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Video Games

"Missing Pieces," a Visual Novel

The game development team QuestYard is working on a variety of games. The team specializes in games that foster empathy and human understanding. I have been contributing original music to these games, especially the visual novel “MIssing Pieces”.

Missing Pieces is a story-driven adventure in a vibrant alien world, full of hidden secrets, a plethora of languages and a sparkling cast of characters: lovable rogues, heartbroken families, and questionable allies. Find friendship and love, learn about yourself and discover who you really are!

The first chapter of Missing Pieces is available for free on Steam. Below are two videos; a trailer on the left and a teaser on the right.

We received some nice reviews on the first chapter of Missing Pieces. As an example:

“This game has some serious promise! The art-style is super fun design wise, the backgrounds are stunning, and the soundtrack is just chefs kiss. I particularly loved the sounds of people doing all kinds of things when you were in the town, it was super immersive and the sound of that lone woman singing loud enough to rise over the chatter but just quiet enough it felt like it was part of the chatter? God I loved that.”

— Recommended by Jackolantern

Mini-Game

“Missing Pieces” contains mini-games that provide a bit of a challenge to the player. The difficulty level can be adjusted to suit the player’s preference. Here is a walk-through of a mini-game that is similar in style to “Guitar Hero”. The player goes through 3 instruments, each time increasing the complexity of the sound.

Dual Kitty

For the Global Game Jam in January, 2022, I contributed music tracks to the game “DualKitty”. From my blog post DualKitty, you can see all the details, and even play the game!

That Retro Guy -- Throwback Studios

I am scoring a set of Machinima videos, that were produced with the Grand Theft Auto-5 game engine. The music scores include a variety of styles, including rock with heavy guitar, saxophone and drums, orchestral, big band, jazz guitar, Chinese-style, Italian-style, and vocals.

Episode 5

This episode is finished and uploaded for public viewing!

0:08 – 1:10 Suspenseful jazz style, with main theme played by sax and muted trumpet.
1:11 – 1:40 Jazz with duet played by jazz guitar and sax.
1:41 – 3:10 Jazz with percussion, sax, upright bass and electric guitar
3:50 – 4:59 Suspenseful jazz with guitar, brass, sax
5:00 – 5:13 Orchestral hits synchronized with explosions
5:15 – 6:00 Action scene with percussion and orchestra
6:03 – 7:03 Percussion and organ playing fast almost atonal theme
7:05 – 7:27 Suspenseful underscore
7:28 – 8:42 Rock theme played with electric guitar and sax duet accompanied by percussion

Episode 6

There are many styles in the music score. For example, 0:05 to 2:40, and during the closing credits and outro from 9:56 to 12:05, the music has a “detective thriller” atmosphere. Then, from 2:40 to 3:58, Chinese instruments are used to generate a Chinese style of music. There is also a piece of diegetic music at about 3:25 that I produced, and processed to make it sound like it is played through a radio. From about 5:22 to 7:40 is an exciting track that is loosely based on a 3-Act trailer score. From 7:55 to 9:10, a big band plays a rock tune, in contrast to the gruesome interrogation violence. From 9:18 to 9:45 there is a low-key tension-building cue.

Episode 1

0:00 – 0:39 Suspenseful music
0:42 – 1:12 Diegetic music that the director supplied, and wants to be retained in the video.
1:13 – 2:18 Suspenseful music with the main theme played by a sax and then by a muted trumpet.
2:18 – 3:23 Suspenseful underscore
3:23 – 4:16 Return of the main motif, played repeatedly by an electric guitar.
4:17 – 5:02 Percussion, then supplemented by sax playing a motif.
5:03 – 6:40 Electric guitar playing a soulful riff,.
7:01 – 8:06 Guitar duet playing Italian-style music
8:07 – 10:00 Soulful jazz band with background vocals.
10:01 – 11:12 Cinematic suspenseful music with background vocals.