Interviews: Sling It! (Pollushot 2) creator Greg Lobanov

Greg Lobanov of Dumb and Fat Games

Douglas Laustsen and I recently assembled and arranged the music for the game Sling-It! (Pollushot 2) by Greg Lobanov.  For more information about the game, you can go here.  I can tell you the mechanics are awesome and it’s super addicting.  The music is nice too haha.

Anyhow, Greg had a very clear vision as to what he wanted for the game, music wise, so I asked him if I could sit down with him for an interview.  We didn’t really “sit down” I guess…. this “interview” was conducted via email earlier this week (3/11).  Enjoy!

Classical Gaming:  It must be really exciting to be a gamer who actually… well… MAKES GAMES!  What originally inspired you to pursue game development?

Greg Lobanov:  One characteristic that really separates me from people is my fascination with simple mechanics. The best example I can think of that is an anecdote my mom likes to share about me, which is that when I was very young I’d regularly come across string on the floor and busy myself with it for literally hours (made me pretty easy to take care of). Everybody on some level likes to play with things; that’s why we like games. But whatever that acumen is, I seem to possess it in a bigger than normal amount. I think that’s informed everything I’ve made, one way or another, and it made games a very natural pursuit. Telling a good story in a game has a lot to do with being able to create a fun make-believe the way kids do with their toys. And making a game that feels good and is fun to play involves tapping into that inherent “play” feeling we all have. Plus, I just love making things, and games if nothing else are wonderful as big projects which you can sink an endless amount of thought, creativity and effort into. So, yeah… I firmly believe that making games is what I was meant to do.

CG:  Obviously, and you stated this to me during the production of Sling It!, you feel that music in video games is very important.  What are some of your favorite soundtracks?  Composers?

GL:  I love video game music. I listen to it almost exclusively these days, for better or worse. When I’m talking about “favorites” in video game music I’m rarely talking about an album or a composer, but rather, specific songs. I think that’s because individual pieces are tied so closely to particular game moments, and so when considering an entire soundtrack or an artist there’s always some specific shining stars in the lineup which stand out to me rather than seeing the entire soundtrack as a single unit. That’s not to say I don’t have my favorites. I’m just saying this preface the fact that my favorite game soundtracks are naturally the same as my favorite games.
My absolute favorite soundtracks are those of Earthbound and Zelda: Wind Waker. I don’t remember particular names associated with Earthbound, but I do know it has a lot of associated musicians, and its music is I think a particularly unique expression of many different artists coming together at a moment in time. Zelda, meanwhile, has Koji Kondo. Wind Waker’s best moments didn’t all come from him, but he’s an obvious individual whose music is consistently great whenever he makes it. If I had to name a favorite video game composer I think I’d have to default it to him. But really, favorites aside, I listen to a lot of different soundtracks and composers, almost indiscriminately.

CG:  You made some very interesting choices for the music to Sling It! (Pollushot 2).  Why did you pick the music you picked?

GL:  To score the original game, Pollushot, I wanted something that would be easy to get, free to use, and sound right for the game. I quickly landed on classical music, and used a license-free version of Danse Macabre for the game, which worked surprisingly well. So it started as a choice of convenience, but I think it came to be an actually significant piece of the game’s portrait.
Coming into the sequel, I’d seen how well classical music had worked, and wanted to use it again but this time without restricting myself to free online samples. The decision to focus on Russian/Soviet composers was the result of a few different factors: I have a big heritage in Russia, and I wanted to let some of that flavor into the game. I started to see my game as a sort of loose homage to Tetris, which also used Russian classical music to great effect (including a piece from Nutcracker). And most importantly, Russian composers are just plain great! The Russian theming really helped to inform the game back, too, and helped inspire the idea of an endless pollution-induced winter as is depicted in the game, the TV broadcast-style opening, and the main character’s design. Everything just fit together very nicely.

CG:  I remember you saying that you like to listen to the music to the game while developing the game.  Can you expand on that a bit?

GL:  I think every game has a very particular internal rhythm, and feeling that rhythm while you play is an important part of what makes a good game great. As the creator trying to locate that and express it, it’s like pressing your ear to a block of marble and hearing the statue inside, waiting to be carved out. Just as the music co-inspired the game’s theming and style, it also co-inspires the game’s pacing and feeling. Constantly visualizing the game is very necessary while I work on it, to inform every detail from the size of an enemy to the animation curve of a menu button. Listening to the right music puts me in the proper headspace to do that. I generally build playlists while I’m working, not just of the game’s actual music, but of other tunes I happen to be into at the time, and I generally come to see those non-soundtrack songs as “honorary members” of the game soundtrack, too.

CG:  What’s next for you?  Any other games in development?

GL:  I hope to work a lot this year and put out many more games in the coming months. As I was finishing Sling It! I already made a lot of progress into my next game. I haven’t formally announced it yet, but it will be called “Perfection.” and it’s a tranquil, simple puzzle game in which you cut shapes to fit into outlines.

Screenshot from Perfection, coming soon!

For more information on Greg Lobanov and Dumb and Fat Games, you can check his website out here.  Special thanks to Greg for responding to my questions so eloquently, Doug for putting up with the deadlines I kept altering on the work, and Sharon Torello from LocalArtsLive for helping Doug and me connect with Greg in the first place.

Originals: “Last Minute Research Paper”

February’s 8static really got me inspired to assemble some originals to perform in the future.  Naturally, as a newcomer to the chiptune scene, I need to see what the scene… well… is!  I’ve been listening to everything and anything, trying to absorb every sound and style in the chiptune genre.  There’s so much out there!  I’m actually impressed with the overall quality I’m finding.  Mostly, you can tell that people put an incredible amount of time and effort into each track.  For a great example of quality and craftsmanship, I would check Chipocrite’s new album:  8bit Lebowski:  100% Electronic.  And it’s not just this album- there’s tens of thousands of albums out there to explore.  It’s really awesome.

Either way, performing as “Steve L” is only going to get me so far as it would appear that everyone has a stage name.  I didn’t want to be presumptuous and assume it was okay to just make up a stage name, having very little experience and what not…. but I ended up doing so anyhow.  I’ll be performing under “Ap0c” from here on out, as a homage to the Relic Scythe from Final Fantasy XI.

Nerdy inspiration for a name… but a bad-ass scythe.

For the past month, I’ve been working on pieces for Beta Test Music as well.  We will be performing our very first NYC show this weekend, in fact.  Details here.  It will feature 2 works for the band+20a3/VRC6 that I’ve arranged.  Our drummer is busy this weekend… so I just whipped up some NES audio to go with Pokemon to cover for him.  I’m also tweaking my arrangement of music from Castlevania III because I’ve learned SOOO MUCH about sound creation since the original performance that I feel like the work was a bit amateurish and could easily be fixed to make a lot more sense.

Anyhow, “Last Minute Research Paper” is supposed to invoke that feeling of a race to the finish.  I imagine sitting down at 9 PM, attemping to finish a paper that is due at 8 AM the next morning.  The music goes through ups and downs, progress and lack of progress, and should have a push and pull kind of feel.  Ultimately, the paper is finished but at what cost?  Too dramatic?  Too bad.

Below you’ll find the live performance of this piece at 8static 33:

One thing instantly noticeable is my snares are kind of out of control at times.  On my headphones, it didn’t sound nearly as crashy and crazy.  It’s really just at the beginning.  It would appear I dropped an “F” in Famitracker for the noise channel and forgot to remove it.  You can hear it activate at around :11.  I think it stays up at the volume for a while before receiving another command not to be so loud.  Most of my volume controls are built into the instruments so it probably took a long time before I put another command in.  Oh well.  I need to remember to just put in “analog” controls more often.  It will also help when I have a full rig so I can mix stuff more on the fly.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed it!  I have some other cool things I’m working on too so I’ll put them up here when they are complete.  It’s my Spring Break (yep, a perk of being a college professor) so I’m going to try to aim to clean up some half-completed posts, including Virus, Part 2 of Dr. Mario, and some other interesting Research in Game Music topics.  Happy Monday!

Uncategorized: Link errors!

It would appear that a couple of the major YouTube sources for the music on this website have gone dark.  If you happen to find any dead links, please let me know here and I will fix them.  I just fixed Over Horizon and a couple others.  What a shame!

Sunday Game Soundtrack: Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 (FC/NES)

Hey guys!  It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for another Sunday Game Soundtrack!  Football is over… so we need SOMETHING to do, right?   Anyhow,  let’s listen to the original, legendary soundtrack to a game composed by a husband and wife duo- Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 for FC/NES.

This Sunday’s selection was inspired by Close to Good‘s Volume III, which features the complete soundtrack to Rockman 3/Mega Man 3, covered and awesome..  It’s free- you should go download it and take a listen!

Okay, so I know you guys know this but for the sake of just saying it:  Mega Man is known as Rockman in Japan.  The game’s official Japanese title is ロックマン3 Dr.ワイリーの最期!? or Rockman 3:  The End of Dr. Wily?  Much more dramatic!  Anyhow,  rather than saying Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 each time I refer to the game, I’m just going to call it MM3 from here on out. Simple.  Clean.  Easy.

MM3 was released by Capcom for the FC/NES on September 28th 1990 in Japan and in November 1990 for the US.  (Sadly, it was not released in the EU until 1992… wow, way to drop the ball, Capcom).  This game uses the MMC3 mapper.  This mapper (to oversimplify a bit) basically allows Mega Man’s health bar to remain in a static position while you move.  The music for the game was composed by Yasuaki Fujita, who is listed as “Bunbun” in the credits.

Bunbun wasn’t originally assigned to compose for the game, however.  I’ll summarize one of my older posts really quick:  Basically, Bunbun’s wife, Harumi Fujita, was assigned to write the music for the game.  Unfortunately, she had to abandon the project… because she went into labor.  She had been assigned the project while pregnant with her and Bunbun’s child (I’ll recycle this joke because I can:  You might say she had a… BUNBUN in the oven).  She took maternity leave and Bunbun, who was originally assigned to just do the sound programming, took over the project.

Harumi had already started the work so there’s always been a question as to which, if any, of the tracks were hers.  Fortunately, Bunbun, on his blog,  pointed out which tracks he composed.  Apparently, Harumi had already finished Gemini Man, Needle Man, and part of the Staff Roll track.  The rest was finished by Bunbun.

Anyhow, you’re not here for touching little stories!  You’re here for MUSIC.  So, let’s take a listen to Bunbun and Harumi Fujita’s Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 complete soundtrack, as posted on YouTube by Wiiguy309 (this guy has posted so many soundtrack- what the heck, man?  CRAZY!)  These tracks have been stereo enhanced so you’ll notice they sound a little more… reverb-y.  It’s kind of nice.  If you REALLY REALLY REALLY, REALLY want to listen to the un-enhanced version, you can click here.

Hope you enjoyed listening!

Originals: “What Happens When You Take the Wrong Bus”

So I’ve been working on new pieces and what not.  I recently performed (or rather, just played the piece- I don’t have an adequate rig to “perform” the piece yet) “What Happens When You Take the Wrong Bus” at Philadelphia’s 8static, a freakin’ awesome chiptune party that happens once a month.  I’m so lucky to be in Philly.  The artists there were amazing and really inspiring.

Best of all, though, everyone there was really supportive.  I’ve been a performing musician, professionally (I guess professionally) since I was about 13.  Over the years, I’ve arranged many pieces to play for Beta Test Music and other groups.  But, in the last 17 years, I’ve NEVER played ANY of my original material live.  Not a single piece!  I’ve been working on compositions since I can remember… but I’ve never had a piece PERFORMED.  This sounds crazy but it’s true.  My 8static performance was my first ever presentation of any of my material to a general audience.  Scary.

Anyhow, here’s the live performance of the piece.  A little of the beginning got cut off.  I promise you it’s cute and sounds like a little 8bit town theme.  This is composed for Famitracker v4.1 with 2a03+VRC6.  The samples for the DPCM are from Castlevania III.  This is being played off my laptop right now… but I intend on setting up a PowerPak and emulating VRC6 soon.  More on that later.

Enjoy my first ever live performance and please leave me feedback!  Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and to all you supportive people out there- this was kind of a dream of mine and it came true.  :)

Interviews: Matt Uelmen on “Top Score”

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an interview that I’ve really liked.  Emily Reese’s interview of Matt Uelmen on Minnesota Public Radio somehow slipped through the cracks on me.  He’s one of my favorite composers.  His work in Diablo II still reminds me of my youth- hacking and slashing down Meph runs, getting my items stolen by people who said they were my friends, tricking people into thinking I was trading them a Shako when it was actually just a green hat, etc etc.  Not really great memories, I guess.  BUT MEMORIES ALL THE SAME.

I’ve mentioned his involvement with Torchlight II briefly in an older post and highlighted a small interview with him.  This interview, though, is really at length and really lets you hear what the composer has to say about his music.  It’s definitely worth listening to, even though it’s a couple months old.  It’s great to hear him list his influences and explain his tracks in detail.  He’s not just some composer who presses the buttons on his computer and makes sound.  I wasn’t surprised to hear that he knows a lot about theory.  His compositional technique seems really solid.

You can find the complete interview HERE.  It’s only about 17 minutes long.  Check it out and let me know what you think!  And I love that he’s a real nerd.

Sunday Game Soundtrack: Pokemon – Red//Green/Blue/Yellow (1st Gen)

Hey folks.  It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for another Sunday Game Soundtrack!  While I spend a lot of time during the week looking for more obscure titles, its also great to find some time to post fan favorites!  Today, we’ll listen to the soundtrack to the first generation of Pokemon games for Gameboy- Pokemon – Red/Green/Blue/Yellow.

Luckily, I managed to find the complete OST in one YouTube video (always awesome) so special thanks to OnlineOST for posting this.  I’ll put the OST below so you can listen while you read along.

The composer for this game is Junichi Masuda.  He’s basically been the guy behind all the music in the Pokemon series.  He has a very interesting style, in terms of composition.  I really can’t put my finger on what it is.  His battle themes are very busy but still somehow light.  If you notice, there’s very little use of “drums” throughout the pieces but it’s still very rhythmic.

There’s a couple things to note here about the music:

• The version of the music above has been enhanced, clearly.  There’s a lot more echo, etc.  The music we heard as kids was a lot more jarring.
• Pokemon was original released in Japan as Pocket Monsters – Red/Green in 1996.  The original “Blue” edition was released later, and at first, only to people who were subscribers to CoroCoro Comic.  The Blue edition featured enhanced audio (it was just tweaked a bit, from what I understand) and some glitches were removed.  When the game was finally released here in the US in 1998, they decided to release the Japanese Blue version.  So, our Pokemon – Red/Blue is actually an updated version of the original, in terms of sound.
• Okay, this is a serious warning.  I’ll provide a link to this but listen at your own risk.  Seriously.  My ears are ringing right now.  So Junichi Masuda wrote a different version of the Lavender Town theme for Pocket Monsters Beta game.  It is probably the most disturbing, jarring, and bizarre track I’ve ever heard in my life.  Like, seriously.  You can listen to it, if you want.  But this is my last warning.  It seriously messes with your head.  There are EXTREME high pitches that are inaudible to older folks but can REALLY hurt young kids ears.  Crazy right?  And yes, my ears actually hurt right now.  I’m not even kidding.  If you’re going to listen to it, listen to it softly at least and without headphones.  Okay.  Here’s the link.  What a bizarre track.
• If you end up listening for a long time, you’ll notice there’s a lot of Japanese speaking at the end.  I BELIEVE this is the Game Boy cry of each Pokemon followed by the a reading from the PokeDex.  I could be wrong but that’s what it sounds like to me.

Okay folks, enjoy the OST and hopefully you didn’t listen to that Lavender Town track.  I need an Advil.  Wow.  Ouch.