Joel Nielsen
Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Crowbar Collective.
My name is Joel Nielsen, and I am the music composer and audio lead on Black Mesa. I joined the team in June of 2005, and am one of the few original members that made it through the entire development cycle.
What was your first experience with Half-Life?
I played a 'tram-demo' that was given out prior to Half-Life 1's release. I couldn't believe what I was seeing was an actual video game. How could computer graphics possibly look so real!? That was enough to seal my fate as a Half-Life-For-Life-r.
When did your interest in game development begin?
Most notably from the release of WorldCraft in my early teens. I loved creating replicas of buildings around my town that had interesting gameplay layouts and had an odd fascination with trying to create a working waterslide map. I would also end up placing large boxes around the entire levels to 'fill all the leaks', then wait days for it to compile. (and now you know why Chris Horn never let me touch a map on Black Mesa)
What was the most challenging hurdle that was overcome during development in your role?
Cowbell... Well that and simply learning how to work with audio and music in general. I jumped into Black Mesa with no prior experience. I began with more of a, "how hard could it be" mentality. Suffice it to say I quickly learned otherwise. Acquiring the skills required of ‘good’ sound and music production has been one of the most convoluted rabbit holes I've ever been down. And because of that I also love it. There’s always something more to learn and improve upon.
What was the most creative method you had to use to create a sound?
I used a central-vacuum and some super-sized un-inflated balloons to make the suction sound for the vents in Xen. Also, and even more interestingly, the footstep sound for the flesh surfaces contains the light open-handed slap of a wet ass cheek. I'll let your imaginations fill in the rest of the blanks, but will add a hearty 'thank you' to my wife Kala, who has helped with so many aspects of this project.
How difficult was the task of reimagining Xen musically?
Quite honestly, it was a lot more enjoyable than difficult. I love being set free from a creative perspective and Xen gave me that opportunity. Musically it allowed me to breathe something fresh and unique into the world. And as you can tell I embraced that in full force. Adding a vocal track to every song. (oh yes, every single song has at least one female vocal track within it) I may have gone a little overboard in retrospect but I wouldn’t change it if I could. A huge shout-out again to my lovely wife for all her work!
What about the Xen sound design?
Again, great fun. Taking a fairly regular sounding animal or environment, and then absolutely sonically mangling it beyond recognition was a welcomed change of pace from the very 'standard' sounds of the Earthbound portion. Unfortunately, some of the depth/detail is lost in-game, but if you crank the volume and listen close, there are many layers of complexity to a lot of them.
Which piece of music from Earthbound would you most like to redo/replace but can’t because it stuck too much?
Definitely the Lobby shoot-out in QE. Many people seem to love it, which is great, but it also isn’t very Half-Life-esque in flavor, in my opinion. Being that it would likely spark a small insurrection, I won’t be making any modifications.
Do you ever plan on releasing the stems to the soundtrack?
Somewhat unlikely considering the time required to do such a thing. That, and I want to put out my own remixes every few years, so I never have to work ever again.
Did you go to school for your respective parts of the project?
Musically, I am classically trained and took lessons from age 3+. As for formal education? Yeah, definitely not. I barely have a high school diploma, if you count how little I paid attention in class or the grades... My method has always been; if you want to know how to do something, go learn it. Get your hands dirty, trying, and failing until you succeed. Don't let anyone or anything hold you back, and don't use your current reality as an excuse for why you can't. All success originates from an attitude of perseverance.
So what now?
I’ll of course be helping with the next CC project. Outside of that, I have started my own game company where my small team and I are working on a unique indie MMO. Throw me a follow on twitter if any of that would be of interest. Love you all, you are an incredible community, and thanks for sticking with us to the end!