When McDonalds and garbage are your only options, what do you choose?

To make a “hardcore” game, clearly these days all you need to do rehash an old FPS engine, like say, the Unreal Tournament engine. Next, you rehash the story, like alien bugs invading Earth. Nobody’s thought of that one before. Now, add online and with some pretty bloom lighting and there you have the majority of today’s hardcore FPS games.

Unfortunately most of today’s “casual” games are just as bad.

And other then those two categories, we have shovelware… yeah.

So I’m really at a loss here. There are still some gems, but honestly every generation gets worse and worse. I thought Nintendo’s Wii would finally revive it and show developers that a great game takes time, dedication, and originality; not bloom lighting, an FPS genre, and online multiplayer. Well, unfortunately, when the green started flowing into Nintendo HQ, somewhere along the lines they forgot their original fanbase.

I’ve honestly considered lowering my standards these days due to the lack-luster performance of most games. World of Goo, Braid, LittleBigPlanet, and some others have been some truly great, original, and innovative additions to our collection. But every generation I see less and less of these gems. And even less actually become a franchise because nobody will give them chance.

What is wrong with gamers these days?

When Banjo Kazooie came out on Xbox Live Arcade, even with the enhanced graphics, people still said “Games looked that ugly back then?” Have they forgotten their history? Their roots? Has Microsoft’s blatant Nintendo-bashings [see: the very end of BK Nuts&Bolts trailer and Microsoft's statements regarding the Mii clones of NXE] turned everybody with a 360 or PS3 into a “HATE WII LOVE FPS; UH HOW I SHOOT? WHERE X BUTTON? WHAT IS STRATEGY YOU SPEAK OF??” stereotype that we vowed so hard not to become?

And has Nintendo’s lack of any real games since Brawl (Mario Kart was practically a remake) turned everybody with a Wii into a “I guess bad games can be good!” type of person who has spent so long begging under the table with no food that they have moved to the garbage can.

So either we are starving mutts or cavemen.

What do we do now? How can we change the course of a fledgling industry?

We as Nintendo fans know this is true. If you as a Nintendo fan or fanboy don’t, you are in denial. But the rest of the gamers have been too caught up in crap to know. When they finally start losing interest in FPS games they will start begging for something new, and it won’t be there. Then they will learn of what we know. Notice how all the hate Halo 3 got? And now Gears 2? It’s already starting. The people who have been hating on it are huge 360 fans! (Maybe not fanboys though). They hated on it because it was very repetitive, and after 15 years of the same games, it’s understandable why.

So as you can see it’s starting. The industry was briefly revived when Nintendo showed the Wii’s games for the first time. But now, they have abandoned the industry. And Microsoft is just a giant bag of hot air now, and Sony is just reconciling what they once had.

If only hardcore gamers weren’t so blinded by this blatant sight of shit in front of them! Abre los ojos

The New Pack of Wolves

WALL OF TEXT WARNING

This editorial is for the Core gamers.
Before you read this, please consider these questions:

Do you know what a fanboy is?
Do you spend much of your time playing video games?
Do you regularly read about video game news?
Do you know the history of video games?
Do you know what the Crash of 1983, Nintendo’s Sony Betrayal, the Bit Wars, and the Magnavox Odyssey are?

If you answered most of questions as yes, then read on. Please read all of it before making and opinion, or asking a question. Sorry if some stuff is worded bad; I wish I was a better writer, but I’m not.

I’ve spent this entire weekend thinking about the game industry. Being a solo-console Wii owner, I haven’t had the luxury of playing a good game in quite some time now. I haven’t lost all faith in the system though. It’s just a bad time for it. Like when the 360 had all its hardware and RRoD of scandals, and the post E3 2006 months of constant bad news from the PS3. As you can see they have made their comebacks and then some. It’s all a cycle really.

But only owning a Wii burden has had its advantages however. It has allowed me to contemplate our industry, the video game industry. We as Hardcore gamers have reached a high point in our industry. After Sony’s marketing of “games are cool now” campaign, gaming has launched into the mainstream. At the eve of the 6th generation, we officially passed the music and movie industries, officially making us a dominate force in the entertainment industry. In this 7th generation however, I feel we have lost sight of what once got us here in the first place.

Games these days have reached a technical pinnacle. What was once “which system has more bits?” and “which system can calculate the most FLOPS?” is now a thing of the past. We have reached a point in the industry where games are no longer going to get anymore realistic, and if they are, it’s not going to be a considerable leap as it has been in the past. In other words, gaming now rests on the hands that once made it great: uniqueness. However, some of us have lost sight of that; but some of us have also been focusing on it too greatly.

Gaming is such a mass-centralized entertainment, that it has actually split into different categories. Now, we have three prominent classifications: mainstream, indie, and casual. Mainstream involves games like Gears of War, Halo, Guitar Hero, Zelda, Mario, Metal Gear Solid, and the like. These are high budget, well-known games, that any gamer can name off the top of their head. Then there are Indie games. They are lower budget, and lesser known. There are many, but some good ones are Audio Surf, Garry’s Mod, World of Goo, and Castle Crashers. Finally, there are Casual games. This is the newest genre. They have been around for a while, but Nintendo brought them to light with the Wii and its marketing campaign. In fact, Nintendo has once again shifted the entire gaming perspective and the industry. It’s hard to imagine one company such as Nintendo was able to cause so much damage in one fell swoop, whether that destruction be good or bad. Like indie games, casual games are far too many to list. They are the games you play online, on your cellphone, they are Mine Sweeper, Solitaire, Wii Sports, Spore, LittleBigPlanet and etc. Casual was never truly been recognized until this generation of gaming.

Unfortunately, gaming has become a very closed-minded thing now. Our industry would have never been what is today without the unique ideas of the past. Mainstream titles these days have become a glob of all the same. The FPS explosion of the 6th gen is now even bigger than before. However, shooters have really shown their age now. Can you name any popular shooter that does not involve aliens, or World War II? One or two at most? It’s pretty obvious to see now that the entire shooter genre is just milking off other games. It puts the term “cash cow” into not just a franchise, but a whole genre of games. This is no different with Nintendo, who milks off of rereleases and remakes. Even worse, figures like Cliffy B and Soccer Moms are now the new faces of our industry. Cliffy B, head of Epic Games who does Gears of War, is probably quite happy with himself now. I don’t think he would have ever guessed that porting Halo onto the Unreal Tournament engine, then taking the third person combat idea from some indie PC mods, and finally adding a coat of Half-Life (what popular shooter doesn’t take ideas from Half-Life?) would make such an amazing experience.

People say it’s a shame one can’t see past the curtains. For me, I have been looking past the curtains for so long I have forgotten the stage itself. I’ve spent my entire modern gaming career analyzing games from the development perspective, instead of how fun they actually are. I am happy to say I have now seen my weaknesses. I am also happy to say now that Gears really is a great game. I just have spent so long griping about how half-assed it was, and how unoriginal it was that I forgot what makes a great game: fun. It’s the fun factor, not how unique it is. When you look at Gears and just judge on how unique the title is, as I have, then you won’t see much in it. In fact, you see a shitty game. But in reality, it isn’t a bad game at all. It’s just not a very original one.

This revelation is what leads me to a conclusion. While some of us have lost sight of gaming by looking at things based on how unique they are, some of us have also lost sight on unique games period. The 360’s blunder of mainstream titles has infected a heavy influence that if a game doesn’t involve shooting, racing, or football, it is a terrible game. After all, a human being is influenced by everything around them. So if we play nothing but shooter games, then we tend to get a “comfort zone” there and shun games that try anything different. In other words, what once made our industry is now the bad. Unique games like Spore and Wii Music that try something new and fail miserably at it are now given horrible ratings. It’s like when somebody invents a better type of gasoline for a car (ie, a game like Deadspace), and they are praised greatly. But when somebody invents a whole new type of fuel and fails (Spore), they are ridiculed instead of praised for trying something new, because we have grown so much attached to sameness. That’s not to say that Deadspace is a bad game, and Spore and Wii music are incredible games. But I’m sure you see my point.

It’s up to us to realize this because clearly the gaming journalism sites that we once trusted are now just as closed-minded as we are. Remember the Jeff Gerstmann being fired from Game Spot? Clearly all that site cares about now is money. What about IGN? If you read any one of their modern-day reviews, you can clearly see they have become nothing but a mainstream stuck-up. When they reviewed Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, they were bewildered by it because it was a unique game. Or what about the recent Metacritic conspiracy where 3.5 out of 10 isn’t a fanboyish attack, but a revolt against editors? These sites clearly have lost their way. Let’s right their path.

My conclusion is that there are two factors that make games great — uniqueness and fun factor. Gamers, all of us, no matter how smart you think you are, have lost sight of one of these. All of us have. And don’t hide it, because you know it’s true. We have either become too focused on one end of the stick or the other. We are either unwilling to try new things or too willing to do so. We need to strike a balance point between a game that is unique, and a game that is fun. Until then, our industry is only going to go down. A fun game is fun now, but without originality, we will never evolve, and novelty value will drop until a game is no longer fun. But if we just try to make everything unique, then we will never have any fun games. It’s time to change our views. It’s time to make this industry great again.

The idea behind Wii Music is very similar to a game called Frequency, which was an indie game released on the PS2. In the game, you went down tracks and hit a sequence of notes to make a beat. Similar to how you must stay on tempo in Wii music to do the same. After you got an entire song going in Frequency, you could go off and do a solo. In Wii music, it was virtually the same. The only major difference is that Wii Music is marketed towards a more casual audience; thus there is more casual based gameplay. Frequency never sold very well, but it did lay down the stones for some future games by that same company. Who is that company? The company who made Frequency was Harmonix; yeah, you may know them as the ones that created Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

We have become closed minded in these recent years. We can’t accept games because they are either too much of the same or too different. Hell, we can’t even except each others opinions. We just say “fuck Gears of War” because it’s too much of the same, even though we haven’t played it (or barely played it). We say “fuck the Wii” because it’s too different, even though we haven’t played it (or barely played it). We’ve all become ignorant again. We are the Core gamers, and we can’t even appreciate each others’ opinions, or standards?! We may not shape this industry, but we are the leaders that the mainstream and casuals look up to, and they are the ones who shape our industry. But what kind of example do we set for them if we can’t even open our own minds? We may not be fanboys, but we’ve slumped into something just as bad. All of us have, and we are too arrogant to admit it. Gaming is growing exponentially, and in 50 to 70 years, I predict it will be what major sports are right now. My evidence to this is how once nerdy things (Batman, Spiderman, etc) are becoming cool.
5 years ago, who ever thought wearing a shirt with the joker on it would be cool?

It’s politics. Politics in the gaming industry. There are two types of gamers, conservative and liberal. Conservative gamers are afraid of change, and liberals demand too much of it. (Those views may be a bit contradictory for some of your real-life political views, huh?) You may find it ironic now that most Xbox Live gamers support Obama after reading this, hm? I am ashamed to say I had become too liberal. And I’m sure many of you are shamed right now that you have become too conservative. Well, we know our problems, so let’s settle them. It’s time we as hardcore gamers start shaping our industry right. We demand a balance of good and unique games. And we are not getting that. Did we forget the real people who made our industry? If it wasn’t for Shigeru Miyamoto and Ralph Baer, there would not even be video games today.

–DmNt

I would like thank one of the many talented writers at Infendo, ナオミ, as I used part of his very well-written article when I discussed the similarities between Wii Music and Frequency. That paragraph I did was directly referenced from his own article. Please read it sometime.

Video Game Music That Never made it to NG — Part 2

Finally. I am writing this. Sorry it took so long. But first off, I would like to say: WOW! Thanks for the view spike! 27 hits in one day! It may not sound like much, but my last two blogs I had were lucky to get 3 hits in a day! Thanks a lot people for reading! It really helps motivate me to write these. Anyways, here’s part deux, enjoy.

Teehee Valley Theme (Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga) — I liked this one a lot. Didn’t take me long to make neither. The lead is a synth string combined with a flute, and it begins with some marcato strings too. The percussion is some conga samples I found searching the netz.

Ayla’s Theme (Chrono Trigger) — SNEEK PEAK GUISE!!! This one I shall upload this one to NG very soon. Why not now? I want to upload it when Chrono Trigger DS comes out as an homage to it. I am very pleased with the overall outcome…except for the compression. The trumpet is in the -3DB no-safe zone for starters, and I didn’t even throw in Limiter or Maximus. Maybe I shall change that before I upload it to NG.

Big Blue (F-Zero Melee Remix) — A remix I did…for a remix. I made this one a long time ago, and as you can tell, the age shows. It’s not horrible, worth a listen, but that’s about it. You might like it better than I do…A lot of people have. You can’t beat that guitar solo, but man, if only I knew what I know now… I could make it sound so much better. I could always go back and update it, but I rarely do that, because I have a firm belief that once you finish it, it’s done.

Zeal Palace Remix (Chrono Trigger) A little hip-hop, synthy remix of Zeal Palace. Another homage I’ll be uploading to NG soon for Chrono Trigger DS’s release! So here’s your sneak peak. The sitar is recorded midi. If only I could afford Sounds of India…

Some Kirby 64 Theme — Yeah, I don’t remember what it was! LOL! I made this is one a long time ago so that’s why! How do you like the synths though? Are they delicious? Hm? Hmm? HMMM? Mah wooden synth is delicious!

Metroid Techno (Brinstar Melee Remix) — You can understand why I don’t upload remixes OF remixes, right? Anyways, this one is just awesome! It works so well! I would kudos myself, but then I would look like an arrogant fool. My only complaint is that weak snare…but I think everything else makes up for it.

Alright! That’s it! I guess I should upload some of my OWN work now huh? Then the haters won’t get mad me… Well, look forward to that soon!

How is video game music made? Let’s take a look

This post was inspired by a recent search engine entry (yes, I can view what you are searching for to get to my site).

Well, video game music starts with a beep, and then a boop, and the some more beeps, and then another boop.

No, unfortunately, making video game music is not that easy.

Anyways, I’ll start from the beginning. Back in the day, as in, the 1980’s, video game composers were very limited in what they could do with music. First of all, up until the 6th Generation of Consoles, video games music was, for the most part, midi based. What is midi? Well, try to think of a midi as real-time music. That is, midi does not contain raw sound wave data like .wav or .mp3 files do. Instead it contains information so that the computer or console can play the music. Think of it like a music box — The swindle on a music box does not play the music, it only contains the information so that the music box itself can play the tune.

The reason sound was midi-based was because it took up far less memory, which was a big issue back in 80’s and early 90s. Regular sound files would have taken up so much memory that there would not be any room for graphics! So you would have great music, but nothing to look at! Especially for RPGs. Nowadays, CDs contain tons of memory, so we don’t need to use midis. So basically, midi-based sound systems in games used a series of sound channels. These sound channels not only produced music, but sound FX as well (I wish I could tell you how the Sound FX part works, but I don’t know myself…lol). Have you ever played an old NES game and noticed that sometimes the music would become…”less” when a sound effect played? That’s because each sound channel could only play one sound at a time, so one of the music generators — that’s anything that makes sound — had to mute itself temporarily so the sound effect could play.

The 8-bit Era still used the traditional way of midis and sound channels as its predecessors had. Music in the 8-bit Era was pretty limited for the most part. The NES is most well-known console of this time, so let’s use it as the example. The NES contains only 4 channels of sound. As I said earlier, no two sounds can play over the same channel, so this meant you could only have four different instruments playing at once! Even worse, you couldn’t even decide what instruments they were…if you wanted to even call them instruments. So sound channels 1 and 2 were Square wave channels. A square wave, is literally, a sound wave that looks like a square when viewed under an O-scope. The square wave is what started the whole “retro sound” scene in the first place. These channels served as the harmony and melody. The third channel is a triangle wave. Triangle waves tend to make a very deep sound, so it served as the bass sound. The fourth channel offered percussion…in the form of white noise. White noise is the static you hear on your TV when it can’t pick up a signal. This sound was used to make very meager drums. (If you want to even call them that)

By the 16 Bit Era, video game music had evolved much. I will use the Super NES as an example, but of course, it doesn’t really matter whom I choose since it was very similar to the Genesis. The SNES now had 8 channels instead of four like the NES, and you could actually choose what instruments you wanted for each channel; for example, if you wanted a timpani roll in channel 7, you would get your Goddamn timpani roll. So now, not only could you play 8 different sounds at once, but you weren’t limited to pulse waveforms anymore. Woot. Early games were still developing midi banks to use for this, so the sounds were still very synth-like, such as in Super Mario World, but by the time games like Chrono Trigger had come out, sound was very realistic…for its time, heh. What is a midi bank you ask? A midi bank is basically where you store all your instruments you will be using (well, their virtual data at least). I’m not sure how much instrument data you could store on the cartridge, but it was a lot. Sound FX were also played on these channels as well. I’m not to sure how that works though… Anyways, in addition to all this, you could also add 1 FX filter over all the channels; so now, you could give your sound reverb, delay, and other cool effects. Definably a big help.

The N64 and PS1 were two very different systems in terms of music, so let’s start with the N64 first, shall we? The N64 still used cartridges, which meant that it was still very much limited in the music you could compose for it. However, it was far more accessible than the SNES. In fact, it was pretty much just as good as the PC midi system. Many games actually used PC midi’s as well. I remember Pokémon snap did… Later though, special banks were made to ensure the best quality for the N64. The N64 also had enough memory to support pre-recorded sound effects! This means that sound effects were stored as recorded, low quality, sound files; they weren’t midi based like before.

The PS1 used CDs. This was a huge advancement, because CD’s allowed far more memory. This meant that you could now store music as a compressed file format and not a midi anymore! From here, music was now made a completely different way — the computer. In fact, this style continues on to today in video game music (mostly). Programs like FL Studio (hint, hint) are now used to make awesome digital video game music. Many soundtracks were even orchestrated, such as Halo and Super Mario Galaxy! These days, taking up too much memory isn’t a big deal for sound anymore, now that discs have so much space.

If you’re interested in making video game music, you should start by getting FL Studio, as I guarantee it will get you the closest to video game sound you could get. You can download the demo free at their site. Anyways, you should look at the demo projects to learn more if you have no idea what you are doing. I’ll be posting tutorials and tips about using FL Studio later, so stick around.

–DmNt

PS: Sorry if this just discussed video game music history and not actually making it, but making it is really just like making any other music from a digital perspective.