Braid

Braid

PC/Xbox360/PS3/OSX/Linux
Released 2008

Developed by Number None and Hothead Games

Designed by Johnathan Blow

Braid is a puzzle platformer with some intriguing mechanics, beautiful backgrounds and a look and feel that is at once familiar and foreign.  It has a combination of unique gameplay, gorgeous and somehow textural visuals and a swelling soundtrack.  I feel that, if one of these three pieces was less well executed, Braid would be far less engaging.  However, none of them were, and it is.  Engaging, that is.

Braid's gameplay is puzzle-oriented and a straight up platformer.  Oh, and you control time, which makes for some very intricate and difficult puzzles.  In addition, your power over time changes with each section of the game, giving it a very different dynamic.  From jumping on the strange hedgehog/human-faced enemies to speaking with an adorable dinosaur, the basic gameplay is straight-up Mario.  But, in addition, you can rewind, fast forward, do four-dimensional loop-the-loops and all other hoo jiggerypokery.  The puzzles are different, like something I've never experienced before.

The art appears in two parts, a moving foreground and a slowly panning larger background (painted).  the foreground visuals are 2D and fairly static, with some well-integrated particle effects, but the backgrounds are where the game really shines.  The paintings are incredible atmospheric, setting the mood for the entire game (that gets enhanced by the haunting music).  The backgrounds are really beautiful, and gives the game a truly unique look and feel.

The music, composed by a variety of peoples all from the label Magnitude.  The soundtrack is ethereal, moody and melancholy, and really sets the tone for the detached and dreaming game-scape.  You often rewind time, and the music plays back backwards, enhancing that detached and strange feeling.  This is one game soundtrack whose integration into a game is essential for the game.  At least for me.

~græy

Flower

Flower

PS3

Released 2009

Developed by thatgamecompany

Designed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark

So here we go with the single-sided discussion of movie scores, video game music and background tunes.
Starting with one of my favorite things in all of forever. That most forever number one favorite is That Game Company's Flower.


(pay no attention to the song they picked...)

An independent and small game design studio, TGC (that game company) has some kind of spooky zen hoodu that weaves intense visual stimulation with a dichotomous sparse-but-lush take on music, gameplay and storytelling.  And not only are these elements of their releases at a very high level of execution, they have somehow managed to mash all these disparate and usually disconnected elements into an incredibly intense and holistic emotional experience.
And-by-gee-golly-hot-spankin-griddle-meat, the music is incredible.  Vincent Diamante, a composer and all-around artsy person composed the game's music and sound effects, and aside from just loving the hell out of it, the way that the two work together is something unparalleled and something truly novel.
In flower, you control the wind, blowing a single flower petal through a landscape.  You explore that world, touching other flowers and causing them to bloom, eventually bringing color and life back to a grey world.  As you touch the other flowers, a single instrument voice plays a note, the instrument depending on the color and type of flower you bloom.  As you restore color and life to that landscape, the music grows from a thinly composed part into a full and lushly orchestrated piece, all seamlessly.  At any rate, I'm not really doing it any justice by describing it, even with my most bestest mouthwords.





Well, that gameplay video doesn't really do it any justice either.
My personal taste for video games, well, for just about everything, is how immersive the experience is, and I am completely immersed in Flower whenever I pick it up.

Week 2

Context: Lost in the airport

Emotion: Isolated, Numb

Other: Dream-like

I focused more on creating the emotion and keeping the texture etherial.  I used absynth and a couple other synthesizers, and I tried to keep everything cold and square/harsh.  It stays floaty, thins out at the bridge, then winds its way out.  The glitched drums are jarring and especially effective at pushing the anxiety.  There's a percussive bell instrument (synth) that plays out of time and flails into missed notes and accidentals that takes over during the bridge, and adds to the un-reality.
In retrospect, I think it should fade out for starting at halfway through the B section.

Again, much more atmospheric and textural than melodic.

Keep on submitting!

~græy

Week 1.3

Well I'm just on a role

Context: forest/jungle/tribal

Emotion: Happy, but a little detached

The piece starts out with instruments peeking in a little disjointedly during A. I imagined it as the forest coming alive with noises after some kind of disturbance. B lights up with an ostinato phrase that carries the expanding width, filled with little flourishes and expressions, to a simple, warm ending. I tried to keep reverb and echos on all the instruments to give a little etherial quality. Without that hint of expansiveness, I think this piece would be too upbeat. There's just a little bit of longing floating in there.

As usual, let me know what you think, ask questions, etc etc


~græy

Week 1.2

A follow-up to the week 1 choral piece, this one starts with a thin, yearning, high-tension bit, then moves into B, a gradually thicker variation on the theme from the A section, with a repeating cello line that sketches out a more hopeful chord. It moves back into some of the minors from A, as it nears the end, revitalizing some of that tension in a thicker form. The resolution at the end speaks especially strongly to me at least, a minor chord that melts into major.

Would you like more specifics?  Am I making sense?  Should I stop talking about emotional impact and get down to gritty music theory explanations?  Or something in between?

In other words, how's it workin for ya?

Thanks for listening

~græy

Week 1

Well there you go

Week one. I decided to write a mostly choral piece that could be looped, with two main sections. The A section is a denser, traditional choral arrangement. I tried to keep it longing, almost mournful, but moving fluidly. The pipes fit texturally just enough into the vocal parts (throaty resonance) that it doesn't shine out too much, but it can emerge clearly when it has a line that should pop.

The B section steps back from the tension built in the first section and takes the piece to a simple, floating finish with a few false resolves, and ends with a thin, floating, yet satisfying finish.  I feel like I'm talking about wine.  The vocal samples are from the London Symphony Orchestra's Symphony of Voices, which is my favorite set of vocal samples, by far.  

Send in ideas you'd like to hear on the form to the right!

~græy

Weekly Composition Happy Fun Time Lucky Game!

The pretext behind this idea is that you, the humble reader, will write in to me, the vaguely talented artist, with florid descriptions of a context that you'd like to hear sonically illustrated. Think of film score or video game background music. You'll say “Aww mans! What my lifelong dream to hear is: An ominous piece of musics for the darkest cave of the hideous frog-people of Angkanore, whose throaty croaks bring the blackest bile rising in those who would dare to walk alone in their domain!”

Then I'll respond “Ok friend, here's some phresh beats, made to order!”
I'll sit down and jam out some music in one day, post it and add some comments explaining what I did.  For now, we're running two compositions a week.

The idea is to give me practice writing things I might not ordinarily attempt, and for you to have some fun coming up with a situation you'd like to hear. It's a win-win situation

You'd be losing money NOT doing it!

-græy