Some Marvin's Mittens Remixes

Because why not?


Wub Wub Drifts


Glitch Thief


(The obvious answer being that a glitchy dubstep sound is the complete antithesis of everything the Marvin's Mittens soundtrack is... but that still isn't really a deterrent when I can't sleep and crave the wub wub wub...)

MARVIN'S MITTENS!!!!!!!!!!!

Are the exclamation marks overkill? You know what? I don't think so.

Don't wanna read anything else? Just go get the game!

Curious what I'm using such ridiculously elaborate punctation for???????????? ...? Read on! (!!!)

Marvin's Mittens is out and available for purchase. This is a game conceived and partly directed by yours truly. I did art, art direction, high level design, level design, voice work, SFX and... the soundtrack.

Oh how I've laboured on this soundtrack:

http://mikeok.bandcamp.com/album/marvins-mittens-ost

But enough about me and my sweet, sweet sounds. This project was started with some old friends (we're talking elementary school), but along the way, I've made some other friendships that will last a lifetime. When conceived, Marvin's Mittens looked like a little pixel art one-off in my head. But we brought on artists and level designers and programmers who took this project, in every possible way, to the next level. Instead of spending a few months, or maybe a year, making something fun to help Jason Nuyens learn programming, we forged a game development alliance and developed an amazing game over more than five years (!). It's been a pretty awesome project, even if we did get really tired of it and spend a lot of time dragging our heels to the finish line. But the game is something really special, I think. It's family friendly, whimsical, adorable, and still a game. It would be easy to write it off as a toy or a kids game, but there's actually quite a bit of content, some really decent platforming, and this inexplicable more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-ness to it. It came together and it's a short, but really sweet experience, and I'm incredibly proud to be able to say this is my game. To be clear, all of Breakfall had input and left their mark, but maybe as much as any game that will ever be made, this game is as Mike Keogh as it gets. There are other things I'd like to make, and they're not all combat-free, kid-friendly romps through a snowy wonderland. But it's infused with exactly the sort of personality I strive to add to the audio in every game I've worked on, and the feel of the whole experience is (if I do say so myself) just wonderful. Seeing it through new eyes with testers and previewers (and already a couple of reviews), there's some real magic to Marvin's Mittens.

I'm gonna stop writing, and you're gonna go play it:

http://breakfall.ca/marvinsmittens

Farewell, City of Heroes

I really barely played the game for the last year or two. But when I was playing it, what a game it was. Design, in exquisite detail, your own hero. Decide his or her abilities, pursue comic book plotlines that mixed just the right amount of kitsch and action. I made so many characters, played so many stories... I don't entirely like to think about how many hours I put in. It was a staple of my gaming for many years, and I truly loved that game.

So thanks, Cryptic, NCSoft and Paragon Studios. Thanks for giving me that platform to have so much fun in an awesome virtual world. Thanks for the collection of medieval armour and flora that was the Gnomish Battlegarden. Thanks for the rabbit ears and high tech gadgetry that made Scrappy Trappy Bunny such an absurd, yet effective villain. Thanks for Dustgear, the steampunk gunslinging android, who turned out to be far more deadly that his creator, Dr. Doomtron. The artificer Roland Swift was recreated to try every different powerset I could possibly relate to magic equipment, while Lord Kroog founded the Thaumaturgically Reinforced Offensive Operations Planning Services (TROOPS, for short). I'll never forget the day that TROOPS finally found its way, as an organization, into the hero designation. A series of action heavy missions saw a squad of these dark-magic-infused soldiers shed their status as villains and change alignment by helping heroes thwart some since-forgotten apocalyptic scenario. The details of who they shot that day didn't matter, what mattered was that suddenly I could walk among heroes without having to lob any grenades. And dear old Skeezik Sordido, the dark wizard who, as soon as it became available in an update, elected to drop his mastery of illusion magic in favour of leading a deadly cadre of ninjas. Ninjas! As minions! So good.

It's an inglorious end, I suppose, and terribly sad to know going back isn't even an option, but many happy hours were spent in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, and I'm certain I'm better friends with a few people because of the time we spent playing this game. Thanks City of Heroes, you'll be missed.

Breakfall on Facebook

Go like Breakfall on Facebook to stay on top of Marvin's Mittens news! This blog is gonna probably stay a little quiet while Breakfall members ramp up Marvin marketing efforts, but I just posted a rather nice track from the soundtrack on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/breakfallgames

Other music and announcements will resume on mike-ok.com in the new year!

MARVIN'S MITTENS ON GREENLIGHT

SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT BLOG POST THUS FAR:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92922470

PLEASE GO VOTE FOR US!




Greenlight is a service launched recently by Steam (the biggest online videogame store in the world). It's basically the Steam community voting for what independently produced games should be available for purchase. Marvin's Mittens is a project I've been working on with a bunch of friends for five years. The game is almost done, and getting to sell it one Steam would be a dream come true, because the Steam community is an enormous pool of prospective buyers.


To vote, you need to be a Steam user. You can't just create an account and vote, because that would make it too easy to cheat the system. But if you have a Steam account, please go check out the game, consider giving us a thumbs up, and leave a comment!

Boss Music

Super productive week out of town, with a ton of work on the Tom on a Pogo Stick soundtrack. I'm gonna post some boss music, but I have some REALLY BIG IMPORTANT NEWS TO FOLLOW WITH.

For now, just enjoy these agitating anthems.

Up and At 'Em!

Got up bright and early this morning. I have an on-and-off relationship with mornings. Today it occurred to me that while the early bird might get the worm, the worm who sleeps in until noon will miss all the go-getter birds, which also has certain advantages.

I made this on the bus:


I'm up to almost a half hour of music made in Caustic 2. This coming from a guy who just a few months back didn't see the need for a smart phone. Still can't get over having a full DAW in my pocket. Crazy times we live in.

Too Much Tequila

Is that an admission of guilt, or just the name of the track? I'll never tell.

Too Much Tequila:



I can say with a fair degree of certainty that I was not under the influence of anything when I made Now With More Stuff:



THIS is not mine. Nothing to do with it. Just someone I've communicated with on Soundcloud, and I think this track of his is particularly awesome. Warning: dubstep.

Drops of Darkness:
Drops of Darkness by Wafflekiller

This is NOT how waveforms are supposed to look.

See how large tracts of this waveform don't cross zero? They just sort of bottom out and hang really low? That means I really mangled  it with effects. I should probably ease off some of them, but I also kind of like the crunchy sound.

WHERE'S MY LEMONADE:


EDIT: substituted some distortion for flange, eased of some of the bitcrushing, and the results are crunchier than ever, but don't hurt my speakers as much. The waveform is much closer to centered.

Thaaaaat's not brown sugar...

I was about to shake this into my coffee, when my friend Phil stopped me and pointed out what I was about to do. Assuming that's labeled correctly, that would have been a bad latte.

So what was I meeting Phil about? Mostly just to hang out for a bit, actually. But we sometimes discuss the goings on of his company, Lecker Klecker, and specifically, his awesome forthcoming indie opus, King Voxel.

But you feel you must ask: "Mike, isn't Marvin's Mittens your forthcoming indie opus?" Yes. That one is mine (and the rest of the Breakfall team's). King Voxel is Phil's, and I'm doing the music for it, if you'll recall.

Having little to do with any of that (except that I started it while waiting for Phil, and finished it on the bus ride home), here's Waiting for the Cubeman:

Monday of Recovery

After, *ahem* perhaps slightly too good a weekend, I'm taking it a little easy this morning. No reason not to be productive with music, though...

Anticipated vs. Actual

Life is full of disappointments and nice surprises, of all shapes and sizes. Am I the person I expected I would be at this stage of my life? Pondering these matters can keep you up at night. At which point, if you really can't sleep, you might as well make music.




The cell phone playlist continues to grow!

A Weekend By The Water

Canoeing, swimming, beer, margaritas and BBQ. And now, on my phone, amazingly portable studio technology. What an awesome, relaxing summer weekend. Here are the two new tunes I made with Caustic 2.

PINES AND NEEDLES

LAKE PARTY

They've been added to the growing playlist of experimental noises and electrofunk made on my phone.

Music from My Cell Phone

I'm having a blast with Caustic 2. For a while, I've been thinking about getting into chiptune production, but I found working in most actual chip tune editors too restrictive. I do like working within constraints, but I just didn't like the totally different workflow of things like LSDJ. Caustic does lots of the things I like, but it doesn't have endless pools of samples and effects to wade through (so much as, say, Reason). It immediately lends itself to work on crunchy grooves - all about simple synths and drums with a few effects. I can just take a few minutes wherever I happen to be to work on making cool patterns and rhythms. Good wholesome audio fun.



EDIT: scroll down for more tunes, which I'll keep adding to this playlist.

Caustic Rocks It

I just downloaded the future, to my phone, for $8.



Ok, so it's a pretty unremarkable piece of music. Not terribly good, even. But I made it on my phone in 20 minutes poking around in Single Cell Software's Android music making software, Caustic 2. Lots of big companies I like are making iOS versions of their Digital Audio Workstations, but I hadn't found something I loved for my Android phone until an hour ago.

But it was an hour ago when I first downloaded this nifty little app, and I found my way around its enormously intuitive interface and made a (ok, not great) track since then. It runs very smoothly on my Samsung Infuse phone. My iPhone wielding friends have on occasion mocked my phone's size, often citing it's near-tablet proportions. But I've never been happier to own this phone than now, with the slightly oversized screen affording pretty much the best interface I can imagine carrying around in my pocket (yes, it still fits EASILY in my pocket).

So I own a great little studio for making electronica, and it fits in my pocket. Neat.

By the way, the Caustic 2 demo is only restricted in saving/loading/exporting. So download it and try it!

The Wardens

Another one for CoreTechs. Trying to get very different textures and moods for the different factions. The world of this game has a fascinating mythology. Gonna be a good soundtrack too, I think.

Don't. Even. Ask.

Just listen.

Oh, and maybe use headphones if you have cats. Just saying.



It had been a while since I posted anything demented.

The Quest for Epic: RELEASED

I started this blog for two reasons:

1. to talk about carving a propane tank into a lovely musical instrument (sitting right next to me, I find it very relaxing to play my hank),

and

2. to keep me focused on a new musical project (codename: The Quest for Epic, a.k.a. "Epic Track of the Week").

Well, I'm done mastering The Quest for Epic and it is now available on Bandcamp! This marks the completion of two major personal music projects since the beginning of 2012.

I'm feeling Super Effective.

CoreTechs

This project excites me. Made a music loop for it that's almost as effective as coffee for getting me pumped in the morning.

Welcome to The Moon

Really happy with this:

Marvin's Mittens Update

There will be an official release date announced very soon. In the meantime, here's the latest trailer!

Music for Memory Palaces

A while back, a friend introduced me to the concept of "memory palaces", an ancient technique in which you build a mental location to use as a mnemonic device. She requested some loopable soundscapes that could be used to enhance some memory palaces she was trying to build.

Here's the audio:

Viking Run

Another day, another indie game soundtrack. This one is about vikings, and you can play it here.

Enjoy!

Tilty, Eh?

The soundtrack for a friend's Windows Phone game, Tilty, Eh?...

Because Fez Had a *Great* Soundtrack

This morning Rich Vreeland tweeted that someone should make this. So I did.

Adventure (from Fez) - Western Reinterpretation

Epic Track of the Week

Stayed up late on a Friday night a few weeks ago. Just added an ending now. Maybe this marks the end of The Quest for Epic, which I had previously believed was done.

The Next Adventure


I went to a meeting of the Dirty Rectangles, Ottawa's indie gaming scene, last Wednesday. Saw some very interesting games, met some very cool people. I've now promised my services to several indie projects, and I can honestly say I'm pretty excited about all of them. Good things coming.

I recently completed the soundtrack for an iPad game, still pending release. But I'll give you a taste of the airy, cheerful goodness now.

MftPMN Album Art

Check out this awesome album art for Music for the Postmodern Ninja, made by Andrew Jobin!

I've also been selling some copies through Bandcamp, which is pretty amazing. I've hopefully got that page and this website linking to and from each other smoothly. Something to note: all the individual tracks are downloadable with a minimum price of nothing, so if you just like one or two tracks and don't want to give me any money, downloads are on the house! Go, listen, enjoy!

Music for the Postmodern Ninja RELEASED

After years of seemingly endless remixing, Music for the Postmodern Ninja is out! It's available for your listening pleasure over on Bandcamp, where you can also download of individual tracks or purchase of the entire album for an incredibly reasonable price.

It has begun!

Music for the Postmodern Ninja is complete. Like, actually done.

It's been a very long journey, but I'm finally very pleased with the results. The process of uploading all the final tracks to SoundCloud and Bandcamp will take a day or two, but I'm really excited to have this ready! The final round of remixes really has every track sounding great, and this labour of love represents a body of work I'm truly proud of.

Now to find an audience...

Music for the Postmodern Ninja Updates

I tend to say "almost done" a lot on this blog. Maybe public declarations of near-completion help me feel like I'm making progress.

Or maybe when you've been working on two major projects for almost four years, the final six months in their entirety actually count as "almost done"!

Either way, I'm two sound effects and some guitar mixing away from being done the entire album, so Music for the Postmodern Ninja is really on the verge of release. This week's progress: some major overhauls to Unbridled Restraint and A Matter of Patience.

Unbridled Restraint


A Matter of Patience


Oh, and this weekend is GLOBAL GAME JAM WEEKEND. Once again, Breakfall (and Friends!) will be participating. Always an awesome time!

Laser Sound Effect Step-By-Step Discussion

Welcome to my first ever podcasty, tutorial, talky-talk thingy! I dunno if this is general interest or more for aspiring or already working sound designers, but it's a start-to-finish look at how I used Reason 6.0 to build a sound effect for a game. The sound in the game is a handheld laser cannon found deep underground while fighting... well, I'm not supposed to talk too much about the game at this point. The source material is a tiny bit of noise I accidentally recorded with my handy Zoom H2 Recorder. I loaded it up in my favourite music-making application (some of the music is below the sound design tutorial), and filtered, distorted, morphed and shifted the source material until it was a whole other thing. And one I kinda like. Enjoy!



Here's some of the music from the same game (bits of background ambience heard in the tutorial were also from the game's prototype soundtrack):

Moving Along...

Some very nice music was chosen for Gunpoint, and alas, none of it mine. I'm not going to lie, I was too grumpy about it to post until now. That said, I'm very pleased to see some of John Robert Matz's wonderful work going into the game.

So I've gone back to what I should be working on: Marvin's Mittens!

Here's the latest thing I made for that: