zircon

Castle of the Winds was one of my very favorites as a kid. I also played a bunch of D&D universe games, including one in first-person that was definitely a dungeon crawler.

Identity Sequence is out now on Bandcamp! --- I thought I would share this project with you, my OCR friends, since this is after all where my career began For the last five years I've been working on a new album of deep, progressive electronic dance music. Though I've had several album releases since Antigravity (my last 'major' original album) in 2007, this project - Identity Sequence - is in a separate category. It's a full-length concept album (60+ mins) inspired by cyberpunk works like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which had a big impact on me. It has an actual story and narrative, told through instrumentals and lyrics, dealing with themes of technology, humanity, emotion, and two people searching for a deep connection. Stylistically, the album features trance, house, dubstep, electro, drum n' bass, ambient, and my own blend of organic-electronic sounds. After having invested considerable money in producing and recording Identity Sequence, collaborating with performers like Jillian Aversa, Chris Gordon, Jeff Ball and the Philadelphia Mens Chorale among others, I reached out to my fans to help fund the physical release. I did this through a Kickstarter campaign that was set with a goal of $4,000 that would go toward printing really high-quality CDs, liner notes, artwork, and bonuses like posters and hardcover artbooks. About 48 hours later, I've been blown away by the incredible support and backing of both longtime fans and new ones who have just recently heard my music. The Kickstarter has been funded over 300% (!), but is still going strong, with rewards including digital and physical copies of the album, previous albums, signed copies, posters, artbooks, video lessons, custom songs, remixes, EPs, special liner note credits. I also plan to print up t-shirts and there have even been requests for a documentary/commentary CD/DVD, which I am now planning. If evolved electronic music like BT and Hybrid is your thing, and you share an appreciation for great sci-fi works, I encourage you to check out this album Kickstarter. The video features an extended medley of about half the album, previously unreleased until now. Whether you choose to back the project now (essentially akin to pre-ordering the album with bonuses) or check it out when it's released later this year, I really appreciate it. Thanks OCR! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1363989456/zircon-identity-sequence-a-cyberpunk-inspired-jour

Yeah but that adds to the charm! It's like an old-school adventure game.

FTL: Faster Than Light is one of the first games funded on Kickstarter that has since been published, and on Steam no less! This is essentially a 'realistic' sci-fi/space sim game with Roguelike elements. If I had to describe it in a sentence, it would be: the technology of Star Trek mixed with the feel of Nethack in a Firefly world, injected with some Oregon Trail. You make use of lasers, missiles, bombs, bio beams, drones, cloaking devices, teleporters and medical bays to survive, all the while conserving precious fuel and scrap metal. Upgrade your rag-tag ship and crew and persevere through impossible odds. Interested yet?! Overview You control a ship and a meager crew of 3-4 humans (or aliens). You have total control over each crewman (or woman) who move about within the ship. The goal of the game is fairly simple: escape from an ever-pursuing, invincible fleet of Rebel ships to deliver vital information to the last outpost of the Federation. To do this, you have to move through a total of seven sectors, eight if you count the final boss sector. The end goal is always the same, but the route and challenges you encounter vary every time. The game takes place in real-time with frequent pauses. On the sector map, you plot a course to your next destination. Each "jump" uses one fuel, which is a highly limited commodity. At any given location, many random events can occur. You can receive resources from Federation sympathizers. You can be ambushed by a boarding party or enemy ship. You can haggle with slavers (or blow them up). You can discover technology. These events can typically be dealt with in many different ways, based on the resources you have available. More on this in a bit. Once you reach the exit point of a sector, you go to a higher-level map screen, similar to Star Fox, where you choose which branch of the galaxy you want to travel along next. Combat Of course, the central part of FTL is its combat. If you enjoy sci-fi battles and want tons of control, you're going to love this. Your ship has a number of systems and subsystems, from weapons, to shields, a medical bay, engines, nav control, sensors, life support, and even automated doors. ALL of these play an important role, and can be upgraded with Scrap you find through combat and events. In combat, your ship is pitted against a single enemy ship. Whoever gets blown up first loses (or has all their crew killed). As mentioned earlier, everything occurs in real-time. Your weapons take time to charge up, and can be aimed at any part of the enemy ship. The possible tactics in FTL are limitless, and vary widely based on your preferred style and starting ship (there are something like 9 total ships you can unlock, with one variation per ship, for a total of 18 possible starting ships/crews). Of course, from the very beginning of the game you can customize your ship and crew by salvaging items, upgrading your ship's systems with Scrap, trading, and visiting stores. Rather than describe every mechanic, here's an example of a possible battle situation: In Sector 4, you encounter an enemy Mantis ship with medium shielding, heavy missile weaponry, and a teleporter. They immediately transport a boarding party on to your ship. Missiles and teleporters can go right through your shields. How can you deal with this situation? Well, first the invaders. You could do any or all of the following: * Dispatch your own Mantis and Rockmen security team, who have innate racial combat bonuses and have gained experience in hand-to-hand combat, to fight the invaders. * Open up the ship's airlocks near the room where the invaders landed, depleting it of oxygen and suffocating them (though, you'll need heavy-duty doors to prevent them from busting out). If they break through the doors, you can send your crew to the medbay to provide them with precious healing while the enemies suffocate. However, your unmanned systems will be vulnerable in the meantime! * Deploy anti-personnel drones to fight the invaders. * Use bomb weapons, which can be teleported through shields even on to your own ship, to attack the invaders from within. How about the enemy ship? * Laser weapons, which tend to fire bursts of weaker shots, can be used to drill through shields, leaving systems vulnerable. Weakened shields can thus allow for more powerful Beam weapons (normally ineffective vs. shields) to sweep their hull. * Teleport your OWN boarding party on to their ship to disable their systems. * Use shield-piercing missiles and bombs to disable their shield generator and use conventional weapons to cause massive damgae. * Use fast-firing ion weapons, which do no hull damage but drain system energy, to strip them of defenses. * See into their ship with your telepathic Slug crewman, or upgraded sensors, and attack with fire and bio weapons to kill their crew (granting extra salvage rewards!) The list goes on. The fun of the game comes in the huge variety of challenging situations. It's pretty hard to just 'turtle' and win, unless you get extremely lucky with found technology and scrap. For example, pouring money into shields is all well and good, but a lucky missile can damage or destroy your shield generator. When systems are damaged, you must send crew to repair them. Hull breaches and fires can also occur; the former will drain oxygen from the room, while the latter cause hull and system damage if left unchecked. Dealing with fires is actually a lot of fun, as you learn to drain oxygen from rooms to starve the fires and prevent their spread. Of course, it wouldn't be a "Roguelike-like" game without permadeath. If a crewman dies, they're gone forever. If your ship blows up, that's it. No saving/loading (you can save, but only when combined with quitting the game.) Even the Easy difficulty is challenging, and beating the game on Normal will definitely take you a number of tries as you learn the nuances of the game and combat. Replay value is also quite high, especially for a $10 game, as you unlock new ships and thus new ways of playing. For example, the Stealth ship starts out with a normally very expensive cloaking device and powerful engines, but no shielding whatsoever and weak weapons. The Engi Cruiser has no offensive weapons per se, relying on drones to inflict ship damage. The Zoltan Cruiser has an innate energy shield that can't be pierced or teleported through, and must be drained through brute force. However, its weaponry is sluggish and unwiedly, and it has a weak power supply (though its crewmen provide energy themselves!) Anyway, I could write about this amazing game all day, but simply put - I highly recommend it. I used to play Roguelikes back in the days of DOS and Windows 95, along with adventure games such as Landing Party. FTL really feels like one of those games, with old-school difficulty, customization and fun.

Yeah, that's the thing. There are plenty of clever ways to allow respec while still penalizing players for doing so (or rewarding them for NOT doing so). I can't think of any game that allowed you to change your skills, where I thought "Man, this would be a better game if they DIDN'T allow you to do that."

Definitely surprises + stretch goals planned. Stay tuned. As we are doing things with a level of additional oversight we need to plan what we say + do carefully!

Yeah, that isn't actual replay value. There is a ton of replay in simply farming, advancing to higher difficulties, NG+, and trying different classes. Plenty of people (myself and Tensei included) invested hundreds of hours into D3 which essentially has instant respec anytime. It really hasn't hurt the game. In fact, most people praise the way they implemented skills with the Nephalem Valor system. It's not like Torchlight II needs free respec anytime. Maybe allow people to do it once every 10 levels. Or charge gold for it. Or give bonuses to people that DON'T respec, like permanent stat/skill points every X levels/kills that you don't respec. There are creative solutions for it. But really, it's the weapon-based skills that make it frustrating. In Diablo II for example, sure, you couldn't respec. But with the synergy system they implemented, at least early skills would power up later skills, so no point was really wasted. Furthermore, you could use whatever gear you wanted and not have to worry that half your skills won't work. In Torchlight II, your spec heavily limits your equipment choices. In a game ENTIRELY BASED AROUND LOOT, that's bad. I still like T2 though.

Well it's not really a matter of trying a skill and not liking it, IMO. For example many skills are tied to specific types of weapons. It forces you to only play with that kind of weapon. Isn't that kind of boring? Like if I'm a dual wielding Outlander, and I want to try a melee or shotgun build, about half my skills don't work. That's lame.

The character select remix is dope as hell.

Yes, we do.

We can't speak to how Square-Enix handles royalties.

This album is not an official Square-Enix product nor is it endorsed by Square-Enix. However, their issues with the previous Kickstarter have been resolved to our mutual satisfaction.

We're BACK! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ocremix/an-epic-5-disc-ff6-fan-album-from-oc-remix-take-tw djpretzel, McVaffe, myself and the rest of the OCR staff are happy to announce the RELAUNCH of the FF6: Balance & Ruin Kickstarter! Everything has been worked out with Square Enix, and we're really excited to finally share this again with the community! Much like the original B&R Kickstarter, we're raising money to fund the physical production of the upcoming FF6 arrangement album Balance & Ruin, directed by myself and McVaffe and featuring the talents of over 50 amazing OC ReMixers. The goal is to produce a superb-quality physical album containing every track from the album, gorgeous artwork, and a FIFTH disc (DVD) of bonus content. That's right: whereas the bonus DVD was previously a stretch goal, it's now included by default! We'll also be using some of the funds raised to record studio musicians for various tracks, as well as professional mixing/mastering as required. Lastly, we'll be covering royalties for each physical copy of the album. Everyone wins! Rewards for backers remain as awesome as they were last time. Everything from original albums by OC ReMixers, to physical copies of previous album projects, a copy of Balance & Ruin itself ($50+), all the way up to an original soundtrack produced by OCR for YOUR game. We also have a stretch goal already planned at the $45k level, something that was easily passed the first time around - a high-quality printing of FF7: Voices of the Lifestream that will go out to all backers at $50 and above! And this time, ALL four discs will be included. Despite delays in getting this new Kickstarter off the ground, the project is still on course for a December 2012 release, and will be available as a free torrent to all. You'll also notice that the new video features MANY more previews from the project, which has been progressing really well since the first preview. Assuming the KS gets funded, we're shooting to have physicals printed at about the same time (though we're allowing a couple months of leeway, since many things can crop up during the physical production process). On behalf of the entire Balance & Ruin team, I'd like to thank EVERYONE for your patience and support over the last few months. If you donated to the first Kickstarter, we hope you'll donate again - and if you didn't donate, we hope you'll consider it this time around! To learn more & pledge please go to http://kck.st/OogXln

Yeah, that's true. It's basically Diablo 2.5, or in other words, what some people wanted Diablo 3 to be. I really like the way it addresses a lot of the issues people had with Diablo 2 like: * Multiple bonuses granted per attribute that are useful for all classes * Flexible item requirements (level OR stats), so you don't hamstring your build with the wrong stat allocation * Skills that scale with weapon DPS/player level, so even level 1 skills are useful * Snappy movement speed, loot pickup * Quest rewards tailored to your character class It even addresses problems with D3: * Significant world/map randomization * Way better droprate of rare/unique items * Rewarding exploration * More engaging and frequent events * Offline + LAN modes * Mod-friendly When I first played Torchlight 1, I felt it was too similar to D2 to really be fun. However, now that I haven't played D2 in years, and I've played quite a bit of D3, it IS kinda refreshing to play T2.

Up to level 14-15 or so with my Outlander (also played an Engineer to 13, but wasn't feeling the playstyle). Despite being a big D3 fan, there are some things I think Torchlight II does really well: 1. Speed. I find the base movement speed to be REALLY snappy, and everything just seems very fluid to me. Picking up gold and items is especially nice. 2. Stat system. I was very skeptical that the stat system would be one-dimensional. However, I'm impressed by how they make each stat valuable for ANY class. Focus helps my dual-wielding Outlander do more damage with Executes, and improves my incidental elemental damage. Dexterity improves my DPS and defense (via dodging), while strength gives me raw physical power. It's very well-done, and I hope it does have as much depth as I think (and doesn't degenerate, like D2). 3. Skill system... sort of. I really like the diversification of skills & skill trees, and how many of them scale with either your weapon or character level. In D2, a level 1 skill was almost always useless. In T2, even a low-level skill can be very useful thanks to built-in scaling. The tiered bonuses and passives are also cleverly done. My only complaint is the restriction on respeccing. It seems archaic. I don't want to create a totally new character to try a melee build on my Outlander. 4. Loot system. Again, not sure if this will hold up by the end of the game, but right now it's pretty amazing. You're constantly finding a variety of good drops; I like how equipment is restricted by level OR stats, enabling you to wear higher level stuff if you're specced for it (while not prohibiting you in the long run from wearing equipment you don't have the stats for). I like how weapon types have different properties beyond damage and attack speed in terms of splash damage, range, spread, and so forth. 5. Quests and events. Getting customized rewards, and being able to select what you get, is great. I love the huge variety in sidequests and random events too (I've found only a few so far, but they were all quite fun). 6. The world. Though I'm not invested in the story at all, the world is fantastic. I feel like you're REALLY rewarded for just wandering around and stumbling into new areas to get loot, random events, phase portals, secret dungeon rooms, etc. At least so far, I feel T2 beats both D2/D3 in this respect. All-in-all, I gotta say Torchlight 2 has exceeded my expectations. Looking forward to more dungeon crawling!

Discuss this game here! I've played for about 2 hours so far. Picked the Siren at random and got up to about level 7. It does very much feel like Borderlands 1; as far as I can tell, there haven't been any drastic changes to gameplay or presentation (though, the music is better IMO). If you didn't like the first game, you won't like this, and I suspect that if you really played the hell out of the original, you might not find enough new stuff in the sequel. However, I only played the original once on the normal difficulty (~50 hours of playtime) and so this feels fresh enough to me. My one complaint so far is the inventory system. It just... sucks. I don't remember the first game being this bad. The fact that everything is at an angle is very annoying, and it seems very difficult to quickly compare and swap weapons. I should just be able to hover over an item to see stats, not have to click around several times to swap. I much prefer Diablo 2/3's inventory system.

Hey, before the internet hate riots, keep in mind that whoever was responsible for this trailer is a very small subset of Disney. Probably one guy who sourced or oversaw the music. I doubt there was some guy smoking a cigar on piles of money saying "Yes... yes... let's rip off this well-known chiptune artist." There are a few possibilities here before you all pick up your pitchforks: 1. The music supervisor /editor on the project asked for a knockoff of that song specifically. 2. The music supervisor / editor browsed through an existing music library and picked this track, not knowing it was a ripoff (eg. the producer of the video is innocent). This is a very real possibility. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of tracks in music libraries. Some of them will inevitably be total ripoffs, which is entirely the fault of the composer who wrote them. 3. They somehow licensed the rights to the track and covered it.

Very eloquently-written post, Doug. I want to add that depression (and other similar problems like anxiety) is nothing to be ashamed of, and that there is always a solution that involves getting better. Whether through talk therapy, medication, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), EMDR, self-meditation, life/environmental changes, or some mix of these things, I promise that it is possible to feel better. The hardest part about depression is, of course, that you see things in a negative light and can't see the possibility of improvement. I understand that; I've been through it, and so have others close to me. But at the end of the day, even if you can't trust yourself or see a brighter future, trust what Doug and I are saying. Ask for help - from a friend, from a family member, from a professional. There's always an answer.

I just peed my pants. http://imgur.com/Ij2Hx And this is on a day where I already found an Echoing Fury (not a great one, but still worth a couple million). This chestpiece though? Gotta be the very best chest available for Wiz and especially WD. I guess I'm gonna be rich now.

It's BACK! For just the next few days, you can pay as little as $1 to get FIVE amazing iOS game soundtracks in DRM-free MP3/lossless format: Horn by Austin Wintory Squids 2 Wild West by Romain Gauthier Puzzlejuice by Big Giant Circles Globulous Original Soundtrack by zircon () and Jeff Ball Organ Trail Original Soundtrack by Ben Crossbones Contribute $10 or more and get at least SEVEN additional albums (maybe more!) from games like Alien Incursion, Wyv and Keep, Mecho Wars, Blast Moki 2, and Flight of Angels. http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/

The bit about gameplay footage is not 100% correct; gameplay footage is OK *IF AND ONLY IF* it is non-direct footage. For example, a video of someone playing FF8 is fine. Direct-out from the TV or emulator, that's not fine.

Well, I've found two legendaries in the new patch: String of Ears and Lacuni Prowlers. The latter had a terrible roll but sold fast for 1.6m. The SoE has an amazing DR% roll (perfect 20%, I believe) but hasn't sold yet.. hoping I can get like 2-3m. I've also found various weapons that have sold for small amounts on the AH. That's really the best part of the patch - good weapons are easier to find. I've bought & found some great stuff, bringing my DPS to nearly the 50k mark!

Ok... a few things. Keep in mind this is my advice as a professional composer & musician who was a hobbyist in not-too-distant memory. 1. Your rates are wacky. You get paid the same amount for 11 minutes of music that you do for 2 minutes? Huh? You need to rethink those. I would just focus on a base rate for a couple different example production styles (like chiptune, orchestral, etc.) and then say it might vary based on the exact project requirements such as deadline and amount of music needed. 2. PayPal is fine for getting paid, but if you are in the U.S. and they are too, paying by check will avoid the recipient fees. 3. Contracts do not need to be witnessed by a lawyer. That's a formality that is rarely if ever done for this type of thing. Signatures are typically like this. You write + agree on a contract via email/gdoc whatever. One person prints two copies, signs both, sends both via mail (or SCANS one signed copy, sends via email). Recipient then signs the received copy (or copies) and mails/scans/sends one back. Thus each person should end up with one copy signed and dated by both parties. You can also ask for initials on each page. 4. Legalese is not a contract requirement either, but then again, I'm talking about U.S. law here. If a dispute were to arise, your contract would be evaluated as-is. If what both parties wrote and agreed to is clear, then the resolution would also be clear. If you're not specific about things like payment, rights, and timeline, then it will be more of a problem. What are the important things to have in such a contract? * What is the scope of YOUR work for the project? Are you writing new works, or licensing existing ones? How/where is the music to be written described - perhaps an appendix? If the specifications are unclear, define the manner in which the client will be asking for new music. * What is the timeline / what are YOUR responsibilities as a composer? Eg. How much music do you NEED to write? Is it open-ended? Do they not know yet? * How much are you going to be paid, when are you going to be paid, and in what manner (bank, PayPal, etc.?) * What sort of a license are you granting to the client for your music, or is this "work-for-hire" in which they are getting all the rights? If it's a license, where you are keeping the rights too, what rights are they getting? * How are you to be credited for your work? ARE you going to be credit? * In what situations can the contract be terminated, and what happens in these situations? What parts of the contract survive termination? * Will the client be giving YOU the right to use image + video from the game, as well as game trademarks, within the context of your portfolio/demonstration purposes, and/or selling a soundtrack?

It wouldn't save any time, since all subbed mixes have to be evaluated. Plenty of posted mixers, even those with 5-10+ mixers or more, can sub stuff that is 3 NO material.

We don't really need more methods of fundraising though, nor do we have a shortage of music contributions... our backlog is enormous and the rate of submission is only increasing. If we did implement a fancy submission form, the rate will go up even further.