Gaming Music Campaign!

[JamesFlamestar]

Hey Guys,
So I had a friend refer me to this site. I'm currently in the process of a crowdfunding campaign and I really need your help!
I'm currently raising funds to get an album underway that's specifically catered to gaming - ie you can put the album on while you're playing your favourite game. I got the idea after listening to hit and miss gaming soundtracks, and wanting something epic and all-encompassing that could match some of the amazing songs in games I've played over the years.

So here I am! Currently we've reached the conservative goal I set to get the project off the ground - there's a lot of really cool reward tiers set up and I'll be adding more to them for every $500 extra achieved on the base goal.

So, I have a few links here should you require some examples of what I can do:
Dungeon Deities music
My Soundcloud

Anyway, here is the pozible campaign. Please spread the word if you like what you hear - the more people the merrier!
Pozible Campaign

Thanks guys
-JF

[stanna]

Best spam yet...

[JamesFlamestar]

Best spam yet...

Sorry... it wasn't intended as spam.

I apologize if it came off that way. If it was spam I would have dropped the link and not posted anything further.

[CelticAngel82]

I don't get it.. what's the difference with what you have in mind.. and me just playing my playlist while gaming, as I often do?

[JamesFlamestar]

I don't get it.. what's the difference with what you have in mind.. and me just playing my playlist while gaming, as I often do?

Good question.

So, the style that I'll be writing in will be combining a progressive cinematic approach with longer song times. You'll notice a lot of game soundtracks have fairly short song lengths - around 2-3 minutes at most. This is then in contrast with music artists who aim for the 3-5 minute mark (depending on genre).

The good thing is with the soundtrack music is that it continually evolves, but is very short. Music artists (asides from more progressive styles like metal subgenres etc) tend to focus around repetition for the most part that doesn't have a great deal of variation, but you get into a good groove while it lasts.

So what I'm going differently is taking a progressive, fluid approach and combining the best parts of these two different ways of approaching music. Each song will be a journey that continually changes and evolves and expands. Each track will work as a self contained piece but will then 'slot in' with the wider album to give the entire work more depth. It will effectively combine cinematic and orchestral music and styles with more mainstream genres to have a wild fusion that works really well with gaming.

I hope that all made sense - it's really clear in my mind but a little hard to articulate.

[MuscularTeeth]

must say - as a fellow musician and artist, go hard, and enjoy what you do. I seriously, and honestly wish you well.

But be prepared to have created the content (Whatever that is; music, painting, sculpture etc) before expecting people to lay down cash for it. Peoples tastes varies.

Have faith in what you enjoy listening to, make it. Then share it. the world is huge and has many people. Some of them will like what you do. You can ask for no more.

MuscularTeeth; music, video, photography, writing, expert sneezing, graphic design, bad maths, street art and so bloody much more!

[MuscularTeeth]

WHat program or how do you intend to write your music?
how long roughly is your album/track ?
if its going to be fluid, does your tempo change throughout say a 30min set?
samples? instruments? vocals? all of that?
its just too vague sorry.
mind you - well done! i wouldnt have the balls to ask for startup cash for my art. i reckon its that sort of ballsy attitude that usually dictates whos who in the larger social world of art.

[JamesFlamestar]

must say - as a fellow musician and artist, go hard, and enjoy what you do. I seriously, and honestly wish you well.

But be prepared to have created the content (Whatever that is; music, painting, sculpture etc) before expecting people to lay down cash for it. Peoples tastes varies.

Have faith in what you enjoy listening to, make it. Then share it. the world is huge and has many people. Some of them will like what you do. You can ask for no more.

MuscularTeeth; music, video, photography, writing, expert sneezing, graphic design, bad maths, street art and so bloody much more!

This is so true, music is incredibly subjective. I've had friends play some of my tracks for weeks and others ignore them 30 seconds in. I'm sure as a fellow artist you've experienced the exact same thing. Gotta develop a thick skin when doing creative endeavors.

I'd love to have some material up but unfortunately I can only offer up the DD music and my soundcloud as proof I can get the job done right now. Busy mixing and mastering what I've been writing for two game projects I'm working on so I've only had a short while to begin work on this album (which is going to be my biggest undertaking yet). Not enough hours in the day... 24 doesn't let me get anything done!

[JamesFlamestar]

WHat program or how do you intend to write your music?
how long roughly is your album/track ?
if its going to be fluid, does your tempo change throughout say a 30min set?
samples? instruments? vocals? all of that?
its just too vague sorry.
mind you - well done! i wouldnt have the balls to ask for startup cash for my art. i reckon its that sort of ballsy attitude that usually dictates whos who in the larger social world of art.

- The DAW is Ableton, with most of the instrumentation forming from NI's Komplete (and an extensive range of Kontakt soundbanks, not far off 1TB). Mixing/Mastering all ITB with a combination of T-Racks, PSP, Voxengo, and Waves processors.

- Album is going for as close to 1hr 20m as I can get it, so a full length CD. The extra B-sides that are a reward tier will mean the total length easily tops 2 hours.

- Tempo will be staying at the same for each song but the tempo ranges will vary throughout the album. Utilizing doubletime sections will mean I'll have good flexibility between traditionally slower orchestral tempos and faster mainstream ones.

- The album is mainly instrumental, and as mentioned it will be spanning numerous genres. The album will have instrumentation from orchestral strings and woodwinds, through to acoustic and heavy guitars, to traditional ethnic instruments (guzheng, koto, kora etc), to synths (including 8bit soundboards) and weird junk percussion (light bulbs, trash kits, boomwhackers etc). I've written lots of different styles over the years and I'm classically trained, so this project will enable me to utilize all those skills and bring all these instruments together.

- Sure it is a little vague, I have no doubts trying to explain all these big ideas I've been planning out will leave a lot of people confused. So all I have is my Soundcloud portfolios and a proven track record to show I can get there! So far it's working well

And yeah, I definitely didn't have the balls to do this until I started the gears in motion a month or two ago. Then I decided, to hell with it... I'm not getting any younger and I've been wanting to do this for ages. So I ignored the doubt and just went for it!

Thanks for taking the time to give some feedback, really appreciate it. Promoting my music like this is something I've never done before and it's pretty daunting.

[Cas Bitton]

To those of you wondering, we are always happy to assist our community with indie games, music, art projects etc. It's good and like anything your unsure about, just ask before posting

Good luck with the project James

[JamesFlamestar]

Thanks Cas

[JamesFlamestar]

Apologies for the double posting guys,
Tonight I'm running a livestream while I'm in the studio working on material from 7pm AEST onwards. You're welcome to join in if you want to hear and see what the album music will be sounding like. Mosey on over here to check it out.

This week I'll be writing material inspired by the Deus Ex HR soundtrack. Will be great to see you all join in if you're curious as to how the music is going to shape up

[CelticAngel82]

well.. i have my own musics to listen to while gaming, but i was curious as to what all this is about. good luck with your ventures, and welcome to the GoN community, hope to see you around.

[matthewdev]

Good project idea. I'm curious though, how are you planning on distributing this once you have released it?

[JamesFlamestar]

So the plan is to try and release it under my own steam so I can retain as much of the profits as possible - that way I can use more funds and provide cool merch and music at a cheaper price to everyone else. So part of the profits will be squirreled away while I review bandwidth costs and e-commerce offerings. I really want to remove the middle-man so people don't have to pay more than they should.

This is reflected in the Pozible campaign too - all the cool stuff that the backers are getting from the reward tiers was done at the lowest cost I could manage. I'm actually only making a small amount off the current pledge as I'm only breaking even on the additional cost of the tees and hoodies in the higher tiers.

Long story short, the backers are getting a really good deal for the costs involved in putting this together!