Hey,
Wanted to link the devblog update I made in the discourse. If anyone wanted to comment, or ask questions, we can start a conversation here.
Whoa, 2 posts on the Dev Blog in a week? Weāre getting spoiled rotten! 
My favorite track by far was āIn the Pantry of the Mountain Kingā. I love how you adapted Griegās work, itās truly beautiful. Now I can play your tracks and pretend to be classy :D!
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@Swift_Cube couldnāt agree more I feel like Raj knew that I had a soft spot for In the Hall of the Mountain King while creating that track. Heās a sneaky guy.
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thanks @Doug! time to peruseā¦ 
you missed the golden āfirstā opportunityā¦ for shameā¦
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āHow can we make each season sound unique, and different??ā
I have very little experience in composing music, and this might just throw off everything, but maybe you could includeā¦ Non conventional sounds for music? Like put season related bits into music?
Examples: For a winter track, you could put heavy snowshoes crunching snow, for summer, @SteveAdamo slurping from a glass of lemonade 
, for fall, raking leavesā¦
I dunno, just an idea?
It was my first time, and I was flusteredā¦ I will try better next time, I promise! 
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Oh @Doug youāre easily in my top 6 favourite people in Team R.
Itās always a welcome to get a glimpse as to what is happening with everyone this week, and the music at the bottom is glorious - @Raj, I might just have to start a fan club up.
As for some of the questions you posed:
- How can we make each season sound unique, and different??
I think @Raj nails this himself in the blog:
ādifferent instruments and styles for different seasons. Plucky strings and orchestras for Spring, warm summer guitars and flutes for Summer, somber & peaceful piano led music for Autumn and horns and shakers for Winter.ā
I also think @Swift_Cube had a good idea there, couple the difference in tone, instrument, and style with seasonal sound effects and youāre on to a winner - as long as you can convey what each season feels like (no biggy right?) then youāre golden 
Also perhaps transitional pieces would be good? So not just Spring > Summer > Autumn > Winter, but pieces that almost flow into each other, transitional pieces that are an amalgamation of the two seasons.
Iām sure Iām full of more grand ideas, Iāll probably update this in a bit!
Edit:
So, to answer the other questions you posed @Doug :
- What are your guys thoughts on the tone that has been established in the Alpha music?
The music so far has been great, itās really captured the tone of the game nicely and adds a hell of a lot to the experience, it automatically makes the world and game feel more vibrant, alive, and exciting. Game music is incredibly important, and so far from what weāve seen, youāre ticking all the boxes!
@Raj yet again summarises nicely at the end there:
āWhen composing the soundtrack for Mario Galaxy, Koji Kondo warned his musicians not to make the music ācuteā but to make it ācoolā and take it seriously and what an amazing soundtrack we got for it. For that reason, I want to stay away from chiptunes and bit music but still maybe dabble here and there to help mix in with the voxel-throwback style. What do you think?ā
Yes yes and yes. I think youāre bang on the money.
In regards to dynamic music:
-
What are some other ideas you can think of??
-
Death of a settler - an announcement followed by sombre mournful music? If you lost a settler during a battle then this could perhaps play after the battle, I suppose similar to what you said in regards to being attacked.
-
Fire - Erratic and panicky to reflect the extra warmth around the place.
-
If/when weather is introduced - Should a storm be approaching then play some ominous music.
The list goes on I suppose!
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What about Mister Wombat? [quote=āGeoffers747, post:6, topic:5842ā]
transitional pieces
[/quote]
Hadnāt thought of thatā¦ it would be cool! Maybe you could (later in the game) have specialized tracks for different parts of a season (Mid-Autumn, Early Spring, etc.) However, that all depends how long seasons are gonna be.
Edit:
Just an idea, but maybe you could make a song influenced by āTapsā to play whenever a settler (or maybe someone in the military) dies.
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Maybe the different sounds (or tunes or whatever) could be related on what that role the unfortunate civilian was. A settler? Generic Funeral Music. A soldier? Trumpets ānā stuff.
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bahā¦ work stepped in, and got all āworkyā on meā¦ so much to absorb and listen to now!
I love @Geoffers747ās and @Swift_Cubeās comments so farā¦ will give everything a nice relaxing play through and try to add some intelligent comments of my own in a bitā¦
try being the highly operative wordā¦ 
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Also perhaps transitional pieces would be good? So not just Spring > Summer > Autumn > Winter, but pieces that almost flow into each other, transitional pieces that are an amalgamation of the two seasons.
Youāre on the money with this one sir. Transitional pieces are very important, and commonly are a better choice than a simple fade in/out. Great idea!
The music so far has been great, itās really captured the tone of the game nicely and adds a hell of a lot to the experience, it automatically makes the world and game feel more vibrant, alive, and exciting. Game music is incredibly important, and so far from what weāve seen, youāre ticking all the boxes!
Iām glad you agree. We were very fortunate that @Raj was able to set a nice tone from the get go.
Death of a settler - an announcement followed by sombre mournful music? If you lost a settler during a battle then this could perhaps play after the battle, I suppose similar to what you said in regards to being attacked.
Fire - Erratic and panicky to reflect the extra warmth around the place.
If/when weather is introduced - Should a storm be approaching then play some ominous music.
I actually love the idea of music playing for the death of a settler, fantastic idea that I havenāt actually thought of yet, thank you 
I think it might be best to use those situations with 1-3 second music stingers. Youāll notice I use some 1-3 second music stingers currently for things like promoting someone, or when you plant your flag at the start of the game. It might be nice to have one of these stingers play anytime someone dies.
Just an idea, but maybe you could make a song influenced by āTapsā to play whenever a settler (or maybe someone in the military) dies.
Man, I love that idea 
Maybe the different sounds (or tunes or whatever) could be related on what that role the unfortunate civilian was. A settler? Generic Funeral Music. A soldier? Trumpets ānā stuff.
See look at us! What a team. @Geoffers747 throws out a great idea, and @Swift_Cube and @Alfie expand on it. Loving all of this, thank you
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Weāre a music makinā machine! Geoffers is the raw materials, Alfie and I are the refineries, and you and @Rajā¦ are the Executive Producers I guess?
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@Geoffers747 is the Easel, You and @Alfie are the different colors of paint, and @Raj is the paint brush. Iām the lucky guy who gets to sit back and watch
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Ooh! I wanna be orange!
Thatās a somewhat poetic way of saying it, also.
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haha, I love this so much.
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loving thisā¦ those āstingersā are working very nicely so far! question though: if we miss the demise of a unit (weāre focused clear across town) would we hear a muffled version of the stinger? would it play at all? this might transition into your discussion point about camera controls and audioā¦
on a related note (pun mostly intended), what about having some somber positional audio play near the gravestone of a fallen unit (if adequately zoomed in on, like the existing sleeping lullaby)?
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Music ties people together with strings! Get it? Strings on an instrument? Iāll leave now.
How about a very loud FATALITY.
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loving thisā¦ those āstingersā are working very nicely so far! question though: if we miss the demise of a unit (weāre focused clear across town) would we hear a muffled version of the stinger? would it play at all? this might transition into your discussion point about camera controls and audioā¦
Really great question. I personally think these stingers have to play stereo (non positional) for situations like this. Having a death-stringer play in the foreground no matter where you are looking at that moment will give you that feeling of āOh no!! what? how did this happen?!ā and will probably entice players to zoom around the map trying to find their fallen comrade.
Iād hug you if you were here at my desk for this suggestion. Iāll definitely be using this idea.
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What about internet points? Theyāre a thing you can give.
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Doug hugs are worth much more than Internet Points, I assure you.
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