The overall instruments and piece sounded nice, however, you directly and very obviously quoted at least one Japanese folk song, Sakura Sakura. Is it not possible to come up with something more original? The jam's rules were to "Submit only original content". My advice would be to look into some ways you can incorporate more originality in your piece - direct quotes are almost never the way to go, especially in a composition contest like this.
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I was not aware of that, it was just sitting in my head for years. And we had to use anything other than chromatic scales. Also, it's not the exact melody as my notes are a little bit different now that i checked. Your advice is greatly appreciated but how do i look for something if i don't know what i'm looking for?
I'm not sure what you mean - you're not looking for anything - but if you do decide to be inspired by classical piece that's 100% okay, but there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism - and this crosses that line for me.
Even if a few notes are different, the sonic identity and imprint is still there. You need to add enough variation in the (rhythms, notes, etc.) to have it not resemble the original melody so much.
As for memory, that's your responsibility to double check if you think something sounds familiar. I mean at some point you had to have heard the song before and it left on an impression on you right?
I'm not trying to be harsh but I'm trying to be realistic. If you were working the industry if you did something like this and it was another song perhaps, you would be indicted for plagiarism and potentially sued, and the consequences would be far greater and harsher than what would happen here in a game jam. This is a lesson that is best learned now rather than later.
What i meant was, it is very hard for me to know if a melody was used elsewhere, without me knowing the song. And i don't know how to check if it has already been used. Yes i've heard the melody somewhere, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack. If i made classical music and you told me it's Mozart or something, i couldn't have known. And don't worry i'm not angry.
I did find out a bit more about this phenomenon, its actually called Cryptomnesia (It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a tune, a name, or a joke; they are not deliberately engaging in plagiarism, but are experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.), you can read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomnesia
And I wasn't joking about the legal stuff, musicians like George Harrison faced legal consequences for subconscious copying, as seen in the "My Sweet Lord" copyright case and had to pay $1,599,987.
I mean in the case of classical music since it is in the public domain you can use it - but it is definitely good practice to credit the composers. What seems to be the issue here is that you used a piece of music in the public domain and passed it on as if it were your original work without crediting the piece or the original composer.
Probably the best way is before you release the work, if you are unsure, you can try asking the community if they can name if the melody of your song appears somewhere else.
I think there are also apps like midomi etc. that let you hum the melody first to check.