Kid Charlemagne

For those of you curious to hear the demo I played for Tyler, here it is.  It's mostly me experimenting with the LFO (with Osc. 2 and Wave as the destination), and playing around with the arpeggiator.  The patch is the first one I've made on this machine, and I named it "Nautilus."  Expect to hear some of these sounds in the game.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to check out a new trading card game and I suggest that you do too -  it's called PK Cards and it's designed & printed right here in Mentor, Ohio.  It's like Magic: The Gathering minus the suck.  All of the characters come from different cultural mythology, and they do battle against each other to allow your avatar in the game to gain prestige.  This can be a lot of fun because you can finally prove that Merlin can indeed kick Quetzal's ass and that the Aztecs were a bunch of pussies.  The game is really well balanced and easy to pick up but can be very complicated.  Its depth and variety, however, should ensure great longevity, and mean that the game doesn't have to be re-invented every expansion.  The core decks come really well built and competetive right out of the box.  I played three games (two against my co-worker Pete and one against my girlfriend Lum) and won two of them.  Each pack or core deck also contains a Gold Key, which you can enter online to buy MP3 players, Playstation 3s, and more cards.  

Today I had the chance to tour the PK offices and see where the cards are printed - believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen sheet upon sheet of exotic uncut foil cards just sitting on a wooden pallet.  I also got to meet Yoshinori Ikehara, one of the artists responsible for bringing some of PK's legendary badasses to life.  He even signed a Mantis for me and a Lung for Lum.  If you're not doing anything the ninth of January, come out to Hobbytown USA in Mentor for a demonstration tournament.  As the date approaches I'll get more information posted.  I expect to see all of you there (this means you Tyler).

Keeping In Touch

Well today I heard my first of Cameron's work, and I must say, I am well impressed. He seems to achieve the perfect sound I'm looking for. My general position on this is that I must now make sure my game lives up to his work!

I got to hear some samples of what he's been doing with his Moog, and the sound is terrific. And with some work, it'll fit perfectly. Afterwards we went around the college to one of the piano rooms (that I had no idea existed), and we spent some time brainstorming things together, him on piano and me working on my laptop. And with both of us going at once, creativity abounded. I certainly got some ideas just from hearing some of the tunes he was putting out. It was a wonderful experience.

Now on to business. With my schedule being what it was, time was scarce, work and school was all I really could do. I would doodle in my off time, but nothing too serious (I even drew a picture of Abraham Lincoln on a slow day at work). That being said, not much headway has been made on my end, though with the college semester over my time opens once again. But another item arises. Back at deviantArt we're doing a little fun flash secret Santa thing. We all submit our topics, and someone gets them and designs something for that person. I'm participating, and obviously I don't want to be the person who doesn't give out a gift, so that'll take up some time.

In the meantime I'll be drawing pictures and making doodles of bosses and working out stage sequences in my head, logging them away for later. Work is being done, I've just got nothing to show for it!

I Got The News

Moog Little Phatty Stage II

Looks beautiful, doesn't it? For those unfamiliar with Dr. Robert Moog's legacy, click here.

Over the course of the past several months, I've been literally dreaming about owning one someday - the classic analog Moog sound is unrivaled by anything else, period. I was very lucky to be able to get this - Sam Ash was offering a great deal, and I simply couldn't pass it up. With 20% off their already low price, 18 months with 0% financing, and a free CP-251 Control Processor, I would be stupid not to go for it. If you're ever in the greater Cleveland area and need help with synthesizers/keyboards/production equipment, be sure to talk to Rex at Sam Ash in Lyndhurst- very helpful and courteous, and really willing to go the extra mile to make his customers happy.

All plugging aside, I couldn't be happier with my new dream synth. I'm a big fan of analog sounds but until now, I've been restricted to programming Subtractor patches in Reason 4. As I become more proficient at navigating the Moog's interface, I plan on creating some incredible sounds that will make Metarract: Aero's soundtrack a true masterpiece of synthesizer programming. As I create different sounds, I may upload short demos and post them here for you all to enjoy. Stay tuned!

Thanks Bob!

Project: Metarract: Aero

As the title of this post plainly shows, so "begins" our first project, a game that goes by the name Metarract: Aero.

Aero is a shoot 'em up, or put more simply a space shooter, like Galaga and Galaxian, and somewhat more recent titles like R-Type and Gradius. I recall many years ago when the Gamecube was still in its infancy when I made my way through the mall to find a demo of a game sitting in f.y.e. (though if it was f.y.e. at the time, I cannot recall. f.y.e. or a store that was similar). Now, I did not have a Gamecube at the time, but I found the console to be interesting, and Nintendo was quite the contender when it came to video games. So I played this demo, and I fell in love with it. Although I only played it for about five, perhaps ten minutes, I was enthralled with this game, and yet I would not find it again for years to come.

The game I'm referring to was Ikaruga, a fantastic bullet hell style game which employs an incredibly interesting polarity system. The game, though hard, is beautiful in its execution, and flows so cleanly that I made a point that I were to get it one day (which I did). I highly recommend it.

Now the point of that story was to explain where I derived my influence from. And although I will not achieve such brilliance in design, limited as I am in my abilities and tools, I hope that my game will at the very least flow at least half as well, and be one fourth as interesting.

Metarract: Aero is essentially another power-up shooter (vertically scrolling), but with a certain flair to the power-ups. They aren't stacking, nor do they replace each other. Put simply, you will bank each power-up, where you will either get so many shots or so many seconds to use the power-up. I thought this would help increase flow in the sense that rather than being forced to use the power-up you currently have, you can use whatever one fits the situation best, also keeping in mind your limited resources. I didn't particularly like making it with limited resources, but I felt it was necessary to keep your ship from becoming too powerful, and to keep people from using the same power-up over and over again (trust me, with some of them, you definitely would).

It is at this point that I've essentially created the basic engine for the game, and I have begun the finer points of the design stages, namely creating enemies, minibosses and bosses, and then arranging them all just so to create a level that's fluid. After each level I'll send the file to Cameron and he'll work his musical magic out to fit it in nicely with the gameplay. I'm quite excited for this game, and in time, hopefully you will be too.

Home At Last

The first time I met Tyler, I immediately noticed two things that we shared in common:

1. We have really fantastic hair.
   
2. We have really fantastic names.
   

After further discussion, it also became apparent that we both value creativity to a startling degree - so much so, that we have both chosen to devote our lives to it in our respective disciplines.  Tyler showed me some of the games he had programmed; I told him that I was an electronic musician and an immediate bond was formed.  Using the computer as our medium, we express ourselves through our art. By combining the two, we hope to create a truly unique, visceral gaming experience.  Thanks for stopping by.  You're about to witness the birth of something incredible.

A Beginning

Hello there everyone out in Internet land, and welcome. This is Metarract, a blog devoted to the creative process, or something like it.

Introductions? Sure!

To start, my name is Tyler Rush, and I deal with general programming and design. I've always loved creating and designing things in my younger years (which weren't that long ago, I'm only 18) and have always pondered about the more interesting things in life. Of course, lazing about all day wondering about things doesn't get you very far, so I figured I'd take this creativity and put it to use. But how to go about it? I wanted to be an inventor, but soon I realized this was not my true calling. A bit far-fetched, you might say. My thoughts were not so practical as to be used in everyday life, but rather used for entertainment I suppose. As I got older, I found video games. And as I played more and more, I realized, this was it. This is what I want to do. People enjoy video games, and it is a perfect medium to express ideas, whatever they may be. This virtual medium would be my craft.

Now of course it's not that easy, it takes a lot of learning to keep up with the world of programming, but I aim to do just that. And when it comes to designing, the same rules apply as they always generally have, the only changes are tools and trends. It makes it no less difficult, just more abstract. But with time and work, one can become almost anything.

"If your job is something you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
~Some wise person somewhere

In any case, this blog will start out with just me and Cameron, who I'm sure will introduce himself soon enough. And perhaps in time, as projects go by, and as our group grows, I may add people here. Only time will tell.

As soon as introductions are aside, we'll intro our current project and its current state, to kickstart everything nicely. And then we'll proceed to move through the creative process involved as time goes by. Though don't expect us to stay on topic...

Hope you all enjoy it.