games

An Update: 2022

I should post more than once a year. Nevertheless, an update!

I’m no longer at Glowmade, It was a fairly mutual split as this year has been rough on a personal level, but wishing them all the best! The project they’re working on is really cool and I hope it lands the way it deserves.

I’ve been doing a little bit of freelance work on the side though, for a number things that aren’t quite announced yet. One project has been developing minigames for a new news style app/platform that had me work to a much smaller scale than I’m used to, and the others on the dev team were willing to accomodate my “small in relative terms but big in project scope terms” audio system for one of them that I’ll write up soon. (For real. I’ll also see if I have some of the Monstrum 2 stuff kicking around.)

Other than that, I’m sort of taking a little break for a few weeks to re-evaluate things, sort out some new show reels (where I can, NDAs lock out a fair chunk of the past 2 years at least!) and generally rest for a bit. I’ve not really had proper time off in a long time that doesn’t involved illness or running around after people or trying to sort something out, and I’m getting married later in the autumn, so a bit of a stress-less run before that would be welcome after everything else we’ve been through this year!

And finally, the cat:

Peace!

New(ish) Job

I probably should have added this way back in January, but I’m now back at Team Junkfish as Audio Lead for our upcoming project Monstrum 2. Have a cheeky teaser here:

With the game having been announced and a fair while away I’m hoping to cover a few of the ideas and systems for the audio in the game, so keep an eye out! I’ve also found some of the older blogs I wrote for the first game that I’m planning to tidy up and share too, for no other reason that to give a comparison between the two.

Cheers!

The Voices of the Britannic – Dialogue and Conversation Design in Murderous Pursuits

This was originally posted in two parts on the Blazing Griffin Website: Pt. 1 | Pt. 2

It is also available on Audiokinetic’s Wwise Blog in English: Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 and Japanese: Pt. 1 | Pt. 2

We released Murderous Pursuits a few months ago, and I wanted to share a bit of info on what I was working on. This blog post will look at the audio solution for one of the core features, the “Vignette” system. This will cover:

– What the original concept was and audio requirements were

– How we handled the dialogue recording and editing

– The systems design and implementation using Wwise and Unity.

If you haven’t played or seen it yet, Murderous Pursuits is a kill-or-be-killed Victorian stealth-em-up for 1-8 players in which you must hunt and kill your quarry before your hunters do the same to you, all while avoiding witnesses. You can buy it on Steam right now!

Continue reading “The Voices of the Britannic – Dialogue and Conversation Design in Murderous Pursuits” →

Games I played in 2016 that were pretty good

It’s the end of the year so it’s time for lists from everyone. I honestly don’t remember playing too many games from this year, but I played a fair few for the first time and feel that’s enough to mention them. Like wise, “best” is a pretty subjective thing that seems pretty pointless to drag into the equation. So, in no real order, here’s my “Games I played in 2016 that I thought were pretty cool” list. (It’s a bit long, sorry.)

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500 Words About… Faselei!

Ahoy! Apologies for the lack of posts recently. In between IGDA Scotland stuff, being ill and… other stuff things got away from me. Also with an upcoming busy period I’m looking to transition this to once a week to see how it pans out. Anyway, today we look at a Neo Geo Pocket Color game as previously threatened: Sacnoth’s mech strategy RPG Faselei!

Mecha games aren’t entirely uncommon out of Japan. The influence of the likes of Mazinger, Macross, and Gundam to name a few clearly imprinted on game developers in the ’80s and ’90s. While the more obvious approach was to incorporate these elements into action games[1], devs also looked to create large scale battles in the Strategy genre. A number of licenses were put to use, Gundam games appeared everywhere, or the crossover Super Robot Wars[2] to make mecha fans dreams come true. Original IPs popped up as well, such as Square Enix’s long-lived Front Mission series[3].

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500 Words About… Wonder Boy in Monster Land

We’re going even further back in time with this post, exploring something that I have a bit more of a personal connection with. Despite being very, VERY into Nintendo stuff, they weren’t actually my first foray into games. In a very European fashion, that came via PCs and Sega. So today we have a quick look at Westone’s slightly oddball yet somehow timeless Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

The first console that was in my family was my brother’s Master System, hooked up to a chunky cube of a Panasonic TV that’s still at my old man’s house. And while it may not have been the first game I played[1], the one I have the strongest memories of is Wonder Boy in Monster Land. I remember my brother trying to get infinite money with the pause trick[2] (complete with a 2nd controller that was missing a button), how the game glitched out one time when he bought a pair of boots and could suddenly climb walls, and that bastarding pyramid level.

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500 Words About… the Neo Geo Pocket Color

Today’s post is a set up for the future. Despite producing the Neo Geo, the arcade in a box that was one of the most eye-wateringly expensive systems to buy for both while it was in production and even now, SNK wanted to dip their toes in a pond they hadn’t committed to: handhelds. After a few releases on Game Boy they decided to challenge the Big N with a system of their own and the topic of today’s post: the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

ngpc-logo

For most people handheld gaming in the ’90s/early ’00s revolved around one device: the Game Boy. If pushed a few people may be able to name its earlier challengers, Sega’s Game Gear or the Atari Lynx, both in colour and more powerful but battery hogs. Some may even namedrop Game Boy inventor Gunpei Yokoi’s follow-up handheld, the Japan only Bandai Wonderswan. It managed to hold its own with decent support from the likes of Squaresoft, Capcom, Namco[1] and others before the Game Boy Advance cleared everything in its path.[2] Continue reading “500 Words About… the Neo Geo Pocket Color” →

500 Words about… Sunsoft

Today’s post is about one of the more interesting NES developers who became known for their unique musical output, Sunsoft. There’s also a lot of annotations too, so do read them!

Chances are that, if you owned a NES you’ve come across a Sunsoft game. Like a number of Japanese developers, Sunsoft transitioned from the arcades to the monster that was the Famicom in the mid to late 80’s. One of their first releases for the platorm was the infamous Ikki, a game so terrible that a new word entered the Japanese lexicon thanks to it: Kusoge. Quite literally: “shit game”.[1] This didn’t stop it being a rampant success for them as well as the source of a few remakes and reboots.

Sunsoft’s original games didn’t always hit such lows. Some, like Atlantis no Nazo, never left Japan and is generally considered “not great”. Others, like Master Blaster, became international successes. This varying quality also carried over to the somewhat surprisingly high profile licenced titles they managed to acquire. Their first Batman game in 1989 was a loose tie in with Tim Burton’s reimagining of the Caped Crusader, and along with its NES sequel is still held in high regard. Less timely was Fester’s Quest which appeared before the 1991 Addams Family reboot and is mostly remembered as being stupidly hard.[2]

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