Slime Salad

Hi all,

About eight weeks ago, I started work on my new game. This one I'm developing on my own (but no worries for Shizlock/Harzuma fans, I'm sure Shizuma and I will work together again in the future :P). I'm planning to release a full-fledged preview of the game in the next couple of days, with my eyes on a late January playtest release, and a full release towards the end of February. When I first started the game, I planned on writing the music myself, just as a way to force myself to learn FamiTracker, but, although I've gotten a major portion of the game done already, I'm just not realistically going to have time to do that and finish the game itself by the time I want to release.

While I'm going to be sparing on the details until I release the full preview in a few days, I wanted to go ahead and get the word out there that I'm looking for a musician. If anyone is interested, or can refer me to someone who is, here are some notes:

- I'd prefer a soundtrack that sounds "video-gamey", like 8- or 16-bit tracker music, to something using live instruments; I just think it fits better with 16-bit graphics.

- The game has a kind of dark tone, so ideally the music would be able to be suitably dark, ominous, fearful, and so forth. Some good ambiance, in other words.

- If you like, (insultingly undervalued) fiscal recompense of some sort is a possibility!

Anyone interested in helping me out?

((Oh, okay, just ONE screenshot:))

I don't think I can commit to a full soundtrack, but I'd really like to contribute a few tracks.

Hey, anything is great! I'm right now talking to this guy over FB, and I think he may be in a similar position where he can contribute a few tracks but not an entire soundtrack. Once I hear back from him and know which tracks he's doing, I can PM you with some details and such, and we can work something out. Thanks a lot for offering to help!

I'd be willing to provide a few tracks as well. My preferred setup is 8-bit using the Japanese Konami VRC6 chip (not the VRC7 with the crappy built-in samples). PM me if you'd like to hear a demo.

What software do you use?

(edit) speaking of the VRC6:

Personally, I like FamiTracker the best. It's a really good program and allows me to be really picky about the sounds I make. I can either design each instrument individually and/or I can manipulate each track's data to the inth degree (I tend to do both cause I'm a control freak when it comes to music). Once you get past the learning curve, it's really amazing.

How about you?

P.S. I was totally playing MM3 on my Famicom just last week. Nice timing Mogri.

I've been fiddling with Famitracker a bit as well. Like you mentioned, there is that learning curve, but I like the flexibility it offers.

If you have a shortage of tracks, I am sure I can sit down and make at least 1 or 2 in the next month or so now that my laptop is back in tip-top shape. I make stuff in Musagi, but I always make sure its NES authentic.

Wow, rad, thanks for all the interest, guys! I'm no longer worried about having a usable soundtrack by the time I finish the game!

I'm going to get with you all via PM within the next day or so, and try to coordinate who wants to do what, and on what terms, and so on, so expect to hear from me! Yay~

Musagi is really good too. You can create some really nice chip-tunes. If you already know the basics of writing music via keyboard/piano, I'd say the learning curve for Musagi will be much faster than that of FamiTracker (Musagi has a built in piano-roll view for the riffs you create).

That being said, while Musagi does a really good job of mimicking the NES' two built-in Square waves, you have to be careful of the Triangle wave. Musagi does NOT properly emulate the volume control of the Triangle. If you're going for an authentic NES sound, you'll need to leave the Triangle's volume at 100% the whole time (of course, there are ways around this on the NES, but not without changing the NES' DPCM volume at the same time... and that just causes other problems). Oh, and that means no fiddling with its sound envelope either!


Additionally, if you are planning on emulating the Konami VRC6 chip instead of just the NES' built in one, I'd suggest you just use FamiTracker. Trying to properly emulate that with Musagi is a monstrous task of DOOM and FAIL!!!

I learned the bit about the Triangle volume recently, so my older stuff doesn't take that into account. But yeah, I leave it at 100% now. Unless I feel like fudging.

The VRC6 chip sounds wrong to me. If I'm not mistaken, that never made it to America, right? That might explain why I'm so in love with the built-in chip. I never heard anything else. The VRC7 is especially horrible as far as making my "purist" alarm light up and shriek.

I totally agree with you about the VRC7 chip. That thing was awful sounding anyway. Uses some really bad samples. I personally like the VRC6 though. It all depends on taste I suppose, not to mention the look of the game being played. If it came near the end of the Famicom era, I'd expect something like the VRC6, but if it looks like it came earlier, I'd say the built in chip.

Also, you're right, the VRC6 never made it to America...

Then again, America got screwed out of a LOT of really neat games and innovations back in the 80s.

Just a note that I sent out an email to all you guys, using the email addresses in the memberlist. If you didn't get one, let me know!