Brandon Higley’s ‘blog

I am trying to get a real job.

I have been working on my game, Extreme Hugtime Simulation Challenge, but that is an indie venture that will yield profit for me only after the game is released, so in the meantime, I need some income! That is why I have put some serious creative energy into my resume and portfolio over the last week, by designing a letter head and layout, and choosing four short pieces which exhibit my versatility to include on a demo CD along with my resume and cover letter when I send them out to every game design studio west of the Mississippi (do people still say that?).

You can check out my resume’s new design here. As for which pieces are included on my demo CD, the first four pieces on my music page, in the order they appear, are the lucky winners.

Hopefully, I should get a reply. I have sent resumes mostly to smaller companies, avoiding titans like Electronic Arts and Infinity Ward, opting instead to apply to studios with a solid track record and an indie mindset (the best kind!).

Wish me luck! And, if you have any feedback for my music or resume, please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

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Today is officially the last day of 2009, and the first decade of this millennium. It’s only appropriate, then, that I make a list of my top ten video game from the last ten years!

It’s too easy to forget all of the little things that made a game great seven years ago, so I’ve tried as hard as possible to rank each game not only by their appeal at their time of release, but by their legacy and lasting appeal. Likewise, I’ve done my best to predict which games released recently will be memorable for quite some time.

So, here it is, in no particular order:

Rock Band 2 – This game took the the music game genre, perfected it, and moved it into American households. Its micro-transaction business model for downloadable content has given its online library official “platinum” status.

Kingdom Hearts 2 – A role-playing game featuring the makers of Final Fantasy and the characters of Disney seemed undoable, but this game’s emotionally engrossing storyline and fun gameplay took people by surprise.

Silent Hill 4: The Room – Fact: Silent Hill is scary. The solitude created by this game’s atmosphere created a wonderfully horrifying experience that haunted my dreams for weeks.

Mass Effect – It isn’t easy to merge the role-playing game and the first-person shooter, but this game managed just fine. It had just enough open-endedness while retaining developer control over the story, and the dialogue system put every game Bethesda has ever done and ever will do to shame.

Little Big Planet – The sheer number of awards this game won in 2008 is testament to its greatness. It created the “Play Create Share” model that Sony has so passionately adopted.

Shadow of the Colossus – This game is proof that games can be artistic. The score was brilliant, the art style beautiful, and the boss battles clever.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Like no other before it, this game brought games into the mainstream. Its addictive multiplayer had just enough of a progression system to make you come back for that next gun or perk. And, I even saw an interview with Robin Williams on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where the superstar actor admitted to staying up late at night to play the shooter.

Capcom vs. SNK 2 – Fighting games are usually all the same. This merger between the two developer giants managed to take only the best from both company’s franchises and make what is possibly still the greatest fighting game around.

X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse – Multiplayer role-playing games are a hard thing to master; usually, too much time is spent with one character shopping or leveling up and the others waiting their turn (Champions of Norrath), or the complexity of the system takes away from the fun of the game (Baldur’s Gate). The X-Men Legends series streamlined multiplayer role-playing games, making them an accessible and fun experience.

Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords – Another Bioware classic, this game set the model for games to come such as Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout 3 with its limitless character customization possibilities and open-ended storyline.

Honorable Mentions:
NHL Hitz Pro
Portal
Dragon Age: Origins
Need for Speed: SHIFT
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War
Star Wars: Battlefront 2
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Batman: Arkham Asylum
World of Goo
The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
Trine
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

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But, not for me. Well, sort of for me. You see, GameDev.net is hosting a contest which can only be entered by promoting the GameX video game expo in Pennsylvania, and I’m not above promoting an expo I am unable to attend if it means I might get free stuff (and attend the expo–see how it works?).

Honestly, though, I can not recommend that anyone interested in or already working in the gaming industry pass up any opportunity to attend a game expo. I attended GDC09 last Spring, and came away much better prepared to enter the industry! And, the game demos, SWAG, and booth girls make any expo worth attending whether or not you create video games for a living.

So, here are my required two links for the contest:
GameX
GameX Summit

Check them out, and wish me luck!

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Seriously.  I’m a wizard at Creakos now!  See what I mean here.

I’m really glad to have found a project to keep me busy until Encore and Type 3 go into production.  Anticipating my first jobs in the game industry sounded like a horrible way to spend Spring.  Creakos is a game company that specializes in mobile games, specifically, games for cell phones.  Most of its members work for profit share, a trend among independent development groups.

Luckily, I can still take care of pre-production with Koru Entertainment and Ethereal Muse Studios while I compose for Creakos’ iPhone project codenamed “Genesis.”  The total music assets for the game will be just around five minutes, so at the speed I work, I should be able to complete the soundtrack in just under fifteen work-hours.  If I decide to use loop software such as ACID Pro, I may be able to cut that in half without sacrificing quality.

I’m excited, too, to be the sound designer for Creakos, as well.  I can’t reveal too much about the game, but I should start working on explosions, gunshots, and engine sound effects.

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A screenshot of the plug-in.

For the most part, the balance of instruments sounds pretty good in my work.  Occasionally, one piece may sound as if it doesn’t have the same quality as the others, making my overall body of work somewhat inconsistent.  That’s why audio engineers get paid so much to do such a specific task–master tracks.

So, I decided I’d try out a program which masters audio for you.  It’s called T-RackS 3, and so far, it’s amazing.  I’ve re-mastered all of my music, and I’m very please with the results.  Check out my portfolio and see if you can spot the differences.  The best so far is Chopin’s Sonata in Bb Minor No. 2 Opus 35, which I arranged for symphonic orchestra for my Orchestration & Instrumenation final in late 2007, because the piece now sounds full at every frequency, and the instruments blend much better than before.

There are even lots of fun presets to play around with, such as AM broadcast, which makes your music sound nostalgically horrible, or Vintage, which makes your music sound like it’s being playing from an LP.  If I ever get into sound design, and hopefully I will, this will help broaden my options and make my job easier!

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Normally, I don’t shamelessly plug stuff.  However, JustHost.com, a web hosting and domain registry service, really fits the needs of a composer who wants to direct potential employers to his or her personal website.  Not only is it cheap, which is great for a starving artist, but it offers unlimited bandwidth and storage space.  Basically, this means that a composer can post their portfolio or demo reel to their website, and allow visitors to stream high quality audio files without having to worry about bandwidth or storage limitations.

Other nice features include detailed statistics about how many visitors view your webpage, which individual pages are more popular, etc, as well as a site builder, unlimited email addresses, unlimited subdomains, FTP accounts, and lots of other cool stuff.  If you’re interested, just click on the banner below.

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A picture of my workstation, with the new digital piano.

I recently invested in a tool which will make composing so much easier: a digital piano.  It’s an entry-level piano, but as I do not actually play the piano, it suits my purposes perfectly.  It has MIDI input/output, so I can connect it to my computer.  This allows me to do something very clever; my old routine involved writing out sheet music in Finale, then saving it as a MIDI file, then opening that file in ACID Pro, then finally using ACID to sequence a sample library, all just to see how a melodic idea sounds.  Now, I can simply turn on the piano, open the sample library, and play the melody.  If I don’t like it, I just play it differently or scrap it altogether.  The best part is that my piano will use a sample library on my computer instead of its own if I tell it to, so I can actually hear what the music will sound like on the instrument for which it is intended.

It also has other great features, such as a sustain pedal, and my favorite, weighted keys.  They actually simulate the feel of a real piano.  And, I bought a book which I can use to learn how to play the piano.

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The poster for Encore!

Over the past two days I’ve been driving to and from San Jose to meet with Roderick Lazardo, the Producer/Owner of Ethereal Muse, the makers of Encore!.  Encore! (exclaimation necessary) is a music-based 2D side-scroller where the player controls San Francisco musicians as they battle their way from left to right.  Basic gameplay will include standard melee attacks, “playing on the fly,” and the special “Encore Mode,” which will set the game apart from any other action platformer.

My job interview/initiation to the project took place on Saturday, and on Sunday I was invited to meet with Mike, the Lead Programmer.  There, Roderick supplied us each with a rough draft of the game design document and explained the more complex elements of play.  Because of my experience in the game industry as well as my proximity to Roderick, he invited me to be Lead Sound Designer of Encore!.  It will be my job to organize the Sound Design team and determine the general feel of the game’s soundtrack.  It will also be my responsibility to work closely with the Programming team in integrating music/samples into the engine.

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Seth and I playing with our respective gadgets.

Friday, and therefore GDC, is over.  Today was far more relaxed than Wednesday and Thursday, when I spent most of my time talking to potential employers and trying to appear as professional as possible.  Today was “Student Day,” when college students were allowed to attend for only half the price of an Expo pass.  Basically, it meant that if I tried to get hired today, I would likely be viewed as “just another student who wants to make games.”

So, Matthew and I met Seth, a friend of ours from high school, at the expo and we perused the exhibits until lunch, when we decided to drive home to beat rush hour traffic.  Pretty uneventful, but when you consider how much I accomplished during my first two days, I deserved to concentrate more on the games I would get to play in the future rather than the ones for which I might compose.

Also, I saw a surprising number of people from UC Santa Cruz Game Design major, including Nate, Angelo, and Professor Whitehead.

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Day two seemed much more efficiently spent than day one.  Perhaps there was less time being overwhelmed by San Francisco, the Moscone Center, and women wearing skin-tight clothing asking me if I want to play Resident Evil with them (a hard request to deny).

The Game Audio Network Guild Town Hall Meeting was a “here’s what we’ve done this year, here’s what we’re going to do” for GANG.  They discussed the IESD (a professionals-only branch of GANG) and the GVAC (a professionals-only branch of GANG for voice talent), congratulated the two heads of the European and Eastern American divisions of GANG, and mostly patted each other on the back.  This began at noon, and continued through the GANG Awards until 10:30pm.  Most disconcerting was the answer to my question, “What does GANG do to get its student and apprentice members hired?”

“Nothing.”

I perused the Career Pavilion after that, since apparently, I would be getting no support from GANG.  This went much more smoothly, however, than I thought, and actually ended with a few propositions (one included an augmented reality boardgame–Google it) from start-up companies.  On that note, I should prepare for day three, when I will meet the producer for Ethereal Muse for lunch and hopefully be hired to compose for his project “Encore!”.

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