Soul Healer - Brave Caterpillar Music! :D

This is starting to look really impressive! Seems like it'll be a project you can really be proud of when its finished, I'm looking forward to it. :)
Thanks, sean! Working on it, slowly.

This game looks like it could heal my soul.
Thanks, Guy!
That pun is intentional, hahah. I hope everyone who plays it loves it. =D

When do you plan Kickstarter?
About three years ago. I'm very late. I don't have much left to finish now, though. I have tomorrow and the day after off, so we'll see what I make. =')
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I think if I were to play this game and then compared it to something like Undertale or Ark22, those would be in McDonald's / Taco Bell specturum. Your game would be more like a Chick-fil-a, Cookout, or Steak and Shake level of goodness, which are the 3 leading fast food chains where I live quality-wise imo. I realize now I sound like a total fatty. But that's ok.
 
I think these days it's much easier to Kickstart a nearly finished game, so maybe you're ahead of the curve!
That's the truth. Five years ago, assholes used to get away with just some concept art and a talking head on the screen, and they'd make $70k somehow. And then 80% of them never finished their crappy fake games, and made it ten times harder for the rest of us. :'D
I don't care, I'm pledging for the collecfor. And you better finish the damn game

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I will finish it! No need to re! X'D

I think if I were to play this game and then compared it to something like Undertale or Ark22, those would be in McDonald's / Taco Bell specturum. Your game would be more like a Chick-fil-a, Cookout, or Steak and Shake level of goodness, which are the 3 leading fast food chains where I live quality-wise imo. I realize now I sound like a total fatty. But that's ok.
I think Undertale is ten classes above Ark22, but I appreciate the sentiment. I'm working my way up to a triple Michelin Star, hahah! =D

I had a productive day today!
 
Okay! Back after a long break! I started writing some music for my game:

https://soundcloud.com/james1012yahoo/brave-caterpillar-wip/s-NU2Yt


The song is called Brave Caterpillar. I thought it up when I saw a caterpillar crossing the street a few years ago, and now I'm finally writing it! I think it's pretty cute, hahah! I think this'll be one of the most memorable parts of my game, too. The event that goes along with this song should be really fun. There's still a lot of work to do on the song, but it's coming along. I don't know how to use Reaper at all, so I just recorded on my keyboard straight through, and activated each instrument manually, which is why it's pretty messy. When I'm done composing it, I'll go back and clean everything up.

Anyway, hope you guys like it! =D
 
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Hey, they sounds pretty nice. Just a couple things though. The timing seems to be off a little in places, did you record to a metronome and quantize notes or anything? This seemed most obvious when the first trombone note came in a little late, but I also noticed it a little throughout the track.
 
The timing seems to be off a little in places, did you record to a metronome and quantize notes or anything? This seemed most obvious when the first trombone note came in a little late, but I also noticed it a little throughout the track.
You... listened to the song via my status update, and then didn't read the text in my post, right? How drunk do you think I am, Siolfor?! D':

Yes, I noticed that the trombone comes in almost a whole second late. And that the entire song sounds like it was played by someone who's never played a piano before. You must've been thinking "oof, how do I put this nicely to him," hahah! X'D

Thanks for the kind words and post, though! Sometimes I do miss things that should be obvious, so I appreciate the backup! I'm working on two other songs too. I was specifically thinking you and @cidwel would like one of the others. It's very Secret of Mana/Chrono Trigger-y! =D

It's going to take a few days, but I'm excited about that one the most.
 
Haha. Not quite drunk, but I did literally just wake up and check my phone and see this post. I guess I wasn't awake enough to read the whole thing!
It wasn't that bad that I think most people would really even notice, but I listen for that kind of thing :p
I don't use Reaper but if I can help in any way, let me know
 
I don't use Reaper but if I can help in any way, let me know
Oh, heck yeah. Don't say that! I'm a very lazy, very talkative person! X'D

And I wasn't calling you drunk, just to be sure. I was asking how drunk you thought I was to miss such bad timing errors, hahah!

Thanks for the help. I'll probably PM you with a few questions tomorrow if I can't find the answers in the manual!
 

kupo15

Member
Sounds cool! I'm assuming the accelerando is portraying the catepiller getting braver!...otherwise that would be an awkward loop haha

On the late timings, I'm not sure what samples are being used but even if you quantize things, the note can still sound late depending on how the start of the sample is recorded. That is what I'm suspecting here, that things are perfectly quantized yet he is going to have to manually shift those notes early a little to sound on time. Very tedious...I know :)
 
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@kupo15: Thank you! Yeah, the getting faster is for the caterpillar getting braver as the situation he's in gets 💩💩💩💩tier and 💩💩💩💩tier for him in more and more convoluted/humorous ways (as the player tries to help him). Should be fun, hahah!

The notes aren't quantized at all yet. The whole song is just my 💩💩💩💩ty live playing, which is why it's so messy sounding, haha! I'll do all the tedious clean up after I'm done composing.
 

cidwel

Member
HOI!
That song is funny and adorable! I heard some drums that are a bit off at the start but I think it feels perfect that isn't perfectly timed for the atmosphere it creates, at least for me. Sometimes being totally and metrically perfect creates music that feels artificial and doesn't feel it has heart on its composition.

I'm happy you mentioned me. Feels like I'm a top tier fan :D

keep up the good work pal!
 

kupo15

Member
Thanks for the comments, guys. Here's a question for all of you:

In your RPGs, do you prefer your dialog boxes to show portraits, or to go without?

I can think of pros and cons for both, but I'm curious about what the majority thinks. Let me know!
Ok this totally isn't old or anything, don't know how I stumbled upon this this far time away lol

I don't like portraits, I prefer the classic, classier text box. As you said, it splits the attention and distracts me from the important text. I also don't like how generally in most games their portraits are ultra HD when the game literally isn't. Like Shantae for example, really destroys the immersion for me. The best use of it was in Star Fox because it was animated and clearly makes more design sense to have it there to make you feel like you are commanding a air squad. That implementation was great and added to immersion!
 
@cidwel: Thanks! And you are a top tier fan, hahah! =D

@Carloskhard: Thank you very much! I think the gameplay will be even stronger than the graphics! =)

@kupo15: Yeah, these are my feelings, too. After talking to a few other people I trust too, I've settled on no portraits. For an RPG like this, they really feel like more of a distraction than anything else to me. I think all eyes should be on the text and the actual scene going on.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I've been inactive for awhile, but I have something cool to post tomorrow. I tried my best for this next post, since I haven't been around in awhile, hahah!
 
I have to say, this looks rather promising! I especially like that stone head animation, very nice. The boss looks ominous and pretty badass, too, so looking forward to seeing it more refined.
I love that screenshoot with the orange leaves, though I'm wondering if you should keep them as 4px clusters. I think your strength will be to have "set pieces" for important rooms or backgrounds for players to take in, though I think the current challenge is filling the screen without it either looking too sparse or too busy, which could take some time to fine-tune.

Anyway, keep it up, it looks great! :)
 
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