Ok, now that I'm at a keyboard, let me add my one bit of advice for anyone coming to video game music from elsewhere: cut to the chase!
Long 10-30 seconds build ups work great for other music forms, but in the video game world you've typically got about 0-5 seconds for the main melody to kick in, with a heavy preference on 0.
This is especialy true for title themes, most gamers try to get out of title menus as quickly as possible, so if you want to them to hear any of your hard made music you've got to get it started as quickly as possible.
There's a little more room to play around with in-game music, but the same general idea holds. Picture a 'Village theme' song that plays in the background when a player enters a town in a fantasy RPG. The song needs to set the tone and pace for the player to make feel like they are walking around an medevial village. It can't take 30 or even 10 seconds to do this, the player needs to feel transported to the village pretty much from the moment the scene opens. A player will probably spend longer in the village then a title menu, so there's a little more room to play around before getting to the meat of the song, but not too much.
Not a comment on any of the tracks you've made specifcally, just a general pointer I like to hand out.
anyway, looks like you are off to a good start with both the games and game music. Good luck and happy travels! :)
@Gown: keep in mind CC-BY has an 'anti-DRM' clause that effectively prohibits distributing CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, etc. licensed works on platforms that use DRM (eg. Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, iOS, and possibly Steam, Andriod, etc).
Many artists are either unaware of, or don't care about this provision, so if you contact the artist directly they may agree to let you use the asset on DRM'd platforms. Additionally, there is a forum thread here on OGA where many OGA artists have publicly granted an exemption to the 'anti-DRM' clause for all their works on OGA.
As for getting testers, I would setup an itch.io page for the game. You can keep the game private on there until it's ready for public release and in the meantime you can setup a private link to share alpha builds with potential testers. You might even be able to do a private comment section for getting feedback. Then just post around asking for willing testers. I'm sure you'll get one or two bites if you post on OGA.
I hope you find OGA a fun and generous community to be part of, I know I do.
Sunday, August 12, 2018 - 07:32
great stuff! Love the minimalistic look of it! Thanks for sharing!
Sunday, August 12, 2018 - 07:30
Wow! Well I just want to say thanks for everyone for all the kind words and ratings for The Adventures of Yulpers!
I have been toiling away at the same project for close to four years now, so it felt great to start and finish something in just a month. And to have folks react so positively to it was just amazing. I had my doubts when I let the kids vote on what game I should make for the jam but looks like they made the right call after all. :)
I also want to say thanks one last time to chasersgaming for organizing and officiating the Jam this year.
And congrats to everyone for another great jam this year! I had a great time checking out all the entries and am already looking forward next year's jam. :)
Well, I had a very good starting point for them ;)
Actually, I am just glad you don't feel like I mangled your good work. The SMS versions are substantially color-reduced but I did think they kept the essence of your design intact.
At the risk of piling on, I just want to add one thought to what Kelvin Shadewing said. When making tiles, it helps to keep in mind that they will eventually be repeated all over the screen. It's easy to got nuts packing alot of detail into each individual tile but once those tiles are spread all over the screen it can become an over-busy and chaotic nightmare. Solid fill tiles like what you've done here aren't always bad as they give the eye a place to rest.
Of course, that's not to totally disregard KingCreator11's point. Solid fills can be dull, or look mismatched if there's a lot of detail elsewhere. What's more, there's certainly no shortage of great looking games out there with hyper detailed tile sets. So it's more just something to keep in mind than a hard fast rule.
I'll add that what you've created here is already about 1,000x better than anything I've ever done so definitely take anything I say with a grain of salt. :)
Ok, now that I'm at a keyboard, let me add my one bit of advice for anyone coming to video game music from elsewhere: cut to the chase!
Long 10-30 seconds build ups work great for other music forms, but in the video game world you've typically got about 0-5 seconds for the main melody to kick in, with a heavy preference on 0.
This is especialy true for title themes, most gamers try to get out of title menus as quickly as possible, so if you want to them to hear any of your hard made music you've got to get it started as quickly as possible.
There's a little more room to play around with in-game music, but the same general idea holds. Picture a 'Village theme' song that plays in the background when a player enters a town in a fantasy RPG. The song needs to set the tone and pace for the player to make feel like they are walking around an medevial village. It can't take 30 or even 10 seconds to do this, the player needs to feel transported to the village pretty much from the moment the scene opens. A player will probably spend longer in the village then a title menu, so there's a little more room to play around before getting to the meat of the song, but not too much.
Not a comment on any of the tracks you've made specifcally, just a general pointer I like to hand out.
anyway, looks like you are off to a good start with both the games and game music. Good luck and happy travels! :)
@Gown: keep in mind CC-BY has an 'anti-DRM' clause that effectively prohibits distributing CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, etc. licensed works on platforms that use DRM (eg. Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, iOS, and possibly Steam, Andriod, etc).
Many artists are either unaware of, or don't care about this provision, so if you contact the artist directly they may agree to let you use the asset on DRM'd platforms. Additionally, there is a forum thread here on OGA where many OGA artists have publicly granted an exemption to the 'anti-DRM' clause for all their works on OGA.
As for getting testers, I would setup an itch.io page for the game. You can keep the game private on there until it's ready for public release and in the meantime you can setup a private link to share alpha builds with potential testers. You might even be able to do a private comment section for getting feedback. Then just post around asking for willing testers. I'm sure you'll get one or two bites if you post on OGA.
Welcome!
I hope you find OGA a fun and generous community to be part of, I know I do.
great stuff! Love the minimalistic look of it! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Well I just want to say thanks for everyone for all the kind words and ratings for The Adventures of Yulpers!
I have been toiling away at the same project for close to four years now, so it felt great to start and finish something in just a month. And to have folks react so positively to it was just amazing. I had my doubts when I let the kids vote on what game I should make for the jam but looks like they made the right call after all. :)
I also want to say thanks one last time to chasersgaming for organizing and officiating the Jam this year.
And congrats to everyone for another great jam this year! I had a great time checking out all the entries and am already looking forward next year's jam. :)
Cc-BY 3.0
CC-BY 4.0
OGA-BY 3.0
CC-BY licenses contain a provision barring distribution on platforms using certain types of DRM (eg Playstation, Xbox, etc).
OGA-BY 3.0 is cc-by 3.0 with this restriction removed.
yeah, this is fantastic! thanks for sharing!
Well, I had a very good starting point for them ;)
Actually, I am just glad you don't feel like I mangled your good work. The SMS versions are substantially color-reduced but I did think they kept the essence of your design intact.
Here's the tool I used to do that btw
https://withthelove.itch.io/pixelpalettetool
I'm sorry if that feels too much like shameless self promotion, but it did seem like it might be of interest to you and it's free anyways.
Great set! thanks much for sharing!
At the risk of piling on, I just want to add one thought to what Kelvin Shadewing said. When making tiles, it helps to keep in mind that they will eventually be repeated all over the screen. It's easy to got nuts packing alot of detail into each individual tile but once those tiles are spread all over the screen it can become an over-busy and chaotic nightmare. Solid fill tiles like what you've done here aren't always bad as they give the eye a place to rest.
Of course, that's not to totally disregard KingCreator11's point. Solid fills can be dull, or look mismatched if there's a lot of detail elsewhere. What's more, there's certainly no shortage of great looking games out there with hyper detailed tile sets. So it's more just something to keep in mind than a hard fast rule.
I'll add that what you've created here is already about 1,000x better than anything I've ever done so definitely take anything I say with a grain of salt. :)
no problem, since so much the game's art started here it only seems right to return the favor. Glad you liked the game!
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