I just came across an article on some website trying to compare classical compositions to modern video game music. I have linked the article here. This article, while interesting, makes horrible connections to 'similar' classical composers, and honestly represents why I find modern perceptions of classical music so... wrong. This is so frustrating I'm not even sure how to articulate this well. I also posted this as a comment on Reddit so if you see it there it's me posting.
1) Comparing music that is meant to be the foreground and the focus vs music that is meant to be atmospheric and background. This is the primary problem I have when people do these comparisons. Classical music by 'older' composers is meant to be the primary focus, and as such tends to be very focused thematically, personal, and have many layers of meaning. I mean comparing Mahler to video game music? The author completely misunderstands the vastly personal and philosophical nature of Mahler symphonies and draws the conclusion that they're similar because of 'heavy orchestration', and completely misses the very personal nature and duality of what makes Mahler... Mahler (this comparison particularly frustrated me).
I have seen composer interviews for video games and it seems like it very rarely contains the same amount of thought as a classical symphony. The primary thought of composers is to fit the theme of the game, and not make a profound statement through the music.
2) The comparisons aren't just bad, they completely misrepresent both video game music and classical music. Comparing Zelda with Vaughn Williams? Vaughn Williams music is nostalgic and thematically based off of English Folk Music. The structure and style is impressionist and powerful. Having heard Zelda music as well I can say there is no connection between the two. It's like saying Hayden and Xanakis are similar because they both use strings players!
3) If you look at video game music at all, it should be how it has evolved and uses new ideas/form to progress the classical music genre, not compare it to old forms. The video game aspect is equally bad. There is some good game music, but this music should be evaluated on it's progression *from* classical form, not how it is similar in poor comparisons. There are *some* game which I think is made by brilliant composers because they do something *new*, and not the same old rehashed cinematic crap.
For example, I have a lot of respect for Peter McConnell's work as a composer because of how he evokes emotion very different and unique than the average VG composition. His music, in my opinion, is effective *as music*, not just in the context of a video game (at least some of it, other parts not as much).
4) VG music relies largely on nostalgia and the game for context, Classical composers use the music as the context. Look at some of the comparisons this author makes. Shostakovitch, whose music represents the indomitable nationalist control Russia had over its people, compared to some tune from Fable? The reason why Video Game music is getting traction isn't because it's better music, it's just more prominent music. People are listening to it weather they realize it or not, so when they come across it they remember that epic boss fight or manufactured moment, not how the music's themes represent repression of people (Shostakovitch, Tchaikovsky), the jubilation of coming into the light from the dark (Beethoven 5), or even a story of seduction, survival, and cunning (Scheherazade, Miraculous Mandarin).
Will music like Nobuo or the Zelda composers enter the orchestral rep? Most likely. They sell really well and there are definitely some good pieces out there. However, do they stand up to classical pieces? I personally don't think so, but that's up to individual interpretation. I have stated my reasons why and hopefully someone else can weigh in as well.
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts
Apr 20, 2015
Mar 19, 2015
Are Video Games Art?
The vast majority of this is personal opinion. If you agree or disagree, realize that I am looking to draw my own conclusions, not to force them on others. If you come to a different conclusion please let me know in the comments.
A few years ago, famous film critic Roger Ebert wrote an extensive article in the Chicago Sun Times stating that video games can never be art. I highly suggest reading the article in the link provided, as he greatly expands on his thesis and gives detailed explanations of his thought process using examples that I, as a gamer, would have potentially considered as 'art games' myself.
These articles and arguments have been around in 2010. I remember reading this article when it came out, and the frenzy that happened in the gaming community was rather entertaining to watch. I also thought that Ebert was talking about something which he didn't understand, but as time goes on I am beginning to come around to his conclusion in some cases, and in other arguments I am beginning to find flaws as the video game scene is growing and developing.
One of the biggest problems with trying to identify video games as art is that video games contain all the elements of art. It has visual style, a (usually subpar) story, music of some variety, an aesthetic and atmosphere, and many design choices that someone would associate with art of some way, shape, or form. As such, video games challenges us to redefine "what is art?" as movies have done so a century ago.
The biggest problem with the RPG is that you have no personal interaction in character; due to the complexities of the story your interaction, and therefore ownership, of the characters is quite limited. While some RPGs are more successful with this than others, the interaction of the characters have been, for ages, completely out of user control.
There are, of course, exceptions to this. The Dragon Age series (especially Origins, and from what I hear, Inquisition) both really allow the user to take control of a generally unknown main character and control the plot in various ways. Even then, however, the overall story is unavoidable, the ending still the same ending no matter what choices you make, and the choices that happen aren't from your actions, but from a complex dialogue tree. While these choices to affect later games, it is still, in essence, a linear journey.
There is only one game that comes to mind where users create the story, and that is EVE online. This game is very different and probably deserves its own article. Basically the game allows players to create alliances to control in-game space and resources. These groups fight over control of various stars, important strategic areas, and so on.
EVE online political map. The factions are entirely player driven.
With EVE comes multiplayer experience, and with another question arises: Can multiplayer/competitive games be considered art? According to both the Roger Ebert and the TED talk by Kellee Santiago, multiplayer games cannot be art, just like how chess and football, no matter how splendidly or cunningly played, cannot be art. In general I agree: While people might remember amazing sporting like the Miracle on Ice or Ursain Bolt beating the 100-meter world record, these events are not art.
Another problem with games is the shelf life of games. Unless they are constantly renovated with updated graphics and game play (a la League of Legends, WoW, etc) modern games frequently and rapidly become out of date. Compare this to Gregorian chant, which has been around for literally 1500+ (depending where you want to place the beginning of chant) years and is still used in modern music/film. Paintings need to be restored, but it is done not to update the visual style but to preserve what is already there. There are a few games which I would have put as potentially art games (Homeworld, maybe Mario Bros) but if they need to be updated can you say that they are as long lasting and relevant? Will we still be playing and preserving the original Super Mario Bros in a millennium as we do Gregorian chant? I certainly don't know the answer, but considering the consumerist nature of gaming I have a feeling that these games will eventually get lost or moved to irrelevance.
Within gaming, however, new innovation is coming out, and some of which I think is indicative of an artistic nature. The first being a little indie game called the Stanley Parable. Warning: This section will contain some level of spoilers for this game and potentially others. If you haven't played the game and were thinking of it please skip this.
There are many reasons why I think The Stanley Parable, while being a self critical parody, is one of the few games ever made that can be considered an art game. The first major reason being that this is the only game (to my knowledge) where the game narrative reacts to what the player chooses to do. This isn't just a gimmick but also demonstrates the level of integral narrative that could be in modern games. The reasons to not do this is pretty obvious: the amount of voice work and the amount of world building would be prohibitively expensive and the costs would rapidly increase as the game world grows. Due to this, the game is pretty simple, being only a few hours long.
Another reason why the game could be considered 'pop' art is due to how the game expands beyond... the game (yeah it's a bad sentence). Basically this game can cause you to think about your own life. Are you simply following the preset plan in narrative or are you trying to break out? Is it possible to break the narrative? The Stanley Parable raises personal questions. I remember showing this to some people and they were uncomfortable with how this game portrays 9-5 jobs, the incessant grind of mediocrity of the average job.
This game isn't without problems. I know many people don't even consider it a game because you sorta just walk around. This is also the problem with games and narrative: For a game to have effective narrative there has to be a trade off in game-play. As such, for a modern game to be profound there is a give and take between the game being interactive and the experience to be enlightening. There is another game which might have found a solution to this problem in its own way.
Proun is a racing game that is entirely about game-play and art aesthetic. It has no story, but does it really need one? Proun gives players a unique perspective of art. As you 'race' through these very minimalist and fascinating 3d landscapes the game becomes much more about the ambiance and the experience. There is a reason why this game demoed at a couple art museums.
It's great to see that indie games are exploring the combination of narrative and game-play and taking it to new places. That being said, it's really hard for a game to be a medium of self-expression of ideas which can be achieved much more effectively in so many books, films, art, and music. Games are still a young medium, and as such we are still trying to figure out ways to use games to be though provoking and insightful, or just effective and dramatic works of art. Games still are a ways away from having a reactive and cohesive story-telling and playing experience. As games develop, it is possible to see games become this, and it is great to see what will happen in the future.
A few years ago, famous film critic Roger Ebert wrote an extensive article in the Chicago Sun Times stating that video games can never be art. I highly suggest reading the article in the link provided, as he greatly expands on his thesis and gives detailed explanations of his thought process using examples that I, as a gamer, would have potentially considered as 'art games' myself.
These articles and arguments have been around in 2010. I remember reading this article when it came out, and the frenzy that happened in the gaming community was rather entertaining to watch. I also thought that Ebert was talking about something which he didn't understand, but as time goes on I am beginning to come around to his conclusion in some cases, and in other arguments I am beginning to find flaws as the video game scene is growing and developing.
One of the biggest problems with trying to identify video games as art is that video games contain all the elements of art. It has visual style, a (usually subpar) story, music of some variety, an aesthetic and atmosphere, and many design choices that someone would associate with art of some way, shape, or form. As such, video games challenges us to redefine "what is art?" as movies have done so a century ago.
The definition of art is something personal to each person. For example, some people find pop-art styles and icons such as Banksy as the pinnacle of sophistication, intellectualism, and meaning while others think he's just a nuisance on their walls. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his article, for every definition of art there are examples which would disprove that definition, and as such the lines defining art would get so rigid that it would become impossible to allow anything new into the category of 'art'. Instead, what I'm going to do is look at games, and to see what makes a good game and bad game.
Rather than compare games to existing art, I want to see if I can find a conclusion as to what is 'art' in form of a game. I will probably end up comparing it to movies, music, and so on but the primary goal is to look at video games as an individual sub-catagory as 'art' and find what could be or not be art.
The Problems
Video games have a few problems which game designers are slowly figuring out. The first of which is integrating plot into a story. One of the defining characteristics of a video game from any other form of entertainment or art the interactive nature of the game; the ability to define the progress of the game through personal interaction. Stories, however, have the problem that they have a desire to be linear. To have structure in a story you need to have a premise, development, climax, and a conclusion. As such, video games and story have a difficult interaction. Let us first look at some of the most plot heavy genres of all video games: RPGs.
The opening to Final Fantasy 13
The biggest problem with the RPG is that you have no personal interaction in character; due to the complexities of the story your interaction, and therefore ownership, of the characters is quite limited. While some RPGs are more successful with this than others, the interaction of the characters have been, for ages, completely out of user control.
There are, of course, exceptions to this. The Dragon Age series (especially Origins, and from what I hear, Inquisition) both really allow the user to take control of a generally unknown main character and control the plot in various ways. Even then, however, the overall story is unavoidable, the ending still the same ending no matter what choices you make, and the choices that happen aren't from your actions, but from a complex dialogue tree. While these choices to affect later games, it is still, in essence, a linear journey.
There is only one game that comes to mind where users create the story, and that is EVE online. This game is very different and probably deserves its own article. Basically the game allows players to create alliances to control in-game space and resources. These groups fight over control of various stars, important strategic areas, and so on.
With EVE comes multiplayer experience, and with another question arises: Can multiplayer/competitive games be considered art? According to both the Roger Ebert and the TED talk by Kellee Santiago, multiplayer games cannot be art, just like how chess and football, no matter how splendidly or cunningly played, cannot be art. In general I agree: While people might remember amazing sporting like the Miracle on Ice or Ursain Bolt beating the 100-meter world record, these events are not art.
Another problem with games is the shelf life of games. Unless they are constantly renovated with updated graphics and game play (a la League of Legends, WoW, etc) modern games frequently and rapidly become out of date. Compare this to Gregorian chant, which has been around for literally 1500+ (depending where you want to place the beginning of chant) years and is still used in modern music/film. Paintings need to be restored, but it is done not to update the visual style but to preserve what is already there. There are a few games which I would have put as potentially art games (Homeworld, maybe Mario Bros) but if they need to be updated can you say that they are as long lasting and relevant? Will we still be playing and preserving the original Super Mario Bros in a millennium as we do Gregorian chant? I certainly don't know the answer, but considering the consumerist nature of gaming I have a feeling that these games will eventually get lost or moved to irrelevance.
The Good
Within gaming, however, new innovation is coming out, and some of which I think is indicative of an artistic nature. The first being a little indie game called the Stanley Parable. Warning: This section will contain some level of spoilers for this game and potentially others. If you haven't played the game and were thinking of it please skip this.
There are many reasons why I think The Stanley Parable, while being a self critical parody, is one of the few games ever made that can be considered an art game. The first major reason being that this is the only game (to my knowledge) where the game narrative reacts to what the player chooses to do. This isn't just a gimmick but also demonstrates the level of integral narrative that could be in modern games. The reasons to not do this is pretty obvious: the amount of voice work and the amount of world building would be prohibitively expensive and the costs would rapidly increase as the game world grows. Due to this, the game is pretty simple, being only a few hours long.
Another reason why the game could be considered 'pop' art is due to how the game expands beyond... the game (yeah it's a bad sentence). Basically this game can cause you to think about your own life. Are you simply following the preset plan in narrative or are you trying to break out? Is it possible to break the narrative? The Stanley Parable raises personal questions. I remember showing this to some people and they were uncomfortable with how this game portrays 9-5 jobs, the incessant grind of mediocrity of the average job.
This game isn't without problems. I know many people don't even consider it a game because you sorta just walk around. This is also the problem with games and narrative: For a game to have effective narrative there has to be a trade off in game-play. As such, for a modern game to be profound there is a give and take between the game being interactive and the experience to be enlightening. There is another game which might have found a solution to this problem in its own way.
Proun is a racing game that is entirely about game-play and art aesthetic. It has no story, but does it really need one? Proun gives players a unique perspective of art. As you 'race' through these very minimalist and fascinating 3d landscapes the game becomes much more about the ambiance and the experience. There is a reason why this game demoed at a couple art museums.
It's great to see that indie games are exploring the combination of narrative and game-play and taking it to new places. That being said, it's really hard for a game to be a medium of self-expression of ideas which can be achieved much more effectively in so many books, films, art, and music. Games are still a young medium, and as such we are still trying to figure out ways to use games to be though provoking and insightful, or just effective and dramatic works of art. Games still are a ways away from having a reactive and cohesive story-telling and playing experience. As games develop, it is possible to see games become this, and it is great to see what will happen in the future.
Dec 21, 2010
[Video Games/Music] Video Games Utilizing Music
It's been a long while since I bothered to write one of these things. I have many games in which I have played, as well as music. I doubt I'll write about them anytime soon, however my new-years resolution is to write in this thing at least once a month. Hopefully it will go well.
Anyways, something that has grabbed my attention recently is how video games are using unique methods in gameplay as well as musical direction to enhance musical experience. Not just the usual method of DDR and guitar hero, but other forms of gameplay which you wouldn't think could be music based. Here we go!
BIT.TRIP BEAT
The bit trip series has been out for quite a while, but only recently has it been released for Mac/PC. As you see from the video all you do is a basic pong game where you hit the balls coming towards you. However, the game uses this in a musical way. Each time you hit a ball it makes a pitch as well as a rhythm, which adds more to the music. Getting a perfect score (which is really hard) would get you essentially the full "song". As you see from the video, the actually rhythm of the background music is very minimal, but with the player hitting all the balls correctly you get a version of a full piece of music.
Chime
Chime is a game I haven't played, but it looks like a semi-rhythmic tetris based puzzle game. The piece you put down do have some sort of corrolation with sounds played, but I don't know to what extent your play influences or adds to the music. I know the game's been out a while as well and it's on sale right now. I might pick it up eventually.
The Polynomial
I would have never expected a 3d quasi-space sim to work with music but it kinda does. While not as influential on the music you play, the music effects the gameplay arena depending. It's quite a relaxing game to just fly around, listen to music, and enjoy looking at the nebula-style surroundings bounce around. It's quite enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure I'm still one of the top scores on the high score list.
Beat Hazard
A 2d area shooter which uses the music to gauge the intensity of the enemies as well as the power of your shots. While it's quite fun, it's also pretty difficult due the the fact quieter music is harder. Also, it's pretty easy to beat the bosses, and the overall difficulty, while can be hard, just doesn't lack the creativity as some other games. On the other hand, you don't need to copy your MP3s into a specific playlist folder so at least in that way it's easier to use. Also on Xbox.
Everyday Shooter
Yet another 2s shooter! However, the game play is much different. Each level has a different scoring system for you to figure out. Also, the enemies when shot play sound effects, which sometimes can add to the music and in other ways really detract from it, depending on how in-sync with the music the other tones are. The background music is pretty generic and boring anyways so I don't find it too bad, but there are complaints about it. Over a fun and challenging game.
I believe everyone knows what audiosurf is. For those who don't, here's a video:
There are many other video games which I didn't go over (DJ hero, Guitar hero, DDR, ITG, that keyboard game, some drumming game, probably some others) But I was specifically looking for games where music effects gameplay and gameplay effects music, not just playing to the music.
These games are where the gameplay effects music. This is becoming a more and more common theme in modern music with audience participation, either purposely or unwittingly. For example, the cellphone symphony:
This is for a commercial, but this has been used in actual music. I just can't find a video of it right now.
Another example is the classic piece known as "O Superman" where Laurie Anderson just uses her voice and a modulator to create a form of music.
There are other examples where non-musicians can use technology to create music, but I really can't find them right now. Either way, electronique music is getting more popular with audiences and users since it needs audience participation, which makes people more likely to join those concerts. People like being a part of something, not just to watch but to participate. Classical styles were once also based heavily on participation and social cliques, but in modern times since Berlioz and programme music, music is now made to be listen to and analyzed, and less about the popular. Because of this, there is a hole in the industry where the latest group of crap is shoved at huge prices so that companies can make money.
This post was inspired by BIT.TRIP BEAT and youtube's current link to super popular music with 111 million views, which after listening to I found myself disgusted.
Anyways, something that has grabbed my attention recently is how video games are using unique methods in gameplay as well as musical direction to enhance musical experience. Not just the usual method of DDR and guitar hero, but other forms of gameplay which you wouldn't think could be music based. Here we go!
BIT.TRIP BEAT
The bit trip series has been out for quite a while, but only recently has it been released for Mac/PC. As you see from the video all you do is a basic pong game where you hit the balls coming towards you. However, the game uses this in a musical way. Each time you hit a ball it makes a pitch as well as a rhythm, which adds more to the music. Getting a perfect score (which is really hard) would get you essentially the full "song". As you see from the video, the actually rhythm of the background music is very minimal, but with the player hitting all the balls correctly you get a version of a full piece of music.
Chime
Chime is a game I haven't played, but it looks like a semi-rhythmic tetris based puzzle game. The piece you put down do have some sort of corrolation with sounds played, but I don't know to what extent your play influences or adds to the music. I know the game's been out a while as well and it's on sale right now. I might pick it up eventually.
The Polynomial
I would have never expected a 3d quasi-space sim to work with music but it kinda does. While not as influential on the music you play, the music effects the gameplay arena depending. It's quite a relaxing game to just fly around, listen to music, and enjoy looking at the nebula-style surroundings bounce around. It's quite enjoyable, and I'm pretty sure I'm still one of the top scores on the high score list.
Beat Hazard
A 2d area shooter which uses the music to gauge the intensity of the enemies as well as the power of your shots. While it's quite fun, it's also pretty difficult due the the fact quieter music is harder. Also, it's pretty easy to beat the bosses, and the overall difficulty, while can be hard, just doesn't lack the creativity as some other games. On the other hand, you don't need to copy your MP3s into a specific playlist folder so at least in that way it's easier to use. Also on Xbox.
Everyday Shooter
Yet another 2s shooter! However, the game play is much different. Each level has a different scoring system for you to figure out. Also, the enemies when shot play sound effects, which sometimes can add to the music and in other ways really detract from it, depending on how in-sync with the music the other tones are. The background music is pretty generic and boring anyways so I don't find it too bad, but there are complaints about it. Over a fun and challenging game.
I believe everyone knows what audiosurf is. For those who don't, here's a video:
There are many other video games which I didn't go over (DJ hero, Guitar hero, DDR, ITG, that keyboard game, some drumming game, probably some others) But I was specifically looking for games where music effects gameplay and gameplay effects music, not just playing to the music.
These games are where the gameplay effects music. This is becoming a more and more common theme in modern music with audience participation, either purposely or unwittingly. For example, the cellphone symphony:
This is for a commercial, but this has been used in actual music. I just can't find a video of it right now.
Another example is the classic piece known as "O Superman" where Laurie Anderson just uses her voice and a modulator to create a form of music.
There are other examples where non-musicians can use technology to create music, but I really can't find them right now. Either way, electronique music is getting more popular with audiences and users since it needs audience participation, which makes people more likely to join those concerts. People like being a part of something, not just to watch but to participate. Classical styles were once also based heavily on participation and social cliques, but in modern times since Berlioz and programme music, music is now made to be listen to and analyzed, and less about the popular. Because of this, there is a hole in the industry where the latest group of crap is shoved at huge prices so that companies can make money.
This post was inspired by BIT.TRIP BEAT and youtube's current link to super popular music with 111 million views, which after listening to I found myself disgusted.
Dec 28, 2009
[Reviews] Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Torchlight, Universe at War, Fall Be Kind, and Boots with Spurs
It's been a while since I last wrote on this bloggie thing (it's still a weird word, but whatever) so it's about time that I update with recent viewings and things I have seen.
Avatar (2d)
My score: 3/10
The three points is appreciating the CG and the effort put into the film. However, everything else about the movie totally sucked balls. The acting was horrible at best, the characters unremarkable, and the aliens looked a little WAY too much like dranai from WoW. I know I misspelled it but I don't play WoW anymore so I can't varify the spelling since I'm too lazy. Also, the supposed "science fiction" in the film was non-existent, and the space marines were TOTAL crap. First of all the unobtanium is the word physicists and chemists use to define something necessary for a formula that doesn't exist. Therefore unobtanium would be essentially undefinable.
Another problem is that they really don't explain characters at all. You get plopped in a situation and really none of the characters matter. Even the aliens don't matter. Also, what's going on with the whole "you can't breathe the air" stuff? Apparently there's enough oxygen in the environment to cause massive explosions, but you need an air supply or else you die? It makes no sense.
If the movie wasn't half-assed environmentalist crap, than I might rate it higher, but the overal "moral" of the story is that industrialization is evil and trees and earthiness is good. If this was actually true, why did we devise ways to harness the environment for a better life? Should we live without fire and conveniences like toothpaste? It just tries to push the liberal agenda, when everyone knows (or should know) about the latest revealing of how government and politically controlled the environmentalist movement is.
Sherlock Holmes
My Score: 8/10
This movie is much better than Avatar. It doesn't try to make any great point (hence why I lowered the score) but at the same time it just tells a story. Also, it isn't really like any "classic" Sherlock Holmes story, but much more modernized and created for an American and movie going audience. While I liked how the story was told, as it was clever and rather interesting, I felt that the scenes were cut short and we really weren't given time to identify with the characters. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson are some of the most recognizable characters ever, so they could get away with it a bit more. Even then, though, the characters aren't as refined as the original stories by sir Arthur Doyle. It is a great movie, though I don't know if I'd watching more than twice.
Torchlight
My score: 8/10
Torchlight is essentially a Diablo clone. Diablo is an action RPG-style where you control a single character and as you level up you gain/level up abilities and stats and equipment as you advance through a dungeon. While is a great game and has high re-playability due to multiple classes, class trees, and random level design, it still feels repetitive and boring after a while. The easy and medium modes are ludicrously easy, while hard and insane are much better to my style of game play. The game is pretty fun, but it could use more variation in the game. The bosses in the game don't seem hardly "epic" enough in this game and the story is really weak as well, but really you play it for your Diablo fix. Supposedly the developers are trying to get an online mode going, which should be interesting.
There is a map editor, though I haven't played with it yet. Hopefully some really major mods will eventually come out to play. So far there are only "god" mods and some minor armor sets or creep ideas. I personally would like to see the bosses to become MUCH more of a selling point of this game. They basically only chase you around and autoattack.
Universe at War: Earth Assault
My score: 8.5/10
Universe at War is an RTS (real time strategy) that was recently on steam for $5. After doing a little bit of research and figuring out it was designed by the original C&C team and had unique game play elements, I picked it up. A lot of the negative user reviews is because the game had huge problems on release (which they patched) and steam doesn't apparently patch it properly. For me this was no issue, and on playing it works fine. The game play is beautiful, fun, and the races are TRUELY distinct from each other. I don't know about the balance yet as I hasn't played all three races, but I'm excited to play it online once I finish the campaign. The ai still isn't perfect, as I feel the pathing doesn't work perfectly yet, but overall it is very good.
Fall be Kind
My score: 9/10
The latest Animal Collective album features great tunes yet again. The only problem is that it's too short! It is full of catchy, fun songs that got me bouncing. I often don't listen to AC much, but when I come back to it it is always incredibly refreshing. I suggest buying this album when you can, as it is a breath of fresh air after a long time of other styles of music.
Boots with Spurs
My score: 7/10
This band is a screamy metal band that I got for free somehow. Honestly they aren't too bad for their first album.
The biggest problem with them is that even on the recording many of the track are not in sync with each other, as if they can't play together. This is a huge problem for me, as it really detracts from the music. However, they aren't as bad as I though they would be. Sometimes they repeat their melodies too much, and they also tend to not deviate too far from whatever chord progression the originally use as the opening theme in a piece, but short of that they aren't too bad. Some of it is actually good. If you want to check them out, I suggest you google them at some point or look up on myspace.
So that's it for now. I have a good amount of free time in Janurary but my Junior recital is closing in a bit faster than I like, so we'll see what happens.
Till later then
Avatar (2d)
My score: 3/10
The three points is appreciating the CG and the effort put into the film. However, everything else about the movie totally sucked balls. The acting was horrible at best, the characters unremarkable, and the aliens looked a little WAY too much like dranai from WoW. I know I misspelled it but I don't play WoW anymore so I can't varify the spelling since I'm too lazy. Also, the supposed "science fiction" in the film was non-existent, and the space marines were TOTAL crap. First of all the unobtanium is the word physicists and chemists use to define something necessary for a formula that doesn't exist. Therefore unobtanium would be essentially undefinable.
Another problem is that they really don't explain characters at all. You get plopped in a situation and really none of the characters matter. Even the aliens don't matter. Also, what's going on with the whole "you can't breathe the air" stuff? Apparently there's enough oxygen in the environment to cause massive explosions, but you need an air supply or else you die? It makes no sense.
If the movie wasn't half-assed environmentalist crap, than I might rate it higher, but the overal "moral" of the story is that industrialization is evil and trees and earthiness is good. If this was actually true, why did we devise ways to harness the environment for a better life? Should we live without fire and conveniences like toothpaste? It just tries to push the liberal agenda, when everyone knows (or should know) about the latest revealing of how government and politically controlled the environmentalist movement is.
Sherlock Holmes
My Score: 8/10
This movie is much better than Avatar. It doesn't try to make any great point (hence why I lowered the score) but at the same time it just tells a story. Also, it isn't really like any "classic" Sherlock Holmes story, but much more modernized and created for an American and movie going audience. While I liked how the story was told, as it was clever and rather interesting, I felt that the scenes were cut short and we really weren't given time to identify with the characters. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson are some of the most recognizable characters ever, so they could get away with it a bit more. Even then, though, the characters aren't as refined as the original stories by sir Arthur Doyle. It is a great movie, though I don't know if I'd watching more than twice.
Torchlight
My score: 8/10
Torchlight is essentially a Diablo clone. Diablo is an action RPG-style where you control a single character and as you level up you gain/level up abilities and stats and equipment as you advance through a dungeon. While is a great game and has high re-playability due to multiple classes, class trees, and random level design, it still feels repetitive and boring after a while. The easy and medium modes are ludicrously easy, while hard and insane are much better to my style of game play. The game is pretty fun, but it could use more variation in the game. The bosses in the game don't seem hardly "epic" enough in this game and the story is really weak as well, but really you play it for your Diablo fix. Supposedly the developers are trying to get an online mode going, which should be interesting.
There is a map editor, though I haven't played with it yet. Hopefully some really major mods will eventually come out to play. So far there are only "god" mods and some minor armor sets or creep ideas. I personally would like to see the bosses to become MUCH more of a selling point of this game. They basically only chase you around and autoattack.
Universe at War: Earth Assault
My score: 8.5/10
Universe at War is an RTS (real time strategy) that was recently on steam for $5. After doing a little bit of research and figuring out it was designed by the original C&C team and had unique game play elements, I picked it up. A lot of the negative user reviews is because the game had huge problems on release (which they patched) and steam doesn't apparently patch it properly. For me this was no issue, and on playing it works fine. The game play is beautiful, fun, and the races are TRUELY distinct from each other. I don't know about the balance yet as I hasn't played all three races, but I'm excited to play it online once I finish the campaign. The ai still isn't perfect, as I feel the pathing doesn't work perfectly yet, but overall it is very good.
Fall be Kind
My score: 9/10
The latest Animal Collective album features great tunes yet again. The only problem is that it's too short! It is full of catchy, fun songs that got me bouncing. I often don't listen to AC much, but when I come back to it it is always incredibly refreshing. I suggest buying this album when you can, as it is a breath of fresh air after a long time of other styles of music.
Boots with Spurs
My score: 7/10
This band is a screamy metal band that I got for free somehow. Honestly they aren't too bad for their first album.
The biggest problem with them is that even on the recording many of the track are not in sync with each other, as if they can't play together. This is a huge problem for me, as it really detracts from the music. However, they aren't as bad as I though they would be. Sometimes they repeat their melodies too much, and they also tend to not deviate too far from whatever chord progression the originally use as the opening theme in a piece, but short of that they aren't too bad. Some of it is actually good. If you want to check them out, I suggest you google them at some point or look up on myspace.
So that's it for now. I have a good amount of free time in Janurary but my Junior recital is closing in a bit faster than I like, so we'll see what happens.
Till later then
Dec 13, 2009
[Rant/Games] Warcraft 3 Balance
One thing that has been bothering me is the constant complaining about warcraft 3 and it's lack of popularity. Therefore before I go on to doing things I should be doing (i.e. practice), I want to somewhat analyze warcraft 3 a bit. To do this we must admit a few things:
1) Warcraft is imbalanced.
2) Orc is imbalanced.
3) It is hard to make changes to one race without effecting all the matchups.
Orc is easily the best race in the game. Before people completely disagree with me and say I'm wrong, there is a simple way to look at this:
Take 2 or 3 top players of each race. For undead this is hard as there isn't enough top players beyond TeD, though I think we could use FoVs old records or Lucifer's stuff as well.
Compare the w/l records vs other races, you'll notice how Orc players have the higher w/l than pretty much all other races. Before you say "Orc players are better players" That's why I chose pro level, where everyone will be on an even level skill wise.
Orc is actually easy to balance, because orc players always use the same couple strategies no matter what race they are fighting against. Walkers/Raiders or mass Wyvs. Headhunters are used vs mass air. Catapults can be used vs NE. Because of this general end all be all strat of Orc, I think it would be really easy to balance. While this won't happen, I can still wish.
The strength of the orc is not only the BM, but the fact that the army is so great at forcing or escaping conflicts. Ensnare can start a fight or prevent it from happening at all. Either way it forces the other player to either lose the units or fight. Because of this amazing crowd control, the BM can focus on any unit it likes and kill it.
1) Early healing. Orc's healing is very strong. For a very minimal amount of cost (100 for 3, or about 33 gold) you can heal a unit back up to nominal health. This means any unit you run back to your base can be healed back to full. Add this with walker's damage mitigation, and units can survive a long long time. To make this more balanced, I think either make it a bit more expensive, reduce the amount healed, or increase the time it takes for the healing pot to be useful. The third means a bm can't recover 100-200 hp wind walked, break damage, and stay in a fight if it takes say, 1 minute for a full hp heal instead of the 30 seconds.
2) Ensnare. Ensnare is ridiculous. It last forever on normal units, and just with 4 (double check that someone?) you can permanently ensnare any hero. Add hex to remove TPing and potions and you can kill any hero. or most escaping units. Add a 50 gold scroll of speed for even more insane fighting or retreating, and it become a too powerful tool. I think 3 seconds on heroes and 10-15 on units is good, or significantly increase the cool down.
3) Hex I can't complain too much about, it's annoying at higher levels, but as it being a hero spell it works really well. If anything increase the mana cost a bit so it isn't as spammable, to allow items to be used while hexed would balance it out a lot as well.
4) Critical Strike. This ability is what make many many players scream and tear out their hair. A blademaster with a gloves of haste, boots, and as many claws + 6, 9, or 12 they can get their hands on has the power to level any army when micro'd well. The BM's attack speed as well as the chance to do ridiculous crits makes him very power. Combine that with the CC from hex, stomp, or ensnare and he can dominate almost every other hero in the game. There aren't many ways to really balance this.
Basically the problem is that it's luck based. There is a chance that it will hit 0 out of 100 attacks, or 50 out of every 100. When you have a hero getting hit with a BM, you have to act like the next attack will be a crit, and micro accordingly.
One way to balance this is to lower the BMs base damage or attack speed, but that just makes him worse. Another way is to reduce the crit damage. Rather than 2,3,4, it could be 1.5,2,2.5 or something similar. I think a good way to balance this is to actually make CLAWS NOT STACK. While it will significantly reduce damage, it effects ALL dps heroes, so it would end up making them less effective in general and would promote other hero choices.
Oh and remove the darn tomes of XP.
1) Warcraft is imbalanced.
2) Orc is imbalanced.
3) It is hard to make changes to one race without effecting all the matchups.
Orc is easily the best race in the game. Before people completely disagree with me and say I'm wrong, there is a simple way to look at this:
Take 2 or 3 top players of each race. For undead this is hard as there isn't enough top players beyond TeD, though I think we could use FoVs old records or Lucifer's stuff as well.
Compare the w/l records vs other races, you'll notice how Orc players have the higher w/l than pretty much all other races. Before you say "Orc players are better players" That's why I chose pro level, where everyone will be on an even level skill wise.
Orc is actually easy to balance, because orc players always use the same couple strategies no matter what race they are fighting against. Walkers/Raiders or mass Wyvs. Headhunters are used vs mass air. Catapults can be used vs NE. Because of this general end all be all strat of Orc, I think it would be really easy to balance. While this won't happen, I can still wish.
The strength of the orc is not only the BM, but the fact that the army is so great at forcing or escaping conflicts. Ensnare can start a fight or prevent it from happening at all. Either way it forces the other player to either lose the units or fight. Because of this amazing crowd control, the BM can focus on any unit it likes and kill it.
1) Early healing. Orc's healing is very strong. For a very minimal amount of cost (100 for 3, or about 33 gold) you can heal a unit back up to nominal health. This means any unit you run back to your base can be healed back to full. Add this with walker's damage mitigation, and units can survive a long long time. To make this more balanced, I think either make it a bit more expensive, reduce the amount healed, or increase the time it takes for the healing pot to be useful. The third means a bm can't recover 100-200 hp wind walked, break damage, and stay in a fight if it takes say, 1 minute for a full hp heal instead of the 30 seconds.
2) Ensnare. Ensnare is ridiculous. It last forever on normal units, and just with 4 (double check that someone?) you can permanently ensnare any hero. Add hex to remove TPing and potions and you can kill any hero. or most escaping units. Add a 50 gold scroll of speed for even more insane fighting or retreating, and it become a too powerful tool. I think 3 seconds on heroes and 10-15 on units is good, or significantly increase the cool down.
3) Hex I can't complain too much about, it's annoying at higher levels, but as it being a hero spell it works really well. If anything increase the mana cost a bit so it isn't as spammable, to allow items to be used while hexed would balance it out a lot as well.
4) Critical Strike. This ability is what make many many players scream and tear out their hair. A blademaster with a gloves of haste, boots, and as many claws + 6, 9, or 12 they can get their hands on has the power to level any army when micro'd well. The BM's attack speed as well as the chance to do ridiculous crits makes him very power. Combine that with the CC from hex, stomp, or ensnare and he can dominate almost every other hero in the game. There aren't many ways to really balance this.
Basically the problem is that it's luck based. There is a chance that it will hit 0 out of 100 attacks, or 50 out of every 100. When you have a hero getting hit with a BM, you have to act like the next attack will be a crit, and micro accordingly.
One way to balance this is to lower the BMs base damage or attack speed, but that just makes him worse. Another way is to reduce the crit damage. Rather than 2,3,4, it could be 1.5,2,2.5 or something similar. I think a good way to balance this is to actually make CLAWS NOT STACK. While it will significantly reduce damage, it effects ALL dps heroes, so it would end up making them less effective in general and would promote other hero choices.
Oh and remove the darn tomes of XP.
Oct 28, 2009
[Games] awesome stuff! and Windows 7
Many awesome games are coming out. Some I would like to talk about.
Game 1) New Monkey Island Game. I'll be installing it this Friday, though I probably won't get to it for a while as there are Halloween parties in which I shall take part of. However, I believe it shall continue being a great series, as it is funny and great stories.
Game 2) League of Legends. League of Legends is a free game that has just started open beta. It is based off of the stupidly popular "DotA" Warcraft 3 game, but is much better. First of all, Guinsoo, who origionally made the First dota for RoC is on the game, which means the character design and everything is pretty unique. While you still see some hero similarities of War3's DotA in the game, it is much more friendly to new people than the current War3 iteration. Did I mention that it's free?
The only problem I see is that the popularity will drop off when Starcraft 2 comes out. I don't mean that AoS players play RTS games, but I do mean that when SC2 comes out there will be an okay AoS for Sarcraft in say, about a month after release. Crappy AoSs will come out much, much earlier. Basically I hope the appeal won't fall out in favor for a game with a larger budget and a larger company.
Game 3) Assassins Creed 2
It seems that many people disliked or found the original Assassins Creed repetitive. While I can see their point, I don't think it should have received the butchered reviews that came with the game. I'm replaying the game myself and am enjoying it immensely. The only problem I have with it is that sneaking through the game is too slow and near the end their are too many guards looking for you.
Assassins Creed 2 I am really excited for, not for the extended game play, more in depth story, or the new mechanics, but that it's set in Italy. Hopefully I'll be able to play the game in Italian with English subtitles. Also, having gone to Italy, I really hope that we'll be able to run the rooftops or Arezzo. So far Florance is a confirmed place, so I don't think Arezzo is too big a stretch. We shall see.
Game 4) Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 is also on every blizzard fanboy's game list. It looks pretty good, zerg are apparently STILL imba because of the queen's injection ability, and so on. The one thing I really hope this game will do is change the game enough so that new strategies will be devised, and that much of the old gameplay won't be seen the same way.
However, I think that the game will be much easier. Many of the reasons for high apm in starcraft games: small selection groups, a/patrol moving, stacking, worker shenanigans, bad pathing AI, no smart casting, etc. will be removed. Half the reason people needed to have 200+ apm to be C or better is because of all these gimmiks that you need to be able to pull off in a normal game. Many, if not all of these things will be removed. I think starcraft players will no longer be able to say that warcraft 3 is easy mode in comparison now that the gameplay has been really simplified.
As for Windows 7, I'd say it's better than Vista, still a bit worse than XP. This will change as they patch some issues for it though. This review is on an AMD/ATI computer. I also have it installed on an Intel/Nvidia computer, but I havn't used 7 at all on it.
-It does crash occasionally, or I should say programs that I run crash occasionally. This is because there isn't enough software support for windows 7 yet. While most all programs run fine on it (so far starcraft is the only problem, being all weird colored. In game works fine though) they can have a tendency to crash. This will change as it becomes a larger section of the PC market, and as windows team gets patches out.
-Battery life is extended from Vista. I get at least another half hour to an hour on power saver/balance mode.
-Boot times is MUCH faster. I think it is at least on par to mac, if not better.
-Instillation is pretty easy, if you do a clean install all your old files are put in a folder for you to save or delete. Hopefully the switched the DL file so that it's an ISO (disk image) instead of it's original version. When I downloaded it, I had to:
1) unpackage file
2) use a command line to turn files into an ISO file
3) burn to a disk or USB drive
Not too difficult, but time consuming.
I think that's it for now. I would add links and stuff but I'm too lazy at the moment.
Game 1) New Monkey Island Game. I'll be installing it this Friday, though I probably won't get to it for a while as there are Halloween parties in which I shall take part of. However, I believe it shall continue being a great series, as it is funny and great stories.
Game 2) League of Legends. League of Legends is a free game that has just started open beta. It is based off of the stupidly popular "DotA" Warcraft 3 game, but is much better. First of all, Guinsoo, who origionally made the First dota for RoC is on the game, which means the character design and everything is pretty unique. While you still see some hero similarities of War3's DotA in the game, it is much more friendly to new people than the current War3 iteration. Did I mention that it's free?
The only problem I see is that the popularity will drop off when Starcraft 2 comes out. I don't mean that AoS players play RTS games, but I do mean that when SC2 comes out there will be an okay AoS for Sarcraft in say, about a month after release. Crappy AoSs will come out much, much earlier. Basically I hope the appeal won't fall out in favor for a game with a larger budget and a larger company.
Game 3) Assassins Creed 2
It seems that many people disliked or found the original Assassins Creed repetitive. While I can see their point, I don't think it should have received the butchered reviews that came with the game. I'm replaying the game myself and am enjoying it immensely. The only problem I have with it is that sneaking through the game is too slow and near the end their are too many guards looking for you.
Assassins Creed 2 I am really excited for, not for the extended game play, more in depth story, or the new mechanics, but that it's set in Italy. Hopefully I'll be able to play the game in Italian with English subtitles. Also, having gone to Italy, I really hope that we'll be able to run the rooftops or Arezzo. So far Florance is a confirmed place, so I don't think Arezzo is too big a stretch. We shall see.
Game 4) Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 is also on every blizzard fanboy's game list. It looks pretty good, zerg are apparently STILL imba because of the queen's injection ability, and so on. The one thing I really hope this game will do is change the game enough so that new strategies will be devised, and that much of the old gameplay won't be seen the same way.
However, I think that the game will be much easier. Many of the reasons for high apm in starcraft games: small selection groups, a/patrol moving, stacking, worker shenanigans, bad pathing AI, no smart casting, etc. will be removed. Half the reason people needed to have 200+ apm to be C or better is because of all these gimmiks that you need to be able to pull off in a normal game. Many, if not all of these things will be removed. I think starcraft players will no longer be able to say that warcraft 3 is easy mode in comparison now that the gameplay has been really simplified.
As for Windows 7, I'd say it's better than Vista, still a bit worse than XP. This will change as they patch some issues for it though. This review is on an AMD/ATI computer. I also have it installed on an Intel/Nvidia computer, but I havn't used 7 at all on it.
-It does crash occasionally, or I should say programs that I run crash occasionally. This is because there isn't enough software support for windows 7 yet. While most all programs run fine on it (so far starcraft is the only problem, being all weird colored. In game works fine though) they can have a tendency to crash. This will change as it becomes a larger section of the PC market, and as windows team gets patches out.
-Battery life is extended from Vista. I get at least another half hour to an hour on power saver/balance mode.
-Boot times is MUCH faster. I think it is at least on par to mac, if not better.
-Instillation is pretty easy, if you do a clean install all your old files are put in a folder for you to save or delete. Hopefully the switched the DL file so that it's an ISO (disk image) instead of it's original version. When I downloaded it, I had to:
1) unpackage file
2) use a command line to turn files into an ISO file
3) burn to a disk or USB drive
Not too difficult, but time consuming.
I think that's it for now. I would add links and stuff but I'm too lazy at the moment.
Oct 25, 2009
[Music/Tech] Garry Schyman, Animal Collective
I am now writing this on PC that has windows 7. I will talk about the windows 7 experience on another post, for I have more important things to talk about. This time is an interview from Garry Schyman, the composer of the amazing game Bioshock. While his answers are pretty short due to him finishing deadlines (possibly Bioshock 2?) he still shares some good information. He is also pretty frequently interviewed so it's hard not to ask redundant questions. I'll also list his site and some of his interviews here:
Garry Schyman's site
Tracksounds interview
Music 4 Games interview
SoundtrackNet interview
BSOSpirit interview
And my interview/e-mail:
What instrument did you origionaly play before you started composition? I can't find any interview which says what instrument you play.
Piano.
Personally, what musicians and composers influence you?
Many! Mahler, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Bartok, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Penderecki - and many more.
Why did you decide to compose a more late-romantic piece for Cohen's Masterpiece? I would think in a ultra-progressive paradise with no limits in technology or ideas someone like Cohen would go for something a bit more atonal or contemporary, such as Cage's HPSCHD or Berg's Lulu or Glass' Einstein. I'm not complaining, but I'm just curious =]
Remember the date that BioShock takes place. 1960 but isolate since the late 40's or so. I was thinking that Cohen would have been very conservative (perhaps ala Rachmaninoff) writing neo romantic music that was still chic back then. Oh well that was my idea anyways. Not correct answer I suppose.
Can you roughly describe your thought process in writing a piece for a video game?
Hmm - sit down at my keyboard and start writing. Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling proverbial teeth! But the deadlines keep the music coming! I love deadlines!
Well it's pretty short but there is plenty of information on him out there so I guess we can be thankful for that much.
Another Animal Collective album is in the works, making this the second album release this year. I'm pretty sure there isn't a leak yet but I could be completely and utterly wrong. The album's name is "Fall be Kind" and is set to be released November 8th. I'll let you know more information when I get to it.
Garry Schyman's site
Tracksounds interview
Music 4 Games interview
SoundtrackNet interview
BSOSpirit interview
And my interview/e-mail:
What instrument did you origionaly play before you started composition? I can't find any interview which says what instrument you play.
Piano.
Personally, what musicians and composers influence you?
Many! Mahler, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Bartok, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Penderecki - and many more.
Why did you decide to compose a more late-romantic piece for Cohen's Masterpiece? I would think in a ultra-progressive paradise with no limits in technology or ideas someone like Cohen would go for something a bit more atonal or contemporary, such as Cage's HPSCHD or Berg's Lulu or Glass' Einstein. I'm not complaining, but I'm just curious =]
Remember the date that BioShock takes place. 1960 but isolate since the late 40's or so. I was thinking that Cohen would have been very conservative (perhaps ala Rachmaninoff) writing neo romantic music that was still chic back then. Oh well that was my idea anyways. Not correct answer I suppose.
Can you roughly describe your thought process in writing a piece for a video game?
Hmm - sit down at my keyboard and start writing. Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling proverbial teeth! But the deadlines keep the music coming! I love deadlines!
Well it's pretty short but there is plenty of information on him out there so I guess we can be thankful for that much.
Another Animal Collective album is in the works, making this the second album release this year. I'm pretty sure there isn't a leak yet but I could be completely and utterly wrong. The album's name is "Fall be Kind" and is set to be released November 8th. I'll let you know more information when I get to it.
Oct 18, 2009
[Music/Tech] Achron and Music
WAs just checking some sites of developing games, and one of which I've been following is called Achron. It's an RTS about time travel. I don't check this site often, but I did today and I found a post on the composers side of looking at a developing piece. This is the site. It also has the post on the front page.
I'll post some of it here as well:
I'll post some of it here as well:
Achron has a four dimensional story which begs for an engaging sort of storytelling -- something with some darkness, gravity, and emotion to it. When I started working with Hazardous Software on music for Achron, there was not yet a visual artistic concept to coordinate with, which meant there was quite a bit of back and forth between myself and Chris about storyline and motivations. We determined that there would be a few key factors to account for in the music. One would be that it should be something one could listen to for an hour at a time without going crazy. While it cannot be confirmed that this will make the final cut, our current intentions are to use tracks which are significant in length, so as not to be an afterthought.
Another major consideration was that there was a story to tell and epic themes were going to factor in. The bottom line is that I did not want to get lost in a generic feeling of military or sci-fi cliche. I wanted to use the music to emphasize story elements.
Because the story begins from the human perspective and much of the story involves being somewhat achronal, we mixed themes of bravado, arrogance, regret, and loss, which accompanies a people who are, for all intents and purposes, lost in space that they had previously conquered. At the same time, these people still have something to lose which is worth fighting for, so that sense of urgency and non-hopelessness has to be inherent.
For the Vecgir, we described their context for being with themes of brokenness, freedom, individualism, and tribal instinct.
The Grekim are a discussion for another day.
Until Later
Oct 15, 2009
[music/tech] Video Games and Music: an Interview
This is a quick post since I have class and things to do, but I recently interviewed composer Thomas Dvorak who is working/just finished the music for a new game called Machinarium. It's music is very delicious, so I decided to shoot the composer an e-mail. I was surprised when he answered so I decided to put what he wrote on my blog.
Also check his website here: http://floex.cz/
First of all, what are you're musical influences? I know this question is generic, but I'm wondering more specifically what influenced influenced the music in the game, such as bands, composers, etc.
... my interest is mostly in experimental / electro acoustic electronic field...
some time ago i was putting together my heroes, and i wrote these people :)
Lusine, Beaumont Hannant, Arve Henriksen, Apparat, Vladislav Delay, AGF, Fennesz, Clark, Jon Hopkins, Burial, Plaid, James Holden, Boards Of Canada, Arovane, I'm Not A Gun, early Miles Davis, Keith Jarret, Kayo Dot, Sonic Youth, OTK, Deerhoof, Thom York, Sakamoto, Mark Hollis, Hans Zimmer, Bartok, Glass, Steve Reich, Vladimir Vaclavek...
Maybe it would be interesting to read this interview :) it will be soon published on gamasutra I think
Is the story something that provides direction for your compositions, for instance in the making of Samorost 2?
I would say not so much. The story is rather simple. For me what’s very important is the atmosphere of the scene. I am always surprised by the process of "trying to find right mood for the scene". Sometimes my approach to the scene will feel like too much of a cliché. What I’ve found out is that before I start to do some music, I should wait a bit: look at the scene, and try to get a sense of the atmosphere. Sometimes it’s better not to look at the scene, but to think about it. It can be best not to start immediately making something.
There are many elements which in the end can be inspiring to build the proper atmosphere. It can be the the instrumentation, sound and space design, the melodies and harmonies used, rhythmical structure... and it’s good for me to think about all of these things before I actually start to compose.
Was there anything in particular that you recall contributing to the atmosphere of Samorost 2?
For me, it’s a dreamy, surreal world. In the Czech Republic, everyday there is a small story for children on television called "Vecernicek". It’s a story for making children go to sleep. Samorost, I think, has also a bit of this childlike feeling.
I like very much the world of fantasy and an approach that comes from something unconscious. This is something that is very close to my view of art. I like crazy Japanese movies like those of Katuhito Ishii. I don’t know if you know “Funky Forest”? It’s a kind of fantasy which as a European I’m not used to. I’m astonished and surprised. It goes over all the barriers of what is imaginable.
You observe this kind of thing at Aminata?
Yes, there also, although still more in this European sense. They are very playful with what they do. I think that as long as it does not lose this playful approach, it will work.
Who chose the six tracks for the soundtrack preview?
I chose the tracks. I personally like to make songs that are more melancholy, full of deeper emotions. The music in the last part of the game is probably closest to this mood. It’s also more acoustical, including the piano. For that reason, I put a few songs from that part on the preview. Mostly in the soundtrack there are compositions, which are more playful. These two kinds of songs are on this preview.
“The Bottom” is situated in the narrative context of the very beginning of the game, where you are introduced to the robot. Was this plot element of concern to you at all?
Yes. It’s important because you’re starting. It’s an introduction, before the city. The music is very abstract and ambient, including elements of found sounds. The other Tomas Dvorak was sampling sounds a lot, especially the metallic ones... so sometimes I would take stuff from there and used it as musical elements. I also borrowed a analogue synthesizer from my friend Roland Sh01, with a sound that’s very dirty and unstable. It doesn’t hold a tune. You can hear it on “Black Cap Brotherhood Theme” and the background of “Glasshouse with the Butterfly.”
The robot falls down to “the bottom,” so for me it could be taken as the real start. The song contains some of my basic ideas about the soundtrack. I am using as sources instruments that have the feeling of metal. For example, steel strings, melodic gongs like those from Java. The Oriental feeling of the instruments I don’t see so much ethnically. It’s a feeling that’s not only not European, but out of this planet.
The soundtrack preview is a bit different than in the game. Usually I add some more rhythmic elements to the mp3s. In the game it’s more ambient, because it must work as background music.
Where does “Clockwise Operetta” appear in the game?
There’s a part where there are some bad guys in a central hall of a house, where there are these clocks, and the robot has to deal with them. If the robot sees through the binoculars, someone is attaching a bomb to the tower. The scene is not dramatic, on the first look, but something not very good is happening. The theme later appears when the robot has to deal with the bomb itself.
I made a song for the room right next to the one where “Clockwise Operetta” appears, which is a remix. There I put all the track globally through a Spectral Blurring effect. It’s like you are hearing the music in a dream or from a memory. The theme appears in different arrangements in some parts of the game.
Are there these kinds of musical variations for other tracks?
For some of them, but not so many. It’s an interesting problem in this game, because there are two sorts of arrangements. One is where the music appears later in a different context. For example, it’s connected to some character or development in the game. Second, there are some themes which are connected by location.
However, in the game it doesn’t happen so often. For each of the scenes there are different tunes. I was trying to do it more often, but sometimes then the arranged music would not work for the scene. In that case, I would prefer to make something totally different.
Were you ever considering having the various arrangements included in the soundtrack album?
I’ve really made a lot of music for this game. If I were to include all the music that I used, it might be two times bigger. What I wanted to do was make this soundtrack enjoyable to listen to, so the idea was to choose the songs which are working together somehow. They are the strongest musically, which makes it more fun to listen.
“The Castle" is also one of my favorites. It’s from the last part of the game and is a little sadder, because it’s in the house of the bad guys. The idea was to make music that would have a little bit of a castle feeling, but as dirty as everything else. You hear a harpsichord, a very typical instrument for this castle music, baroque music. There is double bass and violoncello, but dirtified and degraded with effects. The feeling is like you would hear it from some old record.
I wanted to make music that is a little bit surreal but still fit in with the general idea of this soundtrack. I like very much these kinds of compositions. Compositionally it’s minimalistic, because there is a phrase you are repeating, while also developing it into different chords. It’s still very abstract, because the phrases and chord development is longer, more horizontal - like if the melody would be coded into harmonic progression. The phrase is exposed in different interpretations through the sound. I like this kind of approach.
The song is in two parts. One is more rhythmical, with these concrete instruments, the pizzicato from the string instruments. Later, in the second part, the collapses into more ambient stuff, but you can still hear the melody from the original part through the granular effects. It’s derived from the original tune, like maybe if you went to sleep and heard it from a dream. They’re like different faces of the same tune.
If you would look at my arrangement in Logic, which is software I use to make music, the arrangement does not have so many tracks, maybe five or six. Yet the song has different colors. While it might sound acoustical, it’s actually made from MIDI and the change is being made by different effects applied on the tracks trough the time.
I bought piano two years ago
It is combination of recorded acoustical instruments from my studio, midi based acoustical instrument (like samplebanks), and synths...
But very important aspect of all the sources is sound manipulation, sound design....
There you go. Good composers play clarinet. Win.
Also check his website here: http://floex.cz/
First of all, what are you're musical influences? I know this question is generic, but I'm wondering more specifically what influenced influenced the music in the game, such as bands, composers, etc.
... my interest is mostly in experimental / electro acoustic electronic field...
some time ago i was putting together my heroes, and i wrote these people :)
Lusine, Beaumont Hannant, Arve Henriksen, Apparat, Vladislav Delay, AGF, Fennesz, Clark, Jon Hopkins, Burial, Plaid, James Holden, Boards Of Canada, Arovane, I'm Not A Gun, early Miles Davis, Keith Jarret, Kayo Dot, Sonic Youth, OTK, Deerhoof, Thom York, Sakamoto, Mark Hollis, Hans Zimmer, Bartok, Glass, Steve Reich, Vladimir Vaclavek...
Do you draw the ideas of the various themes/motifs in the game from the game itself or just from ideas you have in your head. How much of the music is influenced by the game?
Maybe it would be interesting to read this interview :) it will be soon published on gamasutra I think
Is the story something that provides direction for your compositions, for instance in the making of Samorost 2?
I would say not so much. The story is rather simple. For me what’s very important is the atmosphere of the scene. I am always surprised by the process of "trying to find right mood for the scene". Sometimes my approach to the scene will feel like too much of a cliché. What I’ve found out is that before I start to do some music, I should wait a bit: look at the scene, and try to get a sense of the atmosphere. Sometimes it’s better not to look at the scene, but to think about it. It can be best not to start immediately making something.
There are many elements which in the end can be inspiring to build the proper atmosphere. It can be the the instrumentation, sound and space design, the melodies and harmonies used, rhythmical structure... and it’s good for me to think about all of these things before I actually start to compose.
Was there anything in particular that you recall contributing to the atmosphere of Samorost 2?
For me, it’s a dreamy, surreal world. In the Czech Republic, everyday there is a small story for children on television called "Vecernicek". It’s a story for making children go to sleep. Samorost, I think, has also a bit of this childlike feeling.
I like very much the world of fantasy and an approach that comes from something unconscious. This is something that is very close to my view of art. I like crazy Japanese movies like those of Katuhito Ishii. I don’t know if you know “Funky Forest”? It’s a kind of fantasy which as a European I’m not used to. I’m astonished and surprised. It goes over all the barriers of what is imaginable.
You observe this kind of thing at Aminata?
Yes, there also, although still more in this European sense. They are very playful with what they do. I think that as long as it does not lose this playful approach, it will work.
Who chose the six tracks for the soundtrack preview?
I chose the tracks. I personally like to make songs that are more melancholy, full of deeper emotions. The music in the last part of the game is probably closest to this mood. It’s also more acoustical, including the piano. For that reason, I put a few songs from that part on the preview. Mostly in the soundtrack there are compositions, which are more playful. These two kinds of songs are on this preview.
“The Bottom” is situated in the narrative context of the very beginning of the game, where you are introduced to the robot. Was this plot element of concern to you at all?
Yes. It’s important because you’re starting. It’s an introduction, before the city. The music is very abstract and ambient, including elements of found sounds. The other Tomas Dvorak was sampling sounds a lot, especially the metallic ones... so sometimes I would take stuff from there and used it as musical elements. I also borrowed a analogue synthesizer from my friend Roland Sh01, with a sound that’s very dirty and unstable. It doesn’t hold a tune. You can hear it on “Black Cap Brotherhood Theme” and the background of “Glasshouse with the Butterfly.”
The robot falls down to “the bottom,” so for me it could be taken as the real start. The song contains some of my basic ideas about the soundtrack. I am using as sources instruments that have the feeling of metal. For example, steel strings, melodic gongs like those from Java. The Oriental feeling of the instruments I don’t see so much ethnically. It’s a feeling that’s not only not European, but out of this planet.
The soundtrack preview is a bit different than in the game. Usually I add some more rhythmic elements to the mp3s. In the game it’s more ambient, because it must work as background music.
Where does “Clockwise Operetta” appear in the game?
There’s a part where there are some bad guys in a central hall of a house, where there are these clocks, and the robot has to deal with them. If the robot sees through the binoculars, someone is attaching a bomb to the tower. The scene is not dramatic, on the first look, but something not very good is happening. The theme later appears when the robot has to deal with the bomb itself.
I made a song for the room right next to the one where “Clockwise Operetta” appears, which is a remix. There I put all the track globally through a Spectral Blurring effect. It’s like you are hearing the music in a dream or from a memory. The theme appears in different arrangements in some parts of the game.
Are there these kinds of musical variations for other tracks?
For some of them, but not so many. It’s an interesting problem in this game, because there are two sorts of arrangements. One is where the music appears later in a different context. For example, it’s connected to some character or development in the game. Second, there are some themes which are connected by location.
However, in the game it doesn’t happen so often. For each of the scenes there are different tunes. I was trying to do it more often, but sometimes then the arranged music would not work for the scene. In that case, I would prefer to make something totally different.
Were you ever considering having the various arrangements included in the soundtrack album?
I’ve really made a lot of music for this game. If I were to include all the music that I used, it might be two times bigger. What I wanted to do was make this soundtrack enjoyable to listen to, so the idea was to choose the songs which are working together somehow. They are the strongest musically, which makes it more fun to listen.
“The Castle" is also one of my favorites. It’s from the last part of the game and is a little sadder, because it’s in the house of the bad guys. The idea was to make music that would have a little bit of a castle feeling, but as dirty as everything else. You hear a harpsichord, a very typical instrument for this castle music, baroque music. There is double bass and violoncello, but dirtified and degraded with effects. The feeling is like you would hear it from some old record.
I wanted to make music that is a little bit surreal but still fit in with the general idea of this soundtrack. I like very much these kinds of compositions. Compositionally it’s minimalistic, because there is a phrase you are repeating, while also developing it into different chords. It’s still very abstract, because the phrases and chord development is longer, more horizontal - like if the melody would be coded into harmonic progression. The phrase is exposed in different interpretations through the sound. I like this kind of approach.
The song is in two parts. One is more rhythmical, with these concrete instruments, the pizzicato from the string instruments. Later, in the second part, the collapses into more ambient stuff, but you can still hear the melody from the original part through the granular effects. It’s derived from the original tune, like maybe if you went to sleep and heard it from a dream. They’re like different faces of the same tune.
If you would look at my arrangement in Logic, which is software I use to make music, the arrangement does not have so many tracks, maybe five or six. Yet the song has different colors. While it might sound acoustical, it’s actually made from MIDI and the change is being made by different effects applied on the tracks trough the time.
Originally clarinet
Did you go to school to study composition? Where did you go? What instrument(s) do you play?
I bought piano two years ago
What programs did you use to compose? What parts are synthesized and what is performed?Now Logic, also last two years
It is combination of recorded acoustical instruments from my studio, midi based acoustical instrument (like samplebanks), and synths...
But very important aspect of all the sources is sound manipulation, sound design....
There you go. Good composers play clarinet. Win.
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