From the category archives:

Games

I Wish You a Merry Xmas…

by Jason Surguine on December 24, 2011

And a new game to play with :)

Ownzies

No, it’s not the final episode of Arvale, but I’m still quite darn proud of it. This game was put together by the new gaming company, Goroid.

Goroid consists of key members of the old team at PDAmill Game Studios, so I can only assure you that the title is high freaking quality.

That being said, Merry Xmas!

Oh… and if anyone wants a free copy of the game (and is willing to do a written review, you know who you are); you know how to contact me (and please do!).

Cheers!

Arvale IV Progress, Screens

by Jason Surguine on December 8, 2011

Don’t get too excited, but… I’ve been slowly plugging away at the final episode in Arvale: Treasure of Memories.

Progress has been slow but steady over the past few months and the game is finally starting to turn into something awesome.

I won’t dare mention anything about release dates, but I will say as it develops I will keep y’all informed.

In the meantime, enjoy this small sampling of screens (mostly dungeons) from the upcoming game ;)

 

New Project Music

by Jason Surguine on October 22, 2011

I must be healing a bit if I’m able to compose again.

Take a listen: Ownzies

3 Tips on Making a Game Music Demo CD

by Jason Surguine on October 19, 2010

I recently had to make a new Demo CD, which pretty much everyone and their dog requires when applying for a Music job, and with good reason. That is, unless you’re an established, well-known artist like John Williams, Jack Wall, Hanz Zimmer, Chance Thomas, or Vanilla Ice. In those cases, they probably don’t need a demo. For everyone else, there is the Demo CD dilemma.

I always hate making Demo CDs because it feels like I’m writing my own obituary for some reason. When you have over 300 songs to choose from which you’ve written (almost half of which are on this site here and here) you have to choose which tunes to slap together, which best represent you, hopefully in under 5 minutes. Also, I’ve worked on multiple platforms and genres, should I blow them away with my orchestral pieces at full quality, or my chip-tune music in XM format? I’m sure the following doesn’t only apply to Game Music either, this could be applied to pretty much any Music Demo CD.

In any case, Tip 1: Use one track for multiple clips of songs. Not only does this keep people from a bunch of tracks to choose from (stuffing a CD full of 99 short clips of stuff you worked on is really, really frowned upon. I forget the real reason why, but I’m sure I could make one up: people don’t like a lot of choices), but this also proves that you know how to use a DAW competently by using crossfades between clips and also shows off a bit more of your composition skills by selecting what pieces to transition in and out of.

And here is what my first track ended up like (this time): Hi-Fi Mix

Tip 2: If you have done different platforms and have a bunch of portable music lying around, it’s always a good idea to show this off on another track. This also applies if you’ve worked with a bunch of live performances (orchestral, live bands, or otherwise), you don’t want to mix them in with any electronic stuff. That’s just confusing for the audio director (or whoever is listening to your stuff).

And here is how my second track ended up: Lo-Fi Mix (I named it lo-fi mix for a damn good reason and made sure it wasn’t the first track, most audio directors may not even listen to more than the first track; but if they do, then this is where you put your other expertise-like stuff)

Tip 3: Stay around 5 minutes per track. That’s a good target, and most people (including me) miss it everytime. The above tracks ended up around 6 minutes even, which is still very acceptable. 7 is pushing it. 10 minutes and you’re crazy. This area is really gray and sounds a bit silly, but it’s not. Keeping the listener engaged for 5-6 minutes is possible, after that you’re just getting greedy. Cut some tracks out.

And here is how my third track ended up (which is way shorter to make up for my two 6 minutes tracks, see how that works out? :) ) Pop-Mix

Anyway, if you ever end up in the position where you have to make yet another Demo CD to get hired for a new project. I feel you. Just keep the above in mind, and you might just get the job this time ;)

Arvale Episode 4 Updates Galore

by Jason Surguine on September 16, 2010

A ton of screenshots from the upcoming Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode IV. There have been a lot of overhauls to the menus to make them sleeker, more usable, and honestly, sexier, especially for mouse users (you keyboard users out there, stick around, as there is still some cool stuff below) :) Take a look around.

As seen above, you’ll notice the main HUD (heads up display) has been slimmed down and added a new button for loading any of your save games at any time. Comes in handy, trust me. Also, the main cursor when walking to-and-for on the maps has been updated to a nifty little walking dude icon.

When you mouse-over things on the map, the cursor will change depending on what you can do with it. As in this picture shows, you can open up that treasure chest and grab the contents inside (oh, and these cursors are animated, and look super cool when you do the mouse-over).

Same applies for when you can chat with another character…

Open or Close a door….

Or inspect/read an item on the map.

You might have been thinking, hey, that HUD is now slim and sexy, but what about the information? Maybe I don’t know what those icons mean! Well, know all you have to do is slide your mouse over the icon, and you’ll get a slick little text description pop-up telling you what that button will do when you click on it. Looks really cool, and is really handy.

Oh yes, and if you can fight a monster, this little attack mouse-over will happen. Speaking of battles…

Enemy Hit Points are now clearly visible with a nifty little bar by them (just like your characters!). In addition any status ailments they have will show up under that bar (i.e. sleep, poison, stunned, etc).

Also notice the brand new battle menu stuff for the Escape and Attack selections (also animated, you should see that little guy run when you mouse over him!). Oh, and the main cursor changes to that metallic cool-looking cursor as soon as you enter a screen when you have to select from menus. You’ll love it!

The main actions in the battle are also spiffed up (and animated) and add a really polished feeling to the battles now. Hard to describe in words, you’ll just have to see it in action!

After you spend all that time fighting a monster, now you can see the actual results in detail. If your character leveled up, if they learned a new skill, and as a personal touch, each character will say something regarding the situation (this is really, really cool actually).

And enemies will drop more stuff now. For some reason they didn’t in the last few episodes and I couldn’t quite put my finger on how to make it fun. Now I have :) Although, in this case, the monster didn’t drop anything…

But in this case, they did! (although Sakyra feels a bit hesitant about touching it) :)

I know you Old-Skool Keyboard control enthusiasts are feeling left out, but fear not! The new battle menu stuff is all working swimmingly with keyboard controls as well as….

You can now switch smoothly and effortlessly back and forth between keyboard controls and mouse controls (if you switch to keyboard controls, EVERYTHING will return back to the oldskool style of playing, such as in Episode I and II) including…

The oldskool menu system you came to love to much ;)

And everyone, I’m sure, will enjoy the new save file system which allows you to save up to 20 slots for your save games, includes a neat little preview of the map you were on, playtime, gold, character stuff, and the map name.

That’s it for now. More to come soon.

I know, it’s a lot to take in. But remember, Episode IV will be the Final Episode of Arvale: Treasure of Memories, so I’m planning to do everything I can to make it the awesomest (yes, that is now a real word) it can be!

See you soon!