Messages

Considering that tips need to be claimed as income on your tax return (at least here in the US), the distinction is arguably irrelevent.

Something like that still skirts close to the line of "profiting off of copyrighted materials", especially that's the only "good" you're providing through your platform.

It reminds me of the title music for Kid Icarus, but it's a fun jaunt that feels like it came from the early classical era like if Mendelssohn arranged something Beethoven wrote to be less hammery.

You've got a lot a good stuff here, I always try to keep an eye on what you post so keep it up!

Alright, having gone through all of them here are my thoughts, which are all contingent on there artwork being properly scaled for the multiple formats we'd need them to be:

Advos

Logo: I like the idea of the design, but I can't immediately tell what it is at a glance. On the surface it just looks like a keyboard and doesn't scan as "NSM". If someone like me can't tell what it says right away, newer or even frequent guests might not be able to either.

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fi_le

Banner: I like this one, it has a warm feel to it and the potential for variation using different characters and music as the background. That said it's a little busy and the site name is scrunched into the top right corner when it really should be the primary feature.

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KC Symphony

Banner 1: This one is fun, possibly a good choice for a night-mode banner, but the lack of the site name really hinders its effectiveness. It's difficult to imagine having the name without sacrificing the overall cohesion of the piece. I do like all of the details, however, but given the scale needs to be variable, I'm not sure how visible or clear they'll be on some screens.

Banners 2-5: This one is much more on brand with the piano front and center, which makes up for the lack of site name. The alternate backgrounds would be nice to cycle through, and I especially like the Super Mario inspired one, but that may be my personal bias.

Banner 6: This one is cute, but unless you know what the site is you'd have no idea what the characters are doing or looking at. Sure you have conductor Kirby off the the side and some music notes around, but they seem incidental and if you're looking at this with no knowledge of what NSM is then you're likely not going to figure it out based on the banner alone.

Logo 1-3: This are super neat, and I appreciate the variations so would could play with them to see which pop better on different backgrounds, or perhaps that's to recreate the flashing effect. The throwback to the NES era with the Super Mario Bros inspired font is a great touch and the folder icon seems like it can be utilized for a number of things. That said the way its organized seems a little bulky, perhaps we could separate the elements for different uses.

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Sir Bone

Banner 1: This one is hard to look at because the colors seem haphazard and just garish.

Banner 2: Now this one is cool. I like the minimalist/post-modern design of the characters, is makes the banner pop more and you could spend a minute or two just looking at it to figure out who's represented there. Personally I'd like to see a version of it without the site name to see the details behind it, but as it is this is probably may favorite of the submissions.

Logo: This logo is alright, but it doesn't have any personality. It just feels so bland, especially compared to your banner art.

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With the above commentary, I think I'd prefer Sir Bone's second banner with KC Symphony's Logos together. To my eye they flow well together with a little editing to match the fonts and other details. That said we can always trial them and let the public vote on them each.

[To Our Beloved Staff and Assorted Dumplings]

To Our Beloved Staff and Assorted Dumplings

You are receiving this letter due to having recently been terminated for alleged exposure to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). It has come to our attention that recently terminated employees have filed a civil lawsuit against NSM Industries and Friends Co. for "wrongful termination" and "theft of personal property". After minutes of mediation we have negotiated a settlement with the aforementioned party and have agreed to the following terms:

• We will rehire all terminated employees at a 15% raise in salary. Given that we don't pay any of you I think it is more than generous.
• We will relax our current punitive policies in regards to sanitation. We will keep our current cleanliness standards but will no longer launch suspected infected employees into the sun.
• We will also establish a less intrusive system for our "work"-from-home initiative. Using your actual homes will be acceptable for those of you unable to commute to Ganymede.
• Unfortunately we will be unable to return all of your personal property as we have repurposed it into a large statue depicting the scene from the Super Mario Bros. movie where Bob Hoskins loses the will to live.
• You will also each be given a personalized bottle of hand sanitizer to reflect how important you all are to the company. There won't be any sanitizer actually in the bottles, however, as we used all of our supply as lubricant for all of our doors.
• Lastly, as a token of apology, you will all receive a $10 gift certificate to Woolworths.

I sincerely hope we can all learn and grow from this experience as we move forward to provide our customers with the high quality products they've come to expect from us. Welcome back to the team.

From the desk of Maestro "I Can't Find My Taco" Wiggins, CCO of NSM Industries and Friends Co.

NOTICE: FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY. DO NOT SEND TO NON-EMPLOYEES.

See, this is why I fired you.

No. I'm pretty sure you're the one who vandalized my fondue equipment.

I don't see why you're all complaining, this is for your own good.

Who let you past the picket line?

How dare you, good thing I've collected our entire supply of sanitizer and apply it every 20 minutes.

This was what was agreed upon after we finished negotiations with your union rep, Brenda.

[To Our Dear Fans and Followers]

To Our Dear Fans and Followers

Recently we sent out a message regarding our updated policies due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However due to the increasing threat we have decided to enact additional measures to ensure not only the safety of all of you who purchase and use our products, but also to protect our staff making said products. Below is a reminder of our previously enacted policies:

NSM's Commitment to Safety

Here at NSM Industries and Friends Co. we strive to bring you the highest quality arrangements of your favorite video game tunes. However, we are aware of the growing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and as such we will be making adjustments to our business model to help reduce risk of exposure to our employees and our loyal customers:

What We Are Doing:

• We are retraining all of our personnel on proper hygiene techniques to minimize the spread of Colonelvirus (CLNID-19).
• Our staff is being issued heavy-duty gloves which make daily tasks practically impossible to complete.
• We will also cease all in-person interaction effective immediately. All personnel will continue operations via Morse code and smoke signals.
• We have begun an intense regiment of deep cleaning our facilities, delivery trucks, delivery drivers, and delivery receivers. This will include high powered washing every hour followed by a detailed scrubbing of all surfaces and people.
• We are also undergoing a complete disinfecting of every single sheet on our archive, as well as complete disinfecting of all of our arrangers.
• In order to minimize risk of exposure to Carvanavirus (CARGO-19), we will be closing our retail establishments effective immediately and burning them down to collect the insurance money.
• In the interest of safety we will start a new method of creating sheet music that will involve working in state-of-the-art clean rooms, arranging via speech to text, and holding intrusive conference calls with our full staff discussing what we are doing to help prevent the spread of Caboodlevirus (CABOX-19) every 15 minutes.
• Should any of our employees begin to exhibit symptoms, or even mention the Carbonaravirus (CANOLI-19) we will launch them into the sun.

What You Can Do To Help:

• Never go outside or interact with another human being in person ever again.

Hugs and Kisses,
The NSM Staff

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Our Continued Efforts

In addition to the above measures, effective immediately are several new policies to our production process:

• Since our staff have issued complaints of our deep cleaning methods, including physical pain and severe sunburns, we will no longer be using human arrangers to produce new sheet music.
• Instead we have devised a foolproof method of arranging using goats, typewriters, hot wheels, and 2lbs of industrial grade fabric softener.
• In order to discourage customers from attempting to buy wares at our ash piles, we will be doubling prices on all of our products and will continue arbitrarily raising prices in perpetuity.
• We have also terminated all of our current staff that are deemed "inessential". This leaves only myself, our janitor Bubbles, a cat that wandered onto the premises roughly 4 months ago whom we have since named "Brenda the Doomslayer", and our steadfast President and CEO Latios, long may he reign.
• We have given each of our terminated staff a generous severance package of two cans of salt-and-vinegar Pringles and a gift certificate to the Piggly Wiggly good for $15. Our accountant (who has also since been terminated due to exposure to the Carnationvirus (CNTID-19)) has assured us this is a very generous sum given the relative lack of dedication they gave the company.
• We will cease shipments of all products for roughly 30 years, or until Mother 4 is released; whichever comes later.
• Our current storage solution has been completely reorganized to comply with recommendations by the federal government. As such our sheet music library has been rearranged to comply with the "6-foot clearance" statute.
• In addition to our current work-from-home mandate, we will begin a new "work"-from-home initiative which will include, among other things, 2 hour workdays and telecommuting from Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter.
• Lastly is a pledge to rehire all of our terminated staff once this crisis has abated. We know that being gross flesh monsters isn't your fault, and the Carpacciovirus (CPRID-19) is just another example of how your frail meat sacks will never surpass the quality and longevity of my toilet paper fortress.

Ways you can continue to help:

• Wash your hands and stay as far away from me as possible.

Your pal and confidant,
The NSM Staff

I played both of your levels during the first stream.

[Part 1Part 2]

Another stream has come and gone, but we saved the stream this time in case you missed it! Thank you to everyone who submitted levels, we had a lot of fun playing through them...even if we didn't beat all of them. Stay tuned for future showcases as well as other community events like this!

Part 1
Part 2

Here are the level codes if you want to play the levels yourself.

Wizard123
Fire and Ice (4BM-Q0M-G0G)
Escape the City (3CD-NRT-RHG)

Maximum 256
1-3 Winter Breeze (BC0-C59-FYG)
1-4 The Submerged Tower (2TJ-8R0-23G)

Pyukman (Jax)
Palace of Winds (3KC-DB8-8HF)
1-Run (87M-YCJ-81H)
Don't Get Trapped (CYF-17T-LDF)

Accountant
Freezy Desert (PV3-NSM-5XG)
General Spiny's Armada (5MM-SLQ-9MG)
Stary Skies (KS3-VP4-B1H)

William644
Icy 1-1 (SMB1 ruins) (WJK-D37-W8G)
Pipe Land (KRD-RP7-HKF)
Bowser's Army (86S-B4M-HGF)

P-Switch B
NSMBW2 1-1 (1XY-DMC-PWF)
Ghostly Coin Rush (P54-4HP-0WG)

Cacabish
As the Coins Descend (C0X-6X9-8RF)

You doubt my mod powers?