Hey guys, my name is Casey Edwards a professional composer for the media, and instead of cluttering up existing threads dedicated to someone else’s beginnings, I thought that I should start my own to be able to preserve a more coherent archive of my ideas and approach to scoring a game like Stonehearth. My ideal score for a game like this is what Zelda has recently become, which is a grandiose orchestral and thematic power-house! Here are a few examples of what I’ve done specifically for the game so far:
Main Theme:
I wanted the main theme to be something to give an overall bright feeling to the game. Something you hear when you start up the main menu or maybe even as you explore uncharted and adventurous territory. I just want the player to feel like an unstoppable questing force of nature!
Vicious Voxels:
Vicious Voxels was written specifically for Cthulhu as he terrorizes your city. I tried to imagine something both frightening and quasi-cute at the same time. I mean, this is a voxel game after all, and not a survival horror game. So the end result sounds like a large squid monster stomping around to a happily quirky tune.
Depending on the reaction I get here with the community of players and developers, I may or may not continue these inspiration pieces as time allows. They are incredibly fun to make (and I’ve already got another on the back burner)! If you wish to hear more of my work you can head over to my website at www.CaseyEdwardsMusic.com and shop around. Thanks guys!
Some non-Stonehearth, but game inspired cues for you to sample:
@SteveAdamo, as always, I really appreciate your sincere enthusiasm! Like I said, if enough positive comments and community interest come through this thread then I’ll continue writing and posting. Otherwise it just becomes a self indulgent pity party! haha
It’s nice stuff. I’m not much of a music guy but I like these peices and would love to listen to them when playing Stonehearth. Of course we’d all love to hear more, or see a mod that would allow us to put this into the game.
The Sample for the ‘Main Theme’ I like but the “Vicious Voxels” was nothing I liked but I am of course not the world, just saying I would turn the volume for it down until the ‘Main Theme’ would tickle my ears once more.
love the music as Froggy says I enjoyed both pieces. The first one makes me want to go on an adventure as a main menu piece I think it works rather well. As for the second one however it feels more of a movie piece rather than a game piece if that makes sense, it feels more at home in a star wars film is what I want to say.
First of all, thanks for listening guys! I’m glad you guys liked the first piece. It’s hard to call something the ‘Main Theme’ and not expect to have the bar raised for some tough criticism. To address the second piece, I can see why you guys wouldn’t like it. It was written specifically quirky and odd and I would imagine that the “Vicious Voxels” piece would be more fitting if you were actually having your town stomped down by Cthulhu and you were racing to save it. I also imagine this would only happen to a player about once every new game. It’s definitely meant to be a specialty piece for a specific battle and not background music for anything else but Cthulhu. Then again, it may not fit at all! Thanks again guys.
@CaseyEdwards happy to be of help.
Yes, the second one did sound kinda special… but I know there will be people out there who would love that as backgroundmusic for normal play while I prefer music to be… well… in the background, not invasive but still something I might want to listen even without the game or such.
Hey guys! Long time no talk. I’ve been quite busy working on a new sample library I just developed with a nice sampling company, Strezov Sampling, as well as working with a very talented composer on a very exciting XBox ONE release title, so time has been low and stress has been high around my studio! Definitely no complaints though!
I’ve been lurking every so often in the background to see how things are coming along, and I have to say, I’m quite surprised that there still hasn’t been an official music announcement. I thought for a while they were just being quiet about the whole thing until I saw the latest upload on Twitch. December is right around the corner and they could have a composer developing tons of music by this juncture and this last minute business isn’t something I’m used to unless it’s an 11th hour call for a replacement because someone wasn’t happy with what they received from another composer during development. My advice to the powers that be: It’s time! But seriously, there’s a reason why people like Jeremy Soule and the likes are brought on to the development team from almost conception. It makes all the difference in the world. My 0.02 cents and food for thought!
The only part of this that should be taking a backseat on anyone’s list on the development team is music implementation, not music composition. I’m sure, like every other Kickstarter campaign, they received several composer inquiries - more than I’d want to go through! However, after this long, with music being such an important role in a vast world like this, I’d think they would have put more urgency on picking someone, then turning the helm over to them. That is after all the point of having a Lead Composer. Find someone who has experience and knows what they’re doing so you can rest easy with the million other things on your list, but still know your game is growing in tandem with other departments.
Alone in this forum half a dozen composers have “inquired”… so I agree, there might be no lack of skills .
Unfortuantely I am neither a game developer nor a composer. If I think how I would do it, probably I would like to have a more clear picture of my game, prior hiring someone to do the music for it. So far we know planned features from Kickstarter, but not too much is ready yet. E.g. we will have Biomes, but what should they be used for… more for big battles? Exploration? Farming resources? We will have Dwarfs, but what should their character be… are this the nice, happy dwarfs digging holes or the greedy, fierce ones? I could imagine that this are information you want to share with a composer, so he can create the right kind of music. Again… I have no clue of one or the other. Just some thoughts.
Although I agree with you that music is an aspect of the game that could REALLY enhance the experience, I could also see them holding of for a while. The game isn’t that far in development yet: they are still working on the core components of the game. And remember, they have just hired new members and moved to a new location.
I think their will be some kind of music in the beta, but I also think that it isn’t one of the biggest worries right now
And this is what I’m afraid of. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t come here to complain - I don’t want that to be my voice in this forum. I’m merely speaking from experience - I know how these things go down. I REALLY want this game to succeed, if not just for the content alone, but for indie developers every where who have taken funding/publishing into their own hands! This game looks incredibly fun and I can’t wait to see what happens with it. I have a few friends that work on games like these and they were brought on BEFORE the Kickstarter video so that they could immediately begin branding their game title with THEIR sound - their meaning the entire teams aural vision. It really sets the mood up front and starts to insert little subconscious melodies in your head. Music isn’t just an extension of the game, its equally important as the story.
congratulations!!! oh, and i despise the NDA preventing you from dishing on the project…
and you raise an excellent point about music (often times) taking an unnecessary back seat in the development cycle… we really havent heard a thing since the campaign, and i would love to know more about what they have in mind…
at least a gameplan for sound effects, and musical scores… nothing specific, just that its being discussed and accounted for… i have faith this is already the case…
I honestly thought this was the case until the latest screencast. Weren’t the developers exact and brief words “no decision on music yet.” And that was a wrap. I wish I could just swoop in and take the helm, but hey, that’s not up to me! haha I just have a deep pit in my stomach that it’s going to be a last minute “HEY, those forum guys wrote some cool music, lets just shove it in our game.” Some of it would work well, and some of it would just simply be there. To not have a musical journey as a whole developed by a single entity (and this doesn’t necessarily mean one composer) will turn out to be an aimless pot-luck. Sometimes it sucks to feel so passionately about something, have the means to assess the problem, yet remain powerless to the solution. I’ll probably just lurk back into the shadows and await an official announcement.
It was not the last stream, but 2 or 3 ago and Tom mentioned it, I can confirm. However, not sure if it was a “No decision yet, because we did not start thinking about it.” or a “No decision yet, because I do not want to go into details and share with you right now what we have done / planned already.”
I enjoyed both pieces.
But seriously, there’s a reason why people like Jeremy Soule and the likes are brought on to the development team from almost conception. It makes all the difference in the world. My 0.02 cents and food for thought!
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