I do enjoy playing Angry Birds myself too, it’s bloody catchy game for sure. Those damn pigs, grinning and smiling when I fail.. luckily the birds have some luck!

(edited this 12.06 – Angry Birds has sold over 4 million copies)
This year I will be announcing at least two big projects that I have been working on. One is a new product for a familiar game series, another one is a new IP. I’m sure they will be great addition to my growing AriTunes empire – world domination, here I come!

As for the Trine Soundtrack, I am sorry if it seems to cost too much. I did so much extra work with this title, umm, like a month? Lets face it – Trine Soundtrack is over 70 minutes long with the bonus tracks (that’ll be available shortly for owners of the OST!), and it’s available in HQ MP3 and even lossless FLAC format! The pricing is still below soundtrack average.

And where all the money goes? I was aiming for a Ferrari (not)… I cannot go into the small details of my contract but let’s say that I’m hoping that the sales coverage my expences and time spent with Trine. I think I’d be happy to get new music work station that would help me to create even better music – let’s say, if there would be ‘Trine 2′ on the horizon.. you never know.

Those who have and those who will purchase the soundtrack – I thank all of you! Those who won’t be getting it, I thank you for the interest and praises you have given in the forums and such!

edit: oh, to my fans at $ country, I didn’t realize dollars were so crappy against euros right now. Please US, stop printing more cash

Cheers!

As the Trine Original Soundtrack is now released, there’s a bunch of usefull situations or places where and how you can listen to it!

• While reading any kind of fantasy books.
• At home, just chilling without underpants, making food, cleaning etc.
• While studying or when you need to consentrate on something… like spying.
• While playing board games with your friends.
• While performing live action role-playing (LARP) (or in front of a large mirror while dressing up like an elf -ballerina.)
• When you need to cheer up and just enjoy life!
• When playing World of Warcraft or any other fantasy MMO game.
• In a rock concert, play it from a loudspeakers to show that you’re a real man.
• If you have a bad child, wife or mother-in-law you need to calm down, try playing this soundtrack.
• When drinking beer,rum or whisky and feeling sassy!

What’s your suggestion?

And importantly – Trine soundtrack is purely original, composed by one person (me) and totally unique. No lisenced tracks used (like in Braid)!

So, the times before launch are always exciting – how will reviews go, how will the gamers react, will the soundtrack gather any fans? Trine releases will be about in a month, there’s some couple things I can still improve it: live performances. I still need to record some violin, oboe, cello and other instruments to make the soundtrack sound alive. But don’t worry – I have very talented musicians in my list already! You’ve seen Trine Teaser Trailer and the new Trailer? If you can spot the difference with the score you know what I’m talking about.

OK then, I’ll go now and finish the soundtrack.

First thing that you have to realize when doing audio and music for games is that every game development company and their working methods are different. (yes, captain obvious) There is different managers, teams, budgets, design, techniques, in-house tools, code and different people. Understanding which of these issues are your friends and foes is good thing.

It’s not a surprise that…

Audio integration in the game development cycle is still one of the least understood areas of the game industry. (Hell, it was the coders that did the sounds back at the chiptune-ages). Usually audio development and integration process is totally misunderstood in the management level or it’s lacking support and resources -> results will be unpredicted and extra money and time consuming. I really don’t have to explain more.

So, if game company manager is a douchbag and misses critical issues..

…audio (and other areas too) will end up you having totally different results what is intended in the game design. The project will also drown to excessive labor, production costs, schedule overruns and beercan mountains. Without a clear understanding of the technical, management, and resource risk-areas it is very likely that assets will be integrated at wrong time and wrong way.

It gets tricky sometimes

Many technical issues and pitfalls might prevent that and changes might be very big and very thurough. However, the right decisions at the beginning of the project will help the work to be done on schedule and without budget overruns.

One must understand – when making games, development rarely follows traditional software processes where you have linear planning -> decrees -> implementation -> testing -> deployment path. In a game development project, new technologies and changes in design may sometimes emerge dramatically in the middle of the development process, and ultimately cause significant differences in the look, feel and sound of the final game product. In situations like this, lots of unassigned re-design and re-production in the middle of the process is required.

Audio design should be done (by audio designer!) at the beginning of the project – however – audio and music production is usually in last lines of the development cycle. If the production cycle is not working properly, and development team have long delays and content changes, its particulary the audio department that gets the flying piece of crapfest.

OK, here comes what you have all expected: There is no single right way to integrate audio with the rest of the game development cycle!

For the start it might be best to shed some light on how I see my work and what is my goal as a music and audio professional. If you want to play big, you need your heart and soul with the side of the cold professional know-how. I want to build my share of the game music and audio industry and arouse other feelings than just fear and aggression in the gamer. I have come to realize that there’s  a need for more complex emotions in games.

I think the game industry and the gamers themselves have grown to accept that you can expect more from games – if you can experience beautiful and memorable moments in a movie, why not in a game that is in your control to see and listen.

Making fresh and original music is not that difficult in the end. When I’m collecting reference music I’m not just looking from one direction – I’m searching mostly feelings and components that could go well together. I’m not much of a tech geek what it comes to sound quality, I still prefer melody over sound.

Actually, there’s a lot of over-compressed and overmastered pop&rock music out there that makes you wish if it only was the 60-70’s again. And not just the sound quality, some producers now tend to use everything they got in a one fricking song. So what it comes to Hollywood style I’m basically OK with it but it also depends on the overall product. Hollywood style may fit in the project but is it perfect? Does the melodies and compositions lose something, or gain? Why not explore new things and try different ideas unprejudiced. Music plays a bigger role in games than peaple think – it’s one of the key elements how memorable expriences are made.

The reason why I like to compose for games is simply that there’s so much freedom of choice. So much to explore and to see. So many different concepts and designs which are usually much more interesting and daring than in any movies or TV-series! Nonlinear interactivity makes games also much more interesting in the audio front than linear media. Hooray the expanding and diverse urban culture!

He, as the head of our musical family was my critic and support from the start. Pauli was a talented all-around musician, and had a knack for vast scale of styles and instruments – he sang, played guitar, was one of the DJ’s of the eighties and above all, had an offbeat singing voice along with the truly charismatic performance. Needless to say, he was my biggest support and resource of knowledge and opinion. When hearing a tune he was able to tell whether it sounded good, or unique, or merely something plagiarized in a matter of seconds. When it comes to composing, my father never had the time or the thrill for it. Therefore my work as a composer exceeded his skills, but that made him extremely proud of his son. I’m ever so grateful to him of all the things he taught me, and enjoying of taking things to the next level.