Buy Halfway

Progress and Audio Bliss

Posted by bach,

Halfway has progressed nicely over the last few weeks and we’ve been cooking up some interesting bits and pieces. But, it seems like we’re no different to any other gamedev out there and we are never truly happy with the amount of progress we made.

Simon is currently busy putting pixels on the next few environment tilesets, Johan is animating our first female character and Stefan (me) is bogged down in the details of UI design and code. We are also constantly putting more bits and pieces into the game’s story and character designs (one might say it’s a never-ending story – no pun intended ;)).

Our main focus right now is to make the game fully feature-complete. There are still a few major features missing, which we’re hoping to get in place within the next couple of weeks and then we can entirely switch focus to fill the game with content and polish.

As many of you already know, Gavin Harrison is working as a composer and sound designer with us on Halfway. It’s been incredible to work with Gavin and the music he’s been coming up with is nothing short of genius. We’re really honoured that we get to work with such incredibly talented people!

Naturally, the best way to experience the music is to actually sit down and play the game. However we just couldn’t help ourselves and give you guys a bit of preview of what to expect:

(Click play for instant audio-bliss)

When composing the game’s soundtrack, Gavin has taken the same approach as we have with the rest of the art in the game. Basically: Keep the best from the warm and fuzzy retro stuff, and add a modern twist to it. So in Halfway’s soundtrack you can hear lots of retro inspired sounds, mixed with modern elements and epic orchestral sections. Of course, Gavin has made certain that all his retro gadgets are being utilised appropriately, so if you carefully listen you’ll hear a vintage Roland Juno and a Rhodes in there!

The way we are integrating the audio in the game allows us to dynamically change the intensity of the track. So if you are right in the thick of a battle the music will be driving and intense, but the next moment when your squad is recovering from battle it’ll calm down and sit in the back. We’re still working on fine-tuning this but we’re already happy with how much the dynamic flexibility adds to the atmosphere.

Of course there is still a lot more to come in the audio section, but we hope you enjoy the little preview. We’re hoping to do a little interview with Gavin soon and let the man himself speak!

Oh, and for those who’ve asked: Yes, we will make the soundtrack available for sale 🙂

comments powered by Disqus