DJBailey

@jameslovesrtf Going through your tracks, I especially liked We Are All We Have Tonight. The interaction between the different waveforms make some really interesting effects. I like writing counterpoint in 8-bit 'cause sometimes you'll get some really interesting sounds just out of a couple of pulse wave intervals. @MasterTaffer I like the ambiance of the track, and all the parralel intervals. I especially love how the repeated motifs (like at 0:15) give the illusion of church bells tolling. Very creepy. I feel like the mix (possibly because of the orchestration as well) is a little muddy in places, especially at 0:35 when you have the choir, bass, and cello going all at once. You could maybe try either playing with your levels, or moving a parts up an octave so that their not clustered all in the same region. That also might help with listener fatigue. I love the transition at 1:24, the thinning of the parts, and the use of a higher register is very refreshing! Good stuff. @King Madness Love the boss theme! High energy, rhythmic, interesting progressions and modulations, and it sits really well in the background being interesting without being distracting. The rising arpeggio in the glock is a great flourish! I think you could bring up the drum levels a little bit though, especially the snare. I think that would give it even more energy. (as an aside, I also wanted to say that "Taking an Effort for the Future" rocks my socks!) Here's a track I wrote with a snowy wilderness aesthetic in mind. I still need to add another section so that it loops back around, but here's what I have so far. All the best!

Definitely Noyemi! I didn't even think of including sound libraries in the discussion. After I finished my first project I got the Complete Composer's Collection from SoundsOnline, and it's served me well since. It's not as high-end as the libraries Noyemi mentioned, but the price tag is a bit lower too. For any Ableton Live users, you can get a Live pack from Project SAM, the Essential Orchestral Selection for $79. For what you get, it's a great price, and the brass is especially nice (didn't use the strings much though, and I'm still afraid of woodwinds. Trying to learn to love 'em though!!)

I second M4uesviecr and DeadCrescendo! Soundfonts are the easiest way I've found to replicate that early-90's console sound. Another thing to keep in mind while you're writing is to limit the number of voices you use, probably to 8-12 voices. This usually means not using too many chords, simultaneous drum hits, that sort of thing, and will help to emulate the limitations of the technology at the time. All the best with your project!

Welcome Matt (or Simple_Soul)! This is a great place to bounce ideas, get feedback, and to stay focused. We're happy to have you and looking forward to your contribution to the forum. All the best,

Hi Everyone, This is the game project that I was writing music for in January. The premise of the story is that there are three heroes venturing into this tower that gains strength from absorbing the sins of the world. It was a pretty fun project to work on, and gave me an excuse to produce some slightly more polished music than I had previously been writing. Introduction: A little Menu Music The Combat Track Hope you enjoy! Now that this is shipped, maybe I'll have a little more time to write some tracks for the Music Room DJBailey

I think I’m trying to do too much... The realization came this morning when my 3rd alarm went off at 5:30AM, and was angry at myself for sleeping in. Don’t get me wrong, I know sleep is important and love it dearly, but only when it doesn’t come in between me and my projects! In this chapter of my life, days are spent almost entirely either at work (including a commute) or being husband/dad to my wife/2-year-old son. Once I’ve finished work, afternoon activities, dinner, bedtime routine, and cleanup, most of the minutes between 5:30AM and 8:30PM have been spoken for. Several months ago, I discovered that the best time for me to write music is in the early morning before people are up, so I got in to the habit of rising at about 3:30AM to get a couple hours of studio time before the world stirs from its slumber. So this February, I have about 2 hours a day (as long as I don’t keep sleeping in) to get some REAL work done. Current projects include (in order of priority): A hack-and-slash endless arena for Android (being released this weekend, woot!) Some 8-bit tracks for a couple fellow VXAce community developers A “Horror RPG†sound design package for all you horror game devs out there (seems to be a popular genre at the moment, and making creepy sounds has been SO fun, so far). My own RPG Project (workingly titled “Planetary Infiltration"), including learning a little Ruby scripting just for fun (and more autonomy on my part) With so little time, how can I eke a little more time out of the day to get this all done in an efficient manner? I realized the other day that I spend about 1-1.5 hour in the back of a car all day. That’s a pretty good chunk of time, so I’ve moved this preliminary stage of game development exclusively to my phone. As I started work on an “Event Flow†spreadsheet (fourth “development spreadsheetâ€, however, I was troubled with the thought of “How much preparation is too much?†So far I have 2 docs and 4 spreadsheets detailing different aspects of my game (summary, asset list, balancing, etc, etc, etc...) At what time am I just spinning my tires, and should just wait until I make computer time on this thing a priority? So for any of you still with me, how much work do you do planning, designing, and thinking about your game before you put your metaphorical pens to paper and get into the nitty gritty of RPG Maker?

Good to hear that you're getting going on a project. Doing projects with the intent to learn is a great idea! When I was starting out, I'd start a nig game idea and keep getting distracted by functionalities.. "Can I really do this? OH COOL" and the games were unfocussed and full of tangents, and ultimately, never finished. Now that I have a clearer idea as to the power of Ace, I'm starting that "second" project that is a little more ambitious, and hopefully much better than the first. Best of luck!

Hi James, I'm glad you like it! You most certainly may use it, and I can render the track as a loop and send it over to you to you if you'd like. Writing 8-bit stuff is a lot of fun, although I admit I cheated a bit by not using a Tracker. There's a really handy MAX for Live (ableton instrument) patch called "NES4L" that makes creating 8-bit sounds really fun and easy. All the best with your project,

I'm really excited about the ideas you describe, and love that you're starting, not just with setting and characters, but with plot as well! I was reading through your first submission and thought, "Well chances are that's gotta be the best idea," but I was proven wrong. Both excellent ideas, but I'm more partial to the Sci-Fi premise, probably just owing to personal preference. The mining colony sounds dark and brooding, and you could encorporate some really neat story mechanics with a colony of telepaths to work with. I'm excited to see how your project pans out!

I have to agree with Whisper about good horror. To quote Yahzee from Zero Punctuation game reviews: All a good horror needs to do is hand you a piece of sandpaper and shout encouragement as you vigorously massage your own undercarriage. - He's saying, don't overdo it with the monsters jumping out at you, with the over-the-top gory visuals, etc. Set the player up with a situation that's unsettling, and then foreshadow and delay that threat to the character.. Then wait some more while keeping the player interested, then give the player a glimpse of horror! ... and then take it away. Don't overuse your main threat. - Start with an interesting idea for the story. You'll need a good creepy setting and interesting characters, but you'll also want to consider at least a starting point for the plot. - Make your player feel vulnerable. Whatever that means for your style of game. I admit I haven't had a look at SoulPour777's link yet, owing to the fact that most of my Forum time is spent at work where I don't have access to MOST of the internet so I hope I'm not repeating too much of what's already been said. Being a music and sound guy, I feel that the music and SFX go a REALLY long way towards making an effective atmosphere, and I've noticed that a lot of people at this forum want to make good horror games. I'm almost done my current job, and as long as I don't pick up more work right away, I plan on making a sound design kit for the horror genre, featuring unsettling background music, eerie soundscapes, and strange SFX. Hopefully it'll be well done (never done horror before, but I'll do my best) and I'll post it to the Music Room when it's ready. If you'd like a notification when it's available, feel free to PM me and I'll let you know when it's up. All the best with your project.

It seems to me that in your world, Crystals are somewhat dangerous to the user. It might be interesting to gradually increase the detrimental effects of Crystal use as the game goes on. Maybe more powerful crystals, while producing a great effect in battle, could make the user more susceptible to damage or cause a temporary debuff. It would also be neat from a thematic standpoint, if wizards were the only casters that could provide healing and other sorts of effects that are usually thought of as White Magic. This would highlight the dangerousness of crystals and "purity" of true magic. Thoughts?

This kind of cracks me up (in a good way!) because it reminds me of playing Exodus Ultima III on my Atari when I was, I dunno, 8? Each key on the keyboard had an associated action, and for some actions you got to type in what you wanted to say or do. s = "say" for example, then you could type in WHAT you wanted to say, and when you say the right thing at the right time, you got some in-game effect. Coming around full circle! I think this approach makes the player feel more in control, but I think the only pitfall as a developer is that you need to make sure you give the player enough direction that they don't get stuck. It'd be frustrating to spend an hour wandering around a town, unable to progress because you didn't mention "Demon Cave" to the right person. There are a few design options for you to get around this, but I think it's important to keep in mind. If you want to make a game based around these mechanics though, I expect it would feel more immersive than your typical "Push A for results" (although I have nothing against that approach either.) Keep creating and have fun!

I wanted to start with a question that piqued my curiosity when I read your post: How do mages learn their spells? Do they simply acquire them on level-up, or do they have the option to train up to acquire spells? I can think of a couple ways to make Crystals less accessible to those opting to use them. Assuming you're using a more traditional reward system from battles, the first is simply to make them prohibitively expensive until you reach a certain point in the game. Lets say your early enemies only yeild a return of 5gp (or whatever currency) per battle. Having to shell out 1000gp for a crystal would probably deter most players from grinding out enough money to get that crystal. When they're getting 50gp per combat later in the game though, it'll bring that big-ticket item within their reach. Alternatively, (I'm not a scripter, and I've only JUST started working with a wider range of database functionality, so I'm no expert in this sort of thing, but..) you could try and make the amount of TP used scale to the character's level. Maybe at level 1 a particular crystal would cost 50 TP per use, but at level 10 it bottoms out at 10 TP per use. I'm not sure how to implement this, but it could be a way out of your jam. Hoperfully that's a little amuse-bouch for thought. I like the idea, it seems like you could explore some interesting ideas in your world.

I love that you're considering all this out of the gate! In the past I've jumped right in to the deep end which makes things a lot harder! I think the most important word you used in your post is "focused." Make sure that each stage of your game propels you forward, towards the eventual goal. About the question: what makes random encounters exciting, I think there are two answers to that. Whiona touched on one point when she mentioned that encounters start out exciting. You get to enjoy learning about the game's mechanics and learn something new. I think each time the player progresses through a milestone in the game, you should endeavor to make the combat fresh in the next section, either through introduction of new mechanics (new elemental damage, new conditions) or just a bigger variety of enemies (weaker enemies that do more damage combined with tanky enemies). We like figuring out how to overcome the next challenge! As the player adapts to the enemies of the area, if you're doing a more traditional JRPG, the enemies become a means towards advancement, either in terms of experience or gold. If you present the players with some auxiliary goal at the beginning of a section (maybe an expensive, but appreciably better item) they won't mind fighting the battle so much because each victory will move them closer to a goal. Then once battles have become mundane, it's time to throw a boss at the player, and move them on to the next section of your game. That is a very traditional approach to the issue, but it's one that's proven itself in countless games. If you're looking to break out of the more common paradigms, fantastic, and feel free to disregard all this, but there are some lessons to be learned, I think, from the successful games of the past. I hope that wasn't too rambly! I'm excited to see what you come up with.