brandonabley.com

Most of the demo reel shows outdoor scenes from the first area of the game; I don’t want everyone to think that the entirety of Wilfred the Hero takes place in the same outdoor environment, so I thought I would share some other screenshots of the first area of the game that demonstrate some variety.

The first area of the game takes place around the foothills of the mountain. The path forward cuts straight into and through some of the foothills and into the mountain itself, so there are some caves to explore. They’ve been hollowed out over the centuries by the rising and falling water level, so they are fairly wide-open and airy. They are also filled with water; Wilfred, like many video game heroes, has never learned how to swim, so he has to make sure he doesn’t fall!

Teo and I are still working hard on Wilfred the Hero and we are making very good progress. About 1/4 of the game content is complete at this time, including music, sound, scenes, etc. The majority of the game’s basic framework and mechanics are complete. We’re sticking to the 2012 release date indicated in the demo reel, but I would advise that it will be closer to the end of the year than the beginning. It takes time to make a video game on the weekends.

At some point in the coming months I will post a preview of the soundtrack. There are a number of very good tracks that are very close to being complete and I thought I would share them without anyone interested. Stand by for more updates!

I thought I might post occasionally to keep people abreast on development of Wilfred the Hero. I’ll try to update with concept art, musical tracks, screenshots, or something at least twice per month just to keep everyone aware that we’re hard at work!

Teo Mathlein sent in some wonderful concept art for an area of the game called The Great Wall that I thought I might share.

This austere structure made of sheer rock faces, impregnable stone walls, and many treacherous walkways is the only way up. This area marks the Heroes’ major climb up of the dragon’s mountain, through low-lying clouds and into the sky, as they journey always to the unreachable summit. By this point in the mission, it is well into the day.

There are many entrances that lead into the heart of the structure; inside, lie the mysterious passages and tunnels that many monsters call home. The only up is through them—and through whatever danger is inside.

Waiting to Die is the official soundtrack to the independent horror film Waiting to Die. As of this writing, the film has not yet been released. It will debut during Spring 2011.

Download the entire soundtrack here: http://www.brandonabley.com/files/Waiting%20to%20Die%20FINAL%20Mp3s%20FEB%202011.zip

Listen to the streaming soundtrack free at Last.fm (click image):

This music is alternatively moody and melancholy and horrifying, depending on the track. It is writting for piano, violin, miscellaneous percussion, and synthesizer. The entire soundtrack runs about 50 minutes and includes 19 tracks.

These tracks are not significantly changed from the versions heard in the film.

All composition, sequencing, and production was done by myself.

Cover art by Teo Mathlein.

I’ve joined last.fm and put all of my music up on it. That way, people can stream it instead of downloading zip files (that frequently do not work). Check out my page at:

http://www.last.fm/music/Brandon%2520Abley?ac=brandon%20abley

I was recently interviewed about my music and amateur game-making at www.Gamingw.net:

http://www.gamingw.net/item.php?id=77267

Primarily we talk about my music catalog, my influences, and Wilfred the Hero.  Carius is a good interviewer, and if you are interested in me or my work, the review is worth checking out.  I was really surprised by the superfans that crawled out of the woodwork to say good things about me in the comments!  I have always known I have a few listeners here and there, but I didn’t think I was popular at GW at all.

There are personal reasons why I am ambivalent about this interview, but I am sure my (limited) blog audience is probably interested in it.

Also: I am sure you have noticed I am updating more frequently.  This will probably continue.  A new layout is in the works - it doesn’t seem appropriate to keep using Teo’s art for the layout when he and I aren’t working on a game together anymore.

I have finally updated my site to reflect my complete portfolio.  There are now reliable links to all of my previous work that I want to put up on my site.  There are some things, like my very early music and the prototype for Wilfred the Squire, that I do not feel like putting up.  You can probably find them on the internet if you are persistent!  You can find those pages on the right, or, alternatively, you can access them here:

RMNCast: Episode 6 should be up within one week.  We are recording tomorrow.

U.S.G: A New Beginning has been out for a few weeks, but I haven’t gotten around to putting it up on my site.  If you haven’t played it yet, be sure to download it here:

http://www.rpgmaker.net/games/433/downloads/

If you aren’t familiar, U.S.G is an interesting hybrid of bullet-hell shooter and Japanese RPG.  The game features character levels and customization as well as an epic story like a typical jRPG, but the core gameplay stages are a bullet-hell SHMUP.  It’s a pretty good game and my favorite RPG Maker game.

I wrote the complete official soundtrack for U.S.G (one or two tracks were created by other artists I believe).  Game design and coding was done by community member Hima, and art was done by community member Piti.  GamingW moderator HandsomeLamb helped with the English script (Hima and Piti are from Thailand and their English is pretty good but not really suitable for writing dialog).

If you missed it, be sure to download my U.S.G Symphonic Suite!

http://www.brandonabley.com/files/USG-OST-SV-06-04-2008.zip

Screenshot:

Download this while you read:

http://www.brandonabley.com/files/USG-OST-SV-06-04-2008.zip

I have completed the Symphonic Suite for U.S.G: A New Beginning.  I have completed the official soundtrack as well.  With that and the new translation finished and submitted, I’m sure that Hima will wrap up the rest of the work on U.S.G. any time now and you will all be able to play it!

Both the game and its soundtrack are free to download and distribute.  Please do not claim ownership of either, however, because you did not make them.

Cover Art:

Track Listing:

1. Bullet Hell
2. War Room
3. Elephant Attack!
4. Chatting
5. Creepy Flying Saucers
6. Llefara
7. A Giant Enemy is Approaching?!

About the music: My music has been described as minimalist, but I do not compose in the minimalist style intentionally.  This soundtrack is a conscious effort to compose minimalist music, so expect a lot of a simple structures and repeating patterns.  I’m extremely proud of it and would not hesitate to say that this is, overall, my best work.  I am extremely fond of every track, except for Chatting.  That particular track is cheesy and generally terrible.  My personal favorites are Bullet Hell and War Room.  Respected community member Badluck had a minor role in the creation of Llefara (he helped me come up with the melody).

The music was written for a standard small orchestra accompanied by piano and trap set (drums) and a small section featuring four-voice choir (SATB).  The music was written specifically to be playable in its current form by a real ensemble and to not be particularly difficult to play.

About this recording: This is the symphonic suite made from the music for U.S.G: A New Beginning.  It is not exactly the same as the music in game and is instead the music as written for a live ensemble.  It has a beginning and an end, rather than looping into a fade like most video game soundtracks.  For the most part, though, the music is indistinguishable from the original game sound version.  I input every note (even the drums) into a sequencer with a keyboard.  I used EastWest’s sample packages and Garritan Personal Orchestra to generate sounds.  I recommend both, but I advise that EastWest’s packages are a glitchy and while the sample quality is excellent many patches have duff notes.

About the game U.S.G: A New Beginning:

U.S.G. is a stunningly brilliant bullet hell shooter slash RPG made with RPG Maker XP by Hima and Piti at GPTouch.  The main gameplay segments play like a standard bullet hell shooter, but in-between missions you spend skill points to level up different powers and decide which ones to bring into the next stage.  Enemies in each stage have specific weaknesses that play out in a way similar to games like Final Fantasy.  Cutscenes bookend each stage (and they are way too long).  Each level has multiple difficulty settings and the game is extremely challenging on higher levels.  To top it all off, the production values are through the roof - the game looks absurdly professional.  It is by far my favorite RPGMaker game and one of my top indie games out there.

You can find out more at GPTouch’s website (well probably not if you can’t read Thai but): http://www.gptouch.com/

 Please listen to this as you read:

http://www.brandonabley.com/files/Bullet%20Hell.mp3

So, a few weeks ago, a stunningly brilliant RMXP game was released called USG: A New Beginning.

This is actually a pretty mild screenshot with not that many bullets on-screen.  On harder difficulties, it gets pretty insane.

In USG, you gain experience points, level up, buy new abilities, and explore all the trappings of an Japanese RPG gameplay system — but the game itself is a bullet hell shooter!  The game follows a unique risk-reward system where you get more experience points for killing enemies when there are more bullets on the screen.  You are therefore encouraged to keep the action as tight and intense as possible in order to get more of the valuable points that purchase abilities.  In requisite form, obnoxiously long cutscenes bookend each stage of the game.  It’s my new favorite RM game, but with one qualification: the music sucks.

All of the music in the game is ripped from anime soundtracks and is horrible.  The sample quality is varied (and usually bad) and the music choices themselves are not very good.  After playing the game, I immediately emailed the creator and requested that I compose an emergency replacement soundtrack.  He enthusiastically agreed!

The interface is a little confusing, but as you can probably figure out this game has a reasonably in-depth customization system similar to jRPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics.

So I am writing a new soundtrack for this excellent game.  I have a few tracks finished so far, and I thought I would share one of them with my readers (this is the same link as above):

http://www.brandonabley.com/files/Bullet%20Hell.mp3

I’m going for an intentionally-cheesy classic video game style with Big Band and Classical trappings.  I hope you enjoy.

For personally-motivated reasons I won’t provide a download link to the game until I finish the OST and the updated version is released.  It shouldn’t be too hard to find around the internet though. 

I expect to finish the OST before the end of the month of May.

In other news: You may have noticed that I restored the login and other site controls.  I can’t believe I had taken them down.