Hey fellas,
I’m a Roblox game developer who’s also working on a soundtrack (and, to an extent, an album) for a game because his musically-talented friends are busy with other, better projects.
I’ve been working on this album since mid-2021 and have been seeing significant progress with it. It is about 60% done, with only 4 more songs to be added to be a full 10-song album that will ALSO be used in my game that I’ve already made way too many forum posts about. Please, feel free to share your thoughts or opinions, since I am giving what I got towards making a full-length rock/metal album!
[edit: embed failed to work on the forum, so I resorted to just sharing the playlist]
At this moment, only 2 of the 6 current songs have been implemented in-game. I expect to include all 10 finished tracks one way or another when the game is in a completed state.
Also, sorry that certain songs sound a little loud compared to the rest; those still need updating to be at about the same volume for consistency.
The first song, Cavity, definitely has a nice upbeat feel to it. Some parts I think repeat a little too much but the added melodies really gives the contrast the listener would want, so overall it’s fine on its own!
Averted really has a nice contrast from Cavity at the beginning. It kind of gives me Sonic Adventure 2 music vibes a bit.
With No Flame Lasts and The Spiral I kind of started to lose listening interest, the groundwork for the genre/sound was set in the first few songs but it’s kind of just repeated over and over and there really isn’t anything that sticks out or makes them unique on their own.
Augmented caught my attention a bit with the synth added in, it is a nice contrasting sound outside the guitar, bass and drum sound. However, as it’s only a minor factor in the song it still kind of follows the same theme as the other songs.
Intro to the King definitely has a different sound to it but much like Averted it’s only a short intro that just goes right back to the guitar, bass and drum theme.
Overall, the theme is quite clear with each song. It may just be my personal opinion but It’s always nice to have a theme with an album, however, what really makes a good album is when you also go outside those specific themes and explore new ones. Hearing the same theme/genre over and over through a whole album can take one’s attention away. Although the songs were made for a game there is still some really great video game soundtracks out there that explore many different themes and ideas within the game’s focus.
To be really picky (sorry, I just have to as I am a music student), I would suggest exploring music theory a bit more to expand your chord progressions. A lot of them seem to be very similar & repetitive, trust me there’s more than just I IV V & vi! (Get some augmented chords in there, you have a song named after them!)
I wish you luck with your game & your future endeavors within the realm of music!
Words can’t exactly describe how much I appreciate the fact that you had criticisms for each song. I know that sounds cheesy, but it really is refreshing. To be honest, I don’t have many remarks about each comment, but I’ll certainly take them into account once I begin work on the final four main tracks of this album.
I am very open to extend the kinds of music genres the game will hold. In fact, that’s what I was planning to do before I even went about making the music for the game. This album is mostly meant to be the traditional rock/metal focus for a silly game about pinball. I’m hoping that my utilization of each track works better in-game than it does as a stand-alone album though. Same can be said for any later songs I make in advance.
I have released two new tracks as part of this 10-track album, and subsequently, Pinball Planet. The songs are “Thrown Overboard” and “Those Who Continued”. These are the longest tracks in the album and the game, but that’s primarily because the intention is that parts of these songs play in separate parts of the game. Think of them both as “extended mixes”.
Thrown Overboard, which was created on 2/20/2022:
Those Who Continued, which was created on 2/24/2022:
For the Thrown Overboard, I love that sliding synth around 1:20; it definitely caught my attention and sounded so nostalgic for some reason.
The sudden dynamic switch in 1:44 seems like it could be smoother just by a bit, whether by intent or not it seems to really catch you off guard.
The switch in theme in 2:31 was very welcoming, while a really changeup it did keep characteristics of the first theme quite well. I also enjoyed the theme changed at 3:33, definitely sounds like a pinball game I can get into.
The introduction of a new instrument at 5:10 is a great change as if you repeated the previous ideas over it would have been too repetitive.
Just a side thought (again not sure how much theory you know) but I think it would be cool if you used more modulations rather than stay in the same key throughout the full 8 minutes. I’ve personally made a piece that was 10 minutes but modulated 13 different times, it’s possible to do and keeps a longer piece interesting!
I quite love the seventh chords you used for Those Who Continued, it is a real nice relaxer from the previous track (at least at the start).
What you did at 2:18 was quite amazing (no lie I was kind of thinking the music was becoming a bit dull but that really caught my attention, well done).
As mentioned before I really think modulations would step the piece up a lot rather than hearing the same chords over and over in different spots. Read up on secondary dominants, you won’t regret it!
Overall both pieces can really stand for themselves & make a great inclusion for an EP. Whether or not you decide to really study the music theory I think you have a good grasp on the music making side and can really put out some cool tracks with the correct feedback & guidance on what to change up. I wish you the best of luck with the game!
I have released the two final tracks to this now-10-track album, and Pinball Planet. The songs are “Empire of the Restless” and “Kindred Reflections”.
I made Empire a couple months back; I could’ve made a small note about it during then, but I wanted to make this final update in a similar manner to what I had previously, even when I didn’t have this last song ready.
Empire of the Restless:
Kindred Reflections:
And with that, these songs mark the end to the album additions, and therefore my final update on this topic. However, this is not the final update to the album because there are some songs that I am not entirely happy with, namely “Augmented” and “No Flame Lasts”. I will come back to edit those, but I will not be changing these Soundcloud versions, as reuploading requires a subscription, and I’d rather not delete the current uploads.
Cheers.
Really great compositions - I’m guessing this is all done digitally in FL studio or something, the problem with this is the guitars never sound right… Although they do get better as you move through the album Cavity being particularly awkward sounding sometimes (not in terms of composition tho)… but I cant help but feel for this album to achieve its true potential you need to actually pay someone to record them on a real guitar…
tho tbh you could replace them with the same cool synths you used in Kindred reflections that would also work…
But yeah awesome stuff keep it up