

• To avoid edge cases of song ending before the chart does, all submissions are also required to have around 2 seconds of silence at the end of the song.

• You are allowed to:

  • Use any genre;

  • Use any BPM and time signature;

  • Include BPM and time signature changes;

  • Collaborate with any of your team members;

  • Have vocals and lyrics in any language;

    • Preferably no profanity.

Chart Guidelines

• Charts will be judged on multiple factors.

  • How a chart is judged is completely dependent on the voter’s opinion, but in general, Gameplay, Visual and Uniqueness are the common factors to consider.

• Charts can only be Light, Conflict or Colorless side.

• The chart file must contain only one difficulty.

  • You may add a seperate difficulty only if it's an exact copy of the chart you're actually submitting but without visual Scenecontrol or a video background.

• The difficulty must be Future, Eternal or Beyond.

• All functional notes (notes that give out scores) must be visible on the screen for all aspect ratios.

• Chart file size is not limited.

• All Timinggroup properties are allowed.

• All Scenecontrol is allowed.

  • Voters can decide if the Scenecontrol ruined the chart or enhanced it.

• Camera controls are allowed.

• Video backgrounds are allowed.

• Team members must be credited in the composer, illustrator & charter section in the Project tab.

• When exporting your chart as an .arcpkg, enter your team name as the publisher, and the song title as the package name. Make sure the publisher & package name includes only alphanumeric characters.

Regarding Song Jackets and Chart Backgrounds

• Using any art medium for both the jacket and background is acceptable.

• Accepted resolutions for song jackets and original backgrounds:

  • Song jackets: 768x768

  • Original backgrounds: 1920x1440

  • If you do not comply with this guideline, The Memorial staff will resize your illustrations to those resolutions before uploading them to the Discord server & FOF website.

• The chart background must be ArcCreate friendly or original.

  • Regarding this, public domain assets are allowed as long as you state where you got it from.

  • ArcCreate friendly backgrounds are made by the community. You can find a bunch of them here!

Submission Guidelines

• The leader of your team will send their .arcpkg file to us through a submission form.

  • The submission form no longer requires you to enter song and chart information, as everything should be provided in the .arcpkg file.

• Submissions will be published in the Discord forum and dedicated website as soon as they are verified to be in compliance with the rules.

• An .arcpkg file is required for each submission - however if your team has any extra products (for example a story), you can send them in the submission form as well - these will not be included in the voting form, but will be included as an add-on to your Team’s information on the Website and in The Memorial’s Discord server.

  • Extra products can be sent even after you submit your final submission or after the Submission Phase has ended, however it must go through DMs of Staff Contact Info instead.

• The team can choose to release the finished song and chart to music streaming services and social media platforms only after the submission gets published to the Discord forum and website.

Late Submission Period

• A late submission period will be open for a couple of days (depending on how many people have submitted) after the end of the original submission period.

• The original submission form will be used for the late submission period.

• There will be no penalties against works submitted during the late registration period.

• Any submission submitted after the late submission period will be excluded from the event.

  • Teams that do not meet the required number of submissions after the late submission period will be disqualified from the event.

Voting Guidelines

The following guidelines may be adjusted before the Voting Period.

• All voters are advised to vote fairly and genuinely.

  • This does NOT mean voters are required to be objective - feel free to vote however you want to, as long as the ballot is not absurdly biased.

• All voters NEED to watch AND play every single chart in the song pack/chart premiere.

  • We recommend playing each submission multiple times for the best experience.

• All team members who cast votes on their own submission, those votes will be nullified.

• All voters NEED to vote on every single team. If your ballot contains missing votes, your entire ballot will be nullified.

  • This guideline is not applicable to team members that didn't vote for their own team.

• Each voter will include their Discord username. A DM will be sent to them to make sure it was actually them who submitted the vote.

• At the end of each team section you'll be asked to make an overall comment about the team. 2 random comments from each team will be chosen to be featured in the final result announcement. Your comments will be shared to the leaders of respective teams, but your identity won't be revealed.

  • If you don't want to make a comment for a team, write "-" in the comment.

If you fail to comply with these rules, your team may risk disqualification.

Additional Information

Staff Contact Info

Since some staff members may participate in FOF, we do not want to reveal certain information to them. You may contact The Memorial or the following staff members listed below.

These staff members are also prohibited from participating in FOF IV.

• The Memorial (Twitter; Bluesky; Email: thememorialarc@gmail.com)

• :paradox (Twitter; Bluesky; Discord: kaleidxscope.; Email: aegleheart@gmail.com)

Submission Rendering

The following settings will be used for rendering submissions for the Chart Premiere:

• Music: 1

• SFX: 0.2

• Chart Speed: 5

• Score Display: Default

Regarding Incidents caused by Team Members

If an incident of online backlash occurs due to the personal remarks or actions of a member of your team, and the team believes it is unacceptable to continue working with them, please don't hesitate to reach out to the staff members.

Regarding Inclusion in Other Rhythm Games

We do not guarantee that any song that ranks high in FOF IV will be included in any rhythm game outside of ArcCreate.

The Memorial does not hold the rights to any element of the entries submitted to events hosted by us. If you would like to include one of the songs used in FOF IV or our previous events, please reach out to the song’s composer(s) instead.