How I'm writing music for my Indie Game (Ghost Knight: A Dark Tale)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ย. 2023
- www.ghostknightgame.com
Wishlist Here: store.steampowered.com/app/13...
Audio - Sample Libraries
For Strings Section I used a combo of Native Instrument's Session Strings and Audio-Imperia's Jaeger/Nucleus.
Brass was Jaeger
WoodWinds was Nucleus
Percussion was a combo of Nucleus and East West Quatum Leap
And a bit of Omnisphere
Used Ozone for Mastering
I can't believe only one person made this very high quality game. The Assets alone are very impressive.
Spot on.
I really appreciate how much thought you put into the music. Your love for it shows lol. I haven't touched an instrument since I began game dev.
Yeah I know the feeling, I feel like I miss it, every time I pick up the guitar and play some metal riffs, I'm like "oh yah why don't I do this every day"...Then I'm like oh its cuz I'm working on this game all the time.
I don’t think people realize how long music takes to make, or quite how impressive it is that you wrote all of this. Especially introducing different time signatures and motifs. Phenomenal!
Thanks for noticing the time signature stuff haha love that 7/8 - It was definitely hard I pretty much sat at the DAW every day for a good 12 hours every day -
Keeping the motif relatively simple and repeatable was key, just a Cm chord arpeggiated, throwing in a sharp 4 ending it on a D which can be harmonized with a V chord in Cminor - So many days I kept thinking about a scene from Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny where they drew a pentagram in ketchup around a tape-recorder and were like "masterpiece is right in there cmon the magic only lasts a second" Cuz just nothing was coming to me and I found quiet times away from the piece helped me to kinda imagine how it continues.
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc unfortunately that sounds about right, doing music on your own, especially composing, even once the piece is written it’s not done because you have to spend time balancing the volume for a mix and listening to it on different speakers. You’ve got a serious talent tho! Super impressed with the work you did on this
@@fosterturtle Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Guess I need to find some of those videos haha
I liked the marching nature of the "tutorial" variation. It feels like that could work well for title music too. In my head I'm seeing the floating logo stuck to the camera as it trucks forward through an endless swamp, casting light on the trees and graves. I suppose a plodding Danny Elfman-esque "bom bom, bom bom" variation could also work for that.
This series is a hidden gem! Subscribed
music reminds me so much of skylanders, pvz, and the main theme sounds similar to the spectacular spiderman theme. pretty cool stuff.
it gave me PvZ vibes too.
Man this is some great stuff. I am so impressed how you can wear so many hats and yet everything that you produce is just to such a high quality standard. I really liked the collapsing platform theme. You can tell there is a sense of urgency and panic in the composition, without having to know the context of the piece. Another great devlog, thank you!
Thank you. Yeah my diagnosed ADHD works in my favor with "many hats" sometimes its hard to switch modes/hats. After doing 3 weeks of music composition/production. I'm like "right...bug fixing...hmmm what am I doing here. "
music is key element in games really adds personality and mood
I agree, Ocarina of time is one of my favorites
This thing looks and sounds amazing
Thank you!
The main motif is amazing!
Thank you!
This looks like a success... Congrats!
Great work on the music. They all carry the same theme and have this nice, kind of cartoony sound, while still sounding ghostly and serious enough.
Would have loved to see more of the actual creation part of the tracks (which libraries you used etc.), instead of just listening to short snippets of them. Based on the end it’s all Kontakt libraries?
Here are the vibes I got listening to all of them:
1. RuneScape in the haunted mansion (If you play it, you know where I mean)
2. Wednesday or Adam's family
3. Town of Salem
4. Zombie vs plants
Nice!
I like the music! Feels like it could elevate the character heavily with focus on body language and sound
More great stuff
Wow, you are very talented in music too... amazing scores!
Thank you, I'm glad you liked what you heard. I don't particularly "feel" talented sitting in front of a blank screen like...alright...any second now...music will happen...cmaaaaawn music...lets go...Eventually it worked out, it was quite the process getting there though.
WOW nice, music really fits well with the games graphic! Should give a great atmosphere... can't wait!
Thank you, glad you think so.
Dude loving your devlogs. You're a beast! Very polished and professional all around. Great job!
Thanks you, I appreciate it, wish I had more time to polish dev log videos more as well, but game comes first right now.
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc your dev logs are good enough for what they need to convey. Can’t wait to see the art stuff. I’m a game art dev myself . Keep up the great job. Wishlisted!
WOW dude! This is so inspiring to me. We seem alike in many ways - both studied music and are making a game solo dev, with a somewhat similar ambience and stylistic sense. No worries tho, my game is very different in many ways also. My point is that you are a big inspiration to me, even without you having finished your game yet! Thank you for that!
Cool characteristic themes, I think they nail the vibe of the world you have created. A wise choice of soundfonts as well. The wholeness of GK is already a standout example of true craftmanship and mastery. It’s wild that you are doing it all by yourself. Please take good care of yourself in the process.
Thank you for sharing both your work, resources as well as your personal struggles with gamedev.
As for the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe; you have to go to the
Thank you for the kind words. Neat! have you announced your game yet? Would love to see. What kind of music did you study?
Secrets of the Universe, I know them all, specifically the one about the
Ha HA! you two are awesome! I found the secrets also when I
Meen You are so entertaining to watch , I like your Videos , Your channel is a Gem and You are so talented , the Game looks so beautiful and Good , it will be awesome if we get a Demo someday
You're too kind, I can't accept such complements haha. I'm just workin hard and I'm glad you like my work.
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc , it's not just a complements it's the truth and i am glad i found your Channel , Keep the hard work , it's so inspiring
@@painleroux9486 I will do my best
Damn I can't wait to play this, as newbie developer myself, you sure are setting the bar high!
This Music sounds absolutely incredible!!!
The music sounds great! The orchestration is perfect for this game and overall is a professional result!
Thank you so much, such kind words! Never did it professionally just as a hobby.
Dude.. You are a phenomenal music composer, fantastic work here!
It all reminds me of that spooky level in Banjo Kazooie. And that is very high praise 👌
Thank you that means a lot. A lot of the time I'm more impressed by other people's music than my own so I rarely share my own. Banjo was Grant Kirkhope right? Yeah he's great, I liked his Viva Piñata work as well. I was more going for something like a Danny Elfman + Koji Kondo. It was definitely fun to get immersed in music again. Feels weird going back to development/implementation/ figuring out mixing/sound classes in Unreal _Insert Gandalf "I have no memory of this place" meme
Hello, your devlogs are very informative and I love watching them. I was wondering if you could dedicate a video to more detailed process on composing the music. The tools your used and maybe reference any resources you used to learn how to use them effectively. Thank again and... great work
So in this video I mentioned the tools I used, FL Studio and the different orchestral sample libraries are in the description. I talked about the resources towards the second half of the video as far as youtube channels where I learned about production. As far as music theory I learned in college and is pretty involved there's many different youtube channels that are dedicated to music theory and how certain chords follow others and how certain scales give you a specific feeling.
You can search for music theory. Rick Beato, 8bit Music theory, 12tone, In The Mix, Guy Michelmore, Marc Jovani, Zack Heyde, many many more educational channels out there on youtube alone.
As far as inspiration, I am a big fan of orchestral film music, John Williams and Danny Elfman, Early 20th century music like Igor Stavinsky his 1913 piece the Rite of Spring. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Holst, all great references. Game music inspirations for me has been everything Koji Kondo does. Nobuo Uematsu I love as well.
As far as the process, I don't really have a specific process I go to. I generally have a feeling I want to evoke and I just mess around with a scale until I come up with a melody I like, then figure out the accompaniment using the principals of music theory. I would say the channels I mentioned above are probably better than what I can do as far as music education goes, I'm not exactly a music educator channel, I'm just doing dev-logs while I'm solo-deving my indie game and music is just another puzzle piece of the game. I think they can do more justice to the subject you're looking for.
Respect to you man! i dont know if am ever gonna learn this skill as a game dev instead of using existing pieces but i wont deny the importance of creating your own music! well that is the penalty of having a full time job and creating a big game to begin with!
good luck
Thanks :) Yeah the unique identity you get with your original ost, Imagine playing 2 separate games that use the same "HorrorAmbience_01" track and you recognize it. Yikes. haha - I get it though, I'm doing same or similar with my sound effects, although I do edit some
Day fu*king 1! Bravo
I just discovered your devlog series today and I want to say that I totally relate and am enjoying it. I'm also an environment artist in games but with a whole lot less experience. With the state of the industry I found myself without a job and a lot of down time so I also started a game project and devlog too. I want to say thanks because the way you're talking about your development experience helps reaffirm my choices and gives me new ideas and insight on how to proceed. I wishlisted the game on Steam and look forward to playing it.
Thank you, yeah the industry is tough, one minute you're excited to get started on the job and the next you're laid off so the CEO can get paid a bonus. Hope you find what you're looking for 🙂
I was going to offer help with the music, but you seem to handle yourself well!! Subbed.
Thank you, I'll sub to you as well for the future. You got some really great stuff. Really Impressive stuff you did for the Morrowind Expansion Mod.
I'm glad I found this series! Super inspiring and it's motivating me to keep it up myself :)
nice! glad you liked my work, hope you continue, wishing you luck.
Okay, this is crazy
Amazing!
Very talented man! A bit of a selfish idea for a video. I am currently in AAA design and want to go indie one day (when the stars align), the biggest thing as I'm sure you're aware is going into full production. So it would be cool to see your process for creating art assets and texturing. I'm trying to learn a good workflow for time efficiency and good quality way of making assets. Since I'm a designer this isn't my strongest suit. I know its dependent on the type of game but a there could still be some good takeaways from your process. It would also be cool to see how you're doing the systems and logic of the game. Keep he vids coming! (I continued to watch before commenting and you went over the art aspect of what I was asking for)
I can talk a bit about that sure, yeah I mean the art pipeline really depends on your game needs, if its a realistic game, you'll need a different pipeline than if its Handpainted. Every project needs something different depending on the circumstances. Which a lot of that will be more Pre-Production I think, then adjust the pipeline as you see fit to save time and resources. But I'll talk about it with regards to Ghost Knight.
Oh yeah! Thank you again for the deep dive!
haha, I thought of going deeper breaking each piece down with regards to music theory but that'd be like 30 min video lol
This is phenomenal music. Reminds me a lot of the Beetlejuice cartoon from the 90's, which I think definitely evokes the feeling you're going for.
Haha, I remember it, caught a few episodes on Saturday morning cartoons
fantastic work! nothing to say more. Great job and keep it up :)
Thanks, Will do :)
very good music ,bro! do you have any idea for free music software for beginner ??? I also making my indie game and Music is one of the must do list .
So you're probably looking for a DAW Digital Audio Workstation - like Reaper is free, I believe Garageband is also free. But you also require VST's Virtual Instruments or sample libraries, so when you play your midi keyboard - it triggers the sound within the DAW. I use FL Studio which isn't free but is relatively affordable for their base version. I just am too much of an enthusiast of music software/sample libraries especially orchestral ones. I'm always on a look out for sales from Native instruments, audio imperia, spitfire audio, stuff like that.
Very nice pogress
Thank you for the Connemt
Maybe an interesting idea for music is that the music can relate to the type of theme you are in. I mean the best example of this is in Oddworld Abes Exodus that certain background noises incorporate the music. Such as Slig Barracks, where you can hear some form of bullet firing matching up with the music as well as military drums. In Feco Depo it is massively vacant but also kind of busy with cargo being transported into trains. Or in Boneworks you can hear thumping beats of bone grinders. Or the boiler works of Soulstorm Brewery, where the hitting of pipes match up with the rhythm.
That is cool idea, I gotta revisit that game when I have a chance and also PS1 Heart of Darkness. I can see Skeletons playing xylophone on rib-cages in the background to the beat of the music, that'd be fun.
I like you
Please could you talk about your process to work with hand painted style in Unreal. There is almost no information about this. How are handling the lightning and the materials this kind of stuff. Haha sorry I just got to the end of the video and I saw you already had this requested a lot.
Sure thing, will get to it. Lighting and materials aren't anything special. I don't use a lot of real-time lighting - its all baked lighting and materials I think a lot of the look comes from the Emissive channel. Most objects have a .1 or .2 Emissive - so they would still get effected by baked light, but not enough that it stands out. and the things I want to stand out just have a higher emissive or a Fresnel glow around them. I have a Blueprint for closer-foreground elements and background elements that I use to throw in the static mesh and control its emissive so I just get silhouettes for the background. I can go over some of that
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc so cool man all you are saying is pure magic, almost all content online it's about realistic stuff and avery time I tried something hand painted I got super wach out textures in Unreal. Your game looks amazing I can't wait to see your workflow.
@@rodroeq7956 There's not a lot stuff that's Unreal Specific sure, but there's tons of handpainted texture tutorials check out
Stylized Station on youtube.
Gumroad also has a bunch of tutorials like from Kelvin S Tan - I believe he worked at Blizzard - a lot of it is practice practice practice just like any other craft.
There's lots of stuff from artists Riotgames/Blizzard artists like Yekaterina Bourykina on Artstation as well you can check out.
For stylized 2D Concept art stuff - I like
Trent Kaniuga on youtube as well he's great and his Gumroad tutorials were helpful for me for environment stuff even though I'm mainly a 3D guy
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc thank you so much man 🙏, thanks for taking your time to answer, I totally get you, I'm also mainly 3d but coming from the other direction, from animation. I'm have been trying to improve in hand painting for while but is beating my ass at the moment. Your project is mind-blowing for me, such a cool look.
I don't know about this... sounds exactly like what you would expect, which is anything but memorable. Appreciate you sharing those channels at the end, will be helpful.