The Beta version of a game I’ve done music for has just come out. The game is called “Attack of the Meeplings” And is a cute neo-retro bullet dodge arcade style browser based game. Well, that’s how I’d describe it I guess It’s made by TinyFrog Software, and the game can be found at http://www.tinyfrogsoftware.com/aotm/

The music I did is done with General Midi, which was a challenge in itself. I think I already blogged a little while back about rediscovering the joys of MIDI, and while MIDI is a little outdated,and quite restricting, is does have some advantages. Because Attack of the Meeplings is a browser based game, it’s preferable for it to have a small file size for fast download. MIDI file sizes are ridiculously tiny, so ideal for this sort of thing. The other advantage we had with MIDI in the case of this game, is the fact that you can change the BPM. The game starts off with the music playing at 140BPM, and as the game speeds up with each level, the music plays faster and faster. Unfortunately I’m really bad at computer games, and haven’t managed to get past the first level. Yet…..

Well, The RPM challenge is over, and while I didn’t complete it in time I feel it was definitely worth while attempting it because I have written a lot of new material that I otherwise would not have.

Next year, I think I would do a few things differently to make sure I finished in time.

Not starting a week late.  I started a week late this time, because I heard of the RPM for the first time a week into February.

Not spend so long on songwriting.  I spent so long writing, demoing, then rejecting songs, that I planned to do most of my proper recording and mixing in the last few days.  This backfired terribly when I got the stupid flu and spent the last few days lying on the couch feeling like death microwaved on high for 30 seconds.

Take it more seriously.  Probably the biggest reason I didn’t finish, is simply the fact that I didn’t make it my number 1 priority.  If I had taken it more seriously, I would have been forcibly removing visitors from my home – family or not, recording on those last few days no matter how sick I felt, and recording in the evenings without worrying about annoying the neighbors.

I had actually been planning on having a proper album finished by June, so this was good motivation to get some more material together, and I now have a few new songs that I’m quite keen on (and quite a few I’m not!).

[Actually, if I had really low standards I could just send in ten demo's I've done, but nah.  Not gonna happen   ]