GDC

Game Music, Interviews

GDC 2010: From Beatmania to Carnegie Hall – An Interview with TaQ

April 13, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

I thought I told you that we won’t stop! We still have a couple interviews to churn out from GDC last month, and they’re actually somewhat related. This time we have Taku “TaQ” Sakakibara, who is known mostly for his extensive work on the Beatmania series. His work was ported over to Dance Dance Revolution, and his name should look very familiar to series fans with hits like “Electro Tuned,” “Era,” and my personal favorite, “Holic.”

It’s actually been a while since TaQ worked on a Bemani project, and we take this opportunity to talk about his time with the company, the retooling of his music for Dance Dance Revolution, how he came to work on a track for Granado Espada, and a 20-minute long symphony he wrote that debuted in the prestigious Carnegie Hall. While we realize TaQ isn’t a household name, we hope we can introduce you to him and his work!

Hit the jump for our talk with TaQ! (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2010: The Cutest Piano Ever, Coming to a DS Near You!

March 23, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2010: The Cutest Piano Ever, Coming to a DS Near You! Share this

Yes, we know GDC was two weeks ago, but we were quite busy this year, and will be rolling content out for weeks to come. One thing we checked out at GDC was a DS title from Valcon Games called Easy Piano. Just as the name implies, it’s a teaching tool that aims to teach players the basics of piano, including reading musical notation, developing chords, and even performing. Best of all, there’s a little piano attachment that plugs into the GBA slot (sorry DSi owners!) which is not only adorable, but is also a lot of fun to play with.

The game and piano attachment will come bundled together for $39.99, and will be available next week on March 30 from Walmart, Amazon, and other online retailers. We had some brief hands-on time with the game at GDC, and I got a kick out of the touchscreen-based mini-games that teach you various aspects of reading music, and the performance mode, while limited to one octave, was both challenging and fun.

What do you think of Easy Piano? Will you be picking it up next week?
Game Music

GDC 2010: A Whirlwind Tour of the Audio Track

March 18, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2010: A Whirlwind Tour of the Audio Track Share this

This year’s GDC felt much smaller than previous years. Gone was the four story behemoth that is west hall, and everything was instead crammed into the Moscone Convention Center’s north and south halls. The audio track in particular took place in one of two rooms, both in north hall, which were often much too small, which led to sessions filling up and people being left out in the hallway without the chance to hear several panels (the Flower panel in particular was so popular that people lined up outside the room despite it filling up just to meet Vincent Diamante after his hour talk).

So, what were the sights and sounds from north hall? We checked out a number of panels, and rather than post about each one individually, I thought it would be more manageable for you guys if I simply gave a brief summary of each panel that we attended and focused on highlights from the session. There were definitely a lot of surprises, and even some information revealed about the composer of Metroid: Other M from a non-audio track session!

Hit the jump to check out our coverage. (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2010: A Much Smaller G.A.N.G. Awards, And Results!

March 14, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2010: A Much Smaller G.A.N.G. Awards, And Results! Share this

We mentioned the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Award Nominees a month or so ago, but at GDC, we final saw results. This year’s G.A.N.G. Awards were considerably smaller than last year, taking place in a much smaller room in south hall as opposed to the traditional north hall location. There were no musical acts, which facilitated a much faster ceremony (it was crammed into 90 minutes), but despite the simplicity of the event this year, there were still many and often humorous technical issues, which led to G.A.N.G. President Paul Lipson having to call out the nominees in his best announcer voice and Tommy providing live sound effects for the footage when the audio cut out.

They showed a number of YouTube videos throughout the evening, which took the place of the performances. Included were a Michael Jackson video where his sprite from Moonwalker was placed in a number of games, and that amazing Japanese Zelda commercial for A Link to the Past. They also interspersed some comedic bits in between with a top ten worst game titles (including Sticky Balls and Irritated Stick) and top ten worst voice acting moments, which came from Resident Evil and a number of early RPGs.

As far as the winners go, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the big winner, but there were a few surprises, including The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition for iPhone taking the best handheld audio award and Plants Vs. Zombies winning for best original vocal – pop. Flower also won in its category (best interactive music), which was good to see.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners, and let us know what you think! (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2010: Hitoshi Sakimoto Meets My Doppelganger

March 13, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 5 Comments Share this

So we’re here at GDC, and it can get pretty crazy with all the panels, interviews, parties, and other happenings at the conference. I have an interesting story that reflects just how chaotic it can be, so I hope you enjoy.

We were trying to meet up with Hitoshi Sakimoto yesterday for a little pre-interview chat, and I was told he was staying in a nearby chain hotel. I naturally made my way over to the chain location nearest to the convention center and had no luck finding him. Meanwhile, in his hotel a mile away, Sakimoto was apparently looking for me in the lobby and found me, or so he thought. He later noted that this person looked a whole lot like me (poor guy), and that they talked for a good 10 minutes before Sakimoto said, “Wait, are you Napolitano-san?,” to which my doppelganger said, “No, I think you have the wrong guy.”

I need to meet this guy. Have you ever encountered your doppelganger?
Featured, Game Music

GDC 2010: Akira Yamaoka Talks Grasshopper Manufacture

March 12, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 10 Comments Share this

Okay, so it took us longer than we expected to get our interview with Akira Yamaoka, but it’s finally here. We had to track him down in person to get it done, but at least we’ve discovered a number of interesting things about his decision to leave Konami and what his role will be at Grasshopper Manufacture moving forward.

Will he contribute to the Silent Hill series in the future? Was he involved with the No More Heroes 2 soundtrack? Will he be working on a follow-up to his solo album, iFUTURELIST? And what will his first major project be at Grasshopper Manufacture?

Find out in our interview after the jump! (more…)
Featured, Game Music

GDC 2010: FFXIII Director Motomu Toriyama Reflects on Soundtrack

March 11, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

GDC is here! Well, it was actually here yesterday, but we’re just getting started with our coverage of the event. Yesterday we had the opportunity to speak with Final Fantasy XIII director and scenario writer Motomu Toriyama about his direction for the game’s music and his experiences working with Masashi Hamauzu on the project.

He shares with us his reasons for selecting Hamauzu to score the game, why they decided to replace the Japanese vocal theme with Leona Lewis’s track, and his final reflections on his time with Masashi Hamauzu before he left the company. It’s short, but sweet.

Check it out after the jump. (more…)