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Summer crunch !
July 6, 2015
I could ask if you are ready for some news from my music front, but I've also been working on two indie game projects as a developer, so today I'll be giving mixed news instead ! Let's start with stuff bound to happen soon !
Chiptunes = WIN Volume 4
Back at MAGFest earlier this year, one of my roomies and good friend Nate "FoxxDragon" Horsfall, who has been doing the cover art for the chiptunes-driven compilation "Chiptunes = WIN" for the last couple years, introduced me to President Hoodie and his fellow chiplovers, and suggested that I send an entry myself this year, as my work on Prime Legacy was highly compatible.
And that's exactly what I did. During May, I spent one week-end quickly putting together a song in the very style of my little chiprock album, but with more groove - like more dancy and less shmuppy - and finished just in time for the submission deadline.
The good news is that it made it to the 51 tracks roster, out of 153 qualifying submissions. The album is scheduled for release on July 20th and will be available on Bandcamp as a free/name-your-price download. If you like the chiptune genre, this is a no-brainer !
For those who are interested and can make it, there will be a fun listening party to celebrate the release (checkout the Facebook event). It will happen in the middle of the night for me though, so I'll only be able to hear the full compilation after you guys !
Chrono Trigger tribute album
This year, I joined forces with the team behind the Spectrum of Mana Secret of Mana tribute album team, as they were tackling their next target, the soundtrack from Chrono Trigger. During the first half of the year, I've been working on two arrangements for this album, and both are collaborative efforts, hence the long development time.
The first track was chosen by my friend and regular session bassist Wild_Cat, who planned the structure of the song and wrote a preliminary arrangement, before handling the bass. I refined the arrangement and wrote drums for it, then recorded rhythm guitars and a few leads. The main guitarist from my former local band, Hattori Hanzo, handled the leads on most of the song, and Kain Xiorcal joined us to replace my sequenced drums by his live ones ! That one song was finalised in early June, and you may be able to hear it later this year. As soon as I know more, I'll spread the news.
The other track is the one I initially chose for myself because it was the most attractive to me. I worked on it alone for the most part, but LuIzA, whom I had already punked up some Tales of Symphonia music before with, may join me later to perform the bass. It will soon be completed.
It's very likely that news about the album will be posted on the Spectrum of Mana Facebook page, before anywhere else, so make sure you keep an eye out for it.
Second Legacy
Very early this year, I announced this new project of mine, in the form of a real game to stand as a spiritual sequel to Prime Legacy. "Second Legacy" might just be a development code name, and when the storyline is set in stone I'll probably change the title to a better fit. But for now it works just fine.
Here's a sneak peek :
As you can see, it's a very CAVE-like, but simplified 2D manic shooter. Like, all enemies look the same for now, and I will definitely replace that ugly design by cooler ones. To make up for the lack of background graphics, I've programmed a parallax scrolling asteroid field, that speeds up according to the player score. Generally-speaking, what the game lacks the most for now is decent graphics and animation. And in the next few months, I will be doing a lot of pixel art in my spare time to fill the blanks as honorably as possible.
Other than that, the game features two battle ships for the player to pick (I planned to include a two players game later), and obviously swarms of bullets and explosions. As for the music and SFX, I'd say that half of the work is done. The game mechanics are not entirely set in stone yet, so I'll tell you more about that later. Stay tuned, I probably gather everything on a dedicated web page.