{"author_link":"\/users\/hanadulcet","author_name":"hanadulcet","author_uid":"hanadulcet","comments":[],"epoch":1683167007,"event":"LD53","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":369503,"likes":10,"metadata":{"p_key":"200773","p_author":"hanadulcet","p_authorkey":"1342129","p_urlkey":"433443","p_title":"Musician here! First time on a game jam, and had a blast.","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD53","p_time":"1683167007","p_likes":"10","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1342129","us_name":"hanadulcet","us_username":"hanadulcet","event_start":"1682726400","event_key":"118","event_name":"Ludum Dare 53"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD53","removed_author":false},"_superparent":332127,"_trust":1,"author":342129,"body":"Hi everyone! Now that I've had a couple of days to recover from the 72-hour mad dash, thought I'd recap my thoughts on my first Ludum Dare (and first game jam of any kind) ever - from a musician's perspective!\n\n**TL;DR: Play our game, Constellation Courier!** It's a cozy adventure where you connect creatures living all over outer space. You can find our game page here: https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/53\/galaxsea \n\n![fish.gif](\/\/\/raw\/178\/35\/z\/5b30e.gif)\n\n## Background:\n\nBeing on a game jam team was definitely a novel experience (in this case, a visual novel experience - haha). Again, I've never been in a game jam - but I was inspired to get involved after watching my friends (now teammates) work on LudumDare games before. \n\nWhile I've composed and produced music of all kinds previously, I'd never had to deliver music with this kind of quick turnaround time. So when we first started brainstorming ideas for the delivery theme and settled on delivering letters across space, I knew I had to get moving on the music quickly. Amidst energetic planning convos, I sat down at the piano and began plunking out ideas as we all fleshed out the structure of the game we would be making. \n\n## Goals:\n\nThe overall goals I came up with for the music were threefold:\n- Match the game itself (both the art and the in-game experience).\n- Evoke the sense of wonder (and melancholy) that you get when you observe the vast expanse of space.\n- Embrace the player with \"chill vibes\" and coziness (small but meaningful warmth in a big, expanding world).\n\n(From a functional standpoint, it was important to also have the music build up towards the end - and to have some kind of music for navigating space, and some kind of music to play during conversations.) \n\n## Process & Results:\n\n### Main Theme: \"Constellations\"\nWorking in Ableton Live, I turned my rough sketches (muddy, quick voice recordings of the keyboard mixed up with debates and conversations about game ideas in the background) into about an 8-minute theme. The main theme I composed and produced, \"Constellations\", starts close to the chest with a solo guitar, then slowly expands outwards and blasts off into space, before returning back \"home\". (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/constellations-from-constellation-courier) \n\n![Ableton.png](\/\/\/raw\/178\/35\/z\/5b317.png)\n(Too many instruments \/ plugins to fit in one screen at once...)\n\nThen, it was up to me to mix, master, and chop up that 8-minute theme into shorter, loopable segments that could stand alone well by themselves or also alternate with each other in a meaningful way. I also helped code some logic in the game to pick which segments to play at different stages of the journey. So, all of the music that you hear while traveling between planets in our game is part of that main theme, but the pacing of the music selections is specifically chosen to help build a bit of anticipation towards the endings of the game. \n\n(**Note:** There's even a secret about the ending music in the game that I'll hint at, but I won't explain here - that would spoil the game. You'll have to find out what it is yourself by playing the game...)\n\n### Conversations: \"Space Bossa Nova\"\nAlongside the main theme, I also made a \"Space Bossa Nova\" (not totally a bossa nova, but roll with it). It aimed to be jazzy, smooth, and relatively simple - providing a backdrop for conversations with our characters that would add to them but not distract the player. One of my main pet peeves with music in games tends to be when the music repeats too quickly and too often, so I went out of my way to record multiple piano solos to go with it. (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/space-bossa-nova-from-constellation-courier)\n\nAnd of course, once we decided that we were adding a disco planet, I knew I had to add disco music. I re-arranged the bossa nova into a funky disco bop that you could easily groove to (and I hope you enjoy dancing to it in the game). (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/disco-bossa-nova-from-constellation-courier)\n\n## Conclusion:\n\nWhile it was definitely a time crunch to get so much music done in the span of the 72 hours, I really, really enjoyed getting to create so much music. It was easy to make the music happen when I had the best teammates I could ask for: a huge shout-out to Skoprimon (@skoprimon), DGo (@dgo), Diego Teran (@diego-teran), and peachy (@peachy) for all the amazing work they poured into this game. Composing music requires inspiration, and inspiration was aplenty from these wonderful folks.\n\nAll in all, I had a great experience, and I would absolutely love to be a part of the next LudumDare. If you made it this far, here's a small trailer that I made for the game. (Fun fact: I made this cut of the main theme specifically for the trailer!)\n\nTrailer link: https:\/\/youtu.be\/_HX3W_3B1ng","comments":6,"comments-timestamp":"2023-05-04T18:06:39Z","created":"2023-05-04T01:25:14Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":369503,"love":10,"love-timestamp":"2023-05-05T03:48:46Z","meta":[],"modified":"2023-05-05T03:48:46Z","name":"Musician here! First time on a game jam, and had a blast.","node-timestamp":"2023-05-04T02:23:44Z","parent":366192,"parents":[1,5,9,332127,366192],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/53\/galaxsea\/musician-here-first-time-on-a-game-jam-and-had-a-blast","published":"2023-05-04T02:23:27Z","scope":"public","slug":"musician-here-first-time-on-a-game-jam-and-had-a-blast","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1140583},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"369503","n_urlkey":"433443","n_parent":"366192","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/53\/galaxsea\/musician-here-first-time-on-a-game-jam-and-had-a-blast","n_slug":"musician-here-first-time-on-a-ga","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"342129","n_created":"1683163514","n_modified":"1683258526","n_version":"1140583","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/53\/galaxsea\/musician-here-first-time-on-a-game-jam-and-had-a-blast","text":"Hi everyone! Now that I've had a couple of days to recover from the 72-hour mad dash, thought I'd recap my thoughts on my first Ludum Dare (and first game jam of any kind) ever - from a musician's perspective!\n\n**TL;DR: Play our game, Constellation Courier!** It's a cozy adventure where you connect creatures living all over outer space. You can find our game page here: https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/53\/galaxsea \n\n![fish.gif](\/\/\/raw\/178\/35\/z\/5b30e.gif)\n\n## Background:\n\nBeing on a game jam team was definitely a novel experience (in this case, a visual novel experience - haha). Again, I've never been in a game jam - but I was inspired to get involved after watching my friends (now teammates) work on LudumDare games before. \n\nWhile I've composed and produced music of all kinds previously, I'd never had to deliver music with this kind of quick turnaround time. So when we first started brainstorming ideas for the delivery theme and settled on delivering letters across space, I knew I had to get moving on the music quickly. Amidst energetic planning convos, I sat down at the piano and began plunking out ideas as we all fleshed out the structure of the game we would be making. \n\n## Goals:\n\nThe overall goals I came up with for the music were threefold:\n- Match the game itself (both the art and the in-game experience).\n- Evoke the sense of wonder (and melancholy) that you get when you observe the vast expanse of space.\n- Embrace the player with \"chill vibes\" and coziness (small but meaningful warmth in a big, expanding world).\n\n(From a functional standpoint, it was important to also have the music build up towards the end - and to have some kind of music for navigating space, and some kind of music to play during conversations.) \n\n## Process & Results:\n\n### Main Theme: \"Constellations\"\nWorking in Ableton Live, I turned my rough sketches (muddy, quick voice recordings of the keyboard mixed up with debates and conversations about game ideas in the background) into about an 8-minute theme. The main theme I composed and produced, \"Constellations\", starts close to the chest with a solo guitar, then slowly expands outwards and blasts off into space, before returning back \"home\". (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/constellations-from-constellation-courier) \n\n![Ableton.png](\/\/\/raw\/178\/35\/z\/5b317.png)\n(Too many instruments \/ plugins to fit in one screen at once...)\n\nThen, it was up to me to mix, master, and chop up that 8-minute theme into shorter, loopable segments that could stand alone well by themselves or also alternate with each other in a meaningful way. I also helped code some logic in the game to pick which segments to play at different stages of the journey. So, all of the music that you hear while traveling between planets in our game is part of that main theme, but the pacing of the music selections is specifically chosen to help build a bit of anticipation towards the endings of the game. \n\n(**Note:** There's even a secret about the ending music in the game that I'll hint at, but I won't explain here - that would spoil the game. You'll have to find out what it is yourself by playing the game...)\n\n### Conversations: \"Space Bossa Nova\"\nAlongside the main theme, I also made a \"Space Bossa Nova\" (not totally a bossa nova, but roll with it). It aimed to be jazzy, smooth, and relatively simple - providing a backdrop for conversations with our characters that would add to them but not distract the player. One of my main pet peeves with music in games tends to be when the music repeats too quickly and too often, so I went out of my way to record multiple piano solos to go with it. (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/space-bossa-nova-from-constellation-courier)\n\nAnd of course, once we decided that we were adding a disco planet, I knew I had to add disco music. I re-arranged the bossa nova into a funky disco bop that you could easily groove to (and I hope you enjoy dancing to it in the game). (Soundcloud link: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/hanadulcet\/disco-bossa-nova-from-constellation-courier)\n\n## Conclusion:\n\nWhile it was definitely a time crunch to get so much music done in the span of the 72 hours, I really, really enjoyed getting to create so much music. It was easy to make the music happen when I had the best teammates I could ask for: a huge shout-out to Skoprimon (@skoprimon), DGo (@dgo), Diego Teran (@diego-teran), and peachy (@peachy) for all the amazing work they poured into this game. Composing music requires inspiration, and inspiration was aplenty from these wonderful folks.\n\nAll in all, I had a great experience, and I would absolutely love to be a part of the next LudumDare. If you made it this far, here's a small trailer that I made for the game. (Fun fact: I made this cut of the main theme specifically for the trailer!)\n\nTrailer link: https:\/\/youtu.be\/_HX3W_3B1ng","title":"Musician here! First time on a game jam, and had a blast.","wayback_source":[]}