Saturday, July 14, 2012

Infiltrator Part 28 - Soundtrack

I'm not going to beat around the bush. What kind of person do you think I am anyway? Do you actually think that I would just try to avoid the subject at hand and try to stall talking about it by blabbering on about something completely unrelated? How does that even benefit me? I am utterly insulted that-oh. Right.

So let's talk about the soundtrack and AI.

Setting up the AI for the Shredder is hard. The drones were simple seek and destroy machines with a few AI rules, and even the fighters were just a small upgrade to that. The Shredder however, will require me to explore AI modes or attitudes, each with it's own rule set and conditions under which the AI enters it. I'll be honest and admit that I haven't even begun the coding yet. I've spent hours in front of my whiteboard trying to design the mode and rule sets and arrived at the conclusion that it is just a rather complex and time consuming step. That means I need to work on a different aspect of the game at the same time to keep the content flowing and keep me from getting lazy or losing interest. That other aspect is the soundtrack.

It feels kind of odd to be working on the soundtrack when this game is in its more primitive stages like this. At least I have a very good idea of what kinds of tracks I'll need as well as what feelings I want the theme and credits track to communicate. I actually have more than enough material to start work on the soundtrack. Actually I have started work on the soundtrack. It's becoming more and more popular, so I can't claim to be the originator of the orchestral/rave/techno/club combination for game and movie soundtracks. However, it is something that I enjoy listening to and creating, not to mention that it does a good job of communicating the feelings at hand.

I'm currently only working on the theme. I have a dramatic motif which I've turned into a layered string melody. It's tragic and dark but that's the feeling I'm shooting for. Combining this with some DnB beats and rave basslines does an excellent job of providing feelings of power, tragedy, dystopia, epic, and mourning all at the same time. Understand? I thought not. Here, watch this preview video instead:


        --LazerBlade

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