Rebel Yells (in stereo)
Unreal Tournament 2004 is a multiplayer first-person-shooter computer game, and I love FPSs, even though I’m not terribly fond of getting repeatedly killed by high school kids in online gameplay.
The game-makers actively support gamers who want to make their own maps, characters, and modifications (“mods”), because they’ve discovered that with thousands of strangers building additions to their game, there is an endless flow of new content that dramatically extends and expands the life of their game. The game even ships with a design tool that I assume is the same program the original designers used. I realize it’s just a clever business model, but there’s something incredibly cool and open about the practice that sounds to me like... well, freedom, sort of.
And this isn’t some make-your-own-maze kind of crap; some of these levels and mods are truly professional.
Interested in making music for video games, I posted a message on the UT2004 forums a few months ago advertising myself. There have been a few requests for music from people who may be on their way to making incredible mods, but every day it seems my time becomes more and more precious to me, and I simply can’t afford to dedicate it to projects that aren’t nearing completion.
[This is a strange sensation for me. I’ve always considered myself pretty lazy, but I doubt I could find a day in the last three months where I haven’t had something I had to get done. Nor could I find a night after a day at my job where I didn’t have some audio or writing thing that needed to get done that night. Even so…]
One project came my way recently that sounded like too much fun to turn down. Echoes of Glory is a Civil War mod. Naturally I’m not an obvious choice for Civil War music, but that's OK because they’re not really looking for music except for the menu screen. So what do they want me for? Sound effects and battlefield ambience.
I spent most of a Sunday putting together a battlefield-ambience demo for them, and it was really fun. It felt like movie work. Dozens and dozens of layered tracks of horses, muskets, men yelling and barking orders, volleys of cannon fire, distant cannons answering, bugles, wind, bullets whizzing by... my neighbors must hate me.
Right away, I know I’m missing the drums and bugles I’d really like to have. Plus I’d really like to have some more variety in the men’s voices and orders (that will be a strange day when I go up to Griffith Park with a friend or two and a recorder to get some yelling). But given those things, do you, my two-or-three readers, have any suggestions or cool sound ideas for the Civil War? And John, do you think you could record a traditional banjo song, like Dixie or something?
The game-makers actively support gamers who want to make their own maps, characters, and modifications (“mods”), because they’ve discovered that with thousands of strangers building additions to their game, there is an endless flow of new content that dramatically extends and expands the life of their game. The game even ships with a design tool that I assume is the same program the original designers used. I realize it’s just a clever business model, but there’s something incredibly cool and open about the practice that sounds to me like... well, freedom, sort of.
And this isn’t some make-your-own-maze kind of crap; some of these levels and mods are truly professional.
Interested in making music for video games, I posted a message on the UT2004 forums a few months ago advertising myself. There have been a few requests for music from people who may be on their way to making incredible mods, but every day it seems my time becomes more and more precious to me, and I simply can’t afford to dedicate it to projects that aren’t nearing completion.
[This is a strange sensation for me. I’ve always considered myself pretty lazy, but I doubt I could find a day in the last three months where I haven’t had something I had to get done. Nor could I find a night after a day at my job where I didn’t have some audio or writing thing that needed to get done that night. Even so…]
One project came my way recently that sounded like too much fun to turn down. Echoes of Glory is a Civil War mod. Naturally I’m not an obvious choice for Civil War music, but that's OK because they’re not really looking for music except for the menu screen. So what do they want me for? Sound effects and battlefield ambience.
I spent most of a Sunday putting together a battlefield-ambience demo for them, and it was really fun. It felt like movie work. Dozens and dozens of layered tracks of horses, muskets, men yelling and barking orders, volleys of cannon fire, distant cannons answering, bugles, wind, bullets whizzing by... my neighbors must hate me.
Right away, I know I’m missing the drums and bugles I’d really like to have. Plus I’d really like to have some more variety in the men’s voices and orders (that will be a strange day when I go up to Griffith Park with a friend or two and a recorder to get some yelling). But given those things, do you, my two-or-three readers, have any suggestions or cool sound ideas for the Civil War? And John, do you think you could record a traditional banjo song, like Dixie or something?
Hear my music or find out more at
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home