Ruleset & Score Formula

• When registering, you must come in as a duo of one charter and one composer. This is to make sure that the amount of charters and composers are the same.

• • In regards to this, one person can be a composer and a charter at the same time.
    Technically, you can sign up as both a composer and a charter. However, we HIGHLY DO NOT recommend this as we don’t want to risk possible burnout given the stricter time frame of this event. Please make sure that you fully understand the risk.

  • Illustrators can join freely in a seperate registration form if they want to contribute original jacket art and backgrounds.

    • Unlike composers and charters, illustrators' identity won't be hidden and their artwork will be credited in the Submission Showcase.

• All composers, charters and illustrators are required to join The Memorial Discord Server in order to participate.

• Use of official content and generative AI is prohibited. This applies to every element of the submission.

  • Regarding backgrounds, unless illustrators also want to contribute original backgrounds, we recommend using ArcCreate's copyright-free ones, which can be found here. 

• Leaking all elements of the submission is strictly forbidden and will result in disqualification.

• Collaborating with outsiders is strictly prohibited.

• Unlike FOF, Hidden Duo won't contain any monetary prizes for the winning pair.

  • As a compensation, the winning pair (+ the illustrator that contributed to the submission) will receive a special role in the Discord server.

Composing Stage Rules

• During the Composing Stage, composers will have 4 weeks to complete a song for charters to chart.

  • There will be a Late Composing Stage for composers who can't complete the song(s) in time. This phase will last up to a week, depending on how many composers submitted at least 1 song in the original Composing Stage, or it will end immediately after everyone submitted at least 1 song.

• Composers must compose 1 to 2 songs. This mechanism is a failsafe to other composers who fail to submit their work on time.

• Songs must be original. Remixes of already existing songs are not permitted.

• The song must be in the range of 1:50-3:00. This is to make sure charters have enough time charting it.

• Please keep BPM down to two decimals if you do end up using decimals. Due to the limitations of ArcCreate/Arcade (and their variations), anything more than 2 decimals is unchartable. 

• Other than that, time signatures, genres, etc. are not limited. 

• Please submit your composition to the staff team in .ogg format, along with information of your submission in a .txt file that includes the Song Name, BPM and time signature. Please also mark down any BPM and time signature changes in the text file.

  • Composers can optionally also provide a note to the charter and/or illustrator.

• If a composer fails to submit a composition on time, the composer will be disqualified and will have a failsafe song replaced.

  • If a failsafe song ends up not being used, it'll still be featured in the Submission Showcase as a honorable mention.

Charting & Refinement Stage Rules

• After the Composing Stage (and Late Composing Stage if it happens), charters will have 3 weeks to chart whatever song that has been given to you randomly.

• Charters will have access to individual, private Discord threads in our server that include the aforementioned .ogg and .txt files (and, if also provided, a note) from their pair. Charters must finish the song assigned to them.

• Difficulty must be FTR, BYD or ETR only.

• Side must be Light, Conflict or Colorless.

• Video backgrounds are not allowed.

• All timinggroups and their properties are allowed.

• Scenecontrol is allowed except for those that include post-processing effects.

• There is no chart file size limit.

• After the Charting Stage, a week-long Refinement Stage will begin immediately. Composers will be invited to the pair's private thread, where they can discuss about their works.

• Charts must be submitted in the private threads as .arcpkgs. Please follow these instructions when exporting your chart:

  • Set the publisher name to "HiddenDuoII" (without quotations).

  • Set the package name to the name of the song without spaces or special characters if present.

  • Make sure your publisher & package name include only alphanumeric characters.

• Pairs who fail to submit their submissions will be disqualified.

Illustration Rules

• When Charting Stage starts, illustrators will also start drawing jacket art and (optionally) chart backgrounds for the songs randomly assigned to them via DMs.

• Accepted resolutions for jacket art and backgrounds:

  • Jackets: 768x768

  • Backgrounds: 1920x1440

• Illustrations should not contain NSFW elements.

• Illustrators will have time until the end of the Charting Stage to complete their works.

• If unable to finish, the staff team will use an alternate song jacket.

Submission Showcase Information

• All rendered charts will contain the song name and illustrator name only. Charter and composer names will be replaced with an alias assigned by the staff team (e.g. 秘密α, Unknown charter σ) to ensure fairness.

• The following settings will be used for rendering submissions for the Submission Showcase:

  • Music: 1

  • SFX: 0.2

  • Chart Speed: 5

  • Score Display: Default

• After the Showcase, the Hidden Duo II ArcCreate song pack will be released, and the Voting Stage will begin.

Voting Stage Rules

If you would like to see how scoring works in this event, please check out the score formula available at the bottom of this page.

• Voting Stage will begin soon after the Chart Showcase.

• Voting will be done in a form.

• All voters are advised to vote fairly and genuinely.

• Voters must vote for every individual chart and song.

• Illustrations are NOT included in the voting phase.

• Participants' votes towards their own work will not be counted.

• Guessing will be available, however, it will not affect the final score. Speaking of...

Guessing Rules

• Guessing will be done during the Voting Stage in the same form used for voting.

• Guessers will have to guess who composed and who charted what.

• The charter and composer with the least amount of guesses and a guesser with the most amount of correct guesses will receive a role in our Discord server.

  • If you're a guesser, but also not in our Discord server, then uhhhhhh sorry :3