First of all, happy new year! To make up for not uploading anything in December, below is my entire portfolio of music from my Undergraduate Composition Dissertation. This game was unfortunately only for the University project so will not be released. I have uploaded it to showcase what I can do so please do get in touch on [email protected] if you would like me to compose something for your project.
During my third and final year at Oxford Brookes University I did a project based around video games. I collaborated with a computer programmer called Harrk who programmed parts of the game for his own undergraduate dissertation, and I composed the music to this. Much of my research can be viewed on my Tumblr Account, which is an online scrapbook of ideas with many interesting videos, articles, links to useful websites, and research from other kinds of sources such as books.
I did a write-up of the project describing my compositional processes, references to the research from my Tumblr account, and also included information about Harrk’s game, such as the story, what he wanted from the music, pictures of some backgrounds and diagrams of the characters etc. Most sounds were from Cubase Halion Sonic SE Soundbank combined with recorded audio. My project is based around the character Nyte. For copyright reasons I cannot upload my write-up, so below I have described the game in brief: (As I stated above, this game was only for the University project so will not be released).
It is a Japanese Role Play Game (JRPG) called ‘Perfect Moon: Monster’, and the story follows the main character, Nyte, who is a subject of experimentation in a futuristic world where magic is widespread but banned. The experiments carried out on him created two distinct forms within him, namely his human form and feral form. His human characteristics are calm and mysterious, and his feral characteristics are fury and anger. Throughout the game the feral form becomes more prominent and gradually takes over the human form. ‘Nyte’s Transition’ is the music that goes with the linear scene in the game when this transformation takes place where the feral form erupts and takes over the human form completely.
‘Nyte’s Transition’:
Harrk asked me to create a battle theme for Nyte. Battles are a huge part of most games and JRPGs are often focused around them as they occur every few seconds. See my Tumblr Account for my research and influences, and see below for the final music product.
I composed 14 different battle styles set around Nyte’s theme (based on ideas from ‘Nyte’s Transition’, along with success and failure music). Each battle theme is about a minute in length to get across the feel of each style.
Generic Battles – Battles that occur frequently against enemies that are not too strong or affect the story.
Boss Battles – A battle that occurs less frequently than Generic Battles and can affect the story, which involves fighting the enemy leader.
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 1 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 2 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 3 – Boss Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 4 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 5 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 6 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 7 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 8 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 9 – Boss Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 10 – Boss Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 11 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 12 – Boss Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 13 – Boss Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Theme Idea 14 – Generic Battle:
Nyte’s Battle Success Music:
Nyte’s Battle Failure Music:
All Music by Oliver Daniel Nicholls