The Sound Architect speaks to indie developer Mike Patrick Rogers about his upcoming game The Lady. We discuss with Mike the game concept and his approach to audio.
Thanks for speaking with us Mike, we’re very much looking forward to The Lady.
Firstly give us an idea of what The Lady is and the concept of the gameplay?
The Lady is visual narrative of a human’s inner struggles, presented in a surreal and abrasive fashion. The soundtrack is a character on its own, and is very important to interpreting the atmosphere and emotion of the game. Gameplay is reminiscent of the old SNES days, side scrolling style. The entire game is a puzzle, most instances the user might not even realize they are solving a puzzle. Trust is part of the gameplay, who and what to trust to interact with.
You’re doing all of the audio yourself for The Lady aren’t you?
Yes, I’m a musician first, game creation and design is a new vehicle for my personal style of music. In 2013 I did a few game soundtracks, that didn’t really fit my style, and then I did a film score for an animated short film project (can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/mprart-1/untitled-animated-short-film ) by one the artist at TellTale, which was perfect for my style of music. That project inspired me, and kind of made a light bulb go off in my head saying “why aren’t I making my own games/films with my own music??”
What history do you have with music and sound design?
I started playing guitar when I was 11, so around 1987, right in the middle of the hair band era. I quickly realized I could play anything I heard, so I taught myself how to play be ear, by listening to all of the metal bands that were out around that time, like Motley Crue, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, etc. I eventually got into playing in bands, and then I started playing drums and other instruments. The last two bands I played in were metal bands and I played drums, but would write a lot of the music on Guitar.
I took a break from playing music around 2009, I was burnt out, having personal problems, just kind of dealing with a lot personally, and I look back now and realized it was a mistake to quit doing something I loved to do so much. So in early 2013 I had my computer set up with everything I needed to get into making music again. Before this I had only made music by analog means, on a cassette tape 4 track, and working digitally was challenging. To get back in the habit of making music I made this EP Series called “Life Hurts” (http://michaelpatrickrogers.bandcamp.com/album/life-hurts-chpt-1-5)
After I completed the EP’s I realized I had all of the tools I needed to get into making video game music, which I knew I would love because video games have been a passion of mine since I was a child of the 80’s. So I started looking around, found a few projects. I didn’t do any sound design until now, on The Lady, so that part is a new adventure for me. To stick with the “analog” theme of the soundtrack I’m trying to make all of the Sound Design on my own without digital assets.
How are you implementing the audio?
The audio in this game is a slow build up, and is meant to sound like it is being played on a record player, even the title screen is just record static. The idea is to have no melody or recognizable notes for the most part, similar to the soundtrack of the film Erasherhead, which is a huge influence on me and frankly changed my creative life. It’s meant to be really abrasive, and many of the sound effects in the game are jarring, distorted types of sounds.
What approach have you taken with the sound and the music?
I wanted the soundtrack to my game(s) to sound nothing like any game soundtrack out there, so I decided to go the “analog” route. By this I mean I used my old 4 track cassette tapes as source material. I have all of my old ambient recordings on my computer now, and these were all made with analog/real instruments, mostly in the late 1990’s. With this catalog of my old music on my computer, I have an endless source of sound to make new music that doesn’t sound “digital”. I can remix, rework, do anything I want with them, and I’m using Presonus Studio One as my DAW. All of the old original tapes can be found on my Bandcamp Page. 1997 is my favorite recording I’ve ever made, it was recording live in one night at an old coffee shop overnight, mostly using an old organ someone had forgotten there.
http://michaelpatrickrogers.bandcamp.com/album/1997
http://michaelpatrickrogers.bandcamp.com/album/1994
http://michaelpatrickrogers.bandcamp.com/album/1995
What inspired you with the music for The Lady?
It has a lot do to with things that have happened to me personally over the last couple of years. The inspiration is really “what’s going on in the mind of this person”. If you classified the soundtrack into a genre of music, it’d be Noisecore. Noiscore is very “anxiety ridden”, and the buildup of the game really is like a person having anxiety or a panic attack, so I knew that going with my traditional Noisecore style would be the best way to help get the story across.
What kind of sound design will there be?
Some of my sound design techniques involved using air-in-a-can, old records, and weight’s slamming together. I’m probably going to go back to schooldays and do some scratching metal objects on a chalk board, it’s all very unconventional. Like I said earlier, this is my first sound design attempt, so it’s going to be an ongoing experiment.
Any particular reason you chose not to outsource for the audio?
The game is the perfect vehicle for my own music. It’s hard for musicians like myself to “get heard” so that’s part of the reason. There really was no need to spend any money on outsourcing, I wanted to do as much as I could, I even did the environment art, and now I’m doing some of the animation. It’s basically a 3 man team, with me wearing the “producer/creator” hat, so I have a lot of things to work on simultaneously, but I knew that no other composer would probably understand how to even begin to approach making a soundtrack for this game, because the game is so personal to me.
You have an IndieGoGo campaign for The Lady don’t you?
Yes, I launched it on New Year’s Day, and it is running for 60 days. I haven’t promoted officially it yet, but we will be uploading a playable demo to it around the 15th, and then full promo mode will go into effect. The IndieGoGo Campaign can be found here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-lady/x/5229043
We’re very much looking for to the release of The Lady and you can expect an audio review from us after release. All of Mike’s social media and campaigns can be found below plus a free download of the soundtrack here: http://michaelpatrickrogers.bandcamp.com/album/the-lady-soundtrack-early-cut
The Lady
IndieGoGo Campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-lady/x/5229043
Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=196941858&searchtext=the+lady
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLadyGame
Dev Vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo4gbc56HDg&list=PL-Vz12EK-kq3JPZHBMLUTmZSgyqMp5cB4
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MPRart
Publisher: http://www.mprart.net/
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-lady
Article by Sam Hughes
Uploaded 09/01/14