Knights and Film Music
February 27, 2009
Today I publish a new music track, inspired by knights, chivalry, code of honour, battles and dangerous wilderness exploration. This is a demonstration of my talent with orchestral arrangements.
Knights and Film Music
The Knight is an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of courage and honour.
Knighthood was characterized by two elements, feudalism and service as a mounted combatant. Both arose under the reign of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, from which the knighthood of the Middle Ages can be seen to have had its genesis.
Knights were trained in hunting, fighting, and riding. They were also trained to practise courteous, honorable behaviour, which was extremely important.
This behaviour was a Code of Honour, made of solemn oaths, like to protect the people and to live by honour and for glory.
Danger was part of a Knight’s life, and you can feel dangerous surroundings in this orchestral demo.
Part of the track is from the music soundtrack I’m composing and producing for the Nintendo DS videogame Baalzebul. It is an innovative fantasy role play game. The first playable demo will be completed soon.
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A Finnish music story Musician Matti Mattila wrote his story for us, a Finnish music story! Please read also his Finnish blog and check his page at LinkedIn. I named this article "A Finnish music story" because through Matti words we can know an exclusive tale about late 70's and 80's of Finnish music....... -
Listen to Music Online Many asked me to write a post about the Music Pages I've got in my websites, so you can easily Listen to Music Online :) Ok, let's start then. The first page is the Music Demos page here at ManuelMarino.com. You can find it also in the top bar, title...... -
A Beautiful Interview Ceri Shaw suggested me an interview from our friends at Americymru. So here's this beautiful interview with Dr. Karl Jenkins (I include also the link to their ticket giveaway competition for his performance at Carnegie Hall NY on March 6th 2010). A Beautiful Interview Dr. Karl Jenkins is Britain's greatest...... -
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shifting tastes What makes someone who loved "Louder Than Bombs" by the Smiths in the 80s listen to Madeleine Peyroux in 2007? Here is a proposal: there are three types of music lovers. One loves music in general, and their tastes evolve with the times. Another loves a specific type of...... - Musician Profile for Isaac Stern American violinist Isaac Stern was born on July 21, 1920 and died on September 22, 2001. During his lifetime, he won several prestigious awards, including the 1982 Sonning Award and a number of Grammys. In addition to receiving recognition for his own works, Stern was also known to have a......
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Astronauts and Funk Music
February 26, 2009
Today I create a new category, named 2009 Music Demos, where I’ll publish totally new music tracks made with the latest gears but with the same talent behind: myself :)
These tracks are demonstrations of my skills and creative ideas and in each post I’ll explain the inspiration that moves them, the images I would like you to see while listening to them and the feelings.
Astronauts and Funk Music
This first post is dedicated to big 80s space operas, movies, novels and sci-fi culture. This is also a trip to old good 80s with their catchy rhythms, synths and guitars.
This first demo starts with a space choir, an opening orchestra and choir theme, I can say epic and grand, that creates images of galaxies, shuttles, astronauts and the infinity of the universe.
The choir evolves into a rock instrumental piece, with 80s synth effects that add a spacey feel to the entire track. I can name it “space rock”.
The next style is jazz, a universal style that will never end to please our ears, today, and in the next centuries.
Synths are back in an 80s pop mix, while a really catching funk part ends the demonstration, making us really uplifting and excited.
I dedicate this music work to Richard Garriott, Lord British in Ultima and significant figure in the video game industry.
On October 12, 2008, Garriott launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the International Space Station as a self-funded tourist, returning safely 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12.
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The B52’s, London Roundhouse Wade Crawley is back with a great B52 concert review! If you remember, Wade wrote for us Punk music in the late seventies. Now read his new exclusive article for ManuelMarino.com! The B52’s, London Roundhouse It was on a hot and very sweaty summer night in London’s trendy Camden and...... -
How Has the Internet Affected the Music Industry? This article is written by web designer Josh Gutteridge who runs Skyte Media. Skyte Media is based in the Midlands (England) and is a professional web design company that specialises in web design and development. Josh would like to receive comments about this article on his blog. But of course...... -
Reading for fun This is a nice article from Isaac Marion. Isaac has been running the online textual variety show, BurningBuilding.com, since 2003. He lives in Seattle, Washington, where he works various mundane jobs while trying to make his writing/music/art career take off. Reading for fun Recent studies have shown that across the...... - Knights and Film Music Today I publish a new music track, inspired by knights, chivalry, code of honour, battles and dangerous wilderness exploration. This is a demonstration of my talent with orchestral arrangements. Knights and Film Music The Knight is an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of courage and honour. Knighthood was......
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American Music and Vintage Guitars Mark Weakley is an impressive artist; sculptor, painter, musician. He plays guitar, banjo and harmonica, and has recently recorded a CD of his original compositions. In this exclusive article he talks about himself, about his passions, about his father, about traditional american music, about vintage guitars and banjoes, and much......
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The Economics Of September 11, 2001 It would be unfortunate for you to be an American and forgotten what today is. Tragic events in the history of this young American. I will always remember that day because I watched the second plane hit, live, and watched both towers fall in the library at school. Those images......
Living as Independent Developer
February 17, 2009
Today we interview Andres Martinez, owner of baKno, a game development studio located in Key Biscayne, Florida. They are a group of video game enthusiasts committed to developing new ways to deliver fun, interactive and challenging software.
Living as Independent Developer
Manuel Marino: You declare yourself and your team as “video game enthusiasts”. How much being a “videogames fan” is important in creating games?
Andres Martinez: All companies have their own stories, but in our case, developing and self-publishing our games has been difficult, with low sales during several months at our beginnings, and still low if they get compared to a regular studio. The only reason we have been able to survive is our passion for the art of game creation.
Can we say that the old games of the past were “better”? What can we say to the nostalgic gamers?
20 to 30 years ago the video game space was totally different. Accessibility to video games was very low, the product itself was like an experiment and the assumed audience was reduced, fortunately for us, we fell into that target, and we enjoyed every bit of Space Invaders, Galaga, Pac-Man, etc.
Some may say that it was better for game developers at that time because it was easier to create totally new and different IPs (Intellectual Properties). But the reality is that, they created myriads of games and only a few stood up to catch the public’s attention. Additionally, they were tremendously limited by technology and market penetration.
So, to answer your question, I don’t think old games were better or worst. But I think that our judgement is usually biased by the emotional attachment we have to those old great experiences.
How is the Independent developers world?
If we can name our day to day activities at baKno a “world”, then it is great!. Being able to make a living out of our own game creations is a wonderful feeling. None of us worked in this industry before and we don’t know how it is to distribute games through an experienced third party, maybe sales are much higher, but I suspect that for those particular jobs your independence is quite compromised.
What’s the difference between being “indy” and being “in the industry”?
We don’t consider baKno to be an industry player yet, we are independents as explained before, but it does not excludes the possibility of being an influent member of the gaming industry at the same time.
Videogames are more a “work of art” or a “industry product”?
All baKno games are a “work of art” built upon an “industry product” foundation. This foundation provides a minimum quality, design and support standards, and it becomes the canvas where the artist paint his game creation.
What can be done to make modern games better and innovative?
Creating better games is not that difficult, just use your common sense to take advantage of the ever-growing processing capacity, graphics and audio capabilities and internet bandwidth. As an example, you can enhance a simple old-school cards game with better graphics and effects, and maybe adding a multiplayer option with audio chat capability. Creating quality innovative games is an art, and for that there is no recipe or guideline to follow.
Why is it that I find games from independent developers being more innovative?
Innovation is weapon that cuts both ways. The more you innovate in a game, the higher the chance of being a great hit or a great failure. Established studios have serious economic responsibilities like payroll or rent, and they cannot afford to risk the company viability in a single game. On the other hand, and usually not even knowing about it, independent developers working from home are the risky creators of real innovative game experiences.
Internet can be of help?
Sure. In general, for casual games Internet has been the medium to reach massive audiences by offering free-to-try downloads, something that would have been impossible (very expensive) by mailing free CDs. In particular, baKno relies heavily on the Internet not only as a distribution medium but also as an effective way to communicate with our customers, and also to enhance the game experience with additional online features.
What are your next projects?
We are working now the online gaming for Billiards. We want to create a subscription service before mid-year. And by the end of the year we want to create a game with 100% pure baKno IP.
How do you see the future of videogaming?
As an interesting mixture of platforms, game genres and players’ demographics. Internet is going to be the default distribution medium, there won’t be a single dominant gaming platform, more and more people will embrace video games as an entertainment alternative, and most important: the general public will recognize the cognitive development value provided by video games (most of them).
- Independent Games We interview Adrian Grigore, president of Lobstersoft, an independent casual games developer from Fulda, Germany. Their company consists of 2 people, although they have outsourced some parts of the development to freelance graphics and music artists when creating Gemsweeper. Gemsweeper is their latest title, a PC puzzle game. Independent Games......
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Creating Clouds Frank Kane job is very particular... he creates clouds! He can do it through his C++ library for real-time sky and 3D cloud rendering, used worldwide by scores of games and visual simulation applications on the Windows platform. Its name is SilverLining. Creating Clouds Manuel Marino: Your sky and clouds...... - Game Engine Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential. Game Engine In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest......
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History of Music and Current Recording Industry Crisis Roger L. Bagula wrote this exclusive article for ManuelMarino.com. History of Music and Current Recording Industry Crisis In a time when the whole future of how music is distributed is in question, maybe we should look at the history of music for a guide. Many of us find music......
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Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume Eighty Seven. Damn it's cold this morning. We had to go out the other day and buy an ice scraper for our car and start looking at shovels for the first time in many, many years. It was 31 degrees the other morning - but this weekend should be in the...... - General Info About Internet Marketing For You To Be Aware Of A target market also known as customer focused market is the organization that determines its potential clients’ desire, and then according to the received data builds the product or service. Both marketing theory and practice is justified in the belief that a client uses a product or service due to......
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E-commerce, a cultural fact?
November 1, 2008
E-commerce, online marketing, shopping, globalization, innovation are all linked together. It is becoming a real huge cultural fact, to be studied, to be understood to comprehend our world and where this world is going to in the near future.
E-commerce, a cultural fact?
Global E-Commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the Evolution By Nikhilesh Dholakia is a great book that explains all of this.
Specialists from business and academia present a meticulously researched, compelling examination of the effect that globalization, innovation, and relentless technological competition are having on the development of e-commerce and marketing. The editors offer practical managerial insights, important empirical findings, and new ways to comprehend the intricacies of the fast-morphing world of electronic business.
Another book that really catched me is Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture by Sidney Eve Matrix.
Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture is an analysis of cyberculture and its popular cultural productions. Each chapter focus on a particular cyberfiguration, including Hollywood films (GATTACA, The Matrix), popular literature (William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Scott Westerfeld’s Polymorph), advertising for digital products and services (AT&T’s “mLife” campaign), video games (Tomb Raider). Each close reading illustrates the ways in which representations of digital lifestyles and identities which typically fetishize computers and celebrate a “high tech” aesthetic encourage participation in digital capitalism and commodity cyberculture.
What I’m seeing on Internet and around me is an impressive and crazy explosion of virtual shops, like StreetWear-And-Red.com (also StreetWearAndRed.com). Goal of the shop is providing cool designs for the urban and street fashion along with elegant ideas for the modern gentlemen.
In the same explosion I can put my ebook and also my new CD with Rock and Metal Guitar Solos for Multimedia.
I’ve got just a fear, that all of this is going to result in a soap bubble in the future. How much will we be fascinated by the virtual world and how much can we stay far from reality? (Or virtuality is going to be our new reality?).
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Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 Ceri Shaw is a Web Designer and freelance writer. If you remember, he wrote What is Anglo-Welsh Literature and why Should Anyone Care?. Ceri is a former college lecturer from Cardiff, South Wales. He wrote this article for us. Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 There is an...... -
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Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts
July 23, 2008
Today we interview Raymond Jacobs, owner of Ethereal Darkness Interactive. Founded in 2002 Ethereal Darkness Interactive is commited to developing quality indie games with high production values. Raymond talks about his latest project, Morning’s Wrath 2, about videogames, Arts and technology.
Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts
Manuel Marino: You are working on some new features for your next game…
Raymond Jacobs: yes, it is going to be Morning’s Wrath 2, the Sequel to our first game. You would be the first news source to really mention that!! As for the new systems… they are some various forms of internet integration with our new engine (The S3Engine 2.0) (version 2.0 of the engine used to make Malathedra). They will allow players to directly in-game leave comments to the developers about what they think of the game as well as submit any errors encountered via the internet automatically.
This is part of our new ‘internet technologies integration’ initiative as well as trying to know the minds of our target market better so that we can provider better games and faster fixes.
Sounds really innovative! The game reminds me Ultima Online…
Somewhat, though it is a single player game. In MW1 you had to fight off an invading army from taking over your castle along with learning the ways of magic though in doing so you get stricken by a terrible ‘dissease’ since the magical elixer that you use (mana) is by nature poisioned.
MW2 continues with this story, having morning lead her army across the continent to strike back at the invading Ashidian Army; and her search for a cure for her poisioning which is slowly driving her insane. It will likely be done in episodic format, and 3 episodes are currently slated.
Can we say that videogames are a form of Art?
Personally I consider videogames as a major form of Art but I don’t believe that people yet see games as an Art form, at least not the vast majority. They are still mainly an entertainment source however indie developers are definitely causing a movement of games as an Art form.
Flash games in particular have helped further this, allowing many traditional artists with limited programming skills to make simple games, which are avaliable to a wide audience.
As for my company everything we do is first a source of artistic inspiration and second a business endevor. We feel that without the artistic and creative backbone, what we develop isn’t likely to be enjoyable.
How technology fits with creative skills?
We limit ourselves to fairly proven technology, choosing not to push the technological envelope very much; but instead create a platform for creative expression; by creating a limited and finite set of functionality on existing technology it forces us to be creative, rather than to rely on technology to turn heads.
The newest HDR rendering may be very pretty, but beyond that it says nothing about the depth of a particular game, so in short, we use technology as a pedistal from which to express our creativity.
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- Game Engine Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential. Game Engine In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest......
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Mobile Games and Technologies Federico Elinger, owner of Pocketsol Games, wrote this exclusive article for us. Pocketsol Games creates high quality mobile games for the mobile phone based java platform (J2ME). The development studio is in Argentina where fun and addictive games are created for most of the actual mobile phones. Mobile Games and...... -
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Spring Football Games: A Frugal Introduction To College Sports Today we are heading back to the university my wife and I attended (and met) to watch the annual spring football game. This intra-squad scrimmage represents the ceremonial end to spring football practice, but the team will have one more practice the day after the game to review film and...... - Internet Based Guerilla Armies Attacking National Internet Services and Grind Systems to a Halt Internet based guerilla armies attacking national internet services and grind systems to a halt.Latest attack is Kirgisistan which became isolated from the internet by hackers in January 2009.<br><br> An internet based guerilla army of hackers makes sure that Kirgistan is having problems with their internet access outside the country.<br><br> Since......
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Computer games on DVD/CD's will become Extinct I am a gamer and I only purchase games online, usually through Steam, http://store.steampowered.com/ Direct2Drive, http://www.direct2drive.com/ or the EA store, http://eastore.ea.com/ I think many gamers are going this route now a days, since it is a lot more convenient to purchase a game online, then go to the store,......
Game Engine
November 16, 2007
Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential.
Game Engine
In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest technological advances, both developers and audiences alike have understood how much sound and music can do to enhance gaming experiences and increase the overall realism and emotional impact of virtual worlds.
Today, many music games are being released with great acclaim on different formats but many of these games tend to be in the rhythm/action category where the player is actually “reacting” to music while a real and natural “interaction” with this medium is still lacking.
This aspect is currently being addressed by a team of researchers and developers at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, led by Italian computer engineer Dr. Roberto Dillon, with a project codenamed M-EDGE (“Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine”) which is fully supported by the National Research Foundation of Singapore.
The underlying idea of the project is to assess and further investigate music related cognitive science topics and integrate the results into games by designing and developing an interactive and emotionally-aware musical game engine that enables players to experiment with a completely new gaming interface.
In fact, by using this engine as a development tool, game developers will be able to build content on top of it where players are not limited to control their actions in the virtual world by using standard interfaces, like a mouse or keyboard, but also to directly affect the game progress by expressing emotional content through the playing of a real musical instrument.
To accomplish this, M-EDGE will be developed to recognize different basic emotions (like happiness, sadness and anger) as expressed by players in their musical playing on an instrument of their choice like flute, guitar, violin or drums.
This information can then be used to control the game accordingly by allowing the player’s in-game character to perform particular tasks or by developing the game story in particular directions. For example, one of the games currently being designed by Dr. Dillon to test the system capabilities is based on the well known legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In the game the player will impersonate the Piper himself by actually playing a flute and go through the storyline, including its multiple endings as described by different versions of the original legend, according to the emotions he will be able to express through his very own playing and hence decide the fate of Hamelin young people.
Obviously, this kind of games would be a great tool for players who have previous musical knowledge and know how to play a musical instrument, nonetheless special attention will also be dedicated to give a chance of successful playing to people who never played music before. This will be achieved by allowing prospective players to experiment with simple percussive instruments so as to give a chance and an incentive to get into the fascinating world of music making through games to as many people as possible.
The Singaporean team believes the concept of an emotion-based music game engine like this would represent a leap forward within the music games genre and could also have a strong potential for commercial exploitations, besides having a valuable educational side. In fact, as suggested, it will actually encourage people to learn and practice music through a challenging and fun tool where all players, from beginners to professionals, will be given a chance to freely express themselves through music, something no other game has ever done before.
Besides these, more serious and medical applications could also be possible: the final framework could, in fact, be a valuable tool in assisting emotionally impaired people to practice and experiment with their feelings under supervision of a physician/psychologist.
The project, though still in its early stages, is raising a good interest in the gaming community and has already been presented at the Game Convention Asia Conference in Singapore last September. For those interested, slides of the presentation can be downloaded from Dr. Dillon’s website.
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Renewing the Folk Music Movement with Acoustic Musical Instruments Seth Lakeman, a folk music star that is nominated for a Mercury Prize has been talking about the acoustic of folk music and acoustic musical instruments. For example, Lily Allen's new single is featuring a banjo solo, which would not have happened in years past but now apparently seems to......
Independent Games
November 7, 2007
We interview Adrian Grigore, president of Lobstersoft, an independent casual games developer from Fulda, Germany. Their company consists of 2 people, although they have outsourced some parts of the development to freelance graphics and music artists when creating Gemsweeper. Gemsweeper is their latest title, a PC puzzle game.
Independent Games
MM: Adrian, what can you tell me about the actual situation of independent videogame developers?
AG: Life as an independent game developer has always been a lot of fun. It requires a lot of dedication, but it is hugely rewarding to watch other people happily play your game once it is finished.Being your own boss also has its advantages. I love having the freedom to work whenever I want, as long as I want and wherever I want. I’m not sure if I could take my laptop and work outside in the garden on a beautiful summer day in a “regular” company.
Business-wise things have changed a quite bit during the last 4 years. Casual games have become a huge trend and lots of larger companies have entered the market. There is a lot more competition and both budgets and production values have increased dramatically, making it much harder for small developers to keep up.
For example, a VC funded games company outsourcing development to Eastern Europe can afford to produce 10 titles even if most of them don’t recoup the production budgets. As long as just one title reaches AAA status, this can still be a profitable business strategy. Most indie game developers cannot afford to do this.
There are still great opportunities on the casual games market for indie developers if you have a good innovative idea. It is not easy to succeed though and opportunities are not quite as good as they used to be a few years ago.
Can we talk about the relationship between the big distributors and the independent developers like a “collision”?
The rise of huge game portals such as RealArcade or Bigfish Games during the last few years also caused a drop in (games-related) traffic to the traditional shareware sites. Indie game developers have therefore become dependent on the portals.Teaming up with a publisher / distributor can be a good way for indie developers to get more publicity on the portals. This is also what we have done for our latest title Gemsweeper.
How did you have the idea to found Lobstersoft?
I started creating my first game called “Five+” just to practice C++ programming while I was studying at university. The game was free at first, people only had to send me an e-mail if they wanted to have an unlock code for the full version.After just a few days I got so many e-mails that I had to think of a way to automate registration key submission. I was also surprised to see that a magazine wanted to include the game on their cover mount CD. Then I found one of the first shareware payment processors and decided to convert to Five+ a shareware game.
Your next projects?
We are working on a sequel to Gemsweeper and on a subscription-based web site. The website is not gaming-related, but I never saw myself solely as a game developer, even if computer games have always been one of my favorite pastimes.
- Artists Psychology Here's an interesting exclusive article Roland d’Humières, 56 years old psycho-analyst from Aix en Provence (France) has written for our Weblog. I think it to be a very interesting writing about the artists psychology, or maybe "arts psychology", what's behind an artists mind. Artists Psychology Whatever is his/her Art, painting,......
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- Game Engine Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential. Game Engine In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest......
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Inspired by nature Artist Robert Tucker talks about himself and his artist experience in this exclusive article. Inspired by nature The glorious portal of a new year is again upon me. My mind has wondered since the start of 2008 as to which direction my creative self will take. For me a...... - Independent Filmmaking We're back with a new interview, to Actress and Producer Glorinda Marie. We talk about independent filmmaking, filmmakers, actors and movies industry. Here are some interesting links to check, after reading the interview: - Actress Website - imdb - SF Indieclub - Get Bizzzy Acting Coach Manuel Marino: "Glorinda, what......
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Life Insurance and Annuities may be Right for Retirement Despite Money Magazine Let me say this first and foremost, I generally like Money Magazine, but I was so angry when reading this month's issue. It wasn't just one article but rather the combination of two articles. On page 29 there is an article titled, "Keep Your Nest Egg Safe from Uncle Sam" by Karen...... - Developing a budget with Irregular Income For most people, a budget is the first step to winning in the area of personal finance. Developing a working budget isn’t as difficult as most would have you believe, and you don’t need any sophisticated software to develop a budget that will work for you and your family. John......
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How to Get Started With Niche Blogging Are you already participating in the creation of a blog? If you are not out there blogging already, then you are definitely missing out on a truly booming market, not to mention what is essentially one of the latest and greatest fads on the internet. Today it seems as if...... - Derek Lamont, the Online Game Dating System Review If you have ever tried internet dating and have never experienced any sort of success, you're not the only one. I have also been there and totally know your pain! I know how much it sucks when you send out messages and you don't get a response! It hurts a......
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Game Dev
October 23, 2007
Famous Game Dev Vince Desi writes for our Weblog! He will write a series of articles, and this is the Part One of an article about being successful in Independent VideoGame Developer Art! Become a famous Game Dev now!
Game Dev (Part One)
Part 1. The 3 Essential Elements:
I started Running With Scissors in 1996. Desire, Focus, Commitment. I like things to be simple, so I will concentrate on what I believe are the most important Elements to be successful. While you may think these 3 Elements are general factors and would apply to any endeavor, your right. How you apply them is what determines how successful you will be.
Desire is the soul of life. It makes you who you are. It’s what drives you to get up in the morning, to work late into the night, and to do it all over again and again, as long as necessary. Desire is blind to failure. Desire is based in the question “What do you want?” Do you want to be a Video Game Developer? Do you have the skills it takes to make games? Are you creative? Inventive? Can you write, draw, program, build and lead a team, manage the ups and downs? How bad do you want it? Desire will deliver you to success if its true to who you are.
Focus is the roadmap for success. What type of game are you making? Is it a puzzle game, or a shooter, or a sportsgame, etc. What platform are you designing it for? Console or Computer? Handheld or Mobile? Is it a single player or multiplayer, is it time based or mission based? Who is the audience, male and female? How old? What languages? What cultural impact is there? Will there be a sequel or mods? The more you Focus in advance the more reliable your roadmap will be, and the faster you will become successful.
Commitment is what determines your priorities. Are you single? Or Married? Do you have kids? How much time are you willing to devote? Do you want a nice car now or later? Do you want to go on vacation this year or later? Do you want to go with your friends this weekend or work late? I didn’t say it would be easy or all fun, but if this is what you really want, then it will be fun, and easy and most important it will be natural to be committed to your project, and the project will come to you, just like success will follow.
I’m not here to waste your time, or mine, so unless you can honestly ask yourself and answer Do you have the Desire? Can you focus? Are you willing to make and keep the commitment? If you truly believe your answer to all these is YES, then congratulations you are have taken the 1st step in becoming an independent video game developer.
Part 2. Game Concept to Design
Part 3. Build your Development Team
Part 4. Create a Business Plan: Marketing, Publishing, and Distribution
Part 5. How to live after your game is a Hit!
Bio:
I have been a creative person my entire life, from painting clam shells from Coney Island beach in Brooklyn to everyday parenting of my kids. When I was ten years old I met someone who could draw a lot better than me, so I started writing songs. When I was sixteen I met someone who could write better songs than me, so I started painting, then I wrote poetry, then short stories, and philosophy, all along I was living life, not looking for who I am, but living who I am.
At 28 I started in the video game industry as a Producer for the original ATARI. In 1982 my first big title was SPY vs. SPY for the C64. From then to 1996, I worked on over 50 titltes, including Alter Ego (1st game made in male and female versions), Ghostbusters (1st game to use software speech) and Tom & Jerry, for companies including Activision, EA, Disney, Hanna Barbera, Jim Henson and Sesame Street.
In 1996 I created Running With Scissors for the sole purpose of developing POSTAL. Now, in 2007, we are celebrating our 10th Anniversary with a feature film POSTAL-The Movie, a POSTAL mobile game by Russian publisher Ministry of Fun, a POSTAL BABES mobile game by Russian publisher HeroCraft and we are co-developing and publishing POSTAL III with Russia’s premier game publisher Akella.
- Creative Ideas (Part One) Like the power of electricity your Ideas have greater impact when they rapidly flow in concentrated streams of thought. You'll find this and more in the article wrote by Deremiah, exclusively for ManuelMarino.com . Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist), is the winner of the 2004 Nightingale-Conant Acres of Diamonds Award......
- Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts Today we interview Raymond Jacobs, owner of Ethereal Darkness Interactive. Founded in 2002 Ethereal Darkness Interactive is commited to developing quality indie games with high production values. Raymond talks about his latest project, Morning's Wrath 2, about videogames, Arts and technology. Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts Manuel Marino: You......
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- Creating Clouds Frank Kane job is very particular... he creates clouds! He can do it through his C++ library for real-time sky and 3D cloud rendering, used worldwide by scores of games and visual simulation applications on the Windows platform. Its name is SilverLining. Creating Clouds Manuel Marino: Your sky and clouds......
- Art, Communication, Connectivity Michael Marcus (also known as "Jacques Treatment") is a published author, poet, artist, and game designer; with George McVey, he has been publishing comics as "The Hamtramck Idea Men" on the very sensible grounds that they live in Hamtramck, have many ideas, and they are men. Joint work can be......
- How To Be Successful [Note: Last year I published this article and was fairly popular. I think it's as relevant this year as it was last year, so I figured it's worth a reminder.] The Most Important Key to Success Do What You Love - You aren't going to be successful at something you......
- 2009 ACC Coastal Division Predictions 1. Virginia Tech Hokies:The Hokies have an experienced QB, O-Line, good running game and of course a strong defense. All the ingredients to win the ACC. 16 starters and top 6 receivers return and toughest road game @ GT. 2. North Carolina: I think NC, Miami and GT will end......
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Music Reviews: Wind and Wire Magazine
October 11, 2007
I’ve been asked why there is no music reviews section. Well, if you search my name on Google.com, you’ll find many pages (in English and Italian languages) that talk about my music works or music albums. So, I don’t want to put a complete list of the links, but anyway I’ll post parts of the most beautiful music reviews. I’ll begin with the one written by Bill Binkelman (Wind and Wire Magazine).
Music Reviews: Wind and Wire Magazine
Here’s a part of the music reviews:
“Manuel Marino, a.k.a. Vanethian, records some of the best “pure” melodic synthesizer music around. He composes and performs in the same musical style as Larry Fast (Synergy). Manuel’s music is overtly electronic and yet rooted in pop-music sensibility (repeated motifs, refrains, and bridges); he (Manuel) has few (if any) contemporaries in this regard. Frankly, I’m always impressed with how good his music sounds.”
“Sophisticated listeners may hear Manuel’s (Vanethian’s) music and only discern overly slick pop EM. Myself, I’m a sucker for the hooks and expert musicianship that, in my opinion, Manuel excels at. As with the last album of his I reviewed, I make no apologies for how much I love his music. It’s chromium candy – polished, yummy, and never upsetting to my stomach, no matter what mood I’m in. I can see why this guy gets a shitload of videogame and computer game music work – he’s a wiz when it comes to hooks and he’s an EM engineering professional.”
The Music Albums Bill Binkelman is talking about are Electronic Souls Fusion (2001),
Electric Blue (2001) and Amazing Dimensions (2000).
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An Explosion Of Blues Music Author of this article is Robert Benson. He writes about rock and pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates CollectingVinylRecords.com, where you can pick up a copy of his ebook called "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting." You can have your vinyl records appraised at VinylRecordAppraisals.com. An Explosion Of...... - How Has the Internet Affected the Music Industry? This article is written by web designer Josh Gutteridge who runs Skyte Media. Skyte Media is based in the Midlands (England) and is a professional web design company that specialises in web design and development. Josh would like to receive comments about this article on his blog. But of course......
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- American Music and Vintage Guitars Mark Weakley is an impressive artist; sculptor, painter, musician. He plays guitar, banjo and harmonica, and has recently recorded a CD of his original compositions. In this exclusive article he talks about himself, about his passions, about his father, about traditional american music, about vintage guitars and banjoes, and much......
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DEF LEPPARD: oh, yeah!!! What is your favorite thing about England- or Britain for that matter? My answer is simple: DEF LEPPARD. Def Leppard was founded in 1977, in Sheffield. It consisted of 5 guys who chose to become musicians instead of opting for working in a factory-luckily for both them and us....... - The Legacy of Jaco Pastorius - Joe Sinaguglia For over twenty years now, the planet has been without the presence of Jaco Pastorius, the revolutionary electric bass player of the 70s. He was a member of the group Weather Report and later led his own bands. Sadly, the lifestyle caught up to him in 1987. Despite his death,......
- Book Review: Celtic, Blues and Beyond (Acoustic Master Class Series) by Al Petteway This book and CD combination is a part of the Acoustic Masterclass series, teaching Celtic music, blues music and beyond. Al Petteway offers advanced guitar arrangements in this tome. As an award-winning composer and guitarist, Al Petteway has developed a unique style for guitar solos that mixes up numerous different......
- Robert Trujillo: Bassist for Metallica Metallica was up to the task of performing at Ozzfest this year, for they commanded the attention of the massive stadium. Robert Trujillo was rocking for over two hours with drummer Lars Ulrich, singer/guitarist James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, all of whom brought forth a power that made......
- Musician Profile For Mark O'Connor Mark O' Connor was born and brought up in Seattle, Washington. There, while he was growing up and progressing through his teenage years, he entered into and won several national championships on a number of instruments, including but not limited to the fiddle. From 1983, O'Connor moved to Nashville, having......
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