The Serpent Isle Remake: Moonshade Screenshots
Thepal has continued to make great progress on his Oblivion-based remake of Serpent Isle; he has built more of Moonshade, and has uploaded several more screenshots of the town.
[singlepic id=1158 w=500 h=281 float=center]
The house of Columna
And he has even managed to re-imagine one of the game’s larger easter eggs:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuoOv_T2PoE?rel=0&w=480&h=390]
Touchdown!
I’m constantly stunned at how quickly this project seems to progress, and I know it’s not just me who is looking forward to see what Thepal works on (and reveals) next. The Mountains of Freedom, perhaps?
That was like Ultima VII, Duke Nuk’em and some unknown crazy shit all in one. Was the music scripted or did you add it in an AV editor? Either way, nice… MT-32 tracks always rock.
It was ingame music. The combat music just happened because it was combat, but the rest was scripted.
Excellent.
What do you think about composing separate tracks that are in harmony with each other?
I’m thinking about layering different “levels” of music together and keeping them in sync. Four beats of evil drums repeating as long as danger is near. Eight beats of a harmony supporting two four-beat melodic expressions that go silent until the next wave of interactivity comes.
Just mixing even-length segments that are in harmony in accordance with whatever’s going on in the game should work nicely at a moderate volume level in combination with environmental effects.
I’m surprised that games haven’t incorporated that sort of thing more. As long as you aren’t just trying to tie together lots of different four/eight beat tunes. I’d have full-length music (a couple of minutes or so) that can change every four/eight beats so that it can change as soon as it is needed, but maintains a melody over time.
But yeah… that sort of thing is a bit beyond my remake. If I ever have the money to make a commercial game in the way I’d like, then I’d incorporate music like that (I think the Underworld games are the best examples of dynamic music I’ve heard)
Well done 🙂
“… I’d have full-length music (a couple of minutes or so) that can change every four/eight beats so that it can change as soon as it is needed, but maintains a melody over time.”
Now that’s a good idea. Wing Commander was the first (and possibly only) game that I knew of that attempted something like that. There was some game I heard of recently, maybe on /. or Gamasutra that was all about mixing up the music but I can’t remember what it was. Dammit…
“But yeah… that sort of thing is a bit beyond my remake. If I ever have the money to make a commercial game in the way I’d like, then I’d incorporate music like that (I think the Underworld games are the best examples of dynamic music I’ve heard)”
Maybe I’m just naive, but I think that if we keep kicking as much ass as possible that some day we will reach our goals. If not, at least programming will be good exercise for our 80 year-old brains. 🙂
Hopefully we’ll all get there. I know if I do I won’t forget the “little guys with big dreams”. Those are the ones I’ll want working for me. Green CS grads whose big dreams include a lot of vacation time and big salaries need not apply. Truly great games are made by dreamers, hackers and artists. Anything else is a polished, assembly-line new toaster with a Made In China sticker on it as far as I’m concerned. Bubblegum games, another brick in the wall, disposable.
Brilliant commentary, Sanctimonia. I agree, those games with “soul” tend to be made by those with a passion, and of course, this extends to results in any profession, I would think. Those who live what they are doing, do not see it as a “job”.
This is Thepal’s wife. I think what needs pointing out is he has been doing all of this past week and a hal’fs work while sick with Grade A Man-Flu. He deserves extra kudos for that.