Gamestart 2014 was really a blast for IMBA Interactive. This was the first time IMBA Interactive interacted (haha) with consumers visiting a B2B game convention. Talking to different people at the convention reminded us of our original love which was bringing game sound and music to consumers. And yes, it’s awesome to be able to be part of Singapore’s very own game convention promoting indie game developers and educating people on game audio. DING! Achievement unlocked (that’s what it felt like)!
Elicia, one of the organisers of Game Start took a leap of faith into starting this convention. Kudos to the team for making everything come together within a short frame of time.
IMBA also gladly did our part by helping with the trailer sound effects and doing a little DJ performance on stage. The convention was such success! With the experience of 2014, we had more time to plan ahead for 2015.
Game Start 2015 approached us for a collaboration right away. They decided to make an 8-bit platformer game out of their Game Start character, Alyse, and we were part of composing music for them. We collaborated with different composers and even contributed in ideas by asking the games to include characters of indie game developers we know. The direction we took was retro 8-bit music to match the awesome graphics by “Sonic” Zong Hui, who is also the designer and programmer for the game!
The process of composing true 8-bit music wasn’t as easy as it looked; it’s not like modern music where everything is really rich sounding; we had to fine-tune each synth to make it sound rich.
One example is the snare drum. The snare drum was represented by white noise. The attack and decay of the noise made so much difference, many things had to be precise. We referenced sounds from the Mega Man music series, and free plugin Magical 8bit Plug – YMCK made finding the retro sounds a lot easier. But at the end all went well! So hooay! Check out our game, it’s free and ready to be downloaded from the app store now.
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