My Global Game Jam 2022 starts tomorrow!

Yes, as the title says… my Global Game Jam 2022 starts tomorrow!

What is the Global Game Jam? It is an annual convention where creatives around the world gather and create a videogame in 48 hours following a given theme, that can be anything from a sound to a simple word.

This year’s theme is the word “Duality” and I can’t wait to see what everyone will come up with.

Last year I enrolled to the Rome edition (as I do since 2013) and joined two teams as composer/sound designer and this video contains my efforts for them. I think the best way to join this blog post is to play the video and read along.

Kite is dead

Kite is dead is a 2D platform game where Kite must pass through different levels in order to find his lost bones. The team told me they needed three different audio ambiences: the catacombs, the forest and the temple.

The catacombs (00:00)

For the catacombs level, I started playing with a percussive sound that reminded me of some kind of xylophone made of bones. Once the base rhythm was there, I added some hip hop drums shifted by a 16th note, so that the xylophone feels syncopated and playing on weak beats. The title “Kite is dead” is a pun referring to a swear word in the Neapolitan dialect (that is “Chi t’รจ muorto”), so I added the original swear word in the track.

The forest (02:24)

For the forest level, I had some screenshots showing it as a rather peaceful and beautiful environment. Then, in contrast to the previous level, I wanted to be more melodic so I started developing the theme with pan flute and acoustic guitar. Unfortunately, I had no time to record the guitar live, so I had to leave it as a MIDI sounding one.

The temple (05:19)

For the temple, I mixed two concepts: the divine (I mean, it’s a temple!) and the awareness of one’s own destiny (I mean, it’s the final stage!). For the first one, I used ethnic instruments, bells and choirs. For the second one, I decided to stick to a march tempo.

Cold Echoes

Cold Echoes is a 3D game where you are between cold snowy mountains and risky weather and should find and meet with another explorer only by following the echoes of your own voices before daylight is gone.

I had no art to refer to, so I started off the cuff.

Start screen (06:49)

For the start screen, I wanted to convey mainly the sense of loneliness and cold, so I used some piano chords with long reverb and a wind sound effect. No melody, no loop!

Level music (07:17)

This is probably my favorite of the 2021 edition at a writing level, but I didn’t quite like the mixing (probably now I just got used to it). Time was running out! With this one I wanted the player to feel a sense of danger, I imagined a strong wind bringing a snow storm.

That’s all, have fun this weekend!

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