Possible OCR soundtrack project for a game I'm working on

[FireSlash]

STOP

Rozovian has taken over leadership of the soundtrack portion of this project. Any assignments in this post are outdated, and currently listed for archival reasons, later to be removed.

GO HERE (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22472&page=7)

First, the project:

I'm writing a freeware platformer called Holonic. It's a bit of a dystopian future/last hope to save humanity theme with cyberpunk undertones, where you play an artificial construct made of nothing but raw energy. The idea is that most of your enemies are drones or other robots, which you can jump in and blow shit up with.

I'm planning to release it as freeware. It's written to and runs on Windows XP/vista/7 (Maybe older versions), Mac OS X, and Linux.

Shiny pictures:
http://fireslash.net/%7Efireslash/images/holonic/Picture%206.png
http://fireslash.net/%7Efireslash/images/holonic/Picture%201-3.png

The soundtrack:
I'd like to build a soundtrack for this with nothing but OCR members, for cross advertising as well as because I <3 you guys. :<

Each area track should also include a secondary, more aggressive theme for the boss.

(Assignments may change)

The track list I have in my mind would be:
- Menu track ( the prophet of mephisto )

- Wartorn City. ( Gario )
Quiet and abandoned save occasional cries of people fleeing and hiding from the droning hum of blimps. Spotlights scour the streets. Dogs bark in the night against the sounds of distant car alarms, left to fend for themselves. Aluminum cans clatter past the few televisions never broken or turned off.

- Frozen Facility ( Skrypnyk )
Whistling arctic gusts sliced by the sharp fingers of broken glass, a groaning and settling superstructure yielding a hollow and metallic ghostly wail. Cracking ice punctuates the sullen lifeless cacophony, echoing down the slick frosted corridors like gunshots. Snow shifts and falls into the deep crevasse.

- Spaceship ( Rozovian )
Shining metal, the sound of a billion hearts beating in near-perfect unison, and a billion breaths taken in slumber. The ever distant hum and cadre of machinery working away, muffled by soundless space and carried only by a thin lattice of steel to the air inside the ship- what would seem deafening otherwise.

- Sand City ( Willrock )
Millennia dead, a once great city consumed by desert, chewed to pieces by violent flurries of biting sand. The soft patter of grains settling and flowing from the precarious heights of the city that tremble under the weight. Desert life has hold, the sounds of snakes and scorpions watching from the shadows.

- Sinking Facility ( Monobrow )
Fighting the waves, the old rust structure floats alone. Roughly encrusted by coral and brilliant fish where once there was only frozen steel. A thing alive, cascades of sea water breach the walls and periodic gushes vitalize the halls, popping mollusks clustering over the walls stealing momentary breaths.

- Warzone Spaceship ( The Vagrance)
Arcing lightning, blasts of steam. The unnervingly close clamor of machine guns, screaming and wailing. The deep pounding of marching feet and the shouting of angry voices in a hateful chant of death. The scratching of steel on steel, and the quick, desperate hiss of vital air succumbing to the vacuum beyond.

- Level Clear short ( Zephyr )
Doesn't need to be long, doesn't need to loop, doesn't even have to smell good.

- 'Game Over' jingle thing.
yousuck.ogg

- Final boss theme
Should be full of epic

Optional tracks (These aren't needed, but if we have extra manpower I know I could put them to use)

- Training/Demonstration Area theme ( DJ Mokram )
This can just be a short 1 minute craptastic loop that will drive you insane if you spend more than a minute learning the two concepts that actually might need to be taught.

- Credits/finale ( Abadoss )
I'm uncomfortable listing this since I'm still not sure what we're going to do for the finale anyway. But it's there, if someone wants to spawn camp it

Each area track will be used for around 3 levels. Possibly more depending on how our mapping routines scale once we start getting past our simple 3 layer test builds :sleepdepriv:

I don't have a deadline set, The development is generally run pretty loose between myself and the graphic artist, we're doing this as a fun hobby. Audio is currently being handled via Ogg Vorbis, but I could probably add support for a different format if you needed something specific. The game is freeware so I'm not offering any compensation, but you'll get a spot in the credits. If you want. If not, I can just say it was composed by my cat.


Interested with no track claimed
- DarkeSword - Claimed a track in IRC at gunpoint, not sure which one
- Hemophiliac
- Geoffrey Taucer
- Cerrax
- Red9

[Hemophiliac]

I'm interested

Were you looking for a cohesive style amongst the whole score? If so, what were you looking for?

[WillRock]

Sent you a PM :P

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Interested

[evktalo]

Nice shiny pictures!

--Eino

[FireSlash]

I'll be the first to admit I don't know jack about making music. With that in mind, I'm pretty open to style. I envision the level tracks sort of progressing, say for example Area 1 might be a pretty innocent ambient track, area 4 would be an aggressive "urgent" track with the two in the middle falling between those two styles respectively.

The boss track would ideally be something aggressive as well perhaps with a "doomed" feel, and the menu track can really be about anything.

But again, I'm pretty open to suggestions here. I code shit. I'm asking for help here because if I were in charge of music, every track would be a schala remix. :<

EDIT: Right now I'd like to keep most of the organization inside this thread, but if it becomes an issue, or hard to organize, I have a forum over at the development site ( http://www.idle-minds.org/ ) that can be used. Also, anyone working on a track who wants to register there will get access to the development builds as they arrive.

EDIT2: More info, for those who've asked
The length isn't critical, but I'd like to see them falling in around 2.5 minutes or so, since the levels will be fairly expansive (Depending on how awesome my optimization skills are), and they'll be recycled for a few levels. You could probably squeak by with as little as 1.5 though. The tracks should loop in some way that isn't going to stand out and rape your ear.

[prophetik]

i'll do the menu music. i can do it relatively soon, too, if you can get in touch with me.

[Red9]

I'll try something out and PM later in the week...

[Abadoss]

I'm willing to pitch in.

[WillRock]

I'd like to claim area 4 please :P

I'll PM you with a WIP at some hopefully this week if everything is cool.

[Meteo Xavier]

*** dammit, it figures all the music jobs would be available and snatched up while I'm waiting to raise enough money for a new FL Studio. :P

[Gario]

An unclaimed track (track 3)?

Hey, if no one else is doing it, I'll do a WIP for ya :P

Were you looking for a cohesive style amongst the whole score? If so, what were you looking for? He makes a good point about this, so unless you want a variety score you should probably address this :P

Gimme a day or two to whip something up. It'll be electronic, as that seems fitting for the game right now, but if you come up with something different for the cohesive style I'll be flexible.

Edit: Alright, Industrial it is :P.

[Zephyr]

Game looks sweet, and I know you're awesome at coding so I'm excited to see it. I'd love to be a playtester too if you're interested in getting some public opinions and critique. I'd love to help but I don't have the self discipline or skillz yet. If the game isn't out in 2 years, let me know.

[Rozovian]

Not gonna share the whole thing, but here's a cool little segment from it (http://filesap.com/r/originals/shimmerv3b1partial.mp3).

If someone actually working on this project is interested in incorporating some rhythm, chord progression or melody from my track, I've got a midi for you. PM/IM me and I'll give you the link.

Also, it would be cool if the boss track for each level would sound a bit more like the level. I imagine it wouldn't be hard for someone to make a boss track midi, then let the area musicians use the area sound for it. That's if everyone's on board, it'll otherwise sound a little inconsistent.

[Gario]

Quick question about the list... Is it Garian or Gario that has level 3 claimed? Let me know either way (if he claimed it in the dark, there, I won't be upset 8-))... The name's close, so I can't be sure.

[FireSlash]

Brain = imploded

It's gario.

[Dj Mokram]

Also, it would be cool if the boss track for each level would sound a bit more like the level. I imagine it wouldn't be hard for someone to make a boss track midi, then let the area musicians use the area sound for it. That's if everyone's on board, it'll otherwise sound a little inconsistent.

True. On another hand, the person in charge of the level music, could also do the level boss theme in the continuity.
That's called non-linear music, and it has become the trend in modern games.
The music generally accelerate when there's more action on screen, then slow-down when you switch to some exploring.
All without having a blank in the song, and while keeping the same melody core in substance.
I dunno if it's hard to incorporate that kind of feature though.

[Gario]

Here's another thought for the sake of continuity - How does everyone feel about putting up a general theme to the game, that it - Just a few simple motifs that we all let run throughout our songs so the soundtrack sounds more like a whole. Just a thought, it would add consistency to the game's soundtrack.

Just tossing that idea out.

Thanks for letting me know about level 3, Fireslash, btw :)

[Rozovian]

Message me on IRC, AIM or MSN, I'll send you the midi of my track. You can use whatever you feel is theme-worthy.

[Skrypnyk]

why I am against having a general theme to the game (http://skrypnyk.escariot.net/music/Image%201%20Edit.ogg)

[Gario]

Ah, that's understandable.

T'was a mere suggestion; looks like the idea may not be applicable in every case... (I may use some of the harmonies, though :P)

And thanks, Rozo; I'll see if I can get IRC working.

[FireSlash]

True. On another hand, the person in charge of the level music, could also do the level boss theme in the continuity.
That's called non-linear music, and it has become the trend in modern games.
The music generally accelerate when there's more action on screen, then slow-down when you switch to some exploring.
All without having a blank in the song, and while keeping the same melody core in substance.
I dunno if it's hard to incorporate that kind of feature though.
It's easy to do wrong, and hard to do right.

It's doable, but I don't feel that it would be worth the time investment. Also, there are some pretty annoying rules you have to follow to create songs that work there, and I don't expect that level of commitment for a freeware project.

Maybe next time, if it's commercial :nicework:

[Flare4War]

Cool project.

[Blake r]

I wrote up some zone descriptions, since it might help you get ideas for music (and because I think it's silly that you guys are claiming numbers instead of concepts ;) )

Like FireSlash said, zone music should be pretty long before it loops to avoid driving people crazy- two minutes is probably alright.

Zones/levels as currently planned / that I'm planning to make tile sets for:


BODY { FONT-FAMILY:Verdana; FONT-SIZE:10pt } P { FONT-FAMILY:Verdana; FONT-SIZE:10pt } DIV { FONT-FAMILY:Verdana; FONT-SIZE:10pt } TD { FONT-FAMILY:Verdana; FONT-SIZE:10pt }
1. Wartorn City.

Quiet and abandoned save occasional cries of people fleeing and hiding from the droning hum of blimps. Spotlights scour the streets. Dogs bark in the night against the sounds of distant car alarms, left to fend for themselves. Aluminum cans clatter past the few televisions never broken or turned off.

2. Frozen Facility.

Whistling arctic gusts sliced by the sharp fingers of broken glass, a groaning and settling superstructure yielding a hollow and metallic ghostly wail. Cracking ice punctuates the sullen lifeless cacophony, echoing down the slick frosted corridors like gunshots. Snow shifts and falls into the deep crevasse.

3. Spaceship

Shining metal, the sound of a billion hearts beating in near-perfect unison, and a billion breaths taken in slumber. The ever distant hum and cadre of machinery working away, muffled by soundless space and carried only by a thin lattice of steel to the air inside the ship- what would seem deafening otherwise.

4. Sand City

Millennia dead, a once great city consumed by desert, chewed to pieces by violent flurries of biting sand. The soft patter of grains settling and flowing from the precarious heights of the city that tremble under the weight. Desert life has hold, the sounds of snakes and scorpions watching from the shadows.

5. Sinking Facility

Fighting the waves, the old rust structure floats alone. Roughly encrusted by coral and brilliant fish where once there was only frozen steel. A thing alive, cascades of sea water breach the walls and periodic gushes vitalize the halls, popping mollusks clustering over the walls stealing momentary breaths.

6. Warzone Spaceship

Arcing lightning, blasts of steam. The unnervingly close clamor of machine guns, screaming and wailing. The deep pounding of marching feet and the shouting of angry voices in a hateful chant of death. The scratching of steel on steel, and the quick, desperate hiss of vital air succumbing to the vacuum beyond.


Other things:

Battle music
Boss music
Compliment the zone- maybe a more dramatic or hard-core version of the melody (the boss music more so than the battle music). This can be shorter than the general zone music.


Network
Kind of tron-like area that's inside a computer network. This is accessed inside each of the zones (1, 2, and 3), so like boss music, should somewhat compliment the zone it is in. I could see the Network music being made by a different musician than the Zone/battle music (which should be the same musician within each zone for consistency) as long as it matched in 'feel'. Possibly a more digital/techno remix of the zone music.

Viral Network
What it sounds like- network gone bad, damaged and infested by computer viruses. This is accessed in each zone (4, 5, 6), and like the regular network, some compliment the zone in theme.

Menu
As stated- it's the main menu/ title screen. This should be exceptionally awesome, but need not be very long.

End of game
Something for the credits, maybe? One minute or less should be sufficient.

Game over music
Something to make the player feel like a failure at life for dying? Probably something short. Twenty or thirty seconds, maybe.


Scene music.
There are a couple important scenes in the game that could use specific music, but this can be addressed later.

Aaand... I think that's it.

Like FireSlash said, generally kind of industrial in many parts. Flavours of high tech in some areas- though for a couple of the zones the feel will be a mix of environment and machine (4 and 5 in particular- probably good to bring in a few eclectic instruments specific to each zone).

Thanks guys!

I may not check this for a while. If you have any questions (or music to share), feel free to e-mail...

blakerieger at gmail dot com


Longest first post ever?
-Blake

[Gario]

Wow, thanks for the info, Blake! I guess I'm now writing a track for a spaceship :)

So, according to this, we're also making a network and a battle song for the area? That's fine by me...

[Rozovian]

Blaker, FireSlash, should there be multiple area-specific tracks? That's the impression I get from the "compliment the zone".

i.e.
Area, Battle, Boss, for each area?

[Dj Mokram]

It's easy to do wrong, and hard to do right.
It's doable, but I don't feel that it would be worth the time investment.
Maybe next time, if it's commercial :nicework:

Of course, I can understand that you're putting a lot of passion and time in this project already. ;-)

By the way, are the training & level clear songs still available / wanted?

[FireSlash]

Of course, I can understand that you're putting a lot of passion and time in this project already. ;-)

Waffles.

By the way, are the training & level clear songs still available / wanted?
Yep. And I might be expanding the tracklist a bit more since we have more artists than tracks it seems.

Blaker, FireSlash, should there be multiple area-specific tracks? That's the impression I get from the "compliment the zone".

i.e.
Area, Battle, Boss, for each area?
I'm still debating some of this (Specifically the network/virus tracks)

Battle tracks might be doable as mentioned above, but the code side and platform risks are high. I'll need some time to asses that one. Boss tracks are ok and easy to implement, IF everyone doing an area track is willing to do one as well. However, I don't see any particular problem with a common boss theme since it's used for so little of the actual game. This is more up to the artists than the coder I believe, since it's your work; not mine.

For now lets stick with the area tracks and get that hammered out first. We can start looking at expanding the assortment once we see how the game development cycle lines up with the music creation speed. I would plan for an area boss track, and I wouldn't rule out a battle theme, but don't feel the need to start writing either yet. While they're cool ideas, I think we should focus on the base first and build from there.

[Dj Mokram]

Yep. And I might be expanding the tracklist a bit more since we have more artists than tracks it seems.

Ahh the ransom of success I guess... w-wait, already? 8O

Would you mind if I took an option on the two tracks in question?

[FireSlash]

Would you mind if I took an option on the two tracks in question?

You're too fast for my editing spree :<

I've re-adjusted the first post with blake's information, and the assigments for people I've heard wips from. Gario and Will will get assigned a specific area once I get a wip, or if they want to post and claim one. There are also a coule new areas, so you can take one of those, or the ones I just mentioned.

[Dj Mokram]

Well, you may actually end up with more music than stages to fit in!
Which is a good thing, to be able to choose from many, rather than having to use the same theme all the time.

That put aside, concerning the themes requested earlier:
You'll most probably need a stage clear short song, but are you really gonna need a training stage song?
Cause I'm guessing your game will be as user friendly as possible, and allow for immediate fun, i.e. no need to learn how to play?

[WillRock]

I think i'll claim sand city if thats cool with you fireslash :P

[FireSlash]

That put aside, concerning the themes requested earlier:
You'll most probably need a stage clear short song, but are you really gonna need a training stage song?
Cause I'm guessing your game will be as user friendly as possible, and allow for immediate fun, i.e. no need to learn how to play?

The idea is that it should be, but at the same time there will be people dense enough to not get it. Also, since this isn't a perfect cookie cutter metroid/castlevania game, some people might not get it right away. That being said, the "training" stage is to be short, skippable, and generally painless. I'm not holding your hand through movement; if you can't figure that one out then you're probably better off going back to Peggle. The purpose is to cover the unique parts such as enemy possession.

It doesn't need it's own track, I just thew it in there if someone woke up at 5am with the burning desire to write a small ~1 minute loop for a training stage. :<

[Dj Mokram]

It doesn't need it's own track, I just thew it in there if someone woke up at 5am with the burning desire to write a small ~1 minute loop for a training stage. :<

Now I'll know what to do if I suddenly wake up in the middle of the night after a bad dream. :smile:

Will be sending some WIP your way soon.

[Monobrow]

I'm interested in the water Sunken Facility, or just interested in general. Will help :D

(damn skrypnyk, you think you can do chill you think you can chill it out?????!?!!)

[FireSlash]

it's yours!

Also, don't be afraid to reach out and collab. I'll stress again that there's no deadline here, no need to rush. I'll let you know when there's a realistic timetable to be realistic about. Realistically.

[The Vagrance]

I'd be down for the Warzone Spaceship

(and by that I mean can I pretty please do it)

[Abadoss]

I'll spawncamp the finale/credits...

[FireSlash]

We're going to go ahead with individual area boss tracks. If you do NOT want to write a boss track for your area, let me know so I can get someone else working on it.

[Zephyr]

I'm working on a quick "You Win" Stage clear snippet.

[Gario]

Ack, Rozo's got the spaceship? Blast, I thought I mentioned it... Oh well, I'm working on a WIP right now, and it works for the wartorn city, so I'll get 'dibs' on that now before anything else happens. :-x

WIP should be done sometime today; my comp has been acting up the last few days, but it's giving me an opening to do something right now :P.

I'm good for writing area specific tracks :)

[FireSlash]

Ack, Rozo's got the spaceship? Blast, I thought I mentioned it...

Yeah, when the tracks got shuffled I moved some assignments around for people I already had WIPs for. I can probably move things around a bit more if you have a strong attachment to that spaceship :)

[Gario]

It's cool, Wartorn city is good, too :) I just want something there, so if Rozo's is good for the ship I'll write something for the city.

It's what I get for doing a late WIP :-x.

[Gario]

Hey, Blake mentioned a 'Battle' music that you want to have implemented. I'm fine with that, but will the battle music cut the zone music often? Right now, my music more or less builds to the real guts of the piece, but if the battle music will be interrupting it every minute or so I'll need to make some changes to the zone music accordingly.

[FireSlash]

Battle music is probably not going in to the final version. A boss track will though, but that's only a one time cut, which will probably involve some fading.

EDIT: to be clear, right now I only want level and boss tracks. The other tracks posted by blake are ideas we've tossed around, but I don't think will make it into the final release. Sorry for any confusion. I'll keep the first post of this thread up to date with any finalized information. Please use that as a guide.

[Skrypnyk]

- Frozen Facility ( Skrypnyk )
Whistling arctic gusts sliced by the sharp fingers of broken glass, a groaning and settling superstructure yielding a hollow and metallic ghostly wail. Cracking ice punctuates the sullen lifeless cacophony, echoing down the slick frosted corridors like gunshots. Snow shifts and falls into the deep crevasse.

soooo...... imo, my reprise of Image 1 dooooooesn't really fall into that catagory.

This on the other hand... (http://skrypnyk.escariot.net/music/ice%20world.mp3)

[FireSlash]

Things might be shuffled around a bit more in the next few days. I realize this is rather disorganized, but I wasn't expecting people to turn in wips so soon.

Also, there is a chance that I might be handing the music direction over to someone else, in conjunction with something awesome. I'll let you all know when I know. Until then, I'd suggest holding off any any more major work.

[Zephyr]

Soooooooo, will this soundtrack be available for seperate download when the game is released? Although the actual soundfiles are probably just going to be hidden in the game files anyways...

[FireSlash]

Soooooooo, will this soundtrack be available for seperate download when the game is released? Although the actual soundfiles are probably just going to be hidden in the game files anyways...
Yes. That's part of the "something awesome" :<

[prophetik]

so, when are you changing the title of the thread?

[anosou]

I could do - Training/Demonstration Area theme if you want?

I have no soundtrack to work on atm (just finished a thing for a Community Game and the other game I was composing for is on hiatus).

What do you want, when do you want it, how do I go about sending it to you?

[Zephyr]

so, when are you changing the title of the thread?
Haha, to "Definitely an OCR soundtrack project for a game I'm working on"

And how far are you in the actual level design?

Oh and I also just thought about this, what are you doing for sound effects? Or do you have this covered? Are there gonna be some small scale cinematics? Voice acting? I'm just thinking about some stuff that Iji had because Iji was awesome, it had branching story paths, cinematics, and a ton of bonus features. You should check it out for ideas sometime if you haven't already. Of course, Iji was also 4 years in development...
Iji (http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php)

[FireSlash]

You should check it out for ideas sometime if you haven't already.
Iji (http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php)
Iji is what inspired me to even start this project.

However, I don't know if I can be quite as ambitious with my current team size. Cinematics are pretty much out of the question.

Level design is more conceptual right now. I've built a few test levels to test with, but nothing has been finalized. I could actually use a level designer, but I don't know any.

@Another Soundscape
DJ Mokram has already gone as far as to send me a wip for that track. You're welcome to cage fight him for it though.

Right now though, I'd rather everyone hold off on any further work for a few days pending some possible changes. Time table is huge though, no need to rush. Even if I get all of the graphics, dialog, levels, and sound effects tomorrow I still have at least a month of code to do.

[anosou]

Nah, then it's cool. Enjoy your project!

[Dj Mokram]

@Another Soundscape
DJ Mokram has already gone as far as to send me a wip for that track. You're welcome to cage fight him for it though.
Nah, then it's cool. Enjoy your project!

Whew... seems I've just avoided being musically cage-butchered by an OCR judge, one month in the making. :ocrgreen:

I'm obviously thankful Fireslash for having listened to my wip, even if you end up never making a training stage.
Good luck on your coding process.

[Zephyr]

Well, since no-one's up for it, I'd love to take the yousuck.ogg too, then I'll have a matching set to balance out my win theme.

[FireSlash]

Ok, here's what's going on.

I'm looking for someone to step up and take the reins of this soundtrack. Basically, someone to sit down, manage who does what tracks, and give it the musical direction they think is necessary. I'll fully admit I don't know enough about music production to head this kind of project.

If the end result turns out well, it may end up posted on OCR as an album.

With that in mind, most of the current assignments may change or be removed entirely, depending on if the person taking over wants to do things like auditions.

[Gario]

That's neat... did you go over this with DJP or the J's? I'm sure they're the ones to talk to about this kind of stuff.

One thing that bothers me, though - if this goes as an OC project, people my try to conform to what the OC standards are. I have nothing against the OC standards, but they may conflict with what you want for your game. I'm just throwing that out; if your fine with all of that as the creator of this, then that's fine.

Good luck with this! Bring up what we need to do as soon as you can - we're all waiting on this :)

[Rozovian]

News, finally.

Might I suggest myself?

meaning: "Pick me pick me!"

[FireSlash]

Yes, I've discussed this with the proper authorities. :)

And with that, rozovian wins. I was going to ask you directly but I thought you said at some point that you didn't want to. Oh well, maybe I'm just becoming senile.

In the interest of organization, we might want to move this to a new thread?

[Rozovian]

All right... Update, March 30th.

Skryp, Mokram and Gario have more or less OK tracks for this. They've got the right sound at least.
Willrock, Vagrance and I have tracks don't don't mesh well with Skryp's and Gario's. I'll have to figure out how to fix that.
Zephyr's and Monobrow's I haven't heard yet.
Abadoss is waiting for me to figure out the sound we're going for.
Forgot someone?

--

Technical details:
- Track must loop from start due to slow update polling on slower machines. *IMPORTANT*
- Tracks may be split into separate ambience and music tracks. *LATER CONCERN*
- Tracks should contain two melodies, melodic ideas... we want them to have remix potential. *YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT*

--

Also, please include your name/stage and date/version in the filename, and other relevant info (like if it's with/without ambience, boss/stage). It'll make my job easier. :D

Those are the ones I've heard. Monobrow, Vagrance, Zephyr, Prophet, and Abadoss... show me what you've got so far. if and when you got something.

Should something open up, Hemo, Darke, Tauce, Red9, and Cerrax are next in line for tracks. Not sure in what order.

--

This is the order of my priorities for the project:

- Cohesive sound
- Area tracks
- Themes (including any main theme material)
- Boss and other non-area tracks
- Ambience/Secondary tracks for areas

--

Recap:

The soundtrack:
I'd like to build a soundtrack for this with nothing but OCR members, for cross advertising as well as because I <3 you guys. :<

Each area track should also include a secondary, more aggressive theme for the boss.

(Assignments may change)

The track list I have in my mind would be:
- Menu track ( the prophet of mephisto )

- Wartorn City. ( Gario )
Quiet and abandoned save occasional cries of people fleeing and hiding from the droning hum of blimps. Spotlights scour the streets. Dogs bark in the night against the sounds of distant car alarms, left to fend for themselves. Aluminum cans clatter past the few televisions never broken or turned off.

- Frozen Facility ( Skrypnyk )
Whistling arctic gusts sliced by the sharp fingers of broken glass, a groaning and settling superstructure yielding a hollow and metallic ghostly wail. Cracking ice punctuates the sullen lifeless cacophony, echoing down the slick frosted corridors like gunshots. Snow shifts and falls into the deep crevasse.

- Spaceship ( Rozovian )
Shining metal, the sound of a billion hearts beating in near-perfect unison, and a billion breaths taken in slumber. The ever distant hum and cadre of machinery working away, muffled by soundless space and carried only by a thin lattice of steel to the air inside the ship- what would seem deafening otherwise.

- Sand City ( Willrock )
Millennia dead, a once great city consumed by desert, chewed to pieces by violent flurries of biting sand. The soft patter of grains settling and flowing from the precarious heights of the city that tremble under the weight. Desert life has hold, the sounds of snakes and scorpions watching from the shadows.

- Sinking Facility ( Monobrow )
Fighting the waves, the old rust structure floats alone. Roughly encrusted by coral and brilliant fish where once there was only frozen steel. A thing alive, cascades of sea water breach the walls and periodic gushes vitalize the halls, popping mollusks clustering over the walls stealing momentary breaths.

- Warzone Spaceship ( The Vagrance)
Arcing lightning, blasts of steam. The unnervingly close clamor of machine guns, screaming and wailing. The deep pounding of marching feet and the shouting of angry voices in a hateful chant of death. The scratching of steel on steel, and the quick, desperate hiss of vital air succumbing to the vacuum beyond.

- Level Clear short ( Zephyr )
Doesn't need to be long, doesn't need to loop, doesn't even have to smell good.

- 'Game Over' jingle thing.
yousuck.ogg

- Final boss theme
Should be full of epic

Optional tracks (These aren't needed, but if we have extra manpower I know I could put them to use)

- Training/Demonstration Area theme ( DJ Mokram )
This can just be a short 1 minute craptastic loop that will drive you insane if you spend more than a minute learning the two concepts that actually might need to be taught.

- Credits/finale ( Abadoss )
I'm uncomfortable listing this since I'm still not sure what we're going to do for the finale anyway. But it's there, if someone wants to spawn camp it

Each area track will be used for around 3 levels. Possibly more depending on how our mapping routines scale once we start getting past our simple 3 layer test builds :sleepdepriv:

I don't have a deadline set, The development is generally run pretty loose between myself and the graphic artist, we're doing this as a fun hobby. Audio is currently being handled via Ogg Vorbis, but I could probably add support for a different format if you needed something specific. The game is freeware so I'm not offering any compensation, but you'll get a spot in the credits. If you want. If not, I can just say it was composed by my cat.


Interested with no track claimed
- DarkeSword - Claimed a track in IRC at gunpoint, not sure which one
- Hemophiliac
- Geoffrey Taucer
- Cerrax
- Red9

[Zephyr]

One thing that bothers me, though - if this goes as an OC project, people my try to conform to what the OC standards are. I have nothing against the OC standards, but they may conflict with what you want for your game. I'm just throwing that out; if your fine with all of that as the creator of this, then that's fine.

What could be bad about following OCR's standards? It only ensures quality, it doesn't change what kind of style or anything that you can do.

[Gario]

What could be bad about following OCR's standards? It only ensures quality, it doesn't change what kind of style or anything that you can do.I don't mean that the standards are a terrible thing (making production up to their standards is a great thing to do for this), I just didn't want people to treat the music like they would a remix. For example, a remix that involves ambiance would be terrible for OC (I believe they actually make a note of that in their submission standards), but would be an excellent track for the game. The point I was trying to make was that this still should be 'Game first', 'OC next' in the line of priorities when writing for this.

It came across the wrong way with my earlier post, but I was tight on time, there :)

Grats, Rozo, for director's position. Now who is working on what and when :nicework:?

[FireSlash]

Ambiance can be a secondary track, or generated.

I prefer it this way actually, since this lets us play around with the volume of it based on where a player is.

[The Vagrance]

I would like to mention that I've already started on the boss theme for the Warzone Spaceship...

[Zephyr]

Ambiance can be a secondary track, or generated.

I prefer it this way actually, since this lets us play around with the volume of it based on where a player is.
I love systems like this, for example the SSX series, when you're going really fast doing crazy tricks the song is busy and intense, and as you hit a huge jump the mix thins out and it get's mellow as you soar through the air. Probably a hard thing to do, but it's really cool when executed properly.

[Monobrow]

Hey, just wanna let you know I've tinkered with stuff, but I really kind of want to hold off on doing this until I've got a feel for what everyone else is doing. So when you guys get that stuff together, let me know... IMO the soundtrack would probably work best if it were more cohesive and each level wasn't a completely different off the wall sound/ambience/style... But that's just my op.

[Rozovian]

For this to work, I gotta hear your stuff. I've heard some, but it'd probably be best if you'd all send me your tracks (preferably mp3 if they're wips). I'll check which ones work together.

Also, everyone with an area track, are you up for making a boss music version of it?

--

some info/impressions:

Skryp and Gario have more or less OK tracks for this.

Willrock and I both have tracks don't don't mesh well with Skryp's and Gario's. I'll have to figure out how to fix that.

DJ Mokram's track... idunno, need a music player that can handle both ogg and mp3 to compare his to the others more easily. or rather... Mokram, gimme an mp3 of it.

Those are the ones I've heard. Monobrow, Vagrance, Zephyr, Prophet, and Abadoss... show me what you've got so far.

Should something open up, Hemo, Darke, Tauce, Red9, and Cerrax are next in line for tracks. Not sure in what order.

[Dj Mokram]

DJ Mokram's track... idunno, need a music player that can handle both ogg and mp3 to compare his to the others more easily. or rather... Mokram, gimme an mp3 of it.


Doesn't Winamp do this kind of job? Otherwise, you got AIMP2 (http://www.aimp.ru/index.php), and it's free.

Well Fireslash requested OGG format at first. And the OGG track was converted from the mp3.

So sure, no problem. Where do you want me to drop the file?

[Abadoss]

- Credits/finale ( Abadoss )
I'm uncomfortable listing this since I'm still not sure what we're going to do for the finale anyway. But it's there, if someone wants to spawn camp it

I hadn't done anything yet because I was suppose to wait and see what would be done for the finale. If need be, I can still put something together...

[Zephyr]

For this to work, I gotta hear your stuff. I've heard some, but it'd probably be best if you'd all send me your tracks (preferably mp3 if they're wips). I'll check which ones work together.

need a music player that can handle both ogg and mp3 to compare his to the others more easily. or rather... Mokram, gimme an mp3 of it.

Those are the ones I've heard. Monobrow, Vagrance, Zephyr, Prophet, and Abadoss... show me what you've got so far.



Might I recommend Songbird? (http://getsongbird.com/)
[/shameless plug]

I'll get you a WIP as soon as I can for Game Over and Winning theme.

[Rozovian]

Songbird looks good. Now I have a reason to get it. :D

PM me with an url to the tracks, if you got any. I'll put 'em in a central location and pm you with the url there so you can see what you're all doing and keep the same sound, maybe use some of the same melodies or ideas.

[Abadoss]

To do a finale, I'll need main themes and whatnot...

[Rozovian]

I'm gonna focus on finding the sound first. PMd you a link to the tracks with more or less the right sound, maybe you can pick some melodies from there. Details in the pm.

[Abadoss]

No worries.

[Gario]

So FireSlash, do you prefer the ogg format? Dj Mokram subbed an ogg, and it states on one of the posts that you prefer ogg. I can convert what I do to ogg instead of mp3 if you'd like (and keep the mp3s for you, Rozo).

[Zephyr]

I think we should do it all in mp3's to keep it simple until the final versions when we can convert to ogg.

[Gario]

Right... that's what I meant :tomatoface:

[FireSlash]

I think we should do it all in mp3's to keep it simple until the final versions when we can convert to ogg.

Yes.

LOLOLOL FILLER

[Zephyr]

Sooo, where's all the others? Me, Rozo, Monobrow, and DJ Mokram are working away, where's all the rest of you who signed up? You should drop by the super secret forums.

[Abadoss]

Quoi?! I do not know of the secret forum...

[Zephyr]

Rozo sent everyone involved a PM about everything, including you, you're in the header, I'll forward it to you again if it got lost somehow.

[Abadoss]

I guess I just did see the link at the bottom. :/