8363 | A Game Audio Bloghttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/en-US2009-07-05T03:03:37ZSquarespace Site Server v5.5.4 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Creativity and Isolationhttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/4/10/creativity-and-isolation.htmlIan Stocker2009-04-10T15:23:14ZContractingAmong game audio professionals, independent contracting seems like the innest religion this season. At least four of my friends in the business have moved, for various reasons, from in-house to contracting.

I've thought about posting some articles here related to surviving independently. For now, I will start with the single most important bit of wisdom I've found online or in books. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, talks about overcoming the anxiety of producing consistently brilliant work:

I can't put it as well as she does, so view it next time you have 20 minutes to spare. I wish I could have watched this years ago. I hope it's useful to you as well.

]]>Henry Hatsworth Impressionshttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/3/31/henry-hatsworth-impressions.htmlIan Stocker2009-03-31T16:03:58Z

This is probably my favorite title to have worked on. EA really innovated and took the time to polish this unique concept of blending platforming and puzzling. It's the type of game the DS was made for. The pixel art is fantastic and the controls are as fluid as Super Mario Bros.

I didn't compose any music for this title. My role was to take Gene Rozenberg's original music and convert it into sequences for DS. (This is basically the same type of work I did for Zubo.) It was challenging and rewarding, and both Gene and Kyle Gray were great to work with.

Hatsworth has a great metacritic score. I've put in a few hours and I'll say what everyone else is saying--go out and buy this title.

]]>Handheld Demo Reel Updatedhttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/3/19/handheld-demo-reel-updated.htmlIan Stocker2009-03-19T16:21:02ZIn preparation for GDC I have posted an updated version of the demo reel, with some new songs added. They are separated into pop/rock/electronic and orchestral.

]]>Gradius Rebirthhttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/3/18/gradius-rebirth.htmlIan Stocker2009-03-18T17:49:32ZGames

I picked this up from WiiWare a couple days ago, and it does not disappoint! The tech seems to be limited to about NeoGeo quality, though maybe a bit above that for some of the parallax effects. It's almost like they made their own arcade system with hardware customized for the game, then emulated it for WiiWare. It even has slowdown when enough bullets are flying around, just like the NES and SNES versions. I think that might have been a side effect when it was first made, and kept in Rebirth as a gameplay feature--slow-mo to be able to handle the toughest dodging events.

The music and sound is great. The voices seem to be running from a DPCM channel or something and have that classic scratchiness. The whole game, including emulation, seems to fit in under 22MB (if my math is correct).

Download it and support this type of project. For those of you who didn't grow up with this style of game, the best advice is that you're not allowed to complain about unfairness. (This is by design.) Throwing the controller is OK.

Konami, please use this engine to make a new Castlevania game.

]]>This looks pretty cool...http://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/2/16/this-looks-pretty-cool.htmlIan Stocker2009-02-16T18:27:56ZGameswww.henryhatsworth.com

]]>Hidenori Maezawa Interview at 1UPhttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/1/21/hidenori-maezawa-interview-at-1up.htmlIan Stocker2009-01-21T20:17:10ZComposition Tech MusicProps to 1UP for getting an interview with this guy, a living legend. You already know many of his songs from Contra, Castlevania III, and TMNT. What I didn't know before reading was that he designed the VRC6, a piggyback chip included in Castlevania III (Japanese version only) which added 3 more sound channels. There's a youtube video here if you want to hear a comparison.

He mentions the famous Konami Sound and how he helped develop it. Data suggests he could be the father of the single-channel echo, basically a technique to fill up gaps between melody notes with quieter elements to simulate delays and reverb without using the second channel.

I am still dying to know what tools were available to make these songs. Right now I am picturing the soundtrack as a catalog of punch cards.

We Track Down The Composer of Contra NES [1UP.com]

]]>NesTracker updated to version 1.1http://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2009/1/21/nestracker-updated-to-version-11.htmlIan Stocker2009-01-21T02:21:45ZNesTrackerThe hardest part of this release was fixing the installation experience. Basically, the Setup Projects in Visual Studio 2005 make certain things very easy, and certain things (like removing the program folder on uninstall, or ensuring the files get updated when a newer version is installed) seemingly impossible.

Fortunately I came across this discussion on stackoverflow.com which led me to Inno Setup. Inno is incredibly easy to use--after hours of wrangling with Setup Projects, I was up and running with Inno in about 20 minutes.

Plus, there is no more uninstall/delete hassle like in previous versions. Existing users just run the install and everything should get updated just fine.

The main update besides a better install is a vastly improved NSF export, which is much more faithful to what you hear in the tracker.

There are some new example songs as well.

Have fun...

Download NesTracker version 1.1

]]>NesTracker Finally out of beta!http://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2008/12/30/nestracker-finally-out-of-beta.htmlIan Stocker2008-12-30T21:57:23ZNesTrackerAfter much hard work, NesTracker version 1.0 is finally available.

Download the latest version

There are a bunch of bug fixes and new features including:

  • NSF EXPORT!!! Thanks to Kyle for handling 100% of this feature and his many late nights coding a player and format in 6502.
  • Selectable latency. If you are using Vista, you may need to go to 200 ms... for some reason, Vista's drawing seems much slower than XP's.
  • Some UI enhancements
  • Cleaner installation experience (though there is still work to be done--see below)

NOTE ON INSTALLATION - IMPORTANT

If you've installed a previous version of NesTracker, you must do the following:

  1. Uninstall NesTracker through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel
  2. Delete the folder c:\Program Files\NesTracker
  3. Run NesTracker_Installer.msi

(I hope to remove these steps in the next version, but I am a newbie with Visual Studio deployment projects so bear with me.)

Enjoy!

*** UPDATE - Version 1.0.1 ***

Fixed a bug in the NSF converter that was causing low notes not to play.

]]>NesTracker patch - 0.5.2http://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2008/9/23/nestracker-patch-052.htmlIan Stocker2008-09-23T19:06:15ZNesTrackerThis version mostly has bug fixes and a few changes to the UI to make it more IT-like. New features will be coming in the next version.

]]>NesTracker version 0.5.1 Releasedhttp://www.ianstocker.com/8363/2008/9/21/nestracker-version-051-released.htmlIan Stocker2008-09-21T01:00:56ZNesTrackerGrab it here.

Check out the change log for a rundown of the new features. Enjoy!

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