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#WeeklyGameMusic: Curiosity (Frog Fractions)

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Taro Omiya

How do you compose an intelligent-sounding music for a comedy game that’s anything but? Indie game studio, Twinbeard might have an answer for you in this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic with Curiosity, composed by…Twinbeard. Let’s pretend to be smart by listening to this calming music from the parody edutainment Flash game, Frog Fractions, where it recounts the completely ridiculous “history” of boxing.

Hmm, how to describe Frog Fractions? Well, as one would expect, it features a frog, and a bunch of “fractional” insects trying to eat at its precious apples. By clicking on the insects, the frog will slurp it up, keeping the apples preserved. The frog earns points when it collects an apple that has dropped from a tree. Later, an upgrade allows the frog to swim right and left across the pond, as well as quite oddly, down. Swimming down will̷͇̈́.̵̢̉.̶̦͌.̶̣̀ḋ̷̘ő̷̤ ̶͈̐ṡ̸̭o̴̭͂m̷̜͝e̸͙͋t̸̮̃h̵̬̍ǐ̶̤n̵̠͆g̴̢̒.̵̪̽

Frog Fractions is available for free on PC via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Turn Back (The Beginner’s Guide)

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Taro Omiya

Note: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is a pretty big spoiler for the indie walking simulator, The Beginner’s Guide. This blog post itself will keep spoilers to a minimum, but if you want to listen to the track, proceed with caution. Besides, the game’s brilliant, so take this as an incentive to play it soon!

Turn Back, written and performed by Halina Heron, puts a neat bow to the deep story one walks through in The Beginner’s Guide. Everything Unlimited Ltd.’s follow-up to The Stanley Parable takes an unexpected direction: where as Stanley sets up a meta narrative commentary about games, The Beginner’s Guide is a commentary with no fourth wall to begin with. It’s a bold decision from the developers with a huge pay-off at the very end; an experience you don’t want to miss!

(Before getting into the game itself, I had trouble adding the rest of credits for this track anywhere else, so here it is: Turn Back is published by Ryan Roth, and its lyrics were written from both Halina and Davey Wreden himself.)

The Beginner’s Guide is a game where its gameplay is extremely easy to describe, but its narrative is much more complex than it first appears. It’s a classic, hour-long walking simulator where one explores the world through typical first-person controls. And indeed, the first level is a lightly edited copy of a map from Counter-Strike, as famed indie game developer and narrator of this game, Davey Wreden describes its history. According to Mr. Wreden, this remixed level is created by another experimental developer, Coda, and encourages the player to explore other games Coda has made. Aaand that’s about as far as I’m willing to introduce about the story.

The Beginner’s Guide is available on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Blue Chair (Cloudberry Kingdom)

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Taro Omiya

Let’s get those blood pumping with this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic! Blue Chair, composed by Blind Digital, is one of the many fantastic themes composed for Pwnee Studios’ procedurally generated platformer game, Cloudberry Kingdom. The indie game’s extraordinary algorithm can generate both reasonable Super Mario-like stages, and Kaizo-level, controller-breaking ridiculousness.

Oh no! The evil king, Kobbler, has kidnapped the fair (…and sarcastic) Princess! And to add to the insult, he stole the infinite level generator orb as well! It’s up to a brave…tired…middle-aged hero named Bob to save her.

You know…

That same, bland, sexist plot again.

Obviously poking fun at the usual paper-thin Super Mario plot, Cloudberry Kingdom plays like the Nintendo classic, but with more focus on flow rather than precision. The platformer’s algorithm always calculates at least one plausible path, meaning a lot of the levels are generated with constant movement in mind. To further add variation to the play, the game provides many different control variations, including inclusion of double-jump, jetpacks, Sonic-like momentum-based movement, no-gravity, always-bouncing, etc.

Another innovation the game provides is actually having a demo-mode where an AI demonstrates how to complete a level. This is particularly impressive when one drastically ramps up the complexity of the game to generate levels that are absurdly difficult. One would think like Nintendo’s assist mode, this would help the player to understand the level better, but…

Cloudberry Kingdom is available on Windows via Steam, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Lovely City (Lovely Planet)

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. I’m excited to introduce to you all Lovely City, composed by one of my favorite composers, Calum Bowen. This absolutely jamming track is from the hectic (and Indian!) first-person action game, Lovely Planet.

Lovely Planet is a fast-paced first-person shooter and platformer where all red enemies needs to be eliminated before touching the goal pole. Despite the simple premise, cartoony world, and lack of story, the game is actually designed as a speed-running game. Much of the appeal of the game is optimizing your route to beat your prior–and the world’s–score.

Lovely Planet is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona (.hack//G.U.)

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. Today’s track is Blue Sky Town – Dol Dona, composed by Chikayo Fukuda. It’s a pleasant town music from Bandai Namco’s mega-long multi-media series, .hack, specifically, the .hack//G.U. trilogy.

Before there was Sword Art Online (SAO), there was .hack. That’s right, this game, manga, and anime series all takes place in the fictional MMO Action-RPG, The World. Dull naming aside, much like SAO, players start falling into a comatose state, both in-game and in real-life. Unlike SAO, the devs blame it to a computer virus, presumably spread by malicious players. The G.U. trilogy stars Haseo, who seeks for revenge after his close friend catches this comatose spell.

.hack//G.U. is a single-player action-JRPG series. Unlike, you know, real MMORPGs, .hack//G.U. is a story-driven game with no character customization, and A.I.-controlled party members. The party explores randomly-generated dungeons: battle initiates when a monster gets close to the party, constraining them into a tight circle. Perhaps the more unique side of the game is how narrative plays: there are email logs, marriage simulation, and other MMORPG-like communication methods to suck the player into its universe.

.hack//G.U. is available on PC via Steam, PS4, and PS2.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Ascension (Dear Esther)

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Taro Omiya

Around five years ago, I used to post video game music with the hashtag, #WeeklyGameMusic. To be honest, I’ve been really wanting to revive the series again, so here it is: new week, new game music. While I originally stuck to only one music per franchise (this series is about introducing the highlighted game to the reader as much as its music), it’s been so long since the last post, I’ll be resetting my past queue and allow myself to revisit some old franchises I’ve already introduced in this blog series. Anyways, where else to start then Dear Esther‘s Ascension, composed by Jessica Curry.

Dead Esther is most well-known for kicking off the often derided Walking Simulator. Despite its criticism, though, I do believe the indie developers, The Chinese Room, answered a genuinely interesting game design question: what happens when the player is given conflicting information while they attempt to progress the story? How will they react when the story contradicts what one observes, and even itself? The game randomly choosing pre-written narration is a central part of the player’s experience as they make an attempt to piece together the clues they’re given. And, at least as a game designer, I find that fascinating.

Dear Esther is available on Steam for Windows and Mac.

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