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Penumbear Music

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For Penumbear, we again enlisted the services of our friend Chris Negrini, who did music for FOUR HATS and OMEGAPIXEL as well as a bunch of music for a few games we haven’t gotten off the ground yet. We approached Chris on a whim while working on our first project together knowing he plays guitar and writes some music on his own. We didn’t realize he actually had scores of chiptune demos and was essentially making video game music for a long time just for the heck of it. Sometimes life just throws things together like that.

Chris did a bunch of tunes combining chiptune music and instrumentation for a fighting game that’s just mind-blowing and we haven’t put out yet. Hopefully you’ll get to hear it at some point soon. For FOUR HATS, being the biggest Paul McCartney fan I know, Chris was happy to indulge a Beatles-esque sound for 6 songs he wrote for the game. Omegapixel used one of the more shoe-gaze songs he’d written for the fighting game as well as a few chiptunes. He also worked on 3 versions of “Tiptoe through the tulips” for our game jam Tiny’s World in a weekend. Needless to say, the guy is amazing. 

For PENUMBEAR he worked on a series of more ambient, atmospheric and strange sounding loops that fit the game quite nicely. We asked Chris (who makes game music as “Negapixel”) to talk a bit about the music process for this game.

With Penumbear due to hit the app store this week it's time for some reflections; today let's talk music.  My name is Chris Negrini and I am the Negapixel who composes the music for Taco Graveyard's games.

Whenever Steve and Sal ask me for music, I never have anything specific in mind to begin.  I am always fiddling around with something on some guitar or another; so my mind will tend to jump to my latest music-doodle.  By the time I actually sit down to record, something completely different tends to come out.  Song writing for me is always a simultaneous process of discovery and construction.  The song slowly reveals itself through my constant experimentation where the hypothesis is always, "I bet this will sound cool."

The spirit of experimentation was never more present than on the Penumbear project.  I put away my guitars for the most part and worked with samplers and synthesizers.  The goal, after seeing the creepy vibe that Steve and Sal had fostered, turned away from catchiness and to more ambient music that blended into the haunting environment.

The first song you hear in the game had been a theme that I had fiddled with for years never quite knowing what to do with it.  The reverberating chiminess of the vibes and eerie flute sounds seemed to be perfect for a cute little bear trapped in a twisted dark maze.  The song and the game played off of each other after that point, the music being inspired by the art and vice versa.  When the plan for all the available worlds came together, I had my road map dictating how the music could be inspired.

Even though the levels are starkly different (all in one castle no less!) I still came back to the idea that this little bear is about to poop his scarf.  So I always wanted the music to feel as if it were echoing from far off in the castle and something about it wasn't quite right.  I put together a song for each level as to emphasize the theme of each.  (If you want to know the levels then get the game ya jerk!)

Moving into a sampling and synthesizer based project turned out to be pretty rewarding in the end because it gives me even more versatility for the future.  It's nice to get out of your comfort zone.  Not only did I get to see if I could hack it without my strongest instrument but now I am more inspired to write some good ol' fashioned rock songs again.  Of course, now we'll see what else will creep it's way into my musical arsenal.

What it boils down to though is the game is a ton of fun to play, I could have just farted into a microphone for the music and that would still be the case.  (Maybe that would have turned out better?)  Sal and Steve did a hell of a job putting it together as always.

Chris

You can check out the some of the audio from the development of Penumbear on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-four-hats/sets/penumbear


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