Original Content - A New Project

[Evil_Ice]

Hey there everyone, long time listener and overall VG Music fan, personally I think that videogame scores have the potential to be the most powerful genre of music, conveying highly-effective, consistent themes and sound is massively important to the success of a videogame, and every bit as much as any graphical work.

With that said, I've also been a long time gaming customization and development fanatic, working on multiple aspects of many different games for the last 10 years, ranging from the old Starsiege: Tribes, to even more recent games like TF2. In that time I've worked on a number of more organized modification projects, semi-notably the Ghost Ops mod project for HL1, which met an untimely demise, as well as many less known projects.

I'm here now, because I have recently taken the initiative, with the release of the updated source code for the Source engine, to start and organize a Mod project for the Source engine, based on some of my previous mod designs and experiences, to form one solid and consistent simple and fast game. The games current concept is of the FPSZ genre (a lesser known branch from the FPS genre, started with the original Starsiege: Tribes game, basically an FPS with limited flight introduced at a fundamental level, and implemented into every aspect of control and gameplay) that will be fast paced, toon-shaded, humorous robot combat.

The current title of the project is "Insomniac Jetpack Heavy Metal Rampage", and yes it IS a mouthful of rhyming title. There is going to be a strong focus on the toon-styling graphics that is going to be similiar to that of games like TF2, WindWaker, Battalion Wars, and many others. The nature of gameplay, however, will be very fast paced, and even brutal at times, implementing very few but unique weapon types, and the cartoon aspect is going to be purely a means of enforcing an artistic consistency and convey a humorous and comedic environment.

Long story semi-shortened: Much of the project is already under-way, with a small but exclusive and talented team already hard at work. I have most aspects of development already covered, including 3D artwork, code, animation, concept art, world design, GUI design, and website design. Which leads me to the reason why I am here now, aside from downloading the latest castlevania remix.

I am looking for any willing and possibly interested talented artists from this community to take part in the project, in assisting me by working on developing a semi-original score. This does NOT necessitate a large number of highly intricate works, or a wide variety of themes.

What I am looking for, but not limited to, is at least one or more original tracks with a similiar styling to many of the MegaMan, Doom, and other "Heavy Metal" remixes. I do NOT have any particular guidelines to restrict any participation in this project, however, if any of you talented artists do feel so inclined in contributing, I would appreciate a respect for the following:

-"Metal" is a heavily reoccuring theme in this project, throughout the graphics and gameplay design, so I'd like to hear something similiar to that of the MegaManX tracks, along the nature of progressive guitar-play.

-No Vocals, simulated or actual, it's not that I don't doubt anyone's musical and vocal ability, it just RARELY works well in a videogame environment to have any kind of BG audible lyrical work.

-Similiar to the prior listed, I'd like to hear Instrumentals, that is not to exclude electronic sounds altogether, but I'd prefer to hear tracks focus more on a more instrumental base, with possible electronic assistance, but that's all up to artistic license... it all is really...

With that said, I invite any and all questions, or queries about the project, teams' past experiences, and even though it's still early, progress of the mod's development. I have a great love and commitment for all things VG, and I have alot of respect for all of the artists in this community, which is why I have come here first in this request. Feel free to PM me as well if you have any personal questions to ask, or perhaps are interested in the project, all interest is welcome.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for all of the quality music,

-Daniel "Ice" Bentz

[edit: I apologize for having this in the wrong section, was unsure of where it really fit best, but I figured it was primarily a requests towards the artists ;D Thanks for moving it]

[Evil_Ice]

No one interested?

[The Instrumental Light]

Hmm, sounds interesting. I personally wouldn't be able to do anything on it, I really don't have the time currently, but if this gets off the ground it could be pretty darn awesome. Hopefully some other people here will join this so it can get rolling.

[DarkeSword]

Your best bet is to come back when everything else is done. Music in this case isn't really integral to the gameplay, so you don't need it yet. Artists in this community have been burned before by getting involved with writing music for a project in early stages and then having the project flounder.

Also, you should really post a website or something with actual information like screenshots or devblogs.

[Evil_Ice]

Oh I've actually already established a foundation for the project, and started producing some early media, I just didn't think it would be appropriate to spam or "advertise" in a specialty community.

Here is an early world design and motion mechanics Demo:

http://ice.annihilation.info/Video/IJHMR_earlyvid01.wmv

Just a quick fraps from a testing the other night,

Much of the concept art is also in the later stages of production, so you can expect to see some 3d models shortly when they are all finalized. I'm trying to keep things as visually "consistent" as possible, and that requires avoiding mixed themes or styles in visual components.

Some basic previews of early concept art can be viewed here:

(basic robot charecter head with expressions)

http://ice.annihilation.info/IJHMR/images/head3bl6.jpg

(early hand concept, will be redone before finalization)

http://ice.annihilation.info/IJHMR/images/handprelim1.jpg

http://ice.annihilation.info/IJHMR/images/handprelim2.jpg

In responce, I can definitely understand hesitation to begin a project, but I'm not looking for people to start any work yet, I'm looking for people who are interested in the idea of contributing when the time comes, and so they can be included in the development process, since I have many visually artistic, and logical minds at work on the project, but I don't have any audio minds, and I think that having all aspects of the gameplay critiqued by specialists in their fields is a good way to end up with a well polished result.

I'm not just looking for some one to compose music, I should clarify, that I'm looking for some one with interest in the project, and experience with sound, and creating sound. I will also be looking for some one to engineer sound effects, but they do not necessarily have to be the same person.

On a side note, the project's official website is currently underconstruction, so there's nothing linkworthy there, but as soon as it looks decent enough for an early layout I'll be sure to direct everyone there. The project is still early, but I don't feel that's any reason to not start making the necessary connections, and getting some diverse opinions early in production. I'm not asking anyone to start producing anything yet, just looking for interest.