We don’t often cover game music news on RPS, because there’s always the terrifying risk that it opens the door to more people sending us press releases about their chiptune albums inspired by Zelda. But I’m flexing the informal rule today, partly because No Man’s Sky remains so much of an unknown quantity even just two and half months from release, and partly because I really like what I’m hearing of 65daysofstatic‘s OST so far.
In all honesty, I’m not especially on fire with passion at the news of free Dragon Age Inquisition song downloads, but I don’t often get to use the phrase “sheet music” in this line of work, so carpe diem.
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A Diary of Whispered Truths is a tool for creating images like the one above, which would be all very well and groovy, but as you paint, it sings. Well, in my case it coughs out rugged reams of chorduroy, unfashionable and about as smooth as sandpaper bog roll. It can make quite a racket. A Diary is controlled with mouse and keyboard, with the former ‘conducting’ the on-screen activity and the latter providing percussive punctuations. I did not conduct the images and sounds below. My compositions are much more erratic, experimental and ahead of their time.
Do you remember a time when msuic games were so rugged and wild that they required the use of a tiny plastic guitar peripheral? I certainly do. Some people formed bands during their university years and frittered away precious hours creating melancholy joy, entertaining the tune-hungry populace of bee-soaked university bars. Other people – people like me – perfected I Wanna Be Sedated on Guitar Hero while jumping up and down on a bed with a cig in my mouth. Health and safety be damned, this was rock ‘n’ roll and I liked it.
Rhythm games have moved on since then and Sentris, launched into Early Access seconds ago, looks and sounds absolutely delicious. And you can play it while sitting comfortably at your desk.
The pill is disintegrating, lodged in my throat like a swollen seed, sprouting dry and ticklish as it reaches back toward tongue and lips. I need a drink, to sluice it out, wash it down and carry myself away. The lights pulse like a migraine and the music is a song I recognise. Stumbling toward the stage, I grab at the singer, trying to tell him that I know the lyrics and how important it is that I know the lyrics, trying to drink him dry. And then it hits me – I just invaded Nick Cave’s personal space.
No Wave is short, free and noisy.
RPS Feature Making music with M.O.O.N., Scattle and Prunty
Music man David Valjalo follows-up his exploration of the big-budget orchestral soundtracks in the mainstream games industry with a look at the other end of the scale – the super-low-budget, ultra-catchy, sometimes kitschy scores of indie darlings. He rounds up the men behind Hotline Miami, Sweden-based Dennis Wedin and Jonatan Soderstrom, two of the soundtrack artists they hand-picked, US artists M.O.O.N. and Scattle, and FTL composer Ben Prunty, to get the scoop on making music for small games and, quite often, small change.
RPS Feature Good Gaming Conduct
Like a human q-tip David Valjalo embarks on a fantastical voyage into the realm of videogame music. Rounding up three of the most high-profile composers working today, let’s call them The Three J’s: Jason Graves (Dead Space, Tomb Raider), Jesper Kyd (Freedom Fighters, Assassin’s Creed) and Jack Wall (Splinter Cell, Black Ops 2), he gets the inside story on a revolution in game music budgets, practices and thinking that has changed our game soundscapes forever.
