Messages from the GMC Personal Messaging System http://tireswinggames.com/ -------------- Ben, That sounds great. I look forward to hearing what you come up with. Thanks, Joe Ellis (tacodome) QUOTE QUOTE I'm interested. I only require credit... I'm studying to be a film composer next year and can use all the opportunities I can get. Would you PM me with the preferred lengths of the tracks you described? This sounds like fun! My mistake, I overlooked your description of track lengths in the thread. Okay, I'll see what I can do! ~Ben Tibbetts Ben, From the samples on your web site, I'm quite sure you have the ability to handle all 6 tracks I requested. But I want to make sure that you are interested in doing all 6 tracks. thomcris has also offered to help me with this project as well. If you want to do all 6, then perhaps I can use thomcris for another project. But if you are only able to do part of my request, then he seems ready, willing, and able to help. If you only want to do part of the music, please let me know which tracks you prefer to do, and I'll direct him to do the others. And again, I want to be clear, I'd be perfectly happy to let you do all 6 of them if you are able. Please let me know. Again, I very much appreciate your offer to help. I am excitedly anticipating your music. Thanks, Joe Ellis (tacodome) Ben, Thanks for your response. Wow, that was fast! You've already got 4 tracks done?!? I can't wait to hear your stuff. I have no problem letting thomcris know that I'll get back with him and that I may not need his help on this project. I can't wait to hear what you've got. I certainly don't mind waiting for you to finish. I'd love for you to go ahead and compose the other 2 tracks. I'm not sure if how sending zip files via PM works on this board. If you need, you can also send it to j-ellis@cox.net. I appreciate your help. Thanks, Joe Ellis Ben, I'm simply blown away! The music is great! .. and in less than a day!!! I really, really like what you did with the undersea theme. It's not what I'd thought of, but now that I hear it, it's better than what I'd thought of. It's what I should have requested in the first place. I just played in in-game and it sounds awesome and makes me feel like I'm underwater. So, thanks for taking your liberties there. I love all the tracks. QUOTE I was wondering if you would have any objection to posting the music on my website? The music is legally mine to do with what I like, but if you have any objections to this than I don't mind simply not having it for download. No objections at all. A mention that they were originally written for Ensnare would be wonderful, but certainly not required. As you stated, this is legally your music that you have licensed to me to use. QUOTE Good luck with your game! It looks wonderful, from what I can tell; very professional and well done. I've always had a soft spot for really great puzzle games. Thanks for the compliment. Allow me to tell you that you exhibit a very high level of professionalism yourself, both in your music and the way you communicate. I'm grateful for your "soft spot" for puzzle games. It worked out wonderfully for me. Now my game not only looks good, it certainly sounds professional and well done as well. Now, I know you said you are willing to do this for credit only (and I will put you prominently in the game's credits). But, for one, I'll be sending you a full version of the game as soon as it's finished. And secondly, do you have a wish list on Amazon.com or something? Maybe there's a book or something I can order for you? QUOTE Thank you for allowing me this opportunity; I had a lot of fun! I can tell you had fun. It shows in your music. Thank you for taking this opportunity. If I have more projects in the future, I'd love to work with you again, if your not swamped by your studies by them. Also, if you ever decide to pursue freelance music production for media professionally (something that I think you're more than capable of doing) and need a reference, feel free to use me. I'll gladly vouch for you to anyone that asks. Thanks again. Joe Ellis Ben, It just occurred to me that by offering some payment that is actually far less than what your music is worth, I might have given the impression of undervaluing your music. I hope you didn't take it that way. I very much appreciate you doing the music. I just was thinking about the possibility that I might have mistakenly given the impression that a book or something is what I thought the music is worth. It is worth far more than that. I could be just being over-critical of my own communication, but I did want to make sure to let you know how much I appreciate your music. Thanks, Joe Ellis QUOTE I would, however, be interested in knowing a little more about you. As much as college values recommendation and word of mouth, it would be wonderful if I could print out the message you sent me and provide it as evidence of my experience. They'd need to know such things as how old you are, if you are a professional or indie developer, etc. Whatever information you're comfortable releasing. No problem. I am 31 years old and have been a professional computer programmer for going on 15 years. While still in high school, I did contract work for Stewart Television Enterprises in Burbank, CA. I have been a full-time computer programmer specializing in web-based software for 11 years. As far as games, I definitely fall into the indie category. I have been a hobbyist game programmer since my dad bought his first computer in 1989. QUOTE I would love to work with you again! Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind in any future projects I do. And one more thing. After spending more time listening to the music, I have one slight request on the western track (#4), but it is simply a mixing request. Is it possible to lower the volume of the fiddle a bit. By the fourth or fifth time through the track during game play, it just starts to seem like too much of the high pitched stuff to me. There's no hurry on that, though. Thanks again! Joe Ben, It's been a while since I've spoken with you. I am getting very, very close to completing my game Ensnare. I really only lack a few tweaks and the Online play, which is going somewhat slowly because I'm trying to create a multiplayer lobby for the first time. Anyway, I thought you might like to hear your music in the game. Here is a download link to the game in its current state. It should be stable. http://www.supremefunklord.com/EnsnareSetup.exe Also, here is your complimentary registration key to the full version. This key will work for any future versions as well. Ben Tibbetts 0000P1-5BBK03-HR3MMK-PX3JHN-B9CETJ Again, I want to thank you for the music. Having good music that fits each theme adds a lot to the game and those who I've shown the game all agree. Also, feel free to distribute the demo or link to whomever you wish. (Though I'd appreciate not distributing your registration key, not that I needed to mention it, but oh well.) Shareware's a work in progress, so if you have suggestions for the game, please let me know. The referenced web site, http://www.tireswinggames.com will be online within 24 hours. www.tireswinggames.com/ensnare will be the game's web site, if you wish to place a link on your music compositions page. Thanks, Joe Ellis Ben, QUOTE Joe, Wow! Thank you for the copy of your game; it looks to me like it came out great. You're more than welcome, and thanks for the compliments. QUOTE -You may want to consider lowering the level of both the western and jungle themes' sound effects. The gunshot and the chirping sounds both came out very piercing on my computer, even with the volume of the sound effects turned way down. I agree, now that you mention it. Actually, you're not the first to mention this. This is one that I put off to see what percentage of peple felt this way. QUOTE -On the jungle theme, the "Round" word is blurry, and on the default theme the word seems to be in bold. (nitpicking, nitpicking!) Yeah, nitpicking. I'll see what I can do to clear it up, or use a slightly different font. QUOTE -I noticed when I gave the game to my sister, when she went through the instructions she tried to use the arrow keys to go from page to page, and when she pressed an arrow the instructions window closed. Operating under the assumption that other people might do the same thing, would you consider maybe allowing a person to go through the little instruction manual with the arrow keys as well as with the mouse? Thank you for this one. That is purely a case of using the program exactly how I imagined and never once thinking about the arrow keys. Now that you mention it, the arrow keys should work, and should not close the window. QUOTE -I recognized some of the sounds from the Game Maker resource package. I was wondering if selling a game using these sounds could possibly lead to a copyright infringement of some kind? I noticed that, too. Although the sound effects in question came from a royalty-free sound effects web site, and not the GameMaker resource pack. Evidently, the GM resource pack includes some of these same sounds. QUOTE -The game crashed twice in the course of a day and had to close. It could very well be my computer but I thought I should let you know. Edit: Actually, as I was writing this it crashed again... I wonder what the problem could be? OK, I'm real concerned about this. I definitely want to figure this one out before I release it. The current version has only crashed once for me on one PC, and never on my other. I haven't been able to find what caused the crash yet. Can you tell me if what was happening in the game when it crashed. Was it in the menu? (right after a game, or not? Was it ditring game play? Any information you can come up with would be a tremendous help. QUOTE -For future versions: have you ever thought about adding more difficulty levels? I acknowledge that it may be difficult to program and it's not exactly necessary, but as a player I often feel it's a nice option to have. As a game developer, it's also a relatively easy way to increase the amount of entertaining hours you can bring your audience... some players really will just keep playing until they can beat the hardest setting. Yes, I have thought about adding difficulty levels. I know how to easily make the computer an easier opponent. However, to make it harder (using my current algorithm) would increase the time the computer spends thinking, which I'm afraid would be a detriment to the game. Also, what did you think about the difficulty of the computer opponent right now? QUOTE -For the Eastern theme, you might consider using a different sound than the default. Some things that come to mind include a whoosh sound, something that implies magic (perhaps the tinkle of little bells?), the sound of a woven basket hitting the ground, and a quick ring of a gong. Good suggestion. QUOTE -When you play for a while and the music track repeats, a faint clicking sound can be heard. Hmm... I'll look into this. QUOTE Well, that's all I could come up with for criticism, and as you can tell from my suggestions they're really nothing more than very nitpicky observations. Great job. I'm glad I was involved in such a cool work... this is staying on my harddrive! Thanks so much for the feedback. It will help as I continue to improve it. I think I'm getting very close to releasing it. Still a little more work. Although this tedious business of polishing the game has gone on for over a week and a half now. Now, I'm beginning to understand how hard it is to truly finish a game. Thanks, Joe Ben, Thanks again for your feedback. I wanted to let you know that there is a new version uploaded with many of the things you pointed out fixed. It also includes multiple difficulty settings for the AI opponent. The web site is now up and running, although not fully complete. It is http://www.tireswinggames.com/ You can download the new demo from that web site and install it. You should not have to re-enter your registration key. Thanks, Joe Ben, With Ensnare released, I'm working on a new project. I thought I'd check to see if you were interested in doing some more music? I would need only one, or maybe two (one for gameplay and one for menu). The new project is called Lillypads and it is a strategy board game. It is heavily based on a board game called Yinsh, but it is not exactly the same game. Even though the graphics are cutesy, there can be a lot of thinking involved. So, I wouldn't want any music that would be too distracting for someone trying to think. Here's a screenshot. Lillypads Gameplay Screenshot Also, It'll take a while to get this one close to finished, so I'm not at all in a hurry. I plan on getting this done by late April, though. For now, I'd just like to see if you're interested in composing a bit more. Your music was great last time. Thanks, Joe Ellis