Introduction (Hi!)

Hi! My name is Gale, also known as goatsoup.mp3 but you can call me goat or gal.

I'm a game composer and music producer. I'm a composer for Dono's Tale, and the sound director of the SUPER MARIO BROS. CD project, as well as a supporting composer on a fair few smaller projects and games.

I've been playing lil bits of piano with no lessons/just ear'd stuff for a while, got introduced to a DAW when I was 16 and that's my story. 

Actually, when I was small I had this N64 game- Ocarina of Time on my brother's Wii.. and I played it and I thought the ocarina was so cool! I also just so happened to have a casio keyboard at home at the same time.. so, the first songs I tried to play were the ocarina songs from the game.

If you don't know, there's a very basic musical prompt you play via controller inputs, then the game plays the rest of the song after you trigger/"play" the song. First, I learned the simple controller input parts of the song/melody but then I actually was able to ear the rest of the song that would play beyond the inputs and.. that kicked off my interests in music, I don't think I'd be a composer today without this game!

And, well, here I am now..

I've specifically focused on being a game composer which has been fun but also kind of a challenge sometimes.. but what does that really mean?

Game Composer?

Well, the name is very straightforwards- I work on video games as a composer.

But there's so many things to consider sometimes when you're making music for games that are distinct to that medium.

I started on a lot of platformers, and in a lot of those type of games, there's a lot of "energy". You see a character moving and a lot going on, there's a very distinct rhythm and tempo to how the game is played, how things are moving and animated sometimes you have to account for.

It's not as crazy intricate as I'm describing but it's just something to consider, and also why some songs, despite being upbeat and tonally correct, just feels.. off? in a game sometimes.

In some cases, I'll be working on a game that has very limited capabilities in how they can present certain things or even the sound (because of certain limitations either by choice, legacy technology, etc.).. which is where sound can really bring a certain quality to a game or make things lively in spite of limitations.. it's a very expressive extension of the game!

While game music can be all fun and expressive and be speaking for the game, some games on the other hand might demand more in how the music is intimately tied with player input, scenario or more, really!

Like.. games can get -very- intricate about how the sound is implemented.. and you might never notice! if you truly want to appreciate that, keep your ears peeled for that in games! 
(Scruffy has done a lot of great videos on the dynamic and adaptive music in video games, would check him out!)

I've had to consider my music like this too for a project.. and I sometimes think it's crazy we're at a point in technology where streamed songs are just as malleable and dynamic as "midi"/chip songs from 30 years ago, if not even more. 

(One of the tradeoffs if you were doing streamed music a long time ago was that you lost a lot of control in how a song was played, now that really isn't the case at all!)

But just overall, it's very fun/interesting and can be quite complicated when you're considering the music for a game. There's many factors, like the technology, tools, context, and so much when you're working on a game, it's quite fun and I hope to explore very specific concepts in further posts!

But pretty much, this is going to be a blog I'll be posting specifically thoughts and feelings I have about game composing and music stuff. I'm no authority or trying to be educational, I just have a lot of thoughts from experience, and am still learning things! 

Thank you so much for reading, and stay tuned for more thoughts from me! -Gale