DREAM FACTORY NEWS

Newsletter: ABOUT DEV-TESTING AND OTHER MODERATELY SEVERE CATASTROPHES

Hello there dear Sleipnir-Gang!

Another two weeks passed by. Today we want to show you what happened when it came to Sleipnir Dreamware in this timeframe.

Let us Alpha-tain you! 

The gentle reader might wonder “Huh? Are they still not done with their alpha-test?” But we are indeed in the final part of our internal tests to avoid gamebreaker and other bugs for the beta-testers.
We had it all: From wrong animations to zoom problems and fights that didn’t trigger.

What a beautiful scene on this Twitter-Tweet! Now if the protagonists could only ever stand up!

But we have a certain claim to the quality of our work.

Of course nobody is perfect and doesn’t need to be, but we want to live up to the label “Made in Germany”. Apart from that we also already did some brainstorming about the full version of the game, on which we started to work already.

But we don’t want to finish this blog with something negative but with good news. The internal alpha-tests are coming to an end and as it looks like we will start the beta-test at the end of the week.

Why don’t you join our discord-server! Maybe you will get to know some beta-secrets. Or maybe not.

Talk to the Team (Tttt) – In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the Kalle sleeps tonight!

Do you hear the howling? The screams? Creepy music where it fits? If you can answer those questions with “yes” then don’t look any further! We present the SFX-soundmaster with the wonderful nick “Kalle:

Hi Kalle! What can you tell us about your real life without worrying?

• Hi Dizzy. Without worrying? Nothing. xD But there’s a lot to tell if we ignore that. I’m full time-employed and only do music as a hobby. But it has always been important to me. It got less because of special circumstances but I will be more active again. Besides that I have to admit that I’m not part of the RPG-Maker-Community. Although I did experiment with the RPG-Maker 2000 around 20 years ago. I collected a few ideas for visual novels, RPG-systems, board game-mechanics and novels (because of the factor time never completed them though) and was a poetry-slammer. All of this besides my activity in a heavy-metal-band.

How did you get into making music for games? Are you playing an instrument yourself or even several of them?

• The second question is easier to answer: I’m the guitarist in the band and sing the backing-vocals. I saved up in the past years for a little sound-studio which I was able to build up in my current apartment. I’m working among others with hardware-synthesizers although I’m not a keyboarder. But the possibilities that are there for quite some time make it possible to produce music, even when you’re not that nimble-fingered. It always depends on the kind of music you want to make. I only came to game-music through Sleipnir.

How did you find your way to Sleipnir Dreamware? Was there free ice and beer? What have been your own gamedev-experiences so far?

• Free ice would be great, but it would be melted before the boys would be able to bring it from their seats into my hands. xD We shall negotiate about Whisky as a beer-alternative though… Joking aside, I met the good MagicalSpaceWizard through Facebook even before Sleipnir was officially founded. He was looking for artists for the Bitterblossom artist collective and I was creating music for his game “Song of Calamity” as part of it. Back then “game music” had a different definition. People who know the soundtrack know that it’s more about rock music than about compositions. Rock/metal/alternative was looked for and therefore it was exactly my style. And I think I delivered quite well. I haven’t been delivering good with the RPG Maker 2000 though. I mean…. Of course I created 78 titles with it. None of them ever got into the internet though because my potato-pc had a bamboo-connection to the internet. Godzilla came before I was able to finish title 79 and seized my computer. He wanted to play cool games. xD Joking aside: It actually is my weak side to be focused on game development. When you think about the creative areas I have been active in and which tools the Maker offers I really should have been able to write one game or another in those past 20 years. I did some ventures into the “GameMaker” and “Sphere” but left again because of lack of time.

How did your composing develop over time? Did something change compared to earlier?

• Of course the composing in a band was completely different to the scores now. As guitarist of a band I came to the sessions with a riff. The bassist does a cool bassline with it, the drummer finds a few cool grooves and the singer writes the text. You give each other input and with the ideas develop ideas for new parts, new songs or just replacements for a part that isn’t as cool anymore. Now I’m sitting alone in a way too small room with lower volume and look at the screens that show me a scene, characters, scripts or dialogues and try to find something that fits. Before I just brought a guitar riff and played it in a loop. Now I record something and listen to it in a loop. But I have to generate alone the further inputs. Nobody is there to tell me “hey this is really good.” or “man that’s bad, but try it like that.”. Now I discuss with myself what’s working and what not. And I realised again and again: Luckily I’m not playing in a band with myself. The others need to deal with me. xD But the style of the music pieces changed too. As I said, before it was rock music which were built up differently than the theme to the Hunter guild or the menu theme of the Hunter and now even sound effects and “ambient tracks” for the Hunter. Not music but sounds for atmosphere.

What’s your favourite sound that you created for the Hunter? Is there maybe even your voice hearable?

• This is currently really the ambient track for the forest. I know how I recorded it and that it sounds THAT good as the background sound really surprised me. But it is nice to see how it fits. And yes, there are a few sounds that I created myself that are hearable. Two times my voice and one time my steps… I’m always working with my whole body. ^^

What have been your biggest inspirations when it comes to music? Do you have role models?

• As musician for bands I took  Dimebag Darrell (RIP), the former guitarist from Pantera as huge role model. For compositions I like the music from John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc) and Hans Zimmer (Bladerunner 2049, Interstellar, Gladiator). I will never reach their quality because I lack the music training but they both wrote pieces that accompanied me while I grew up.

How long does it take to create a new sound? How long does the debugging of the sound take, so that everything sounds good in the game?

• That depends on the wanted piece. I basically work until Sleipnir is happy with the sound. But first I need to be happy with it myself. For the fire effect I for example looked for small branches and broke them in detail work in front of my microphone (in different ways) then I listened through the complete recording to find the fitting sound. For some synthesizer sounds I recorded an 18 minutes “melody” and listened through it, cut the interesting pieces out and put it together again. On the other side can a track be good after 10 minutes after the first playing. Then comes the mixing and mastering, so the different elements fit together. That’s also a process that can take some time. In the end it depends on Sleipnir, if they are happy with that piece.

About priorities and other fabulous fantasies

That’s it for this week with our news?

Really?

No!

We want to talk about our plans for the next few months as well.

At the top of the list is of course the release of the demo of “The Hunter of Falkenberg” on steam, followed by lore-development which will be presented on our website for the Hunter. Additionally we will work on the English translation of our gothic-RPG “Song of Calamity” which we also prepare for its steam-release. We have some news for people who fancy “Frostfate”. We are currently working on an extended version which will be released “soon”.

Shopping lists and priority lists are there to be worked on! Follow us to be part of our indiedev-journey and continue to support us in the amazing way you’re doing it! Thank you for your support and feedback!

Until then!!

Your Sleipnir-gang!

PS: Today’s news-header is from our youtube-video “The Hunters Guild”. You haven’t seen it yet? You can watch it here: