http://thegmdesert.com rBlog Copyright 2009 So, what's going on in DesertDweller's world? Hm...one moment, lemme ask him real quick. *Picks up telephone and dials number* Hello?  Yes...um...yeah.  Aha!  That's right.  Now I remember.  Yes, thanks, goodbye. *Click*   Sorry about that.  You see, DesertDweller is so busy these days he's hardly done anything in the indie world.  He doesn't even have time to blog, so he hired me to write this thing for him.  As you can see it's quite difficult as I have to write about what he's been doing.  Anyway, let see...things he's up to.   1.  Music Yes, as always, DesertDweller has been giving music priority during free time.  He even works on it during his 30 minute breaks while working!  The guy is near crazy--he's gotten this VST plugin called Symphonic Orchestra FREE by East West/Quantum Leap.  Basically it's a free version of their extremely high quality orchestral samples, including strings, some horns, cellos, and some reeds to boot.  Of course, this has made DesertDweller extremely excited about making orchestral pieces; once he has $1000 to spare he wants to purchase the Complete Composers Collection, giving him tons more samples like choirs and chimes along with fuller effects.  He's also been eyeing lots of keyboards on craigslist, hoping to snatch a decent one at a bargain deal so he can more efficiently knock out tunes. Of course, DesertDweller's also been putting his passion to good use.  He's involved in 3 separate game projects doing music for the developers.  We'll see which ones (if any) pan out eh?   2.  Improv on the Piano Believe it or not, DesertDweller loves to spend what precious little free time he has at home fooling around on the piano trying to mimic some tune or come up with a unique one of his own.  He's been spending hours playing Cave Story, Legend of Zelda, and Spirit Engine II pieces, converting the sounds to piano and whatnot, then taking the music wherever it leads him.  The ocarina likewise has been used quite often lately.   3.  The Spirit Engine II OK.  So maybe DesertDweller isn't THAT busy on weekends, and a lot of time has gone into playing through The Spirit Engine II, but it has been worth it.  He's already beaten the game once on Easy, and is currently playing through on Normal now that he has half a clue about the battle mechanics and core strategy. More on this game later; there's a lot to learn from it.   4.  Work Yes, DD has a job as a math, physics, and now...chemistry and spanish?  That's right, DD has recently subbed for missing Spanish tutors and took up some science hours to tutor chemistry...and technically bio, anat and phis, ochem, and others but he's really quite useless in there.  Why he took those extra hours I don't know. He has almost definitively decided his major is going to be electrical engineering!?  That's a knew one, I certainly wasn't expecting to hear him say that.  Apparently physics II: electricity and magnetism has been really easy for him, so he's been all excited about how everything at the atomic level has been working, something many other engineering majors don't get to focus on.   5.  NOT Zelda Sadly, DesertDweller has momentarily lost interest in Link's Awakening, his current project.  Progress will pick up soon as the busy part of this semester is near over. However, what he has been doing is participating wayyy too much in online discussion about possible Zelda theories, especially concerning the meaning behind the whole concept of Link's Awakening.  (no spoilers!)   6.  NOT Sports :(  Yes, a sad consequence of DesertDweller having a job is that he has no time to play sports anymore, with the exception perhaps of ping-pong.  He does however play his ping-pong religiously nearly every weekday, winning quite often.   7.  NOT Happy Little Ditty This I don't understand.  DesertDweller was on a roll and was near done with the AI.  Once he finished that part he would be all inspired again and be able to work on HLD for several weeks to come without losing enthusiasm.  What happened?  I honestly don't know, you'd have to ask him yourself.     I hope this has been enough to entertain you for 5 minutes or so.  I'm not sure how well I communicated his current interests and doings, but hey, it's better than nothing right?   Until next time, Mo Zanzabar Public Relations Agent for The Game Maker Desert http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=14 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=14 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:03:51 PST After a week of stressing out over what I would enter into the competition, I finally submitted my entry, Synthetic Feelings, to the Share Your Best Music competition at FreeBrain Through this piece, I learned how to control a vst plugin directly via a midi controller.  (was so excited when it actually worked, w00t!)  Struggled for volume balance but in the end I think it came out okay. Mostly exercised all I've learned over the past several months.  OH YEAH!  I made cover art too!  This was required for the competition so I threw something together in 10 minutes or so.  It's basically 10 effects used in sequence plus some text.  Don't think it turned out great but it didn't turn out horrible either. General Info Title: Synthetic FeelingsAppr. Size: 3.1 MB Length: 2:59 Brief Description: I had a hard time squeezing this song into 3 minutes, which was the maximum length for the competition.  I think this song has a lot of potential, and hope it stands a chance in the competition. :D  Used a couple nice synths for this tune, strings, piano, a drum kit, plus some random bass plugin. And filters.  LOTS of filters. Embed: http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=13 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=13 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:46:53 PST Okay. So I've played through many Zelda games, and have the soundtracks for almost all of them (excluding the Oracle games, original Legend of Zelda, Minish Cap, and both Four Swords games), I'm going to make a top-25 music list.  I will be taking into account when the game's soundtrack was made (so I would expect more from a more recent game) Also, while the same songs will make it into every top-n Zelda song list, I prioritize based on not only the sound, but the story and meaning behind the title to me. 25.  Great Fairy - Wind Waker This melody is both the menu and fairy theme for most Zelda games.  However, my favorite rendition is played when you meet the "great" child fairy of Mother and Child Isles in WW.  The mood suddenly becomes so much more playful. 24.  Gerudo Fortress - Ocarina of Time Yes, I did have to pick this one.  Another huge favorite of Zelda fans, Gerudo Fortress adds variety and spice to the desert setting of the Gerudo. Tons of remixes to this song exist.  My favorite is chthonic's Anthem of a Misguided Youth, closely followed by Mamacitas in My Valley by Diggi Dis. 23.  Staff Credits - Four Swords Adventure I haven't played FSA, but this is still a great, upbeat tune.  Not much else to say about it... 22.  Inside a House - Any Game It is so interesting to watch the evolution of this tune almost every Zelda game has.  OoT, MM, WW, and TP all have the same melody, while AoL, LA, and FSA, and PH all have new/different songs for when Link enters a house.  Spirit Tracks completely discards the whole notion altogether, playing slower versions of village tunes when Link enters a house. This would be a tune I would like to remix when I get a chance. 21.  Clocktown Day X - Majora's Mask Another of my favorite songs from Majora's Mask, Clocktown, played on any day, is a happy little ditty that progresses to become less happy and more mysterious as days go by, while still maintaining the melody. My favorite is the Third Day rendition. 20.  Saria's Song/Lost Woods - Ocarina of Time I prefer to call this song Saria's Song, but most people recognize it as the Lost Woods theme.  There's such a cheerful and quick-paced feeling behind this song; it just had to make the list. I made an (albeit not as great as my other's) remix of this called Dance Saria. 19.  Overworld - A Link to the Past Overworld!  I do like the OoT overworld more, but I pitied ALttP because only a couple of it's songs made my list, so I put this one.  This is where the Legend of Zelda theme started to become much more popular.  18.  Temple of Time - Ocarina of Time Indeed, I do have to include the epic theme of the Temple of Time.  I don't have much to say about this besides the fact that it's a great ocarina song. 17.  Linebeck's Theme - Phantom Hourglass Oftentimes I get almost too focused on the story in the Zelda series, that I unfairly weight songs based on the setting behind them instead of individual merit.  Linebecks' Theme is a song I like based purely by how it sounds.  While most of the song is ok, the best part is right during the chord change, when you expect a minor chord like the first run-through, but you get a major one. 16.  Tal Tal Heights - Link's Awakening !!!  I'm still playing Link's Awakening so this song has been rather spoiled for me, but it's yet another epic tune form the Zelda series.  Another favorite among Zelda fans, the song inspires courage and fortitude. The melody is similar to the main Zelda overworld theme; what changes are the underlying bass notes. Best remix I've found: Mountain of Dreams by Willrock.  Definitely wanna check this out if you don't do anything else. 15.  Midna's Desperation - Twilight Princess I haven't played TP, so I can't say much about the story around this song, but if it's anything like Farewell Hyrule King, then this song would be higher on the list.  The song itself is kinda indeterminate.  The song never really seems to pick a mood, leaving you with a weird, complicated, empty feeling. 14.  Windmill Hut/Song of Storm - Ocarina of Time An exceedingly popular tune from Ocarina of Time, the unique nature of the windmill hut and it's place in Kakariko Village adds to the already stunning melody. I have remixed this song, but looking back, the mix is horrible and not posted here. In Majora's Mask this song saves you from curses. 13.  Kokiri Forest - Ocarina of Time This is probably the first Zelda song I ever heard, back when I was 12 or so and was babysitting for a friend, the kid I was watching was playing OoT.  He didn't know what to do, so this song got stuck in my head.  The song is ok, but right at the bridge at 0:39, I'm still not sure why, but that chord progression sticks in my head.  Random trivia: Outset Island from Wind Waker is a remix of this tune.  (probably are since both are Link's starting location) I've tried remixing this song several times but to no avail.  Outset Island, it's in-Zelda remix, however, has a great 8-bit remix First Time on Outset. 12.  Dragon Roost Island - Wind Waker Yes, we all know this song has to make the list.  There's no two ways about it, the instrumentation for this tune is awesome; the rhythm is exciting and inspiring. 11.  Kakariko Is Safe/Resurging of Kakariko of Village - Twilight Princess This is one of those songs that is so easy to get lost in.  I whip out my ocarina and could play this one song easily for 30 minutes straight. So beautiful.  So relaxing. 10.  Battle - The Adventure of Link Ok, so the quality of music wasn't that great back then.  Nevertheless this is an awesome tune.  There's a rendition of this one available on ZREO that demonstrates how much potential the melodies in this song have. (link) 9.  Overworld Theme - Spirit Tracks Now we're getting to the good stuff.  This theme is so packed with adventure and spirit (ha!) it's crazy.  The pan flute was a great choice for a main Zelda instruments; it sounds like a really breathy ocarina or something. Love the mix here. 8.  Staff Credits - The Wind Waker A pet peeve of mine.  Lots of people love the Title Theme for Wind Waker.  Hardly anybody remembers the Staff Credits, which expands on the Title Theme so much there's hardly a comparison. A great ZREO rendition of this piece can be found here. 7.  Aboda Village - Spirit Tracks Yes, this is the cutest song ever.  You can't deny it.  If I transpose all the notes down a full-step, I can play it on my ocarina.  So much fun. I have little idea what goes on in Aboda Village, but it must be the Windfall Island of Spirit Tracks because the music makes you think the whole village is all hustle and bustle.  (as much as villages can be... >_>) 6.  Mabe Village - Link's Awakening After making this list, I'm surprised I put this so high.  It is one of the many Zelda songs I love to play on my ocarina.  It's a simple melody that's so much fun to listen to.  Makes me think of a bittersweet farewell or something. I would love to remix this when I get a chance. 5.  Farewell Hyrule King - Wind Waker A beautiful piano rendition of the already popular (but not as much in my book) Hyrule Castle from A Link to the Past.  This song is one of the reasons I so much liked Wind Waker--it reminds me of how much Ganondorf's side of the story is revealed in the Wind Waker.  You almost pity him; he was originally a good leader, but pressure from his disadvantaged people compelled him into conflict with Hyrule. The wind.  It is blowing. 4.  The Legendary Hero - Wind Waker One of the less memorable songs from Wind Waker, but very much a gem, The Legendary Hero has an epic mood to it.  Especially when the (violin?)  comes in 0:53 into the song and the main Overworld theme plays, basically recapping the history of Hyrule from the Ocarina of Time. 3.  Zelda Theme/Zelda's Lullaby - Ocarina of Time This melody too is full of story and nostalgia.  I remember when I first played Ocarina of Time, I kept wondering why such a boring melody on the ocarina was so important in the game.  Then I heard the whole song; wow, what a work of art. Not so well known is that this melody was first heard in A Link to the Past whenever you obtain a crystal.  It was enhanced into Zelda's Lullaby in OoT, where it became much more popular. Great remix of this song: Pachelbel's Ganon by djpretzel from OCRemix 2.  The Ballad of the Windfish - Link's Awakening Another beautifully crafted piece; half the tunes in Link's Awakening seem to be based off of this melody.  It's amazing how with so many limitations in the quality of music, that such a simple song can be so entrancing.  There's a beautiful rendition of it by Fox Amoore available here. 1.  Song of Healing - Majora's Mask Winning the top position for Zelda music is easily my favorite that I have heard.  The stories of Darunia, Mikau, Pamela, and the Happy Mask Salesman further enhance the meaning behind this already incredible song.  I made a remix of this song here. Inside a House Insi http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=12 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=12 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:41:27 PST So as always I've been playing through the Zelda games.  I'm currently almost finished with A Link to the Past. Many think it's the best of the series   I've heard that it's the opinion of most Zelda fans that A Link to the Past is the best Zelda game of the series (and if not, then it's second to Ocarina of Time).  While this may be the case with the majority of people, it wasn't quite with me.  Nevertheless this is an excellent game that I think was almost certainly the best of its time. The world for ALttP took on a view similar to the original Zelda, but more at an angle, pokemon style.  Link was fitted with an absolutely adorable sprite and animation set, making this version of Link win the Cutest Link Award in my book. :)  It was just too much fun to run around, especially with the Pegasus Boots, and zoom into random walls, jump off cliffs, and the like.  Just as cute is Link's rabbit sprite character.  A+ on Link's art. :P ALttP also introduced a lot of the enemies better known by those who have played the less ancient Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and I assume Twilight Princess but I haven't played it so I can't say.  It was almost funny to realize while playing some new enemies that they were the same as ones I remember from Wind Waker.  It was almost humiliating when my brother, who has little interest in playing the Zelda series but watches me occasionally, could tell me how to beat the Stalfos after I had already died wondering why my sword wasn't working. :S Furthermore ALttP had a gigantic world.  Even after you thought you had explored everything, eventually you get to explore the parallel Dark World, in which most everything exists but in different states, so some things are accessible that were inaccessible in the original Light World, or different enemies are encoutered, or people are located in different shops.  There were so many different things to do in this game if you got bored of the dungeons for whatever reason.   Light World Map - It's bigger then it looks!   Finally, another aspect unique to the Zelda series that I found well done in ALttP is the management of rupees.  You actually needed them occasionally!  This is both a combination of difficult gameplay that required potions more potent than a meager faerie, and of well-thought-out plot lines that forced Link to choke up a couple of rupees occasionally, such as the fortune-teller who gives Link advice about what to do next for a small fee. One thing I absolutely loved about this game was that the enemies were more predictable, and I mean that in a good way.  While the game wasn't quite as hard as the Adventure of Link, when you did die it was entirely your fault.  There was no question as to why the enemies moved one way or another, if you were going to die you actually knew it a few seconds in advance.  No random guys appearing out of absolutely nowhere (except for the green foot soldiers hiding in blades of grass...that was weird o_0). One disappointment for me was the game's soundtrack.  Most of the tracks were kinda meh, only a few I would actually listen to without playing the game.  While the sound quality is better than the original Zelda or the Adventure of Link, I think the tunes of the first two, particularly AoL's Battle, Title, and Overworld themes, were better done than those of ALttP.  And because I'm so big on music, that cost this game big points. :( The main reason I didn't like this game, however, is the story itself.  Now, before I go on, let me say that this is considered to be one of the better stories in the Zelda game, and it certainly was an improvement on the first two. (which had lame cliche' storylines).  Unfortunately ALttP too had what I consider to be a typical storyline (was all new and exciting back when it was made though!).  I guess it, along with the Ocarina of Time, have what is considered to be the main Legend of Zelda plot, with the ultimate defeat of Ganon in his most wicked form and whatnot.  Somehow, for some reason, that's not what I like in a game.  I much prefer the more emotional Wind Waker, which concerns itself a lot with WHY Ganondorf did what he did, or the plot-rich Majora's Mask, which concerns itself a TON with each individual character's story and purpose in the game.  For the story alone I can't rank this game as high as it would otherwise be. :( Yes, there is treasure inside your house!   Great game anyway.  I can see why people like it so much, the story just wasn't my type though. Off to Link's Awakening, Desert   Ooh, time for the spiffy scoring system!!! Gameplay: 9/10 - Excellent, one of my favorites of the Zelda series Graphics: 10/10 - Especially Link, great given it's time period Music + SFX: 3/10 - Ack!  how horrible!  Why was my favorite the Guessing Game House!? Story: 5/10 - Me no likey compared to the others Originality + Immersion: 7/10 - Brought a lot of new things to the table Total score: 34/50 Yes I am a hard grader.  You're probably lucky I don't grade your math papers. ;) Word to the wise: After beating the final boss, don't fall off to the side into the pit thinking when you come back Ganon will be as dead as he was thirty seconds ago.  You'll come back disappointed.  :( http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=11 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=11 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:01:48 PST No, you didn't read that wrong.  I remixed the Skype ringtone.  It's just such a short, catchy ringtone that I had to redo it with my own instruments. :) Through this piece, I learned better how to use one drum loop to play everything I could want rhythm-wise, and to manipulate and better balance sounds in general, particularly with using filters.   General Info Title: The Dream CallAppr. Size: 2.5 MB Length: 2:16 Brief Description: This is something I threw together in less than 3 hours combined.  Approximated the tempo, found a drum loop, and went from there.  I intro with a similar-sounding tone playing the main theme, then do a bunch of random things to it.  Three of the instrument samples were drawn by hand. (all but the strings and drum loop)  The very end is indeed recorded by yours truly. Embed:   Enjoy. http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=10 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=10 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:51:46 PST Okay, so I just last week finished beating   More like the Torture of Link it seemed Most of the Zelda games I play mostly for the storyline and sometimes have fun with the gameplay.  The Adventure of Link is unique in that it was the opposite; the gameplay was the main attractor here. As I discussed before, AoL is an exceedingly difficult game.  It's been rated in the top ten most difficult games to beat in various magazines and websites.  Indeed I found it quite hard, even when checking a walkthrough to make sure I didn't miss anything special like a magic or life container. The blue versions of that enemy are impossible Nevertheless, there's something that attracts you to the insane difficult to AoL.  When you die you cringe and (I did) cry sometimes at your huge loss, but you know there's always next time to face that, you know there are some enemies in that game I never actually defeated, but just ran around whenever I came across one? Anyway, after that quick recap, I think it's true that the Adventure of Link did a lot of things right.  However, one element of the gameplay bugs me and I don't think it should exist in a commercial game. Whose fault it is when the player dies? Theoretically, it should always be the player's fault when he dies.  Never should the game just throw three enemies on top of the player when he's not expecting it that will immediately kill him before he has time to react.  This happened a couple of times in AoL, most notably right near the end of the Great Palace.  I'm almost all the way there to the very end, then in a seemingly empty section of a room, a GIANT bot appears out of nowhere (like, a portion in the middle of the screen is empty, then WAM) and falls on Link if he doesn't react within 0.0425 seconds. You kill the bot and he breaks into several normal sized bots. Totally freaked me out.  Wasn't expecting it.  The spot looked empty from afar, but as soon as you walk into it a giant appears out of nowhere. Then there's knowing what to do next.  You always have the big idea of "Save the Princess!" or "Find the next temple!" but rarely much more than that.  I had figured out how to get to the last palace, had fought through the whole maze dodging enemies and wasting magic, all the way to where you fight Thunderbird. And then it happened.  Nothing. You can't hurt Thunderbird AT ALL unless you have the Thunder spell.  What?  Where'd that one come from?  In your  spell list it looks complete space-wise without it, Thunder sneaks in squished at the bottom; you would think your spell list was complete before then.  Nah. But where does one get this Thunder spell? Oh, in the abandoned village of course!!!  You see, the abandoned village of Old Kasuto, really isn't entirely abandoned!  Right! Another case of this is the "Spell" spell.  (okay spell is starting to look weird as a word right now)  What does the Spell spell do?  Oh, right!  It raises a tower up from a seemingly empty and harmless space!  That's it! Makes no sense. Finally, I had issues with their save system.  You see, there was an option to save, and there was an option to continue.  However, if you continued each time after dying ten times, your game has not been saved!!!  I found this out the hard way several times after just turning off the game while playing, thinking I'd saved since I knew I had died, when I really had just continued. If you want to Save and Continue, it's better to just click Save, then reselect your game from the menu screen. :( So please, if you're making a game, make sure that: It's the player's fault when he dies, not some random act of the game Puzzles make logical sense, names are properly assigned (when appropriate) Save and continue.  Please :D Now I'm playing   Considered one of the best games of all-time More on that soon. HLD is almost ready for an update.  More on that soon too. - Desert [images, again, courtesy of Zelda Shrine] http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=9 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=9 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:56:58 PST (Same text in GameCOG update for this project, available here)   Ok, so I've been working at Happy Little Ditty a lot (I'm surprising myself here ) especially in the past few days.  Right now I've got most of the HUD and weather up and working. Features in this version (Alpha 1) HLD and Baron (Blue = HLD and Red = Baron; placeholder graphics)  Click to move around.  Click on someone not leading the party to make them leader Beginnings of a sequence of rooms: only three atm but they work well Battles: in rooms two and three!  Beware! All there is is dialogue!  (well, and they move into battle formation, which you can undo by pressing SPACE, but it's just a setup ok?) Day-night system: yes, we start out in the middle of the night, then as day comes...the screen lightens a bit and the moon sprite fades out and moves down while the sun sprite fades in and moves up! (that's at the far top-right if you can't tell from my poor artwork)  The opposite occurs for day to night and the process cycles Rain and wind!  Ok, so rain randomly happens (and the longer the amount of time with no rain, the more likely the rain will happen).  Wind is randomized thing too; the game will count "wind" as when wind speed is greater than 3 mph.  (rain and wind are necessary for some special attacks).  The rain is slanted based on the speed and direction of the wind.  Better yet, rain is all done with particles!  (yes, complicated trig I had trouble with yesterday...) Stats along the left side, with health, name, and sprite (all placeholder uberness of it) in little boxes separated by little gray rectangles. Some tiling begun.  This scenery will probably be the courtyard if you've looked at the world map at all.   Um...that's mostly it.  I'll be working on a battle or two to show how that works next here.  Until then, the link! Download (~1.2 MB) Nothing really screenie-worthy yet.  I might do that once I start adding some graphics and a battle or two is available.   Cheers, Desert http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=8 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=8 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:50:24 PST Hello all, I just beat... No, Majora is not a nice mask   As you may be aware, I'm going to be playing through most of the Zelda series this Spring.  I've already beaten The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask.  I'm about half-way through The Adventure of Link, boy that's a hard game! However just this past week I bought this adapter thingy for the Nintendo GameCube.  It's pretty neat in that you can attach it to the base of your GC, then insert a Gameboy, Gameboy Color, or Gameboy Advance cartridge into the adapter and play a GB, GBC, or GBA game on your TV through your GameCube!  It seems really neat, and through this i hope to play through most of the handheld series.  Along with the adapter, I bought A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening (DX), so I'll be playing those first.  Once I finish those I'll move on to Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, then eventually Minish Cap (in that order).  After I finish all those I'll get around to playing Twilight Princess, then maybe the original Legend of Zelda just for completion's sake. There's so much to learn from the Legend of Zelda series in terms of graphical effects, plot details, and characterization of people that I can almost justify playing through the series as a learning experience for my own game design techniques. ^_^ As winter break comes to an end, I hope to have a demo for Happy Little Ditty out.  Yes I did take a 3-month hiatus on the project and basically start from ground-zero again just recently, but I am actually making good progress.  Right now the characters switch from Overworld status to Battle status smoothly, I have the framework for a dialogue system and the basics of an HUD working well.  I'll be touching up some things and then once the battle part is playable, I'll be doing that.Finally, I am helping lots of people out with music for their game projects.  As of now games that used my music include Colours, Doi Doi, and a couple of other games that I won't mention right now. :)  Anyway I'm trying to get my music out there for criticism! Right now I'm tossing more original composition and remixes for music than you can shake a fist at, so I won't mention any of them because most will not be completed.  Okay I'll mention one!  Linebeck's Theme from Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. :D School starts soon, and then I won't have 12 hours a day for playing video games, blogging, posting on forums, and chatting with friends.  Sad face. :(  At least I'll be getting back into the rhythm of work, school, and play. A very happy belated New Year; may God bless you in your pursuits! - Desert   [images courtesy of Zelda Shrine] http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=7 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=7 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:44:08 PST Yes, I have been doing things.  I don't usually output a ton of media, but I have recently finished a remix of Saria's Song from the Legend of Zelda (Google it for the source, but you'll probably recognize it) Now let me clarify what I mean by "finished."  "Finished" as defined by myself is when a piece I work on has satisfactory length and variation.  At this point I basically say to myself that whenever I don't feel like working on that song anymore, I'll slap on a ending (however awful; this one just fades!)  and be done with it. I hate doing that but music is just a for-fun thing so it ends up being that way a lot of the time.  This admittedly isn't my best song, but it's certainly fun one and I don't think it is without merit.  As such, I present to you "Dance Saria". :) I probably won't be submitting this one to OCRemix.  Frankly they have enough remixes of Saria's Song and I doubt they need another, plus this one's not the best of mixes I've made.   General Info Appr. Size: 2.7 MB Length: 2:55 Brief Description: Dance Saria is a (trance?) remix of the ever popular Saria's Song.  It has a quicker pace and synths to boot.  This is probably one of my less-worked-on-but-complete mixes.  Most of the instruments are default/preset VST plugins or samples I found somewhere on the internets.   Embed:    [Yes, I do realize that technically the original is Lost Woods.  I like the name Saria's Song better though :P ] http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=6 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=6 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:44:53 PST Ok, I'll admit it.  I like the Zelda series a lot more than most people like their favorite series.  I guess I got sucked into the massive array of characters and complex storylines to follow, and now I'm playing whichever Zelda games I can.  I've finished The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, am almost finished with Majora's Mask (done everything but summon the giants), have dabbled in The Legend of Zelda, and am currently furiously working my way through the nigh-impossible Adventure of Link.   While I do love the huge emphasis on the story that so characteristic of the LoZ series, I always think about how the series can help me better understand game development and how it has progressed over the years.   As stated above I have been playing the second game in the series: The Adventure of Link.  Many say that AoL has easily the most difficult gameplay of the series.  So...I think that it can't be all that bad and begin playing.  I was way wrong.  Majora's Mask, considered to be another hard game in the series, doesn't hold a candle to the AoL in terms of difficulty level.  The game is a pure nightmare.  I tried to get through the Death Mountain maze probably 10 times today (no exaggeration).  Each time, after 30 minutes of long, laborious fighting, I would accidentally fall into lava, or get killed by yet another , Ironknuckle, Stalfos, or Daria (red ones are the worst!).   This guy's supposed to be easy... More than once I shouted out loud, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" as I fell into a lava pit, completely wasting my last life and having to start back at the beginning, again. Gotta Be Careful Even With These Guys They'll Spring Ya! However, one thing I've noticed as I play the old NES games, is that the game isn't spoon-fed as in most modern-day games.  There is no tutorial, they don't tell you any moves, no nothing, you figure it out, especially after you die for the bajillionth time on a red Daria you just might try upgrading Link before you go thrust yourself into certain destruction again.  You might realize that when Link is standing his shield blocks high attacks and when he is crouching his shield blocks low ones.   Back then, there were no walkthroughs, no whole level-long tutorials to show you every single move available.  If you couldn't figure it out, you sufferred along till you did. And Suffer I Did So as I play through the Adventure of Link, I contrast it with less archaic games like The Wind Waker.  I immediately notice that AoL is far less graphically appealing, so it is lacking in that area.  Story-wise Wind Waker I do think is much better, although this might just be because so much less is said in Adventure of Link.  (characters use words sparingly because the text takes up so much room)  However, I have to ask myself, which is more addicting in the end? Of course this isn't something I can give an objective, absolute statement on.  Some will like WW more than AoL because the graphics and scenery are gorgeous.  In AoL you're lucky to find anything unnecessary in terms of visuals.  What AoL has on WW though, and I would say most games these days, is a very carefully crafted difficulty curve.  It's easy for a game to become difficult to the point of leaving the player dejected and unlikely to play the game again.  AoL is almost like that, but instead it leaves just enough of a hint of fun and adventure.  While I do hate going through all the steps to get to Death Mountain for the umpteenth time, it's way too much fun going all that way and barely missing it.  It's a hard-to-explain feeling when you hate and love the game at the same time; Nintendo keeps a seemingly-perfect balance that keeps the player interested. Guard high strike low   Just playing such a simple game that is so addicting, makes me wonder why such and emphasis is made on the look of the game.  With only 256 colors and 2-dimensions, Nintendo did so much; maybe we don't need X bajillion polygon characters and real-time world emulation. [Images courtesy of Zelda Shrine] http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=5 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=5 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:43:06 PST Well, indeed I bought a new laptop yesterday, the dv4t hp pavilion. :)  I got a really good deal for it off of ebay but still new.   It was kinda a funny story buying the laptop.  It turns out the person offering it for the cheapest on ebay lived in Phoenix (my city of residence) too, so we met at a local Walmart.  However, she happened to bring the wrong model, ready to sell us the dv6t, which needless to say, is a lot more expensive. (It has the new i7 processor, which has quad-core hyper-speed processors!  Plus it's 15.6" instead of the 14.1" dv4t)   However, I, being the good citizen I am, informed her of the mix-up and after she went home to get the right laptop, I found myself with a new laptop. :) It runs quite smoothly, and I'm really happy.  Plus it's Windows 7!  Looks really cool, and I'm already getting used to it. But man, the dv6t had a sweet graphics card, wireless n, quadcore. :(  That woulda been a sweet $400 discount or so!   Anyway so I'm in the middle of transferring a bunch of files from my old desktop to the laptop, so bear with me as I won't be using Renoise or GM or doing anything else productive on the computer for a day or two while I set up everything on here.  So far FireFox is just about what it used to be, and that's about it.   Also, I changed my email address from the childish and obsolete perfectible to joshua.caleb.steele/@/gmail/./com (minus the forward slashes).  The old email forwards to the new one but I might be changing my MSN here soon so just wanted to let you guys know.   - Desert http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=4 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=4 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:24:58 PST Yes, I know most of you have already had a chance at hearing this. General Info Appr. Size: 4.4 MB Length: 3:48 Brief Description: The Song of Healing is probably my favorite song from Majora's Mask, definitely one of my favorites, so I decided to remix the theme and make it a little more upbeat. It basically follows: upbeat verse, little spin, chorus (slowed down a tad), then piano ending. Embed:   I have submitted it to OCRemix, but haven't gotten any feedback yet.  (apparently the process is long, bu I'm patient)   We'll see how things go. :) http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=3 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=3 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:29:34 PST A couple of weeks ago, I wandered into an IRC channel for an online radio show.  I noticed they were using this trivia bot plugin for mIRC to have little competitions with trivia about the Zelda games.   And I thought to myself, Why don't we do anything like that for Indie Games?   So, for those of you who haven't heard yet, I've started a weekly trivia session in a GameCOG IRC Channel with me/bot CoggerKing, King of Indie Game Trivia.  The tentative schedule is Sunday nights at 7 PM GMT -7, (2 AM GMT +0) about 5-10 users all get into one channel and battle it out for about one hour on trivia. The trivia is divided into three primary categories: Indie Games, Game Maker, and GameCOG.  Yes, I realize these overlap, but my goal is to make the number of questions equally distributed amongst these three categories.   Having already held two sessions, I am scheduling the third CoggerKing Trivia session for December 21st, 5 PM GMT -7 (12 AM GMT +0).  If you're interested, we'd love to have you join us for some fun!  Plus, you can win GameCOG points for knowing your stuff too!   You can either join in via the In-browser IRC Channel link just below, or through your own IRC program such as mIRC or Pidgin.   The day of the session, I am usually on MSN for most of the afternoon, so you can reach me if you have any questions.  [my MSN is available in my GameCOG profile as my email]   Links: GameCOG Topic | Trivia Info Topic [you can earn GameCOG points by sending me quality trivia] In-browser IRC Channel   Server: irc.mibbit.net Port: 6667 Channel: #coggers http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=2 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=2 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:54:51 PST After much toil, I finally got a friend's blogging software to work on my site.  It all ended up being a permissions error on the public_html folder. :(   I have class soon, so I can't type much, but I'm very thankful to finally have something here after a month-long hiatus.  I have some major changes I intend to make, so I'll post them here later on...though I won't have time today because I won't be home from school until 9 PM.  Wednesday I'll fix this up though.   Cheers, -Desert http://thegmdesert.com/index.php?page=blog&id=1 http://thegmdesert.comindex.php?page=blog&id=1 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:19:50 PST