As I'm pretty sure only 2 of you (DH and VS) know, I'm working on a project called "Role Pony Game", the game has an actual title but I'm not revealing it just yet. Anyway, I would first like to thank you all, because without me having to even ask for me, you have made about 85% on your own. If you'd like more info about it, you can find it in this journal entry which contains the actual current music selection. Now seriously, look at that, you've put making songs for scenes I'd thought I would have to request.
Q#1: What are you looking for in a song?
-First of all, it must be catchy and it must fit a scene I plan to use.
-No lyrics, or at least no persistent lyrics, because mainly it really hurts where I can use a song. If a charator It's also one of the no no's of video game music, as persistent lyrics can get annoying fast looping over and over again.
-No background sounds either, for the same reason. If there's rain sfx in song for example, it'll force me to put rain scene somehow into whatever scene I want to that song in.
-Direct parodies of anything, will not be used.
Q#2: Have you already selected music?
A: Yes, I have informally selected tracks from Makkon, Notacloverpony, Euro Beat Bronie, and others. I'll start making the formal selections once I near a finalized track selection.
Q#3: Is there anything special that needs to be done to the music?
A: Short answer yes, but it all can be done from my end. First of all, the track will be converted to the OGG format for technical reasons. Second it will have special tags placed in it called "LOOPSTART" and "LOOPLENGTH", which will allow the song to have an intro that won't repeat when the song start over. Now these tags will be measured in "samples", which is sound's version of sub-pixels. And not those lazy 3-bar sub-pixels, I mean those buff 9-dot sub-pixels. So yay, that part is going to be fun...
Q#4: Will the tracks be altered any more than that?
A: For the most part no, but this will be case by case basis, and tracks that will be altered will not be altered significantly. First of all, any unneeded silence at the beginning will be trimmed away, I want these songs to be played on cue. Second, certain tracks, are close to fitting thier selected scenes, but are only missing one thing: The proper pace. Or to phase it meme speak: "It needs to be about twenty percent faster."
Now I actually cringe at the thought of doing this because I don't like the idea of messing with somepony else's work at all. But if you think Euro Beat Brony's "Evil Enchantress" sounds like boss music now, try playing it 20 percent faster. Now I'm only going to do this IF IT MAKES THE TRACK FIT THE SCENE BETTER, otherwise all it's going to get is the OGG reformat and LOOP tags put in, plus the silence trimming if it needs it.
Also, any part of the song not conductive to the mood of the scene will also be trimmed.
Q#5: Why did you take so long to start requesting songs?
A: Because honestly, everyday I checked Equestria Daily for new music, the list of music I needed got shorter and shorter else. Honestly music I thought I had to ask for just came on it's own. The MLP musical community is just awesome!
When I release the tech demo, I'm going to include an webpage in the zip that contains all the links that made it into my "project links" folder in my bookmarks. Every track that I thought I had a use for is in there. And some tracks that have caught my ear.
Q#6: I want to make a song just for this game, do you have any guidelines?
A: There should be no vocals, but choirs are okay. Try to aim for one of the scenes that hasn't be filled. Also, make sure that the looping points are far apart and indistinct from each other, Luna's chosen theme song has a minute long intro, followed by an 8 second loop because an indistinct looping point couldn't be found earlier in the song.
Now I've almost completely the list, and I've yet to formally ask permissions from each and every artist, but once those two things are done, well the sound track won't be "finalized" but it will certainly be ready to go.
Now if you want to know more about the actual game just look at my other DA journal entries, they're about nothing else. I'm also working on a pony sprite template, but I'm not ready to release it yet. I've also got an RPGmaker VX engine working the way I want it to, I just need to test out a "Multiple Party and Inventories" script I just installed. I release the tech demo as soon as it contains something else besides esoteric testing events.
