Sweet Home (Walkaround Ambiance #1) [from “Barnbellow’s Estate”] (Gonkaka)
Sweet Home (Walkaround Ambiance #1) [from “Barnbellow’s Estate”] (Gonkaka)
This is something long overdue; actual music for my Barnbellow’s Estate project.
For those of you that haven’t been around long or don’t follow my exploits closely, Barnbellow’s Estate is a Clock Tower inspired project that has existed, in some form, since about 2007, though it has gone through quite a few tweaks and changes within that time frame. Like a lot of my projects, it started out as an idea for a game I was certain I’d somehow make, but once reality caught up with me a bit I rejigged it into a “fake soundtrack” Gonkaka project. Because I might not be able to make full games, but I CAN make soundtracks and write an obscene amount of flavour text!
There are two primary modes of ‘gameplay’ in Barnbellow’s Estate, were it to exists: one wherein you explore the impossibly large estate the game takes place in, solving puzzles, reading lore, and engaging with all manner of survival horror tropes; and one wherein you have to escape from the designated pursuer of whatever area of the estate your in, using the environment to your advantage (either to hide from or hinder said pursuer), or in a pinch, use Yuna’s digital camera to stun and temporarily disable them. This is a piece that would play during one of the former sections- specifically, it’s intended to be the primary walkaround music for the very first area of the game (the hysterical laughter and/or sobbing sample that I messed about with in the final section is a giveaway here, as it’s intended to tie into the game’s first pursuer; the Vengeful Mother, whom makes an appearance in and has some of her backstory expanded upon in this short story I wrote). It’s also a good demonstration of the general sound direction I wanted to take the walkaround tracks in: a sorta free-form, experimental semi ambient style with more melody driven breaks and a shot or two of some 80s-styled synth patches for cheesy horror flick fair.
This piece does have some more specific sources of inspiration, though; the use of rave stabs owes itself more to the music from G Darius than more dance-floor ready tracks, as G Darius’ score did tend to make use of orch hits and rave stabs in unsettling and sometimes dischordant ways (here’s an example track). The track’s general vibe also owes a lot to the Ancient Castle Stage music from the first Devil May Cry - the idea to use some effect-ladden and otherwise messed with samples of orchestra tune-ups and an opera singer belting out in a freeway in particular were inspired by the sudden appearance of a pleasant string melody overlaid atop the offputting ambiance (the big, bombastic organ/string section also owes itself to the Ancient Castle Stage track). The name is also a deliberate reference to the NES/Famicom horror title Sweet Home, because I don’t think I’ve made my love of that game quite clear enough yet.
Fun trivia fact: this is technically a stealth remake of an older attempt at the first-area-walkaround-track for Barnbellow’s Estate, called “Tragedy United Them”. About the only thing it borrows from the original is that organ section, though.
This song includes the following sounds from freesound.org:
orchestra warming up (BeeProductive)
underpass (Simon Gray)
Chamber Ensemble Tuning 2 (Cunningar0807)
G51-09-Woman Sobs and Laughs (Craig Smith)
More Posts from Gamesthatdontexist and Others
Mr. Splash! Developed by Hiroshi Inukai aka Polygon (2007, Famicom)
I finally made a reproduction cart of the elusive homebrew game Mr. Splash! I love it. Rather than using the official art (which I couldn’t find a good copy of) I designed my own label, going for a Game and Watch aesthetic. Read more about the history of Mr. Splash including my review of it on the blog!
Kazuo Umezu’s horror manga The Drifting Classroom may have reigned in the 70s, but it wasn’t until a decade later that game developers in Japan would begin to cash in on its popularity. The Famicom title, as seen above on a bootleg NES cart, sold millions, and was lauded for its 2D platforming depiction of the manga’s harrowing events in a slightly truncated form. In fact, the game was so popular that an official soundtrack was released, containing every piece of music from the title. Whether you’re familiar with the manga or not, you can surely find excitement in the tale of an elementary school zapped to an uncertain, desolate future, where adults resort to barbarism while the children devise a new world order.
Warhammer 40,000 / Souls-like by Márton Kapoli
“Children” Famicase design by Cory Schmitz ⊟
The My Famicase Exhibition show has opened in Tokyo’s METEOR store, and though the gallery isn’t online yet, pictures from the participating artists are starting to trickle out.
Here’s one by super cool designer/Tiny Cartridge site designer Cory Schmitz. His concept:
“THE CITY IS THEIRS.” While the grown-ups are hooked up to their VR machines, the children sneak outside & The City becomes their playground. Create your character, explore the decaying mysteries of The City, & watch out for rival gangs. 1 player.
Nubuwo has a roundup of some other fictional Famicom cartridges shown off on Twitter! And, as I must always mention when talking about Famicase, we had a design in the Famicase 2011 show, made with Ashley Davis!
BUY Famicom stuff, upcoming games
Video Games That Maybe Only Exist in My Head, Part 1
Nebulous (Infocom, 1984).
Fake ad for Bestiarii: a holographic tabletop game from another future. Part of my Obsidian comic series. Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Mall Madness, Dungeon, Marble Madness, Warhammer, and all the great 80s future tech.
Oblique Strategies GB
Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards designed to help artists break up an art block. Each of the 100+ cards contain a possible action to take or a new way of thinking about a creative problem. They were created by artists Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in the 70s and have been updated with various new editions over the years.
This is a port of that deck of cards for Game Boy, for some reason.
It was made by me, Nicky Flowers, as a way to learn how GB Studio works. Turns out it works pretty well! I boot up the ROM on my DMG when I get stuck working on music or coding or really anything where I'm creating stuff. I hope you might find it useful too!
Hear me out:
Animal Crossing, but you’re a traveller who settles in a seemingly abandoned japanese village because you got a sweet deal on the real estate. Then you realize that the village is not abandoned and is inhabited by animal spirits! You can befriend them and do all the other typical animal crossing stuffs, but your goal is to help your villagers pass on. When they “move out”, you have successfully put their spirit to rest. And new spirits for you to help are always coming into the village. Please? (Oh, and also the only other “living” person in the village is a fennec fox shrine maiden named Safaia)
David Czar - Oliver! | famicase | meteor
Oliver is a talented dog with a passion for skateboarding! Perform crazy tricks, challenge rivals and race around the vibrant city. Will you prove you are the top dog?
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A collection of epistolary fiction about video games that don't exist
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