Hi again! This month’s issue will be a short one, but I wanted to keep the monthly update rhythm going, so here we go:
After finishing the Sunken District’s epic boss fight, we directly jumped into the development of Chapter 3 (which we’ll preview at a later date). Not gonna lie, in terms of gameplay, this proved to be the most difficult one so far to develop.
This being the third chapter, it’s gotten more difficult to find new ideas for enemy types that are unique, work with the music, and are easy to understand/read. We prototyped tons of different enemies, only to later scratch them because they weren’t any fun or too similar to those that came before. Luckily, the ones we’ve stuck with are great, and some of them are among my favorites of the whole game.
It’s pretty cool that - now that we’re done with chapter 3 - the game can be played from the start right up to the final boss encounter (which will be so huge it’ll take place in its own biome/mini-chapter)! But before we’re getting to that, there’s a new weapon as well as some meta-game features to implement. :)
Banjo-Kazooie and the end of MIDI based soundtracks
Our composer Nick has started to write a series of blog posts about games that use rhythm and music in interesting ways. I wanted to highlight his latest post about Banjo-Kazooie and how it tailored the music to its current game state & environment: https://www.nicholassinger.com/blog/banjo-kazooie-and-the-era-of-n64-midi
We’re using this technique (often called “vertical layering” nowadays) in our hub area: the hub’s music track changes based on where you are, and different layers fade in & out. For example, when you get closer to an NPC, their “theme” is added to the overall background music, or if you’re walking up to your hovercar, the drums will kick in.
If there’s something specific you’d like us to write about in these updates, you want to give demo/playtest feedback or if you just want to hang out and talk games & music, join our small community on Discord!
See ya next month & have a great day,
Kai