Music

Featured, Game Music

Halo Composer Marty O’Donnell Settles Lawsuit Against Bungie

July 24, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | 1 Comment Share this

Last month we reported on a lawsuit being filed against Bungie’s chief executive Harold Ryan by composer and audio director Marty O’Donnell. Bungie had fired O’Donnell “without cause” back in April and was refusing to pay money owed to the composer. Much of this pay included unused paid time off, sabbatical time, and other benefits. This past week, the two parties reached a settlement over the matter.

According to VentureBeat, O’Donnell will be receiving $38,385 from Ryan for his unpaid time, including vacation time, plus another $38,385 for double damages, something that O’Donnell was seeking in his original suit. Adding up all of the legal fees on top of this, the Bungie chief executive will be paying out $95,019.13 to the Halo composer.

Bungie has still not given a reason for firing O’Donnell and has declined to officially comment on the matter, as of this writing. Bungie’s newest IP Destiny, which O’Donnell was working on, is set to come out this fall. It will be interesting to see what has happened with the music and audio on the game in O’Donnell’s absence.

Source: VentureBeat
Featured, Game Music

Halo Composer Marty O’Donnell is Suing Bungie Over Unpaid Benefits

June 6, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Halo Composer Marty O’Donnell is Suing Bungie Over Unpaid Benefits Share this

Back in April, the game development studio Bungie fired Marty O’Donnell from his position as audio director. It was reported at the time, and stated by O’Donnell, that he had been terminated “without cause.” It now appears that this matter is not going to end quietly. Before being fired by Bungie, O’Donnell was working on Bungie’s upcoming and highly anticipated game Destiny. Many people are no doubt familiar with the composer’s work on the original Halo soundtrack.

According to a report from VentureBeat, a suit was filled against Bungie and its chief executive, Harold Ryan, by O’Donnell back on May 1st. In the suit he claims that Bungie failed to pay him for several benefits, including paid time off and unpaid vacation time. As of May 27, Bungie has denied that O’Donnell is due any compensation.

O’Donnell is also pursuing claims of additional grievances against the company and Harold Ryan, which have not been revealed at this time. We will update on this once more information becomes available.

Source: Venture Beat
Featured, Game Music, Music Production

Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music

June 2, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music Share this

If you frequently explore YouTube for videogame music covers, chances are that you’ve encountered the videogame rock arrangements by Jules Conroy, aka FamilyJules7X. If you haven’t, then today you are in for a treat. For the past three years Jules has been arranging and performing music from videogames and uploading videos of these arrangements to his YouTube channel. He’s covered games including Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Binding of Isaac, Final Fantasy, and Elder Scrolls to name just a few.

This year, to celebrate the three year anniversary of his videogame cover projects, Jules put together a seventeen minute long medley of game music. As the title suggests, “Replay: A Metal Tribute to the History of Video Games” is a guitar cover tribute to videogame music and covers the medium’s more than thirty year history. The medley starts off at the year 1972 with the original Pong, works it’s way through classic Nintendo and Sega games, and proceeds to go through every year up to 2014.

As if the size and scope of this medley alone wasn’t impressive enough, Jules completed this project, start to finish, in just eight days and during the same week as his college finals. According to his video description, he only had four days to record the guitars, one day to do the arranging, one day for the drums, one day to mix and master the music, and only one day to edit all of the video footage. He set it up as a challenge for himself and the results are quite amazing. It’s an impressive feat to get all of that done in such a limited time frame. If you’ve never seen or heard his arrangements before, definitely give the FamilyJules7X channel a look. Metal fans and videogame enthusiasts will not be disappointed.
Game Music

The Watch Dogs OST Has Been Released

May 27, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on The Watch Dogs OST Has Been Released Share this The Watch Dogs OST Has Been Released

Just in time for the launch of the long anticipated game Watch Dogs, the soundtrack for the game has received a digital release. The Watch Dogs OST was composed by Brian Reitzell, and features an original score with a heavy emphasis on electronic and ambient synth. The music on the album contains only the original music that Reitzell wrote for the game. You won’t be hearing any of the licensed music, the music heard in game on the car radios for example, on this album.

This is a great way for people to pick up the game’s soundtrack if they decided not to purchase one of the limited special editions of the Watch Dogs game. Currently, the Watch Dogs OST can be purchased digitally on iTunes.
Featured, Game Music, Indie Music, Software

PAX East Preview: Crypt of the NecroDancer

April 16, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on PAX East Preview: Crypt of the NecroDancer Share this

While there were many games presented on the PAX East 2014 show floor, there were only a handful that featured music as their central gameplay mechanic. Since OSV is a site which focuses on game music, we thought it would be nice to give some previews of games that featured music as their core element. The first of these is a game titled Crypt of the NecroDancer.

For those of you have not heard of it, Crypt of the NecroDancer is a roguelike dungeon crawler, created by Brace Yourself Games, that requires you to time your movements and attacks to the game’s soundtrack. Your movement, attacks, and other abilities are all triggered with the four direction buttons. In order to successfully move, attack, or use an ability, you need to enter the command on the beat. A beat meter on the bottom of the screen helps indicate when you can take action. When I spoke with the developers at the show, they emphasized that they wanted to make a rogelike that relied a little more heavily on player skill, rather than luck of what the dungeon will throw at you on a particular run. Theoretically, if you have good rhythm and timing, you can make it through most situations in one piece. (more…)
Game Music, Software

DLC for Guitar, DJ, and Band Hero is Being Discontinued

March 20, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on DLC for Guitar, DJ, and Band Hero is Being Discontinued Share this

Guitar Hero announced Tuesday, on its FB page, that the DLC (Downloadable Content) for the Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Band Hero games will not be available after March 31st. The Guitar Hero mobile games are also being discontinued. However, the servers for the games will stay online, so any of the current or past purchases will not be negatively affected.

It’s not all bad news. From now until the end of the month, the DLC will be discounted up to 50% for the XBox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. So for those of you who haven’t bothered to grab some of the DLC that you wanted, now is your last chance. If you ever plan on bringing out the plastic controllers for a party, it may be worth checking out some of this vanishing repertoire.
Featured, Game Music, Software

Circuits: A New Puzzle Game About Reconstructing Music

February 27, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | 1 Comment Share this

Every so often a game concept comes along that grabs our attention. A new music game called Circuits has done just that. Developed by the studio Digital Tentacle, Circuits is a puzzle game that asks you to reconstruct a piece of music. In the gameplay video shown below, composer David Garcia walks the viewer through an early level of the game. Different nodes of the circuits represent patterns, rhythms, and instrument melodies that make up the piece of music. Essentially, each node is a piece of the puzzle. The task of the player is to assemble each node in the correct spot on the circuit board to reproduce the full and finished piece. You not only have to worry about the order of the music’s individual elements, you must also make sure you repeat the nodes the correct number of times.

From the looks of it, a lot of the game will rely on the player’s listening abilities, in addition to their puzzle solving skills. The game was recently Greenlit by members of the Steam community and will hopefully make progress to an eventual release on the platform. The game was also released recently on the iPad. It’s definitely an interesting game concept. Hopefully it can find an audience in the puzzle and music game crowd.