QUOTE
My apologies to Mr. Lovegrove, but I do hope Sir Yahtzee finds a better MIDI composer for his future Ramblomatic titles. Overall, I'd give the Music a 6/10, with a bonus "E" for effort.
Pretty unforgiving, cheers - you bastard!!
Thanks though to those who have stuck up for me in this debate. I can't just sit back and let it be though. Yahtzee's approach for TN was very surprising in the sense that I had no idea he was going to ask me, and then once he had, there wasn't long at all to create music for the game. I'd had no prior warning that I was going to do it. I loved the music in 5DAS. I thought it fit the game superbly. Then, someone re-released the game with original music, or that was the plan. I had been asked to do it and struggled a thousand times to make something that sounded similar.
So, when Yahtzee asked me to make music for the third game - although overwhelmed with the oppurtunity, I was frank and (I think) I told Yahtzee that he was going to be in for a radical change of style so far as the music would be concerned. As BlueSkirt mentions, when you get m0ds music, you get a cartoony feel. No matter how hard I try, cartoony music is where my real talent lies (at least, I'd say so). TN was the darkest score I'd have to write to date. You've also noticed how tunes from one soundtrack can often bleed into others, sometimes on purpose (Rob Blanc theme in Trilby's Notes score) and sometimes by accident (FoY credit theme in the TN credit theme). But those kind of intertextual musical elements are something I like to do, even if you don't. 6DAS doesn't have any of those (apart from certain tunes sounding extremely similar to TN stuff, but that makes sense). That however is a pretty normal process for most composers. Alan Silvestri - Back to the Future II and Predator, very similar sounding scores. In fact, EXTREMELY similar. Die Hard 2 score and Tremors score, both films released around the same time, EXTREMELY similar (though different composers, so very ODD too!!)
Every score is a learning curve for me. The success of the 6DAS score is thanks to the TN score. The success of the TN score is thanks to the FoY demo score, etc. The Nelly score is thanks to the 6DAS score. That's just the way it works. I'm not a musician, I'm an adventure game fan who likes making music. That's about it. That's why there aren't any particularly wonderous moments in my music, and is why the majority of my tunes are for scene setting rather than theme remenising (sp). Also, you have to bear in mind the actual process of my music making. The majority of composers have one instrument or another connected to their PC. I don't. I literally type out the notes onto a timeline. Half the time I have to guess them by ear. That way, sometimes, the timing can be a little odd, or sound very...hmm, whats the word...computerised? Nah, that's not the right word. But that shouldn't put you off. Compare an older soundtrack to a newer one and you'll notice it sounds more orchestrated, rather than notes placed every beat of every bar.
You'll also have to understand, and no matter how cheesy this is, every score I write is also an emotional journey for me. If I'm going through the right emotions at the time, then music works. Otherwise, it can be a complete flop. TN was composed during a very good time for me, I was in a strong relationship and that helped me focus extremely hard. A game developer is always one motive but with me there is always an alterear motive. TN is my favourite of the two scores I've done for this series, and I think the level of my enthusiasm shows more through that score than 6DAS. That's probably cos I was in love at the time .^^ When I wrote 6DAS, shit was bugging me. You'd think that might make me more angry and put more anger into music, but it doesn't work like that for me. Great real emotions help me create great fictional emotions. Bad real emotions make me create poor fictional emotions. However, why 6DAS score has scored higher on my website poll is beyond me
Oh and one other thing. Yahtzee gives me a title, ie "exploration" or "danger theme" and then sums up how he wants it to sound in one or two lines. That's all I work from, and the odd screenshot. There was a chance to beta test 6DAS but I really didn't have the time. So I completely guessed on a couple of occasions on those tunes. Admitedly, he did ask me to write things similar sounding to Silent Hill 3, but I've never played that game and wouldn't have had any chance to play it. I'm out of the loop when it comes to a lot of modern game music. I don't have consoles. I barely play games other than adventures. So go figure, hehe.
Anyway, I'm not bothered that this person wasn't so impressed with the music, each to their own really. In fact, with the following of the two former games and what not I really knew I was juggling dangerously with something a lot of people would have already come to love. I was impressed that Yahtzee wanted to juggle this too. I mean, it's not like Rob Blanc theme was particularly great
The next dark score that I "know" I'll be working on is Ben Jordan 7. So getting these two games in the can will give me better inspiration at a later date. I hadn't done anything "moody" before these, so I'm sorry if they still sound cartoony! A score I would consider "good", usually takes me 6 months. I had about 2 months on both of these. I don't particularly like either of them, but a lot of people do - so that makes me happy. Thanks again for showing me that it is still good music alongside an excellent game. And it also gives me that extra confidence that I can do something similar again in the future and much better too. I just hope if I'm to be called upon again, Yahtzee's next game is a comedy.
This post has been edited by m0ds: 30 March 2007 - 10:28 AM