Jumpjutsu music theme!

I need to sit down and write the great experience the Global Game Jam 2016 was, but I don't have much time now, so instead I want to show you the music theme for Jumpjutsu!

There is some chance I could make some changes to it, but I must say that considering I'm not a musician I'm very satisfied with the result. I tried to transmit some sense of action and fun, obviously with a Japanese-like style.

It loops nicely at about second 6, but you will need to wait to hear that in the game ;)

Song: Ascendam Theme

Around one week ago (or two?) I was working on some sprites for Ascendam when I realized I still needed to define a little more the "look and feel" I want this game to have, so I decided to give another try to compose a song that would reflect the dynamic gameplay I want to create.

I did a little search and found this awesome music app for Android called Caustic 3 (I think it also exists for iOS). It is not free but it really worth its price (actually I didn't find any good free music app). Anyway, maybe I could write about the app later, today I want to share this song that I composed for Ascendam's title screen. It took a little more time than normal because I was still learning the app, and I had little idea of what kind of song I wanted to compose, but after some tries it started to emerge by itself.

I was thinking in a style similar to the music in Mega Man X3. However as I have said, I'm not a born musician so I'm still pretty far to compose something that awesome. Anyway I believe it's good enough and now I can imagine a little more how dynamic the gameplay should be, as well as the movements I want Anz (the main character) to perform.

I uploaded two versions, one is just the song, the other is the looped version. I uploaded both because the loop is not expected to start at the beginning of the song, so I pasted the song 3 times as I want to make the loop to sound in game. I'm sharing here the looped version, the original one can be found in my soundcloud profile.

I hope you like it!

Title song - version 2.0

I continued working on my song "Opening Mystery" which I think I'm gonna rename because it is not a mysterious song, and it's not for an Opening either :P. The song now has 3 parts (forgive my lack of musical vocabulary).

The first part is an introduction with an arpeggio, a background chorus, and a bass, which is used in most of the song. The second part has a kind of darker/sadder style which I wanted to add because the game I'm planning to make with it is supposed to transmit a kind of uncomfortable feeling (but let's talk about that later). The third part has a different feeling, it is supposed to transmit a little more inspiring feeling, like raising from a moment of sadness. The final is a little abrupt because the song is supposed to work as a loop, however I think it is enough "final" to close the song when played once.

Based on the previous version, some of the changes I made are:

1. I modified most of the melody
2. Extended the song by adding the "second part" mentioned above
3. Added a chorus
4. Reinforced the arpeggio instrument
5. Added a "second voice" for the melody.
6. Modified some of the base instruments.

I think I'm gonna use this song as the main theme for the game I'm planning now, it is already helping me to define the look and feel that could work with it and with the game story. I want to reuse this song a lot in the game, I have noticed that some games do this very often, for example you can check Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is obvious that they took the song from the opening scene and reused it in different ways, in the menus, in the one-player mode, and for some battle scenarios, actually they reuse it that much that I started to dislike it. However the good part of doing this is that you can make sure that all you music harmonizes with the game's general feeling.

I'm going to stop doing music for now, I need to start programming the game mechanics because I need to experiment with them, currently I don't know other games with similar mechanic so I need to figure out how to make it interesting, fun, playable, and engaging. But well, I think I won't have any free time the following month so I'm not sure how much progress I will be able to make.

For now, here is the song:

First composed song - Opening Mystery 1

Lately I started to think about create my own video game's music. I already do a little of everything when talking about video games, but music was not something I had done before. I know I don't have the natural talent for composing music, however I decided to give it a try due that I have some general idea about music and I think some acceptable songs can be created by following some tips and tricks anyone can find in YouTube.

So here is it, the song is called Opening Mystery 1, it is thought for a small game I have in mind now. It is version 1 because I haven't completed the PxTone guide I'm following :P. I was about to start the complex part (chapter 3) so I thought I would understand it better by doing a first song and then polish it by using all those "pro tips".

The song is thought to be the music for the title screen of a video game I'm planning to do with a kind of mysterious and mystical atmosphere. Let's see if I can actually make it better once I complete the PxTone guide :)

I hope you like it!