Music Associations

I’ve often thought that music is the only form of expression that transcends its original purpose – and influences many other forms of art. Every other form of entertainment is usually absorbed in isolation, but music is complementary. You listen to it when writing, when making levels…when working on any piece of art. Every couple has “their song” that reminds them of a emontional time. Crafts are the same, and the music that you listened to gets forever associated with what you were creating at the time.

I can think of several music albums that have a connection with something I was working on:

Depeche Mode – Violator
The good old days. I was working on my Burg Schreckenstein level in the 3D Construction Kit (and in particular the hills to the lake and the boat house) at the time.

Deine Lakaien – Winter Fish Testosterone
I was working on The Troopers’ Playground, and in particular level 05 (the Underground Temple) when listening to this album.

Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar
I really got into Marilyn Manson when making Beyond Belief – really the only Marilyn Manson album I ever got into (more for a lack of trying than for dislike of his music, though). I also listened to Depeche Mode’s “Ultra” a lot during this time.

Toto – Dune Soundtrack
I started he Armageddon 3 level for Quake when I was visiting Ritual Entertainment in Dallas for Quakecon 97. Something of a prolonged job interview, I stayed an additional week in the office afterwards and got to use the computer of Joe Selinske (who was on vacation) to make some Quake levels. I also got to listen to Joe’s CD collection – and the Dune soundtrack was prominently featured.

Ace of Base – Cruel Summer
Yes, I know – it’s Ace of Base. But just having moved from Europe to Texas I was looking for anything that reminded me of home, and the new (and AFAIK final) album by Ace of Base fit that bill. I was listening to it a lot when working on my Sin levels, particularly cleanup work on the chase through the abandoned buildings (2nd mission – started by Mike Wardwell).

Smashmouth – Astrolounge
Another guilty pleasure album. But what can I say, it sticks out in my mind. That album was actually a lot of fun to listen to, and I particularly remember creating the fireball traps in The Vault under the White Tower listening to the first track (“Who’s There?”)

Depeche Mode – Exciter
This is probably the weakest Depeche Mode album of recent times, but it’s Depeche Mode! So I played it a lot when working on Unreal 2. Particularly Mission_04, a set of levels that never got finished and didn’t make the final game. Mission_04 was a mining planet similar to Total Recall with a surface bases and some deep underground tunnels.

These days, I don’t have a favorite albums anymore – because the iPod shuffle has replaced the CD player. Whatever new albums I buy go straight into the shuffle and are rarely listened to as a whole. That’s kind of sad when you think about it…but kind of cool at the same time as well! The shuffle keeps digging up songs that I’d almost forgotten. Like the song Fighting TheGreen (from “Winter Fish Testosterone”), which played as was driving home tonight.The music reminded me of making TTP – and inspired me to write this post.

Got any music albums that remind you of a certain time in your life? Post them in the comments!

P.S.: For our wedding this Saturday, we’ll play Vanessa Carlton’s “San Francisco”. That’s the song that Victoria and I associate with good times

Video Awards

My Indy Car video has been nominated for the (probably-not-so) prestigious WeShow Awards. It won the first round and is now running in the Auto Sports category. It’s an interesting experiment, I wanna see if I can get enough votes to get this video on top of the main Sports channel.

Please take a second and vote for my video! Just find the “Motorola Indy 300 Test Session” video, move it to the top of the chain and submit you vote (you have to register first, but it’s a minor hassle). All the other nominated stuff is lame TV captures, it would be nice to see some original content win this thing!

Inside Nextel Cup

Victoria and I have made a habbit of watching “Inside Nextel Cup” on the Speed channel every week. A little bit to recap the race. But mostly to watch the panel, and more specifically to see Michael Waltrip be his usual crazy self (and to see everybody else’s reactions).

Each week the panel answers a bunch of viewer-submitted questions, most of them kind of dull. So, being my usual self, I wanted to see what it takes to get a question on the program. I submitted one, not tied to a specific race, a few weeks ago – imagine our surprise when it actually came on tonight. Victoria got a kick out of it, and I’m getting a kick out of it. I’m not exactly defining myself by having my questions featured on a TV show (having people play my games and read/watch my stuff is a bit more rewarding), but it was fun to see nonetheless

The question was “Do crew chiefs ever get in the car themselves?” To be honest, I kinda knew the answer, but that wasn’t really important. I just thought that this one would be a good conversation starter. And it was. I uploaded the clip to Youtube, see below!

Page Status

The server that this page is hosted on crashed and some of the data got corrupted. Still hunting down everything that needs repairing, but the content should already be back up and running.

IndyCar 2007 Video

The finished Indy Car video is now on Youtube.

I played it much looser with this video, just throwing shots against the wall and seeing which ones got soaked up by the music and which ones didn’t seem to fit. The ending happens a bit quickly, but that’s okay I’m happy with the final routcome. I’ll post some frames from the HD version later.

The Wheel of Time stops turning

R.I.P. Robert Jordan.

I hadn’t read any of Robert Jordan’s books when Glen Dahlgren contacted me in 1997 about working on The Wheel of Time computer game. But I was intent on doing my research, so I immediately went to Baedeker to buy the first volume of the series. In English, of course, because the game was going to be in English.

E3 1997 happened right around that time. I’d made contacts with several other game companies in America and I had potential job prospects (Legend could only offer me a remote position from Germany), so several regulars on the #level_design IRC channel were encouraging me to fly to Atlanta to mingle with the crowd and maybe make something happen. My parents were on vacation, so I borrowed some money from my late grandmother and bought an improptu plane ticket to America.

It was during the four-hour train ride to the Frankfurt airport that I started reading The Eye of the World. My English was still rather bad and I didn’t understand every word in the book, but the writing was so good that I was captivated anyway. Sure, when it really came down to it, Jordan was treading familiar territory: black riders, a wide-eyed farmboy goes out into the big world to fulfill his destiny, mysterious mentors accompany him… But Jordan did everything in a wildly imaginative and evocative way. The characters and world felt very alive, and everything was relatable.

Of course I ended up working for Legend and on Wheel of Time anyway. By that time, I’d already read all available novels even though I hadn’t been working on the game (as had Charlie Wiederhold, another potential WoT level designer who ended up working elsewhere). And I can guarantee you that every designer involved with the game cared about and was a huge fan of the books.

I’ll be the first to admit that the series eventually died on me and I only ever made it to book 7. That wasn’t necessarily because the story had become less interesting. It just seemed like there was no end in sight!
I think I’ll read all those remaining books now. It sounds like the final volume will be finished in one form or another, and I want to be ready for that. Thank you, Robert Jordan, for all that you’ve given us!

P.S.: The trip to E3 1997 didn’t actually happen after all because of a snafu at the airport. I spent four additional hours riding back home (and reading).