The Runes of Kalevala Developer’s Blog IV – The Quadrille of Antropomorphic Amphibians

FROGS
This track is a quadrille about frogs. Frogs of great power and poor manners.
It’s just a short outtake but it’s showing the direction I’m heading with it. I’ll be adding some slower parts and switch up the instrumentation some for the later bits. Again it’s all just performed by the power of MIDI and this project just loves to point out the flaws of that approach.
Basically everything we’re trying to accomplish with this game hinges on a level of authenticity […]

The Runes of Kalevala Developer’s Blog III – Wolves of Unusual Size

On the fourth week of development we came to the conclusion that we needed a battle theme for the wolves of unusual size running around the forest of our vertical slice.
I composed this rather breezy piece of 60s spy movie scented folk rumble of which I’m rather pleased. We still can’t afford the licenses to use actual Kanteles on the lead melodies so I’m using a harp which doesn’t sound even remotely like a kantele. But the one available instrument […]

The Runes of Kalevala Developer’s Blog II – The Quickening

Trying to succinctly explain The Runes of Kalevala has proven quite difficult. We start talking and then people say ”So it’s an RPG”, and we go ”yeah, but…”. Trying to make a game that offers a wider appeal also means that the explanation becomes wider and less precise, pitching becomes a nightmare as it’s not easily pigeonholed. Bottom line is that the game we’re making  isn’t about a genre of games, it’s about a group of players.
The Runes of Kalevala […]

The Runes of Kalevala – Developer’s blog

I know, I’m a terrible blogger, maybe I’m too old to get into the groove of putting my thoughts out into cyberspace every week.
Tasteful Games, the startup that I’ve been a part of for a year now is finally ready to begin work on a project we’re actually looking to bring to market. Being students we’ve had the privilege of slowly learning our craft and testing the waters for 2 years before going at it for real.
The game we’re making […]

Tasteful Games

So I’m starting a new blog on behalf of the startup I am involved in – Tasteful Games.
We’re a small company, currently 6 people who are planning to make games, both analogue and digital. All of us who work here are students of game design at Uppsala University and we love games far too much to do just video games or just board games.
There are other reasons too of course. Board gaming is currently where it’s at with a market on the […]

Tasteful Games

So I’m starting a new blog on behalf of the startup I am involved in – Tasteful Games.
We’re a small company, currently 6 people who are planning to make games, both analogue and digital. All of us who work here are students of game design at Uppsala University and we love games far too much to do just video games or just board games.
There are other reasons too of course. Board gaming is currently where it’s at with a market on the […]

Level narrative 02 – Entering a mysterious forest

Continuing our test level narrative the player character leaves her pleasant village and enters a beautiful forest that promises adventure and mystery. The undergrowth is think and rays of sunlight pierces the foliage, various animals frolic in the halls of nature.
The music is harmonious and soft, letting the player know that it is still safe to roam, but there is also some uncertainty in the lead Harp playing a hesitant yet ultimately hopeful melody. Halfway through the string section begins […]

Level narrative 02 – Entering a mysterious forest

Continuing our test level narrative the player character leaves her pleasant village and enters a beautiful forest that promises adventure and mystery. The undergrowth is think and rays of sunlight pierces the foliage, various animals frolic in the halls of nature.
The music is harmonious and soft, letting the player know that it is still safe to roam, but there is also some uncertainty in the lead Harp playing a hesitant yet ultimately hopeful melody. Halfway through the string section begins […]

Sounds of a pleasant village

Last week I produced a bunch of short tracks for a level design test me and Tasteful Games programmer Anton Classon did in Nifflas’ Knytt Stories Level Editor (downloadable, and recommended for some fun here: http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=Knytt+Stories ).
Our goal was to practice narratives through gameplay, a fun and engrossing exercise. I had fun knocking out some classic video game music to enforce that narrative.
Here in the first part, our hero begins her journey in her home village. The music is pleasant and […]

Sounds of a pleasant village

Last week I produced a bunch of short tracks for a level design test me and Tasteful Games programmer Anton Classon did in Nifflas’ Knytt Stories Level Editor (downloadable, and recommended for some fun here: http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=Knytt+Stories ).
Our goal was to practice narratives through gameplay, a fun and engrossing exercise. I had fun knocking out some classic video game music to enforce that narrative.
Here in the first part, our hero begins her journey in her home village. The music is pleasant and […]

Ignite

I’m doing an ignite presentation, that’s 20 slides, 15 seconds talking per slide, 5 minutes of self expresison.
As a musician I am accustomed to learning songs by heart.
But somehow learning a speech by heart is a lot more difficult.
Maybe it’s the lack of rhymes, although Im not keen on testing that theory in practice.
The speech is a presentation of myself for a course at the university, nice and low risk situation. But talking about yourself rather than your work is […]

Ignite

I’m doing an ignite presentation, that’s 20 slides, 15 seconds talking per slide, 5 minutes of self expresison.
As a musician I am accustomed to learning songs by heart.
But somehow learning a speech by heart is a lot more difficult.
Maybe it’s the lack of rhymes, although Im not keen on testing that theory in practice.
The speech is a presentation of myself for a course at the university, nice and low risk situation. But talking about yourself rather than your work is […]