--Strategem OST--

Hello YC,

It's been a while since I posted any music in the forums. Well, I've been working on a game called Strategem lately, it's a remake of the clasic game "Plotting". I've been included in the development team to write music for it. The game itself is an arcade/puzzle game, it's pretty hard to explain the game mechanics and how it works, but when it's out I'll place a link to the game here. Right now, I only have a demo.

Another thing, the game's gonna be distributed commercially, and the developer doesn't want me to release the soundtrack. Therefore, I won't link to the site, but attached in this post is a screenshot of the game. The artwork isn't all done, I know, but it gives a basic idea of the game.

On to the music (All pieces loop in the game, but I edited them to end properly for listening)

Title Tune

Every game needs a title tune. This short piece features a rhodes piano carrying a joyful waltzy melody. It's meant to be simple, and is the simplest piece in the whole game.

Every Brick Fits

There are 3 in game themes in the whole soundtrack, and this one is my favourite. Why so? It's because I used all the themes in other pieces are moulded them into this. It will sound very familiar if you hear the other pieces in this OST. I recommend listening to this last.

Game Start!

In game theme number 2. There's a timer in the game, and you lose when time runs out. The xylophone in this piece stands for the clock ticking down.

Breaking the Bricks

This piece starts with a bass ostinato, it maintains through half of the piece. The second part features the title melody, with a different time signature of course, as this piece is in 4/4 and the title tune is in 3/4.

Another note, working on this project has allowed me to work with unusual ensembles. Since it's a retro remake, the developer wanted something that's retro and modern at the same time. The instruments used are: drum kit, sine wave, xylophone, synths, a rhodes electric piano and the most unusual one, an accordion. The "retro" competition at CGEmpire gave me some experience in retro tunes, lucky for me.

Comments are welcome as usual, criticisms accepted. :)

Hey, Nigel! :)

I'll go track by track for ya and give you some thoughts.

The title track, to begin with, is very cute but somewhat hollow and meandering. It felt somewhat aimless, even though the nature of the style you're writing it in would suggest that. You've said that the simplicity is intentional though, so I'm guessing that explains it there. My only thing is that it isn't particularly "interesting" just like this. I'm curious what's going on visually while this is playing. Cute though, definitely cute.

I'll do the Game Start next, since you suggest I should listen to "Every Brick Fits" last. This is much better. It's got a wonderful sound to it, I'm loving the accordion. It strikes me as somewhere between The Simpsons and Monkey Island. Very cool. Hummable and effective game music, in any case. I really enjoyed this one. Good job with the mixing too, it feels more balanced than the title theme.

Breaking the Bricks I'm having mixed feelings about. On the one hand, you've got some great stuff going on here with instrument effects and the various sounds play off of each other admirably, but there's something distinctly disjointed about the beginning. I'm not sure what it is. As the track progresses, things even out and it sounds very good, but near the beginning I was a little unconvinced. This one screams Super Mario Sunshine.

And now to Every Brick Fits. It's definitely got a familiar feel to it at this point, and I like that you've tried to incorporate all your themes. What I didn't like so much is that sometimes it seems like they're stepping on each other. There are some portions where the sheer amount of overlapping and trading off seems overpowering and distracting - especially considering the context of a game. Again, I'd be curious to know when this one plays in-game.

Overall a great effort though. I LOVE the sound you've got going with this ensemble and the mixing, for the most part, is great for carrying your unique feel across and letting the fairly bizarre ensemble "fit" together. I can't wait to see how this all works out in-game. Congratulations on what seems like a fun project! :)

Hey, Nigel! :)

I'll go track by track for ya and give you some thoughts.

The title track, to begin with, is very cute but somewhat hollow and meandering. It felt somewhat aimless, even though the nature of the style you're writing it in would suggest that. You've said that the simplicity is intentional though, so I'm guessing that explains it there. My only thing is that it isn't particularly "interesting" just like this. I'm curious what's going on visually while this is playing. Cute though, definitely cute.

I'll do the Game Start next, since you suggest I should listen to "Every Brick Fits" last. This is much better. It's got a wonderful sound to it, I'm loving the accordion. It strikes me as somewhere between The Simpsons and Monkey Island. Very cool. Hummable and effective game music, in any case. I really enjoyed this one. Good job with the mixing too, it feels more balanced than the title theme.

Breaking the Bricks I'm having mixed feelings about. On the one hand, you've got some great stuff going on here with instrument effects and the various sounds play off of each other admirably, but there's something distinctly disjointed about the beginning. I'm not sure what it is. As the track progresses, things even out and it sounds very good, but near the beginning I was a little unconvinced. This one screams Super Mario Sunshine.

And now to Every Brick Fits. It's definitely got a familiar feel to it at this point, and I like that you've tried to incorporate all your themes. What I didn't like so much is that sometimes it seems like they're stepping on each other. There are some portions where the sheer amount of overlapping and trading off seems overpowering and distracting - especially considering the context of a game. Again, I'd be curious to know when this one plays in-game.

Overall a great effort though. I LOVE the sound you've got going with this ensemble and the mixing, for the most part, is great for carrying your unique feel across and letting the fairly bizarre ensemble "fit" together. I can't wait to see how this all works out in-game. Congratulations on what seems like a fun project! :)

I've included a pic of the title screen Marius. The text that says "Press spacebar" blinks in different colours, can't capture that in a screenshot.

As for Breaking the Bricks, I think you feel disjointed because the bass line changes at some parts very abruptly, my bad. I've never heard Super Mario Sunshine before though, but I have the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, and there I are some parts where I refered to it.

For Every Brick Fits, the developer told me to compose something for a bonus stage, hence the stepping on each other for "frenzyness".

Thanks for commenting. :)

Just a tiny bump. I've worked really hard on this, so some comments would be appreciated. They help me improve. Thanks in advance. :)

Hi Nigel,

long time no hearing from you. I can see you've being busy and that's good

I just wanted to give overall review of your music for this game. I really thing that it's good I like fact that it's not too catchy and it's written very modern. That's thing, I think, we should all stream too. Not just to give to audience/developers what they expecting to hear but to move frontiers.

Good work Nigel and keep it good work.

:thumbsup:

Hey Nigel,

First, I want to say nice work on this soundtrack. The game itself looks interesting and the interface looks cute.

Title Track

I think this piece helps set the game

Hey Nigel! Very cutesy indeed is my first comment! I know thats intentional so well done. Most of what I want to say has already been covered so I wont repeat it, but I will add (I think it was Game Start where I noticed this) that I think you need to tweak the balance of the cymbals. The rest of the percussion you have is subtle and effective but the crashes in this piece seem a little too overpowering.

I also want to comment on Every Brick fits, because although the reuse of your themes is good, Marius hit the nail on the head when the overlapping becomes too distracting and there are one or two places where they don't mesh together perfectly.

On the whole though, very entertaining and great BGM :)

Breaking the Bricks

I have to say that the bass in this piece sounds odd. It sounds very cheesy I want to say. I’m not sure if that’s the right word. I think it might be the sound more then the arrangement. Maybe try adjusting it to be either more square or more smooth (depending on which you value more.) I think it would sound great if you tried messing with the bass a little.

After giving it a few listens, I agree with you, the bass line is just lacking in some places. Well, I may change it, if I have the time to do so, thanks for reviewing!

Hey Nigel! Very cutesy indeed is my first comment! I know thats intentional so well done. Most of what I want to say has already been covered so I wont repeat it, but I will add (I think it was Game Start where I noticed this) that I think you need to tweak the balance of the cymbals. The rest of the percussion you have is subtle and effective but the crashes in this piece seem a little too overpowering.

I also want to comment on Every Brick fits, because although the reuse of your themes is good, Marius hit the nail on the head when the overlapping becomes too distracting and there are one or two places where they don't mesh together perfectly.

On the whole though, very entertaining and great BGM :)

I will keep that in mind, it's the first time I overlap themes in a piece, and it didn't work out too well it seems. :)

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Haha, this is so old-school. I love it !

Nigel

Nice to see you back with some music.

Anthanos said Old-School...I would say very retro. The feel of the music to me is very 80'sish but the samples are much better.

I just read your last words about the final piece and see that they wanted retro, so my guess is that the developers are very happy with all of these.

Well done

Ron

Nigel

Nice to see you back with some music.

Anthanos said Old-School...I would say very retro. The feel of the music to me is very 80'sish but the samples are much better.

I just read your last words about the final piece and see that they wanted retro, so my guess is that the developers are very happy with all of these.

Well done

Ron

The developers are happy, yes, and I'm thankful for that. :)

Thanks for all the comments!

So are we gonna be able to see a demo to see the music in action anytime soon?