August 4, 201015 yr Hi all! Those of you who follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook will know that I've recently been busy with an exciting game score project that I am proud to announce I've officially finished. Shadow Era is a digital trading card game in the spirit of Magic: The Gathering, and is cross-platform...releasing on the iPhone, iPad and web simultaneously later this year. The artwork is of top-notch quality, so coming up with evocative music for the score was never an issue. More info on the game can be found on its website at www.shadowera.com. The goal was to push the boundaries of typical iPhone game music into the realm of the cinematic, and many of the tracks sport some huge ensembles and rich orchestrations despite their game-y nature. In all cases I tested the tracks extensively on an actual iPhone to ensure the mixes being delivered sound just as good coming out of a tiny speaker as they do out of a pro sound system. Still, those of you with the latter will catch many more of the sound nuances. Overall I'm extremely proud of the score and so it's my great pleasure to show you the whole thing now. Some have heard individual tracks from it before, but the link below will take you to the full score album. Shadow Era: Original Score I really hope you enjoy; thank you for listening! :happy:
August 4, 201015 yr wow as usual, marius. talking about the main theme, the opera voices mock up are awesome with the distortion guitar sounds really unique orchestrating, although i would sequence the guitar differently on the attacks. i will listen to the rest later on for sure.
August 4, 201015 yr Yo, Marius! It was neat listening to you coming up with these tracks as you went along. They're all really stunning. I'm glad you shared them. The menu theme is especially cool because they're generally not =P. To be honest, Battle! sounds a little out of place with the production and orchestration on the rest of the tracks. But, I remember you said it's cuz the developer wanted that track specifically, and it's not like you're gonna be like, No, sir. While we're on the topic of criticism, I have mixed feelings about Victory. I really like 0-0:14 and then 0:25-end. But that space in between, there feels like there's confusion between who we should be listening to. The guitar or the orchestra? It sounds like the guitar but I don't find the guitar as interesting as it was in the opening. Food for thought. I'm impressed with all the styles: Main theme, your badass movie soundtrack sounding stuff. It's really really solid. Where the Wild things Spar has freakin' leprechauns in it and everything else too. Great little mix. Menu theme is brilliant ambiance. I was about to forget Cry for War but that is outstanding too! Murk of Doom is like creepy ambiance. And then Battle is your rockin' out track. 4 Thumbs up! -John
August 4, 201015 yr Author Thank you very much, gents! J: Still getting the hang of convincingly mocking up electric guitar stuff...it's a royal pain to have it be realistic, though I'm pretty happy with the results here and I'm glad that you found the eclectic instrumentation engaging...it was the best part of working on the score! John: Great points. I hear you on the Battle! front, but as you said it was because it got pulled into the project rather than written specifically for it. Still, it does work nicely in game so I guess that's something. You're also right about Victory and I'm actually going to quickly bounce out a new mix of that when I get the chance because I think I accidentally broke the automation on the guitar track for the normal listening version so it's quite a bit louder than I had intended for it to be (sounds fine on the iPhone speakers, but not so much otherwise) — takes up way too much of your attention and it wasn't meant to be the foreground element quite so much. Good call on that one. In any event, I happily accept the 4 thumbs and will see about fixing Victory ASAP. :D
August 4, 201015 yr Another great one M. I especially like Where the Wild Thinks Spar and Cry for War. Great atmosphere on all tracks. About the electric guitar, in my experience its much easier to find a real guitarist and record the things you want to have on your track. Find yourself a mate who plays the axe, it's much more fun :)
August 4, 201015 yr hey marius , again great stuff from you! ,i really loved the acoustic guitar in shadow era! and the vibes in some of the tracks . i think this is one of your best works . all the tracks are very professionally done ! and i see that your achieving big things! good luck in the future.
August 5, 201015 yr Great work, Marius! It's almost a shame that most people will experience this awsome music only on their little ipone speakers ;) I especially like the electric guitar sound in the main theme, you really did it there! Thanks fo sharing!
August 6, 201015 yr Author Thanks, guys! :D Phant: You're definitely right, but my issue is that I don't really have the equipment to adequately record live stuff so until I address that or find someone who's got the facilities themselves, it's just tricky to deal with slotting unprocessed live stuff in. Good call though either way. Abdullah, Oli: I am really pleased you enjoyed it. It's true that having it come out of tinny iPhone/iPad speakers will suck, but the folks with headphones or the ones who play it online will at least get the full taste of things. I'm eager for it to be ready and released (still in closed beta) to see what the reception will be like. :)
August 7, 201015 yr The only track that I had problem was the "Failure" I did not know where to put my attention there, lol. All the tracks are very well done, though. :)
August 7, 201015 yr Author Hahaha fair enough, Nyu! xD I guess your attention in the game should be on...not....failing...? Hehe who knows. Thanks for listening either way and leaving your thoughts, I appreciate them. :happy:
February 24, 201115 yr Author Hey guys, just a small bump because the game is finally out of beta and available now on your favourite iOS device and online :D It's free to play so have a look if you like! http://www.shadowera.com/
February 25, 201115 yr Marius, That scraggy is awesome. Very professional. I suck at the card game, but at least I can listen to you music. Congrats on all your effort.
