Jim Guthrie on Video Games and Music

Jim Guthrie has gone from being a Canadian musical indie champion to a video game musical indie champion. He’s the great mind behind the musical score of Sword & Sworcery and not too long ago he sat down to be interviewed by The Verge.

Guthrie provides some keen insights into making music for video games and making games themselves.

What have you learned about adaptive scoring since you began work on Sword & Sworcery? Has it influenced your methods or style?

The biggest thing I learned was if you can think it, you can probably build it and make it work in a game. If your ideas are overly complicated then the code will tell you by crashing the game every time you change or add something. I had no idea how much work went into a game. Also, less is generally more and the simplest way is always the best, but that’s not always apparent especially when it’s your first game. In most cases the music is the last thing on peoples’ list, but if you have the luxury of creating a game around the music and the music around the game then you’ll probably achieve something pretty special in any game genre.

Have you ever thought about making a game yourself?

More recently I’ve thought about making my own game but the biggest obstacle is finding someone to help you code it. Not to mention the 5 million other things you need to do to properly design and market something that isn’t a total piece of crap. I’m too busy to put the time in and pursue someone to help but eventually I’d love to make my own game. Most of my game ideas start with the music so it’d be interesting to see what I come up with!?

Read the full interview at The Verge.



September 27th, 2012 by Adam

Video Game Rocket Science

Making games isn’t rocket science unless of course, it is. There are a lot of games that use rocket science to make a game, just check out Wikipedia’s category page of space simulators. Two rocket simulation games have come across my radar recently that I think are worth mentioning.

NASA’s Rocket Science 101

NASA’s most recent official foray into mixing rockets and games can be found in their game Rocket Science 101 which incorporates real missions into the sim. It’s designed for kids and does a good job of explaining what’s happening and why. One problem I have with this application is that there is no way to mess up meaning that it’s more of an interactive learning experience rather than a game.

RedOrbit has an article on the NASA game.

As well as the entertaining aspect of Rocket Science 101, the game provides users with a way to learn all about NASA’s thrilling missions and the various components of the rockets used in those missions, as well as how they are configured and how they work together to provide a successful launch. Game players will have a unique opportunity to follow in the footsteps of engineers at LSP, who do the same things for real missions at NASA every single day.

Kerbal Space Program

Now this is a game where you can screw up!

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is challenging, very challenging. You need to construct a rocket then launch it with three kerbals (living things) aboard without blowing it up. In KSP you have to design and fly the rocket meaning that if you don’t know your flight angles then you’re going to run into problems. It’s so good that people at NASA play it.

KSP has a demo of an older version of the game that you can download and play at their site.

No matter what, it seems it’s a complicated process to get to the Moon (or the Mun):



September 26th, 2012 by Adam

VIrtual Economies Becoming “Real”

Via Boing.



September 25th, 2012 by Adam

A Hip Night at the Hopera

Last week I attended an event that brought together two seemingly different worlds: that of the beer drinker and that of the opera goer. It was aptly called Hopera.

Why record this here? Well, it demonstrates something that I think game designers out to do, which is to bring together ideas that most people don’t see as connected.

Cheers at Hopea

Cheers at Hopea

Hopera was organized by two people, Melanie Esseltine an opera singer and Mirella Amato, a Cicerone (basically a beer sommelier), which together formed the perfect background and experience to put on such a great event. One of them picked the song to be performed while the other selected the beer that best captured the atmosphere (for lack of a better term) of the song.

Each performance was an excerpt from a famous opera accompanied by a local craft beer. It turned out wonderfully.

They introduced each performance with a description of what the scene was about to give people like me context. The beer was introduced with tasting notes accompanied by how the beer thematically connects to the opera piece.

One of the many great combinations from that evening can be simulated at home. Unfortunately, without the intensity of the live performance and the atmosphere of a bar it won’t be the same.

The piece in question is Mein Herr Marquis (The Laughing Song) from Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss. In the Hopera program it was described as “Adele (a chambermaid disguised as a noblewoman) laughs off her employer, Eisenstien’s insistence that she is is his wife’s maid.” Here’s the song:

Before clicking play you’ll need to get some 416 Urban Wheat from Amsterdam brewery. Here’s what Mirella put in the program about the beer:

This unfiltered America-style wheat beer is light and silky. Like the smooth-talking Adele’s argument that her appearance and manners are too refined for her to possibly be a chambermaid, the crisp, bright citrus notes in this beer are not those that one might typically expect to find in a wheat beer.

Now sit back and enjoy the sounds while sipping the beer. Don’t you feel classy? Sure you do!

That was one of many combinations that Hopera performed. I don’t know much about opera, but thanks to the Hopera I want to know more about the art.

For game designers out there think about something that you genuinely enjoy (opera?) and combine with something you know about (making games). Where are your intersections of knowledge and passion?



September 25th, 2012 by Adam

Sifl and Olly are back and are Reviewing Games

Here’s something to watch on a lazy Sunday. My favourite sock puppets are back and are “reviewing” video games.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:



September 23rd, 2012 by Adam
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