August 2026

WEBVTT
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Swing in the trees, cross the sky.
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Crashing on the shape.
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Spring into sea.
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Hello, and welcome to the Overclock Remix Podcast.
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This is episode number 22, covering the month of August 2026.
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My name is Zach, and I cannot separate the onset of all with the feeling of, oh no, it's time to go back to school.
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I haven't been a student in 10 years.
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And yet here we are.
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Suddenly, my parents were driving by the video game rental store way more frequently.
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And at least one of the ones in the area had a copy of what was then known as Final Fantasy III, but of course what we know now as Final Fantasy VI.
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I never had enough time to actually the game.
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But someone definitely did on that rental copy.
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One of the times I rented it, one of the same files was at the tower.
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Man.
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Oh man.
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I I to this day no idea how they had the time to get that car in rental weekend.
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Because this was years before Springer running especially running archives and spent a ton of money in the price of games back then.
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That may have been more economical than actually buying a company to find one to buy.
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Anyway, our intro music this month was under cerulean skies by Earth Kid and Helmet from Corona Cross.
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Let's jump into some news.
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I don't know how I didn't hear about this one during the development, but Brad Burr, aka Prophetic Music, and Drop the whole album on us out of nowhere.
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And it is a theme near and near to my heart.
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This is a genre that I myself play a lot of.
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I played several roguelike games on the album.
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I don't know if it was a roguelike game in my sound.
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I participate in a yearly game jam where you try to make a roguelike in a week and I don't know what to do again for about a decade.
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So that was Cosmic Placidity by DJ JD from Lufia 2 and Very Jack.
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This song reminds me uh there's an electronica artist named Soros, who did a dolphin themed album called, and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation as the Latin name for the bottom of the dolphin today.
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And this album was about 15 years ago.
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That I will admit I only listened to because it reminded me of that of the Dolphin.
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Of course I did.
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And that is appropriate because in the game the source material does play underwater.
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After that we had Panic After Disney Golden Force by Zach Harris from the United States.
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And I'm just gonna read some from the next episode of Vega.
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Anyway, it was crunch time in a panic.
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I conjured this track up at the last minute for this album.
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I like to imagine a horde of zombies storming onto a Disney Golden Force during a huge tournament and chaos into it.
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And by the end of it, there is a taking out zombies and getting a hold in one at the same time.
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Glorious.
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Something like that.
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This is a trade that we talked about.
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And listening to this on my own.
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I have to say, I think I might be in a jerk.
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Let me remind you, the original source material is like what did you say in the show?
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I only talk about it like every episode.
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I actually have a soft spot for pretty much all organisation.
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This track is a triumph.
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I haven't talked about my musical talent much because I basically have none.
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But one of my aspirations is to learn to play the organ.
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And if I ever manage it, I would love to play this piece.
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I played only four.
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And now I'm digging into the music and I'm adding the other ones to my team, which list this is gonna cost me some money.
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I just need to hold out for the next team sale.
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False Ale can't be that far away, right?
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That was Oceans of the Stars by Prophetic Music from Astria Six Sided Oracles.
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This is a more melancholy piece than the last one, and both the content of the song and the overall palette and vibe and instrumentation remind me of Etrian Odyssey.
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I hope Prophetic takes being compared to Yuzo Koshiro as the compliment that I need it to be.
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Oh no.
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Oh, this one's currently on sale on DOG.
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Oh, I might be spending some money right now.
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After that, Thrill of the Ascent by Prophetic Music from Dungeon of the Endless.
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I'm safe for a bit.
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This is a game that I already own on Steam.
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Although I have to admit this one didn't particularly grab me.
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The track absolutely does though.
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Really sounds like dungeon music to me.
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Evoking both the aforementioned Etrion Odyssey games and the dungeon theme from specifically Final Fantasy V.
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Finally, for new music this month, Death of the Void by Prophetic Music from Deep Sky Derelics.
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Oh lord.
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As I write this, this one is on a deep sale.
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As deep as the sky.
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85% off on God.
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My cursor is hovering over the buy now button.
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This one has more crunch to it.
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I gotta ask Prophetic about his FM synth approach.
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It kinda reminds me of Echo the Dolphin, honestly.
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I love me some Echo the Dolphin.
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But that's it for new music.
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Let's move on to a segment.
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Alright, we are here with Prophetic Music to talk about uh this new album, Fall and Rise.
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But first I have a question for you.
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Uh how did you get involved with OCR to begin with?
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Sure.
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Um, so I was this would have been 2004.
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2003, 2004.
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Um one of the guys that was in band with me, he was actually a couple years younger than I was, um, but lived pretty close to me.
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Uh I was over at his house and we were goofing around.
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He was on like a goofing around on a keyboard, and I think I brought my bass over because that just happened to be the instrument that I was excited about at that point.
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And we were fooling around with something.
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He was like, Oh, I gotta show you this music.
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This is from You're the Man Now, dog.
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And so we like watched a bunch of dumb videos because I didn't have internet at my house at the time, and so I had never seen anything like this.
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And then he showed me some other stuff that was from he's like, check out this video game music from OC Remix, from overclocked remix.
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I think he called it overcooked remix the first time he did it.
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Um, and so we but we we listened to a couple of those and I thought that they were cool.
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But I didn't have internet at my house, so every time I wanted a post, it was either through dial up um or it was while I was at school.
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And I believe that's where I actually registered my account for the first time.
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Uh I think it was actually a day before my birthday.
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So it would have been April 15th, 2004.
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Um when I when I registered, I was it was the day before my 18th birthday.
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And uh that's when I started posting.
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I had the dumbest name that you've ever heard of at the time, and then I got it changed, and it was profit for a while, and then I changed it to prophetic music after a while after that, because that's what artists do, they change their names constantly.
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But uh but yeah.
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So that's where I came from.
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Uh because uh 15-year-old kid in band next to me wanted to show me some cool stuff.
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So yeah, that's like courageous story for the people I've talked to so far.
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Uh a lot of people I've talked to have been like, oh yeah, you know, some friend at school showed it to me, and I had to download songs on dial up, and yeah, I I lived that too.
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There was definitely times where it's like, ooh, this one's four megabytes, and I know my mom has a phone call.
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Oh gosh.
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Yeah, I definitely used to bring uh I had a uh uh one of those like external hard drives that you have to like plug in, and I would bring it to the library because I didn't have internet at home, and I would plug in because they had a T1 connection, and I would just download everything as fast as possible.
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I would just just go down the front page and grab every single song.
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Um I remember the last track that I downloaded over dial up.
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Um and uh, you know, this was still a long time ago.
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And uh so I was listen I I would all excited, it was a Final Fantasy VII track that I won't name.
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I downloaded it and I it had just been posted and I listened to it and I was like, this sucks.
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And it had taken me like an hour to download.
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So I never did that again.
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I only ever went and did it when I could do it fast, and then I didn't I didn't feel like I had spent a whole bunch of my my time currency on on uh on a song that I didn't wind up liking.
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So yeah, gosh, I definitely remember you know, when you download a file uh over dial up, like you could go browse some website, but that would slow down your download, right?
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You don't want to do anything.
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You just couldn't do anything.
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Yeah, you just couldn't do anything.
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I would just like sit there and watch the little thing iterate up very slowly.
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That's all I would do.
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So you'd sit there for like an hour.
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Yeah, I would uh read a book or maybe play Game Boy.
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Um, but you know, I couldn't leave the computer because then my parents would assume, oh, Zach's not online anymore, I can use the phone.
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Yeah, so uh old people problems, I guess.
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Yeah, I it's it's crazy imagining that it's literally more than half my life ago that I was some of the technological things that we ran into and how fast that changed.
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You know, once I got to a certain age and I could just buy my own stuff, it was like, oh wow, everything's all of a sudden a lot different.
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No, I made just as bad of decisions with my time and with my money.
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But oh yeah, more of it to spend.
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Um so you definitely uh in the the uh release notes for this album, you talk a bit about where the album came from and what inspired it.
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But uh I don't think all of my listeners will have read those release notes.
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So would you uh care to talk a little bit about that for the people?
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Sure.
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So I've always liked the idea of um albums with themes.
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Uh and I don't really know where that came from.
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I think I just like the being a classical musician, there's often a lot of layers when you you know you listen to something and it's some violin screeching something, and you're like, okay, that sounds like you know, something's broken.
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But inevitably there's some very interesting, diverse reason why the violin is doing that.
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And when you learn that, it helps you appreciate it more.
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So I've I've always liked having kind of that handle to grab onto with music.
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Where it's like, oh, the person's trying to do this thing.
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Maybe they're succeeding, maybe they're not.
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But having that idea that kind of gets me a little bit in the artist's mindset for like why they did a thing.
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So I um when I did when I picked up the Link's Awakening project and helped get that through to completion, we we had a uh theme with it that I had kind of inherited, and I liked that a lot.
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And when we did the Chrono Trigger project, uh that was also we had some themes where we we grouped the songs based on um kind of like their vibe, which ones were more upbeat and which ones were more down tempo.
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Uh I'm gonna interrupt you for just a second.
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Which Chrono Trigger album project was this?
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Chrono Cross.
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Sorry, I if I say Chrono Trigger, that's my mistake.
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Chrono Cross.
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Chrono Cross.
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Ah yeah, I can totally see that then.
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Yeah, yeah.
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We had the the one disc was frozen and the one disc was flame.
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Like that was that was the idea behind it.
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Um so I I was into that already and I already had kind of liked that.
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And so I had had some ideas for themes for albums kind of bouncing around in my head that I just you know, I had like a stickies note thing on my uh on my desktop, and every so every time I booted my computer, I'd see it.
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And so that kind of helped me get in the mindset of yeah, I'm gonna do some creation that's specifically for a thing.
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Uh and I don't usually do that.
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I usually just am like somebody asked me to do a to play on something or somebody asked me to put something together, and so I put it together.
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Like I I I respond to external stimulus.
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So this was kind of unique in that regard where it was something that I was coming from inside where I was like, I want to do this, as opposed to somebody saying you should do this.
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Um and so I bounced around.
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I was thinking about doing just like turn-based tactics games, because I really like turn-based tactics games.
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I was thinking about taking a quote and like turning it every word or every phrase from the quote into a song.
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Like I was kind of playing with some different ideas.
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And uh and then eventually I settled on roguelikes uh and roguelike games.
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Because I really like them.
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I play a lot of them.
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Um and actually the first song I had the one that had kind of gotten me in the mood for that one was Slay the Spire.
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I did a Slay the Spire arrangement just because it was cool.
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Um, and that wound up going on on time shift.
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And so I was like, oh, I could do a whole bunch of these if I wanted to.
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Um, because there's a whole bunch of them that I've played that have cool soundtracks.
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Uh and so that's kind of where the idea for this came from.
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And and originally it was literally just deck builders.
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Like it was Slay the Spire and Monster Train and Nowhere Profit and stuff like that.
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Um, but I realized I wanted to get some other ones in there, like games like Inkbound, um, which have uh a very different kind of vibe to it.
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Uh Dome Keeper is another one that's got a different vibe to it.
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So like I wanted to get some of these other ones in there as well.
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But that's kind of where it started.
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Okay, yeah, I did notice it was heavy on the deck builders, and I just sort of assumed that's because, you know, that that is kind of a uh genre that's been growing in popularity the last few years.
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Um yeah, uh interesting that the the theme sort of uh shifted over time.
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Uh so uh I I am interested in uh how you selected which games and songs you wanted to cover.
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Did you like start with the game and then pick which track you want to decover from it?
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Or do you like this song is great?
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I recover this song.
01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:28.639
That's a good question.
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Um Yeah, I'm I'm not a person who usually listens to a song and is like, oh, I have to remix that song.
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Usually it's like I like this game and I want people to listen to the music for this game, and so I choose it that way.
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For example, I really like Hades, um, and that was a really fun game when I played it.
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I spent a lot of time, it was really cool.
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My kids enjoyed watching me play it as well.
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They were like really into seeing all of the the action and everything.
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Um, and so the music is really happened.
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Actually, I would listen to the soundtrack quite a bit because Darren Corb's music is amazing.
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And uh but it was one of those things where I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna pick a thing because they were all kind of interesting, but um one of the things I appreciate about his music is that often there's not a particularly strong melody that you're gonna grab onto.
01:02:19.280 --> 01:02:20.800
Certainly there are some strong melodies.
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You listen to the the pyre soundtrack, and there's some on there that are just you can't stop singing because the melodies are so good.
01:02:26.719 --> 01:02:30.400
But overall, he does a really good job of capturing like a vibe or a feel.
01:02:30.639 --> 01:02:35.760
Um, and the the all of the tracks on the Hades soundtrack are really good at that.
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But the one in particular that jumped out for me was the death theme.
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Mostly because I heard it a lot, because I'm terrible at those games.
01:02:41.599 --> 01:02:48.559
But um also just a because it was a really great um it's it's very catchy, it's very immediate.
01:02:48.639 --> 01:02:53.039
No, I did modify it to make it fit into like Western music theory.
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But um the the vibe and the idea of it was something that I really thought was a good thing to grab onto.
01:02:59.599 --> 01:03:10.960
Similarly with some of the other games, like um like Wild Frost soundtrack is really great, but at the same time, it's one of those things where um the nobody's ever heard of it.
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Right?
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Like it it's not a super duper active popular game, even though it's a really fun game.
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And so I wanted to highlight both that Paul Zimmerman did a really great job with the OST in general, but also just it's a fun game, and my hope is that people are gonna hear the music and be like, oh, this is kind of upbeat and catchy, and they're gonna listen to the music and be like, wow, this music's really upbeat and catchy and interesting too, and then want to go play the game.
01:03:33.840 --> 01:03:36.400
So, like that's kind of more where I pick from.
01:03:36.480 --> 01:03:43.519
I I pick stuff where I'm like, I want to highlight the game in general, um, rather than like, oh, this one track just blew my mind.
01:03:43.760 --> 01:03:47.119
Yeah, you know, I I I have to let you know, um, it worked.
01:03:47.360 --> 01:03:52.000
Uh as I was listening to the album, I purchased at least two games.
01:03:54.239 --> 01:03:57.760
So, you know, you have been damaging to my wallet, sir.
01:03:58.000 --> 01:03:59.920
Um, sorry.
01:04:01.679 --> 01:04:11.920
So uh I will say, so out of the um ten different games featured on the album, I have only played four of them.
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And it coincidentally happens to be the first four Hades Faster Than Light, uh, Monster Train, and Dungeon of the Endless.
01:04:19.280 --> 01:04:24.880
So of the six that I haven't played, is there one in particular that you'd be like, go play this now?
01:04:25.199 --> 01:04:29.760
Um, so I'm just gonna talk about all of them because they're all interesting and different.
01:04:30.079 --> 01:04:33.599
Um Yeah, there's uh there is quite some variety.
01:04:33.760 --> 01:04:38.960
Uh yeah, I'll I'll pick one and then I'll go from there and say, okay, but but here's some here's some more options.
01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:46.000
If I have to pick one, I would say that Dome Keeper is a very unique experience.
01:04:46.320 --> 01:04:48.880
Um the soundtrack's really interesting.
01:04:49.119 --> 01:04:55.360
It's all this like atomic age style kind of buzzes and bleeps and bloops sounds.
01:04:55.920 --> 01:04:58.480
Um there's there's virtually no percussion in it.
01:04:58.639 --> 01:05:04.960
Um it completely ignores traditional song format of like verse chorus concepts or anything like that.
01:05:05.199 --> 01:05:08.639
It ignores um time signatures half the time.
01:05:08.880 --> 01:05:14.960
Um and uh and it just kind of wheedles along and noodles along because that's very much how the game plays.
01:05:15.039 --> 01:05:18.880
The gameplay obviously influenced the the soundtrack.
01:05:19.039 --> 01:05:31.360
Um, and it's it's this alternating style of the game is has this alternating gameplay where you just kind of like meander through these mines that you're digging yourself, and you find stuff as you dig, and that's interesting.
01:05:31.440 --> 01:05:38.719
There's all these little weird like background little things that are happening that make it surprisingly cozy, even though it's a very lonely game.
01:05:38.880 --> 01:05:44.800
Um and then you go through all this, and then all of a sudden it gets to the nighttime, and monsters attack your dome.
01:05:44.880 --> 01:05:49.039
And so you're defending them off, and you're you might be defending them off with like a little machine gun or something.
01:05:49.199 --> 01:05:54.400
One of the domes has a literal sword mounted on it that you just swing around, and then you can shoot the sword.
01:05:54.719 --> 01:05:59.760
Um and you can have like rocket launchers and things that uh defend against rock.
01:06:00.480 --> 01:06:01.119
Like it's crazy.
01:06:01.199 --> 01:06:04.320
It's and it comes out of nowhere, and then it's like, oh, all right, back to the mine.
01:06:05.679 --> 01:06:08.880
The the the players yearn for the mines.
01:06:09.119 --> 01:06:11.119
So it's just so unique and different.
01:06:11.280 --> 01:06:20.960
And they've done a whole lot to make it really interesting and give it a lot more replayability than a game so with such a tight core loop should have.
01:06:21.119 --> 01:06:23.039
So I I think it's really cool.
01:06:23.199 --> 01:06:27.280
Um, of the other ones that are on there, Deep Sky Derel X is really interesting.
01:06:27.360 --> 01:06:40.800
It's it's kind of a cross between Darkest Dungeon and um uh and let's see, Void Bastards and Slay the Spire in that it uses the card-based combat that Slay the Spire kind of perfected.
01:06:40.880 --> 01:06:48.320
Um, but it's got this really goofy, like uh you you you go through dudes on your team pretty often.
01:06:48.559 --> 01:06:57.599
Uh, and then you also kind of have this like uh very unique, spacey, like futuristic, but not very futuristic style to it.
01:06:57.679 --> 01:07:04.800
And there's some some eldritch-y elements to it, not really eldritch, but kind of weird elements to it as well, that kind of give it some really unique flavor.
01:07:04.960 --> 01:07:06.880
And it's cheap and it comes with the soundtrack.
01:07:06.960 --> 01:07:09.039
So like that was one of the reasons that's how it got in here.
01:07:09.119 --> 01:07:17.119
I had played it and I was looking for another song to include in the soundtrack because I didn't quite have as many as I or to include in the album, because it didn't have as many as I wanted.
01:07:17.280 --> 01:07:29.360
And uh I was literally just looking through my soundtracks on Steam to see what I had, and I was like, oh, I just never redeemed this soundtrack, but I got it when I bought the game, and so I did, and it's a really fun soundtrack, it's got a bunch of goofiness to it.
01:07:29.440 --> 01:07:30.320
So that was really fun.
01:07:30.719 --> 01:07:40.239
Uh one of the games I bought after listening to the uh album because uh I looked and when I was listening, it was on sale for like four dollars on Gog.
01:07:40.559 --> 01:07:41.599
Uh incredible bar.
01:07:42.000 --> 01:07:43.039
It's worth four dollars.
01:07:43.280 --> 01:07:44.079
Oh, yeah.
01:07:44.320 --> 01:07:46.639
It's worth like a lot more than four dollars.
01:07:47.519 --> 01:07:49.679
Um, the next one on there was Inkbound.
01:07:49.760 --> 01:07:56.559
Inkbound's great in that it's another run-based game that's also composed by Jordan Chin, similar to Monster Train.
01:07:56.639 --> 01:08:02.000
Uh the soundtrack is a really clear evolution of his style, which is really fun to hear.
01:08:02.239 --> 01:08:06.880
Um, and that one's cool because uh it's I wouldn't really call it an action game 100%.
01:08:07.199 --> 01:08:11.599
You've got like abilities that you can activate, but it is free form and free move.
01:08:11.760 --> 01:08:16.960
Um, it hasn't done commercially as well as maybe it could have, but I really enjoyed it.
01:08:17.119 --> 01:08:19.359
I probably put 50 or 60 hours into it.
01:08:19.439 --> 01:08:21.600
And the co-op play, especially, is very fun.
01:08:21.680 --> 01:08:24.479
You can make some really fun builds working together with other people.
01:08:24.560 --> 01:08:25.520
So I definitely recommend that.
01:08:25.600 --> 01:08:29.039
It goes on sale for peanuts all the time, and it's very enjoyable.
01:08:29.279 --> 01:08:34.880
I mean, 50 and 60 hours is you know, that's like the length of a of a solid RPG.
01:08:34.960 --> 01:08:36.880
Like that's that's good bang for your buck there.
01:08:37.039 --> 01:08:38.960
Yeah, and it was it was early access.
01:08:39.039 --> 01:08:43.680
Um, I think it was$25 when somebody bought it for me so we could play it together.
01:08:44.239 --> 01:08:44.960
And it was great.
01:08:45.119 --> 01:08:52.000
Like it's worth, it's absolutely worth$25, even with it being a game that they've said, you know, we're sorry, we're not gonna continue to develop this.
01:08:52.159 --> 01:08:55.760
Past they did a release and did like a first season, but they're not gonna add new content.
01:08:55.920 --> 01:08:56.560
But it's still fun.
01:08:56.640 --> 01:08:59.920
There's more than enough content there to be able to find enjoyable stuff.
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:01.199
So that one was really cool.
01:09:01.359 --> 01:09:03.920
Uh, I talked about Wild Frost already a little bit.
01:09:04.079 --> 01:09:14.640
Wild Frost is really cutesy, uh, and uh looks like baby's first uh lane-based deck builder until you play it and you get your pants beat off.
01:09:14.800 --> 01:09:17.600
That game can be so hard.
01:09:17.760 --> 01:09:25.439
Um, and the overall gameplay loop of beating it and then having to face uh yourself the next run is a really clever idea.
01:09:25.600 --> 01:09:31.439
It's very fun, and then there's like a final, final boss that's exceedingly difficult.
01:09:31.680 --> 01:09:33.840
So I I really like that one.
01:09:33.920 --> 01:09:35.199
It is tough as nails.
01:09:35.279 --> 01:09:37.359
Uh, you have to be very creative with how to approach it.
01:09:37.439 --> 01:09:38.319
So that one's fun.
01:09:38.479 --> 01:09:39.920
I already talked about Dome Keeper.
01:09:40.159 --> 01:09:43.359
And then the last one was Estrea, Six Sided Oracles.
01:09:43.520 --> 01:09:46.239
It's a a deck builder, but your deck is dice.
01:09:46.479 --> 01:09:50.560
You're you're drafting dice, which is really interesting, and you're improving dice over time.
01:09:50.720 --> 01:09:52.319
It's great, it's such a cool idea.
01:09:52.560 --> 01:09:55.199
Uh, I played a couple of games like that, but not this one.
01:09:55.359 --> 01:09:58.479
Um, Dicey Dungeons and Slice and Dice.
01:09:58.720 --> 01:09:59.840
Have you played either of those?
01:10:00.079 --> 01:10:02.399
Uh I've seen Dicey Dungeons.
01:10:02.479 --> 01:10:04.159
It's on like my to buy list.
01:10:04.239 --> 01:10:05.600
I just haven't gotten around to getting it yet.
01:10:05.680 --> 01:10:07.119
I haven't heard of Slice and Dice yet.
01:10:07.279 --> 01:10:16.000
I I was curious how the how the gameplay compared because like, I mean, you know, I play a lot of board games, so I'm always on the lookout for interesting things you can do with dice.
01:10:16.399 --> 01:10:18.560
Yeah, it was um Astray is really cool.
01:10:18.640 --> 01:10:25.520
It it borrows the Slay the Spire map um kind of definition where you're like able to move around and get through things.
01:10:25.680 --> 01:10:30.880
Um there's a bunch of customization of the dice during the run and ways that you have to deal with stuff.
01:10:30.960 --> 01:10:41.600
There's a unique push-pull mechanic with um how you take damage and how you heal damage, where if you have some more damage on your characters, they can do more things, but they might be more in danger.
01:10:41.760 --> 01:10:43.119
Um so that's really cool.
01:10:43.199 --> 01:10:46.640
And it comes with six characters that all have unique abilities and unique concepts.
01:10:46.800 --> 01:10:54.399
There's there's an almost overwhelming amount of features that you can you could just play one or two of the characters and get absolutely get your money's worth out of it.
01:10:54.479 --> 01:10:55.359
And there's six.
01:10:55.600 --> 01:11:06.800
So it is if if you don't like dice because you don't like the inherent randomness of it, it might not be up your alley, but it is a really cool game, and it's another one that has some it goes to some really cool places that you might not expect.
01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:10.000
So that that was another one, and the soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous.
01:11:10.079 --> 01:11:16.000
It was it's a couple of people that work together on it, and it's this super lush, beautiful orchestrated sound.
01:11:16.079 --> 01:11:17.760
It's very, very interesting.
01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:25.039
I uh that's uh the other one that I purchased uh as I was listening to the album, because again, oh, this is currently on sale on Gog.
01:11:25.279 --> 01:11:26.159
This is a sign.
01:11:26.560 --> 01:11:28.800
Um yeah, that one's fantastic.
01:11:29.119 --> 01:11:34.800
I I'm generally impressed with most roguelikes how much content they pack in.
01:11:34.960 --> 01:11:42.640
Like most roguelikes truly feel like, oh, this could just be my one game for the next five years if I wanted it to be.
01:11:42.960 --> 01:11:52.319
Yeah, and I well, part of it is because when you when replayability is the most important thing, like the whole point of these games is that you want to do them again.
01:11:52.479 --> 01:11:53.600
You can't just do it.
01:11:53.840 --> 01:12:04.640
So you they they design in these bite-sized chunks, so like Slate Despier does this really well, each battle takes like a minute or two, so you can sit down and get meaningful progression in 10 minutes between things.
01:12:04.800 --> 01:12:16.640
Um, and then also if repla if replayability is the thing that the genre requires, your core loop of whatever it is better be pretty darn good in order for it to make it at all.
01:12:16.880 --> 01:12:27.520
And inevitably, for all the ones that I've listed on this that that I've played here, all of them have something really unique and interesting and clever with their loop that makes it something I want to go back to.
01:12:27.760 --> 01:12:34.960
I mean, I've put several probably probably close to a thousand hours into Slay the Spire games between one and two.
01:12:35.359 --> 01:12:44.960
Monster Hunter, or sorry, Monster Train is another one that I've spent several hundred hours in because there's so much flexibility and uniqueness to the games.
01:12:45.119 --> 01:13:00.239
Like FTL, like how many uh uh uh yeah, I mean everyone knows the Slay the Spire games, so I'm not gonna glaze them too much, but uh Monster Train is a masterpiece that I think, you know, it's decently popular, but I think still not enough people have played it.
01:13:00.479 --> 01:13:10.800
Yeah, and it's a it's another good example of the second um game essentially being better in every way than the first, in that they just give you more of what you want, and they don't get in their way doing it.
01:13:11.039 --> 01:13:13.520
So, really another really impressive example.
01:13:13.760 --> 01:13:28.159
I have not played the second one yet, and um gosh, Faster Than Light is uh I I played a lot of that when I was in grad school, and uh I remember I sold a friend on the game because I sort of described it.
01:13:28.239 --> 01:13:35.600
I I've never played another game like this, but it's sort of like it plays the way that Star Trek watches, right?
01:13:35.760 --> 01:13:44.880
Like you are worried about the interior of the spaceship and your crew members more than you are about like the stuff that's happening in space.
01:13:45.039 --> 01:13:46.640
It's uh fantastic game.
01:13:46.720 --> 01:13:48.000
I I love FTL.
01:13:48.159 --> 01:13:59.119
Um, I will say, uh, you know, just because it's been like the surprise out of nowhere hit uh that everyone has been talking about for the last year or so, uh, why know Ballatro?
01:13:59.840 --> 01:14:02.159
Um I like Ballatro.
01:14:02.640 --> 01:14:07.199
Um I played a whole bunch of it right when uh actually when it showed up on Game Pass.
01:14:07.279 --> 01:14:13.760
I had Game Pass at the time, and so I started playing it and played an enormous amount of it in a very short period of time.
01:14:14.079 --> 01:14:16.720
Because it's just such a unique, different, weird game.
01:14:16.880 --> 01:14:23.680
Uh, and I really appreciate how tight the loop is in that you can play it and you're done with a run in like 20 or 30 minutes.
01:14:23.840 --> 01:14:28.000
Like it does not take long to plow through it and get as far as you're gonna go.
01:14:28.079 --> 01:14:31.359
Um, but for whatever reason that one just didn't quite catch me as much.
01:14:31.520 --> 01:14:39.439
I think because there isn't really a clearly there there can be, but there isn't always a clearly defined endpoint for each run.
01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:44.880
Um like you can get to the point where it's like, alright, I've unlocked this thing and and then you just keep going.
01:14:44.960 --> 01:14:49.920
But because you keep going, I think for whatever reason that that just was never something that quite grabbed me.
01:14:50.159 --> 01:14:53.600
The the OST isn't that isn't the soundtrack like one or two songs as well?
01:14:53.680 --> 01:14:55.199
Yeah, I think it's just like one song the whole time.
01:14:55.600 --> 01:14:58.640
One very long, very groovy song.
01:14:58.800 --> 01:14:59.760
But um Yeah.
01:15:00.079 --> 01:15:04.560
You know, I think because of that, that one song just does lodge itself in your brain.
01:15:04.800 --> 01:15:06.159
Yeah, oh, it absolutely does.
01:15:06.319 --> 01:15:11.439
But for whatever reason, um, maybe I was playing something else at the time and so I didn't like lock into that one.
01:15:11.600 --> 01:15:14.720
It just wasn't one that I was like, oh yeah, this is one I need to get in here.
01:15:14.960 --> 01:15:17.600
So I'm certainly not against doing something in the future.
01:15:17.680 --> 01:15:21.520
And the the oh that one song is a really clever, cool one.
01:15:21.600 --> 01:15:31.760
It's in like, I think it's at seven, like it's got some really funky stuff about it that is a little surprising, and it's and it manages to stay surprising after 50 hours, which is pretty impressive.
01:15:32.000 --> 01:15:38.560
Yeah, it's it's uh I was really impressed how like you sort of don't even realize it's the same song the whole time.
01:15:38.800 --> 01:15:48.239
Uh you know, it's it's sort of like the opposite of bubble bobble, where like you're gonna get real tired of that 40 seconds of music real quick.
01:15:48.479 --> 01:15:48.880
Right.
01:15:49.039 --> 01:15:52.000
Um, so it's uh let's pivot to the music a little.
01:15:52.159 --> 01:15:57.199
Um I was really impressed with the sound palette of uh this album.
01:15:57.359 --> 01:16:08.640
Uh in particular, uh a lot of the the sounds you use remind me of like PC98 FM Synth, like you'd hear in the Etrian Odyssey games if you ever played those.
01:16:08.960 --> 01:16:09.279
Okay.
01:16:09.680 --> 01:16:15.760
So I I was curious, like what what was your approach to synth choices uh for this album?
01:16:16.079 --> 01:16:16.560
Sure.
01:16:16.800 --> 01:16:26.960
So I'm certainly not the kind of guy who's like amazing at being able to go out and craft whatever sound, exactly the right sound for a specific use or something like that.
01:16:27.039 --> 01:16:33.359
But one thing I do feel I do pretty well is ideating what I want and then finding some way to get there.
01:16:33.520 --> 01:16:41.119
Um I'm like I said, I may not be able to go and create some unique thing, but when I start working, usually my big thing is I need to find a bass sound.
01:16:41.199 --> 01:16:52.000
If I can find a bass sound that happens to be the right one and, you know, like activates the monkey brain or something like that, then then I know that I can, I already know what the rest of the song is gonna sound like.
01:16:52.159 --> 01:16:56.079
And it's just a matter of going and getting those sticks to prop up the house.
01:16:56.319 --> 01:17:11.119
Um, and so a lot of what I did was I kind of started with the idea of okay, every song is gonna have, you know, like side chain bass, just about every song is gonna have some sort of beat that's gonna be pretty consistent, not necessarily four in the floor, but because I think don't keep it in five.
01:17:11.279 --> 01:17:36.000
But like make leaning and leaning into like a like kind of a standard um kick snare kick snare pattern intentionally, so that the other things that are going on are what makes the music, and I'm not super duper playing with all of the other percussions that I I do a lot of I used to do a lot of rock music, and so I would focus a lot on um oh I gotta make sure the drums are doing all these cool things and this and that and the other thing.
01:17:36.079 --> 01:18:01.600
And I I specifically wanted to get away from that because as I've kind of developed this more synth wavy sound and listen to a lot more like chill step and all this other stuff, I've definitely started leaning towards um kind of this more the the this very like um base forward, synthwave chill feel, but still a lot of like like a lot of pressure and and movement in it sound.
01:18:01.680 --> 01:18:03.199
And I've really kind of gotten into that.
01:18:03.520 --> 01:18:05.039
And so I really tried to focus on it.
01:18:05.119 --> 01:18:07.359
And the other big thing I tried to focus on was space.
01:18:07.600 --> 01:18:13.119
Um I didn't want everything to be um big oofy washes of everything.
01:18:13.199 --> 01:18:17.199
No, I I did some more of that with the Estrella track as an intentional contrast.
01:18:17.520 --> 01:18:24.800
But like most of the songs, a big thing that I'm focusing on is like you know, it's every note isn't sustained all the way to the next one.
01:18:24.880 --> 01:18:26.720
There's there's space in every piece.
01:18:26.960 --> 01:18:36.079
And the more that you if you seek out if you if you intentionally listen and are like, oh, I want to listen for the holes, that's the stuff where I was really trying to kind of link.
01:18:36.239 --> 01:18:47.039
So then that meant that when I was looking at the synths that I was using, I was definitely doing a ton of envelope work to make sure that whatever it was wasn't where it wasn't supposed to be.
01:18:47.119 --> 01:18:48.479
That came out kind of dumb.
01:18:48.960 --> 01:18:58.239
To make sure that I was only making sounds in the very specific um places where I needed it, and that there was a lot of space around those notes.
01:18:58.479 --> 01:19:11.039
Um, you see that, for example, when kind of the big hit happens about two-thirds of the way through the Hades track, and you know, the the lead has a big stutter on it, and everything, but everything's got a ton of stutter on it.
01:19:11.119 --> 01:19:13.760
So there's a ton of space going on in there.
01:19:14.000 --> 01:19:23.600
Um, you see that in um the track uh for nowhere profit, where there's basically every element isn't sustained.
01:19:23.680 --> 01:19:28.319
There's there's very few truly sustained elements within the entire thing.
01:19:28.479 --> 01:19:41.039
Um, you see that in the um Dungeon of the Endless track, where there's these big like fat stabs of sound, and then there's just everything else drops out, and there's just like some drum, like some booms in the drum or something like that.
01:19:41.279 --> 01:19:45.119
Like I intentionally was trying to find a ton of space wherever I could.
01:19:45.359 --> 01:19:47.600
You know, it makes it feel like a dungeon, right?
01:19:47.680 --> 01:19:51.920
Like it it yeah, it it sort of gives it a uh like a resonance.
01:19:52.319 --> 01:19:55.840
Like uh, you know, it space is the right word for it.
01:19:55.920 --> 01:19:58.239
It it really does feel open.
01:19:58.399 --> 01:20:06.159
Um I felt like your your um uh deep sky derelicts track also did a fantastic job of that.
01:20:06.399 --> 01:20:18.079
Yeah, that one's uh that one was particularly fun because like when that first chorus, like the melody first hits and that the background thinse, it's this big pulsing thing, but there's so much like the everything's actually really short.
01:20:18.159 --> 01:20:21.840
And then I have a big hard cut in some of the volume, so you get the snares and stuff in there.
01:20:21.920 --> 01:20:26.479
Like there's some really weird kind of like sound effect y things going on in there.
01:20:26.560 --> 01:20:29.119
That's way more sound design than I normally would do.
01:20:29.199 --> 01:20:31.279
I'm usually really straightforward with my this kind of stuff.
01:20:31.359 --> 01:20:41.039
So that one in particular was really fun to kind of explore some different effects, like this the stutter symbol where I'm literally just cutting the symbol length hard by itself.
01:20:41.199 --> 01:20:48.720
So stuff like that is you know, I I had never really experimented with that stuff, and so it was cool to be able to just like a lot of it was just like, I wonder what happens if I do this.
01:20:48.880 --> 01:20:52.720
And I would listen and be like, oh, yeah, that was that was what I was looking for.
01:20:52.800 --> 01:20:54.479
I just didn't know it yet.
01:20:54.800 --> 01:21:03.119
Uh so you mentioned that you were a uh band kid and uh you know you sort of uh came from more of a classical music background.
01:21:03.199 --> 01:21:07.199
How did you get into this more electronic, synth wavy type sound?
01:21:07.520 --> 01:21:11.199
Yeah, so um one of the things that's this is a great question.
01:21:11.359 --> 01:21:14.960
One of the things uh I'll point out is that I'm a classical saxophonist.
01:21:15.119 --> 01:21:17.039
Uh I have a couple degrees in it.
01:21:17.199 --> 01:21:18.720
I don't know why I got a couple degrees.
01:21:18.880 --> 01:21:20.720
Nobody wants to listen to classical saxophone.
01:21:20.800 --> 01:21:23.840
I don't even want to listen to it, and I have the degrees in it.
01:21:24.000 --> 01:21:41.279
Um, but one of the things that's really unique about classical saxophone repertoire is that um more so than most of the other major instruments, there is a huge amount of really weird electronic influences on classical saxophone literature.
01:21:41.439 --> 01:21:44.159
And there's a couple different composers that really kind of led the way there.
01:21:44.239 --> 01:21:48.640
One of the big ones is Jakob Derveltous, who is a he's also known as Jacob TV.
01:21:48.800 --> 01:21:53.760
Um he does a ton of stuff with um, he calls it tape or he calls it boombox.
01:21:53.840 --> 01:21:56.239
He's got one that's for tenor sax one in boombox.
01:21:56.399 --> 01:21:57.680
Um called Gravity.
01:21:58.000 --> 01:21:59.199
I have to look this up.
01:21:59.279 --> 01:22:00.319
That sounds amazing.
01:22:00.479 --> 01:22:04.399
Um, but he did, I actually did a uh lecture recital on it when I was in college.
01:22:04.479 --> 01:22:05.600
I love this stuff.
01:22:05.760 --> 01:22:25.520
Um, but because there's a ton of influence of music concrete in general, so just like found instruments and uh intentionally manipulated elements in the saxphone repertoire, that kind of already prepped me for like, you know, I'm if when I'm going out and composing, you'd think that somebody who went through all this classical stuff would be writing for orchestra and stuff.
01:22:25.600 --> 01:22:30.800
But a sax phone note doesn't really show up in the orchestra very often, at least the stuff that the orchestras I was around was playing.
01:22:30.960 --> 01:22:33.199
Uh I've only played with an orchestra once or twice.
01:22:33.439 --> 01:22:48.319
So it was one of those situations where it's like I was already looking and listening to weird stuff, and I got it more into electronic music when I was um in college because I was thinking it made me look like a rebel, even though it was more just that I liked the beat and it was fun.
01:22:48.640 --> 01:22:56.239
Um but then as I got into more in composing and stuff like that, I found that it actually was really hard for me to I my natural voice isn't with my saxophone.
01:22:56.479 --> 01:22:59.199
Like it doesn't that's not how I write or how I hear things.
01:22:59.520 --> 01:23:24.479
And so I kind of meandered around and did a bunch of different stuff until I found this kind of the the the pulsing beat and the energy and this like quiet but still intense and urgent feel that a lot of Synthwave has has really been what I've uh the the feel that you get from like the Hades track, that's what I that's the that when I think of my musical voice, that's the kind of sound I want to make.
01:23:25.279 --> 01:23:28.239
That kind of it doesn't have to be super big, although it can be big.
01:23:28.640 --> 01:23:41.039
But you have this this this consistent driving force that's going on, and you've got this really like um meaty bass line that you can grab onto that's that's you know handing off with the kick.
01:23:41.199 --> 01:23:54.720
Um but all that to say, experimenting with a lot of weird music, experimenting with weird music in college, not other things, uh was definitely the thing that kind of got me open to a lot of other ideas.
01:23:55.199 --> 01:24:10.319
So um as a you know, I I've dabbled in music, but uh as a non-musician, uh I one thing I'm always curious with is the the songwriting and arrangement process because it seems incredibly varied.
01:24:10.399 --> 01:24:28.880
You know, you you look at um uh I know the band The Deer Hunter, they largely compose albums on the piano and then figure out how do you make all the instruments, you know, uh how do you how do you bring bring out all the instruments that play in the band out of that thing that was composed on the piano?
01:24:29.039 --> 01:24:37.760
Uh and then you have people like Jake Kaufman who just like opens up a uh you know NES sound chip tracker and goes nuts.
01:24:38.000 --> 01:24:45.039
Uh so uh where do you lie uh in in in the uh the songwriting slash arrangement process?
01:24:45.199 --> 01:24:46.960
What what's your approach in general?
01:24:47.279 --> 01:24:52.800
Um uh coming from uh again a classical background, I formally trained in music theory.
01:24:52.960 --> 01:25:04.000
Uh so I definitely just hearing it is usually enough for me to be like, oh, I see what the chords are doing, and I see what I see where these pieces are going, I see why this particular bit sounds good here and goes into this.
01:25:04.079 --> 01:25:11.359
So like I I have the ear training to be able to do that, especially because saxophone is we're not all good at jazz, but we have to play it either way.
01:25:11.600 --> 01:25:17.279
So you you get a lot more ear training than than a lot of other uh instruments do just off the off the cuff.
01:25:17.920 --> 01:25:21.359
And uh so I'll always have an idea when I listen to a song.
01:25:21.439 --> 01:25:25.119
I'll be like, oh I can hear that I can grab this here and I can use that there.
01:25:25.439 --> 01:25:29.680
Um let's just pick a random one of this as an example.
01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:35.520
Um why don't I use um the monster train track, uh crossing the sticks.
01:25:38.800 --> 01:25:42.399
So at this point, uh this song is really pretty straightforward.
01:25:42.479 --> 01:25:48.319
It has this one main melody line, and then there is a like a like it's like an A B format.
01:25:48.399 --> 01:25:50.560
So um it starts out with the da.
01:25:53.279 --> 01:25:54.960
I'm a great singer, you can tell.
01:25:55.199 --> 01:26:02.960
And then it goes to like a rising section, as like a B section, and then there's a bridge, and that's all it is.
01:26:03.039 --> 01:26:09.199
And the bridge is there's not really anything going on in there, it's just kind of wrapping it around to get back to the original piece.
01:26:09.439 --> 01:26:14.479
Um, and so uh I think I wrote it down as being broadly AA B B.
01:26:14.720 --> 01:26:18.800
They're pretty, it's not exactly AA and it's not exactly B B, but it's pretty close in terms of format.
01:26:18.880 --> 01:26:22.560
So basically it's a section, it repeats, and then it's a different section, it repeats.
01:26:22.720 --> 01:26:25.439
So that was pretty easy because I only really had two pieces, right?
01:26:25.600 --> 01:26:28.319
Like I didn't have that much to work with.
01:26:28.479 --> 01:26:33.119
Um, and that one in particular, I liked the overall flow of the melody itself.
01:26:33.359 --> 01:26:35.680
Jordan Chin writes great melodies.
01:26:35.840 --> 01:26:42.159
Uh, I think every single one of his things is highly singable and very approachable, which is one of the things I really like about his music.
01:26:42.319 --> 01:26:51.920
Um, and so it was really with that, I knew I was just gonna be, at least once, I was just gonna go through it in order because I was gonna do the A section and be done with it.
01:26:52.000 --> 01:26:55.359
I'm gonna do the B section and then have some sort of a turnaround.
01:26:55.520 --> 01:26:58.560
And then from there it was figuring, okay, how do I want to mix this up?
01:26:58.720 --> 01:27:03.199
Um I often look at altering chord structures and mixing them up.
01:27:03.279 --> 01:27:11.279
I think, I think every single track on this album, I do the melody line with an altered set of chords at least once.
01:27:11.439 --> 01:27:13.760
Um, I don't know if Deep Sky Derelict I do that.
01:27:13.840 --> 01:27:15.680
It might only be one other section that I do that.
01:27:15.840 --> 01:27:25.119
But um, but that's definitely a uh a compositional technique I use on basically every remix I've ever done because it's a really easy way to get cool variations of stuff.
01:27:25.199 --> 01:27:29.760
Um, if you've got a melody line and it's a great melody line, great, you're already halfway there.
01:27:29.840 --> 01:27:42.800
All you need to do is make the other stuff fit with it and rehashing some new chords underneath it, and then making up a counter melody or a harmony line over top of it, and you have a very different track from what you started with.
01:27:42.960 --> 01:27:56.800
So with this one, all I really did was um then take a couple of the little motivic concepts of the da da da, like that little starting piece, and just layer it in in a couple other places, and I was two thirds of the way done with the song at that point.
01:27:56.960 --> 01:27:59.600
So then it was really just figuring out how to handle the bridge.
01:28:00.239 --> 01:28:04.239
Section and the track came together in like no time.
01:28:04.319 --> 01:28:11.199
I want to say that this one was took me like an hour to get all my instruments kind of picked and the melody mapped out.
01:28:11.439 --> 01:28:15.600
And I want to say it took me three or four hours and I was done with the arrangement.
01:28:15.840 --> 01:28:16.079
Man.
01:28:16.399 --> 01:28:18.079
It just it just flew.
01:28:18.319 --> 01:28:22.640
I I am in general a very fast arranger, but this one came together particularly fast.
01:28:22.880 --> 01:28:23.279
Wow.
01:28:23.439 --> 01:28:28.720
So um bringing it back to games, um, I'm curious.
01:28:28.880 --> 01:28:32.479
Uh is there a roguelike that you're playing currently?
01:28:32.720 --> 01:28:34.239
Yeah, I'm playing two of them.
01:28:34.399 --> 01:28:39.119
Um so I am continuing to enjoy Slay of the Spire 2.
01:28:39.279 --> 01:28:42.640
Um, I particularly enjoy the multiplayer aspect to it.
01:28:42.880 --> 01:28:46.319
Um I'm looking forward to more content when it comes out in full.
01:28:46.399 --> 01:28:54.720
I'm not playing it very much right now because I've kind of maxed out all of the characters, and I'm really just playing it when I get a chance to play it with other people or if I do it daily.
01:28:54.880 --> 01:28:59.520
My kids like to watch that one uh or try it themselves, so there's been times we've done that.
01:28:59.680 --> 01:29:02.960
The other one I'm playing, which is really cool, is called Aethermancer.
01:29:03.119 --> 01:29:16.079
Uh, it's made by the same company that did Monster Sanctuary, I believe, which was a uh side-scrolling light platformer monster man monster game, like what you know, like you maintain a roster of monsters like Pokemon.
01:29:16.159 --> 01:29:16.560
Sure, yeah, yeah.
01:29:16.720 --> 01:29:18.239
And you level them up and give them all abilities.
01:29:18.399 --> 01:29:21.359
Another really clever one, super cool and unique.
01:29:21.520 --> 01:29:27.760
Um uh not the greatest game ever, but really fun and does a lot of things really right.
01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:31.920
Um and this game, Aether Mancer, is fantastic.
01:29:32.079 --> 01:29:34.479
Um, it's uh it's a run-based game.
01:29:34.800 --> 01:29:43.199
You get a cadre of a couple of monsters, and you're leveling them up over time and making them better and uh exploring a world.
01:29:43.359 --> 01:29:58.399
There's there's some uh like instancing elements to it and some very clever um strategy behind it, and a really interesting, varied group of monsters that you can play with and cool systems to interact with.
01:29:58.560 --> 01:29:59.439
I really enjoy it.
01:29:59.600 --> 01:30:10.319
It's another one I put like it's an early access, put like 50 hours into the game, and I keep coming back to it, even though there's nothing left for me to unlock because it's still very fun to just play the game.
01:30:10.720 --> 01:30:12.720
I will be adding that to my wish list.
01:30:12.960 --> 01:30:13.840
It's fantastic.
01:30:14.079 --> 01:30:16.000
I can't say enough good things about it.
01:30:16.079 --> 01:30:17.760
The soundtrack's really great.
01:30:18.000 --> 01:30:21.840
Um, the gameplay is beautiful, the game looks great.
01:30:22.000 --> 01:30:24.640
Uh, it runs really well in the Steam Deck, which is why I have it.
01:30:24.800 --> 01:30:30.159
Um, but it is uh it's just uh it's a joy to play, and they keep rolling out more cool features.
01:30:30.319 --> 01:30:34.079
So uh I've been playing a lot of uh Tangledep recently.
01:30:34.239 --> 01:30:42.479
Um and I'm I've had it in here forever, and I just have never taken the time to actually learn it to play it, and I keep meaning to.
01:30:42.640 --> 01:30:49.439
Uh, but everybody has says that it's amazing, and I keep seeing it on like internet lists of top X games in this style, so I need to play it.
01:30:49.600 --> 01:30:50.079
Yeah, yeah.
01:30:50.560 --> 01:30:52.239
You're aware who the developer is, right?
01:30:52.560 --> 01:30:54.479
Yes, that's how I got that's why I originally bought it.
01:30:54.640 --> 01:31:00.560
And then I'll I played it for like 20 minutes and it didn't grab me, and then it just has languished in my library for like years.
01:31:00.880 --> 01:31:04.399
So I just need to go back and say I'm gonna spend a couple hours on it and just get into it.
01:31:04.720 --> 01:31:08.079
I you know, Tangled, I I play it in spurts, right?
01:31:08.159 --> 01:31:14.560
I'll feverishly play it a couple hours a day for several days, and then I'll leave it alone for weeks, and then I'll, you know.
01:31:14.880 --> 01:31:19.920
Uh so it comes in waves, but I'm I'm very much looking forward to the sequel whenever that comes out.
01:31:20.239 --> 01:31:22.159
Um I love the soundtrack on it.
01:31:22.319 --> 01:31:25.119
Very uh like sort of secret of mana inspired.
01:31:25.279 --> 01:31:35.279
Um yeah, uh do you have any uh other than the early access games, uh do you have any uh roguelikes upcoming that you're uh looking forward to?
01:31:35.600 --> 01:31:38.640
Um I'm not much of a upcoming game.
01:31:38.800 --> 01:31:40.800
I'm gonna go get that game in person.
01:31:41.359 --> 01:31:45.920
Um because I have too many games and not enough time to play them to begin with.
01:31:46.239 --> 01:31:54.560
So I'm uh it's it's only for like a franchise major game is coming out, and so therefore I'm looking forward to it type of a situation.
01:31:54.880 --> 01:32:02.319
But I think the last game, I'll put it to you this way, I think the last game that I bought like the day it came out was Baldur's Gate 3, and that's because it was Baldur's Gate 3.
01:32:02.560 --> 01:32:03.600
Yeah, I mean, how could you not?
01:32:04.079 --> 01:32:17.199
Like uh so I'm I'm not the kind of person who's like, oh, this I I I don't follow gaming news pretty intentionally because so many of these things sound super cool and then they turn into vapor or something and I've got enough disappointments.
01:32:18.239 --> 01:32:19.199
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:32:19.520 --> 01:32:21.760
I don't need more stuff to mess with it, you know?
01:32:22.239 --> 01:32:27.279
Yeah, I I tend to um uh I'm involved in the roguelike development community myself.
01:32:27.359 --> 01:32:40.079
Uh so I yeah, I um there's a uh game jam called the seven day roguelik uh that's been going on yearly for a while now, but I've been doing it for a decade.
01:32:40.479 --> 01:32:50.479
Uh so I yeah, so I uh and I'm currently working on a roguelike, I'll have to edit this out, but um yeah, I'm j I've been trying to follow game news less closely because like I don't have the time.
01:32:50.640 --> 01:32:55.199
Uh given how many games I already have that I'm definitely not gonna ever finish.
01:32:55.439 --> 01:32:58.399
Like, why should I be spending more money on these new games?
01:32:58.560 --> 01:33:05.279
But roguelikes, I do try to like just because I'm interested in them professionally, I try to to keep my eye on them.
01:33:05.520 --> 01:33:06.159
Yeah, I get it.
01:33:06.560 --> 01:33:08.000
Um cool.
01:33:08.239 --> 01:33:11.039
Uh that's really all the questions I had.
01:33:11.119 --> 01:33:13.279
Uh it's been wonderful chatting with you.
01:33:13.520 --> 01:33:20.880
Um I'm gonna do the courteous podcast host thing and ask, do you have anything that you want to plug?
01:33:21.039 --> 01:33:28.960
Any like uh recent projects other than Fall and Rise or upcoming projects that you want to hike people up on or anything like that?
01:33:29.279 --> 01:33:40.640
Um I do have uh uh a track I recently submitted to OCR that I'm super excited about, but it's not like some super duper project or like big thing that's coming out or anything.
01:33:40.800 --> 01:33:43.760
It's just something that I thought was really cool and it was fun to be able to do.
01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:49.119
Um so I would say no, I don't have any like major things that I'm like super hyped about right now.
01:33:49.359 --> 01:33:52.319
Well, I always look forward to a new prophetic music track.
01:33:52.640 --> 01:33:54.079
This one's gonna be interesting.
01:33:54.239 --> 01:34:02.720
Um I asked eleven other people to contribute music to a remix blind.
01:34:02.800 --> 01:34:08.319
I did not tell them the song, I gave them chords and time signatures and just told them to record whatever.
01:34:08.479 --> 01:34:10.800
Um, that's a fascinating approach.
01:34:11.039 --> 01:34:14.960
Uh yeah, it was something I saw on Facebook that unlike a real and I thought it was really cool.
01:34:15.039 --> 01:34:20.720
And I was so of course I instead of doing four people like they did in the real, I chose a total of twelve people.
01:34:20.960 --> 01:34:25.680
And once I went over and uh this one's actually for another Darren Corb song.
01:34:25.840 --> 01:34:34.000
Uh once I got all the parts back, I made the arrangement and then contacted one of the musicians and that was had already contributed and said, Okay, this is what the song is.
01:34:34.239 --> 01:34:37.359
Record melody here and record harmony here, and we're gonna make a thing out of it.
01:34:37.600 --> 01:34:40.800
So yeah, nobody had any idea what anybody else was gonna do.
01:34:41.039 --> 01:34:50.159
I used everything I was given, which bit me a little bit because somebody quoted one of my judges' decisions in one of the in one of the sound effects that they submitted.
01:34:50.399 --> 01:34:52.000
Uh, and it was a good one too.
01:34:52.319 --> 01:35:02.319
And uh and there's uh a whole bunch of just weirdness that I wound up having to combine and make work, and it it turned out, in my opinion, to be pretty good.
01:35:02.560 --> 01:35:16.399
Um so I'm I'm really excited about it, but it's absolutely one of those things where um it's not like for some big project or something, it was just people submitted stuff, and then I mashed all the Lego blocks together until I got something that looked like a song.
01:35:16.560 --> 01:35:21.439
So it sounds a little avant-garde, but I dig that, so I'm really looking forward to this.
01:35:21.680 --> 01:35:26.079
It's not uh it just sounds like a pop, not pop, it just sounds like a like a like a song.
01:35:26.479 --> 01:35:33.760
You you wouldn't know you you truly would because the melody line, you know, I didn't have to like splice together the melody line from like commercials or something.
01:35:34.159 --> 01:35:38.960
Like it's since the melody and the harmony are intentional, you can't tell that everything else wasn't.
01:35:39.520 --> 01:35:40.479
Oh fascinating.
01:35:40.640 --> 01:35:41.920
I'm really looking forward to this.
01:35:42.159 --> 01:35:44.640
Yeah, well, you can keep track of it in the judging queue.
01:35:44.720 --> 01:35:46.079
It's it's in there right now, I think.
01:35:46.159 --> 01:35:48.159
So I will keep my eye on it.
01:35:48.399 --> 01:35:50.399
Well, thank you again for your time.
01:35:50.560 --> 01:35:52.399
This has been a fantastic chat.
01:35:52.640 --> 01:35:55.600
Yeah, I'm uh was really happy to be able to contribute.
01:35:55.840 --> 01:35:56.880
Thanks so much for having me.
01:36:25.840 --> 01:36:29.039
Exciting month, we don't always get a new surprise album.
01:36:29.520 --> 01:36:32.800
If you want to talk about it, you should join the conversation.
01:36:33.039 --> 01:36:40.960
We've been talking on the OCR Discord about how Fall and Rise is making us open up our wallets because how many cool games it showcases.
01:36:41.119 --> 01:36:46.960
You can find a link to the Discord and the forums, both on the website, OCRemix.org.
01:36:47.119 --> 01:36:53.920
Also on that main page is a link to the Patreon, which helps keep all these amazing remixes online.
01:36:54.319 --> 01:37:00.319
And if you want to donate to the podcast specifically, you can do so at the podcast homepage.
01:37:00.560 --> 01:37:04.960
Overclock remixpodcast.buzzsprout.com.
01:37:05.199 --> 01:37:12.319
The podcast promise is that any money above and beyond podcast expenses goes straight to OCR itself.
01:37:12.720 --> 01:37:20.479
Last but not least, we always close out the podcast with a random track selected from the remixed roulette section of the main page.
01:37:20.640 --> 01:37:23.760
I'm gonna roll a six-eyed die and let's see what we get.
01:37:24.159 --> 01:37:31.439
That's a three, so that's Notes from a Small Island by JJT from Chrono Trigger.
01:37:31.680 --> 01:37:34.479
Alright, have a good one, and I'll catch you later.