Blah Days
I'm having one of those "Blah" days today. Actually, the last few days have been kind of blah. I wonder if it's because I burned myself out trying to get that new Rysen Ranch demo out....the night I released it, it almost felt like a HoV because I told myself that I would get it finished that night. More bugs cropped up, the spring map became corrupted, and I ended up spending a few more hours on it than I had anticipated. I rushed it at the end. There are a couple of humourus and blatant bugs in it that show this.
1). The house in the forest isn't obstructed at all. :P
2). Instead of saying "Not open yet" the beach house will port you to the Inn, because I just copied and pasted all layers out of lazyness. :D (Which, incidently copies the zone as well.)
This is also crunch month for some demo music for my internship project. It's puzzle-synth music. I suck at it, and I dislike writing it. Well. I'd probably enjoy it more if I had access to more of my equipment, but I don't at the moment. I need to finish off three more songs before the end of the month, shouldn't be a problem, but...I dunno. This game that I'm doing isn't innovative or anything new. I'm not excited about it in the least. It's just another a-typical columns-type puzzle game. I don't understand how people can expect to do well by shipping a product that has been on the shelves for years. I mean, at least in RPG's that follow the standard format there's a new story+characters+world to emmerse yourself in.
This isn't even the original project I signed up for. I signed up for a game that was like Chess, but had this awesome/strange set of rules that made it truly unique and like nothing I had ever seen before. That project, though, got cancelled, and they threw me onto this one which, although looks like it'll be finished, as I said...is just the same old thing. I find it difficult to compose for something I have no passion for.
Maybe that's why, despite the puzzle-synth sounding soundtrack I did for McPunky, was easier to compose. It was a nifty game that was very original, and like nothing I had played before. I had passion for it...
The projects I get involved with, other than my own, that seem to make it anywhere are the ones that require music of a type I'm not altogether very good at. This is probably because puzzle games are generally short, and those that need the epic/orchestral music I *am* good at, take a long time to develop. I can certainly understand it from an indie-developers point of view. It's been almost a year since I released the Amethyst demo. A year. @_@ And I have rarely anything new to show for it.
I'll never make it in this industry if I cannot be versitile, though. I do alright, I suppose. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished for Grassmania. The mobile games were fun as well, but that was more like composing for an NES title, which, made it cooler :P Those are also finished for the moment though. =/
I want to do something truly exciting. Something unrelated to game dev, or music composition. Or perhaps a different...application of music composition. I'm not sure what that is yet, but lately...well, every day just seems to be the same. When I do get out, it's only for a few hours, though it's always fun, I then go back into the same old routine. The things I have in mind all cost a significant amount of money, which I don't have, and the other "musical" things, I can't really dedicate any time to, because I'm involved in so much all ready.
So, I am at a loss. I need something to get my mojo going again. I'm just not sure what that is....
Anyway, enough of that. Today Aleta (the person responsible for the "Silent Heart" lyrics) sent me some of what she had written. They're really nice, though I have to admit some have me confused as to where they fit in the melody. I've asked her to sing a few bars for me, so I can know how it's supposed to go. It's actually a problem I had anticipated, and I've thought of a few things that might be able to resolve it. Worst case scenerio, if she's uncomfortable singing, I can sing to her what *I think* she meant for it to sound like, and we can go from there.
She's also told me that her dream is to write a musical....I've told her to contact me about it, if she ever gets it off the ground. I'd *LOVE* to compose for a musical, and it might just be what I need to get my mojo going. (Once this month is over).
Well...think I'll play some Harvest Moon or something. I always tend to want to play that game after I've worked on RR for awhile. :P