Emeraude

Interesting anecdote... I once saw a video someone posted on youtube of someone playing through the Skeleton King's crypt in Dungeon Siege 3. In the video you see the player fighting skeleton hoards as the Skeleton King taunts you. Except this person had muted the in-game music, which was very moody and dark, and superimposed that with the startup screen music which was beautiful, melodic, and haunting. And it worked very well. On the surface you would look at the context and say "Sure! That needs dark music!", but I guess that video proved (to me at least) that this isn't always necessarily the case. Kind of relates back to this post I made a while back: http://forums.obsidi...00#entry1202767 Basically, what I'm saying is yeah I agree that this sort of thing can interfere with the suspension of disbelief while playing a game. It's something we're going to work hard to perfect, because we want to reflect changes in gameplay, but not in such an obvious way. There are, as you guys suggest, subtler ways than switching between layer a and layer b. A current, I dare not say mistake, let's say problem, often encountered in movie soundtrack, where the musician tries to always underline the scene/effect/moment instead of trying to act as a counterpoint adding density and layering to the information imparted to the audience.I'm reminded of Sylvain Chauveau, who was asked to remake the whole score for Des Plumes dans la Tête from scratch because his first version, which imparted the same emotion as the one seen on screen, was deemed redundant and inelegant by the director, even if beautiful on its own.

@Zeckul: Sorry for being needlessly verbose. I don't know how/why that connection took hold - and again I'm preaching against my own really - but the more I think about it, the more I think I mentioned earlier could just work as a good inspiration. Multi-cultural, fitting period, fitting the general expectations with enough of an interesting twist.

This thread really makes wonder what the actual market happens to be for that kind of game in Asia... I do not doubt that Chinese, Japanese and Korean people play these games (the same way we have enthusiasts from the rest of the world who import and play *their* niche games) but truly I wonder how widespread the practice happen to be. Just fishing for info if anyone knows. And yes, as Hopper mentioned, the reason we so often get bad/poor translations happens to be the conditions in which the translations are being done. Multiple translators with no centralized editors, context-less text dumps, very short delays, less rare today, but still happens: the necessity to translate texts in an equivalent number of characters, arbitrary local censorship from publisher policies... Really admire Alexander O. Smith for his work at Square Enix on that front. And I don't mean just his actual translation work, but his convincing them of the importance of having the translation process being an integral part of the production pipeline.

More than stupidity, I'd throw that with general structural inefficiencies which arise when a group grows faster that its daily administrative regulating body can endure. I don't think we'd call most people working at the NASA stupid, yet they still lost a whole swathe of data pertaining to their old space travel programs.To go back to the subject of the thread: I still don't understand why someone thought that enhanced edition was needed. Still, I guess I wish them well.

As said elsewhere: Optimally, I’d argue games should play at the player’ pace – unless you aim for a very specific effect in taking back the control of pacing. Pure text is a great tool for many reasons: cheaper, allows more nimble iterative design process, can stimulate the imagination in ways graphics and sound can’t and it’s probably the optimum tool in cost/efficiency ratio to deliver optional information to players. There’s a also a literary quality of gaming – and I do mean games as a literary medium – that has been left on the wayside, unexplored as the Hollywood hard-on of gaming companies caught on. I’m personally hoping all those smaller projects we see popping can get back to it and expand on it. Voice over is mainly a one trick pony: . It does so at tremendous cost, on an economical level, on the creative process, and on the design of the game. Personally, I tend to be of the opinion that unless what you want to do in game cannot be achieved without voice-acting, then it shouldn’t be used.

Oh I have. Several time. Live. But see the point that directly preceded that part you quoted. I feel it is remote because it is removed from me. It's dead sound; a sunset viewed trough photochromic lenses. Intrinsic quality of sounds have very little to do with how much we love them (and I do mean sounds, which to me matter more than music... I have no problem listening to a sample a few second long going through a set of almost infinite pre-programmed algorithmic variations in Max/MSP, whereas that rendition of La Catedral, whose quality of execution humbles me, truly, has overcome its stay after 4 minutes - the satisfaction I can get from it is purely intellectual, and it leaves me otherwise cold; I cannot connect). Sound/music is a learned language. As with other languages, what you can understand and what you can taste can vary vastly. For example, the bit of music/sound I loved most these past five years is in all probability This speaks to me on a gut level. I understand it. And, to me, it's beautiful (granted, as with every other music here posted, youtube sound quality generally doesn't help). It simply floored me the first time I listened to it - and still does. To some of the classically trained friends I play with, it's just noise. It's quite simply not their language. Now that I think about it, one of the great changes brought by the modern ubiquity of almost perfect recordings, may just well be that modern music is now as much the domain of percepts as it was the domain of affects, to borrow Deleuzian terminology. This. As with every other art, there's only one rule: if it works, it works. In the end video game music is a very particular subset, not totally unrelated to film music, but with its own peculiarities (for one, Elliot Goldenthal never really had to write a piece of music that people were going to listen for hundreds of hours, sometimes hours at a time). It doesn't necessarily matter if it stands out on its own, as long as it works in accord with all the other elements. That being said: I do not favor orchestral music - if only because it's been so overused in the genre. I do not care for live instrumentation. It doesn't really matter what I favor or care for, though, because I trust the people at Obsidian to make the right choices - that's why I'm investing in the making of the game, and not buying it upon release. I trust they'll make, chose and use what works. On that front, I really liked the music for the Project Eternity trailer: it was perfectly fitting to its purpose. (As I was joking to my friends on the day Project Eternity was announced: they should go with a hip hop OST. The reactions would be priceless.)

How did the saying go ? "Tradition is preservation of the fire, not worshipping of the ashes". Don't misunderstand me, I love Justin Sweet's portraits in Icewind Dale, they were integral part of the identity of the game and contributed greatly to its formation in the mind of players... which is kind of the problem for me. I'm not convinced bringing too similar an artistic direction would be good for the new game if it wants to have a distinct signature and identity. Though, yeah, that argument might fall a bit flat in light of the art up till now released.

Not yet implemented, they said it should be up by monday though. Current numbers come from comment discussion over the Kickstarter page.

That's it ! You've convinced me. I want next stretch goal to allow the player to romance his/her stronghold ! That's how you make it grow and evolve. With love !

Nice to stand corrected on that point. Thanks.

Ah-hem... (I know, I know, I'm being voluntarily obtuse... the point was about sounding natural as copies of instrument... still, my point stands !)

There should be one higher than 3 Million as well. The highest stretchgoal should only barely be able to reached. My understanding is that the home we get from curent stretch goal will be more akin to AP's safe houses: a place to crash with added signatures depending on your game progression. A full fledged upgradable manor with ressource management and narrative signifiance (à la NW2) would take a lot more work. I see to remember Mr Sawyer confirmed so, though I can't remember where. As for the thread: put me in the *more game* camp. I find it intesresting the way stretch goals are becoming a form of dialog between backers and project creators, but at the same time, if backing a project, I'd rather trust the people I back and let them surprise me with what they come with.

I resent the implication that I am not a person who really love good music ! Ever suffered to hear one of your favourite music being used as background for a commercial, its whole texture work having been cleaned up to make it more palatable to general audiences ? It's heart wrenching ! T_T

I'd say that's a matter of personal investment in the means of delivering sound rather than any intrinsic qualities in them though. We tend to create emotional attachment to some sounds/instruments, and find them better because of it. If anything, I tend to prefer (well crafted) artificial/sampled sounds, that do not try to parrot live renditions, because they allow for the delivery of more interesting textures than live instruments - which I tend to find flat and remote even at their best. Again, it's just a matter of personal history.

Personally hoping we're not getting orchestral music again. Though, yeah, given how this whole project is fueled on nostalgia, it's kinda hoping going to a football match and not hear horns. Also, preaching against my own, but for some reasons I've linked this whole project to The Silk Road Ensemble's music: https://www.youtube.com/user/silkroadproject?feature=results_main Also, cause it can't be said enough: really loved the music you wrote for the trailer, Mr Bell, great job.

Some see the Kickstarter transaction as nothing more than another form of pre-order, and additional content as just another kind of pre-order bonus (and I do not find anything wrong with the position, though I do not share it). But some see it as donation, a gesture of goodwill allowing the making of something they long have dreamed of seeing done again. A pre-order bonus that flatters self interest in exchange for philanthropy - which is how the exclusive content is being perceived - just produces a weird cognitive dissonance for them. The whole proposition value of the process is changed. @Anek: Higher tiers may modify the content of the game, but that content shall accessed the same by all people who play the game. That's a key difference. The pet end exclusive item may not be much, but they will change the experience if only by a marginal bit.