[anuStar] devlog ~05: Goey? and news

Another weekly report is coming~
Last week, Hipon still tweaking the game balance, level design etc. Some things are getting better now. The mechanic become more solid and the dynamics are getting greater. The spawner system comes so satisfying too. But we still discussing for the balancing. Quite hard to finish dat one! Phewww~


But anyway, we're going to make it chaos and lot of humor! You'll find some unique motions from Goey. Like this one ;)

Again, Reijubv must make another sprites for Goey, and Laz still fixing some particle. Clea must compose draft for sfx + bgm stage, and Hipon should implement sprite and next-map-transition. SO much things to do!

Hope everything will done perfectly soon! And see you next week!

Late Weekly Report for Loooong Weekend *again*

Heyaaa!! Vichelyna's here on weekly report *again* *doh*
Anyway, on Oct 31 2013, Stellar Null was on JCC, Senayan giving some speech *ahem* for Jakarta Game Show 2013. Clea and I were talking about game trend :D *we will upload the slides soon* *after approval* heheee..

(Left to right) - Moderator - Vichelyna - Clea - Anton from TouchTen
Jakarta Game Show 2013 @JCC Senayan, 31Oct'13

But anyway, how's Koutack doin'? We are working hard on Koutack for iPhone 5 resolution support, and new look on menu. We added more menu transitions so it'll be cooooooollllll~ After all, stellarNull reached around 30% better performance for iOS ;)

We really did some good jobs for this week! How bout having some beer to celebrate it? *beer*

How I produce my songs

Music production?

 

 

Hi everyone, clea leshlick here. In this post, I will talk about my music making routines. I do it in my bedroom, which is soundproofed(although not perfectly). I use FL Studio as DAW and Tascam US-122 mkII as the interface. Sometime I'd use my midi keyboard, which is a humble M-Audio Oxygen61, and sometime I would only use mouse and the typing keyboard.

My speaker is a good old 2.1 Altec Lansing. Bought it around 8 years ago, and it's still in good shape! Headphone is Philips SHP8500, not too expensive or high quality, but it's decent. I use both of them as I play PC games, watch videos, listen to music, and of course, mix my own songs.

Death will: clea leshlick

Hello folks, today I'm going to talk about my death will. It's things that I want to be done to my body/corpse and my 'heritage', after I die. I might do a revision/update sometime in the future, assuming that I still live, of course. But before that happens, this will here is good enough. So let's get started...

Music Licensing

What is it about?

For those who isn't familiar with the term, I will try to explain with a simple example:

I wrote a piece of piano music titled 'singing trees', I put them on my site and you happen to like this song. Then you think: "Hmm.. this might be suitable for my current game!"

Then you contact me, we chat a little bit, then you pay a small amount of fee to use the song 'singing trees' on your game 'Tree Panic'. Pretty simple, no?

Are you sure it's that simple?

Well, there are lots of variations and depths of music licensing contracts details, including exclusivity, validity time, numbers of projects you want to use them on, and how big your project is; commercially speaking, but we don't have to go through all that every time. For the best of both parties, it's good practice to keep the deal as simple as possible, without sacrificing the important valued details of course.

So, how much is this small fee you mentioned above?

Assuming it is a non exclusive and a one project license, 5 Euro/song. I honestly think it's a really good price, considering the value of my musical composition/quality. But then again, how much value is created when you add my music to your project, is highly dependent on you. For example, licensing a song which have a high compatibility with your project will mostly make bigger impact/impression than licensing a random/lower compatible song.

Aren't you selling yourself too short here?

Maybe, but I have some reasonable logic behind this decision.

• I'm not worldwide known and famous like Masashi Hamauzu, at least not yet.
• If I set higher price, I may still get deals, but is it worth the tradeoff?
• Every piece I compose is unique and original, wouldn't it be a huge waste to keep them dusty on my garage?
• No matter how good my songs and my skills are as a composer, what good does it do if I'm the only one enjoying them?
• As a musician, I will feel great joy and pleasure when people listen to, enjoy, or somehow benefit from my music in one way or another.

I don't really know/understand music or I don't have time to listen through your whole playlist just to find the 'right' songs, can you help?

Well, sure. You can probably show me your project website/screenshot/demo, then I will recommend you the 'right' songs. I think it will be quite fast and easy, since I know/remember my songs really well, unless something bad happened to me and screwing my musical memory/assessment skills lol.

So, where are the links to these licensable musics? 

I know that I should make a shopping basket/song preview model of webpage for this kind of thing, but it's not easy. While we are working on it, we can do this manually by email. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Action/Battle http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3591031
Dungeon/Stage http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3591033
Town/City http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3592450 
Misc http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3592453

They are downloadable for free, mp3 file. What are the licenses?

They are free for personal and listening purpose only. To use them in your projects, you have to contact me first. Here's a list of what you can and cannot do with these free downloads:

You can:

• Listen to them
• Share them with anyone

You cannot:

• Edit, mix, alter them
• Resell them
• Repost them as your own work
• Use them in your projects, commercial or not

I like your musical style, but I can't find anything usable on your whole playlist.

If that is the case, then maybe it's time you ask me for a custom composition, in which I personally write the song to be used specifically in your project. It's highly beneficial and can bring tremendous value to your project. But it takes time, sometime a lot of it, and good amount of focus, and dedication to do this type of work, so it costs more, hehe.

Ending.

That's it for now, I hope now the term 'music licensing' no longer confuse you,
or put a frown on your face ^ ^

See you later on my next post, and thank you.

~clea leshlick

Introduction: clea leshlick

Hi there, I'm clea leshlick, one of the founder of stellar-0. Since this is my first blog entry, I think I'd better introduce myself a bit, so that you may know or have better idea of what kind of person I am. A little bit of warning from me before you continue:

1. this post is going to be long, so if you are in a hurry now, maybe it's better to read it later/tomorrow.
2. my english is far from perfect, so it may get dull and confusing sometime.
3. I'm not an experienced journalist/blogger, so the post quality may not be so good.

who am I?

I'm a dreamer, an idealist, and highly self-opinionated. I like to analyze, observe, and find out how the universe works. I don't categorize myself as a man or a woman, I have both traits of male and female, and I prefer to express them as I see fit. I like to be totally free and make the rules of my own life. Things I like include: music, video games, singing, psychology, martial arts, spirituality, philosophy, metaphysics, fashion, makeup, hairstyle. I enjoy lots of jokes and stupidity too. It's good to have people to laugh and joke with, really. I am happily married and I keep 4 turtle pets at home. I sleep a lot every day(10++ hours), I feel that sleeping is very enjoyable, relaxing, and inspiring. It could be true, or maybe it's just an excuse of my laziness? lol

love for video games

I enjoy playing video games since I was small, mario bros, sonic, golden axe, if you are around my age, I'm sure you know those games. I grow to love RPGs, strategy games, war simulation, sport simulation, games that make use of lots of numbers and display them as part of gameplay. Don't get it wrong tho, I really don't like math and my math grade were not really good back then at school. But for some reason those numbers in the game really fascinate me. I got really immersed and engaged that I played for very long hours, over and over again. Video games have become a big part of my life, I learned a lot about life, culture, history, art, and lots more. As for MMORPG games nowadays, things are becoming closer to the real world human interactions, I can see one instance of the world/society in those MMO's I play. I see love, hate, struggle, greed, generosity, ignorance, dominance and many others. I have my own views and pro cons of every game I played and enjoyed seriously. It can be too geeky for some, but I think it can be a good and refreshing insight when I do a review of my favorite games, in the future posts.

love for music

It also start to spark at my early age. I can recognize and remember a lot of tunes and songs. Some of the melodies/songs I heard back then are stuck in my head even until now. They are irreplaceable. Then I got into anime music, which are mostly sung by Japanese Rock/Pop musicians. I forgot how it started but I ended up buying LUNA SEA's period album cassette. I spent lots of my school hours listening to this tape damn lots of times, that I memorized all the lyrics and notes. It finally got me into singing. I came to know joy of singing and belting my voice out to express whatever I had inside. Then I got into a band who do covers of Jrock/Jpop, with me as the vocal. For some reason, I have better pitch/chord recognition ability than my guitarist/bassist at that time, so I get to learn a guitar tab software, so I can show them the notes/chord I hear, because I can't play a guitar.

After that, I got into midi composing. I used to think that song makers/composers are something really extraordinary or alien. How can one create a song? That time, I can't figure it out, but after fooling around with that guitar tab software, I finally get it. I was saying to myself: "Huh? So it's just this simple? Composing a song is so easy!" I really overestimated myself that time. I feel so special and highly talented. I even think I can make a piece which rivals those classical music. I was thinking, if it's in my head, then I can create it. Turns out I was so wrong. The more I know, realize, or learned about composing, it gets harder and broader.

Time flies by, and before I know it, I get to the age where one normally have an established stable income or work. After deciding that I dislike formal office work and that I won't finish my college, I shoot random bullets at the chance of 'game composing'. I have some sense of music, good imagination, and I learn fast. My first jobs turns out a lot better than I expected. It's not bombastic or anything, but it's a great learning experience, and it has proven to me that one can really make a living out of music, which strengthen my belief of: everyone can make a living out of their dream job.

vegetarianism

I have been a vegetarian for around 12 years now, and I think it's one of the best life-changing decision I ever made. I used to be a catholic and I really believe in the almighty God and Jesus. Sure, I have some life questions that my belief cannot answer, but I never thought that a popular/mainstream/major religion can be this wrong/BS/lie. It never really got into my head before, about how bad these animals are treated at the ranch, how much they suffer, both physically and mentally. When someone tried to expose this to me, I tried to run away. I used lots of excuses, like: "It's not directly related to me." "Even if I become a vegetarian, wouldn't the slaughter continue as it is?" "I was told that those animals are meant to be killed and eaten"

I have seen a cattle's throat got slit with a butcher knife only 3-5 meters away from me, and it's bleeding and resisting like crazy, until it finally dies. WTF did I just see? A legalized murder? Everyone there just stand and watch, no one freaked out or screamed. No one tried to help or save the life of that poor cattle. Wonder why? I was sure that cattle feels pain and fear, I've had my share of watching horror/torture movie, so I can imagine my throat being slit open like that. I started to question God, humanity, and my religion. I really believed that humans are the most noble creature, humans have conscience, have compassion, and wisdom. If we are doing something wrong, our conscience will react and remind us of truth and God's way. Yeah right, I did not feel a slight bit of guilt and disgust from eating and stuffing my stomach with animal corpses for a long 15 years. Honestly I enjoyed them, they taste good and smells good. Don't tell me my that conscience are broken or somehow not working?

My experience above proves and disproves a lot of theory at once. In the end, I can be sure that humanity/society can't be viewed as my standard of truth, life, and righteousness. Major religions are the same. I'm not saying that everything in them or everyone of them are 100% bad, but if you want to live consciously, becoming a follower is not the way.

freedom

This is also a very important part of my life. I have struggled to gain it, I've paid prices, and I have felt some degree of it in my current state. Freedom of action, speech, and mind. All 3 are essential to spiritual/mental growth. I'm really happy that my current 'job' gives a high degree of freedom. I'm free to make whatever music I want, when and for how long.(exclude deadlines)

I'm free to decide what price I want to charge(or not charge) for every music I make, I'm free to decide when to work, play, take a bath(or not). The downside is, if I'm not disciplined enough, it's very easy to slip into low productivity, thus will screw my values, which will hurt my financial situation in the end.

I can aslo experiment and influence how stellar's games will turn out. Is it nice? Is it dreamlike? If you think you deserve more freedom than you are having now, I suggest do something to get it.

ending

Thanks for reading until the end, you deserve a break lol! I hope this post of mine can have a positive effect on you. As for my next posts, I plan to cover digital music production, share stellar's game progress, songs I composed, and lots more. I may want to setup a vote to see what most of you are interested at. Until next time, have fun~

clea leshlick



Picture credits goes to:

• http://bobish144.deviantart.com
• bloglucianaenglish.blogspot.com
• shakeituptimes.blogspot.com
• treehugger.com
• longtuanpham.wordpress.com