HAPPY'S PROFILE

Hey guys & gals! I haven't been super active here for a year or so, so I was wondering what everyone has been up to and who can still be found here?

I'm doing pretty good myself, even though I am currently unemployed and my latest serious relationship broke half a year ago. Where it comes to relationships, I'm pretty much enjoying the freedom and having all the time for myself and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to move in together with a woman again.

As for work, I'm spending a lot of time improving myself at creating music, so I'm still striving to get employed as a composer some day in the future, but until you've got a lot of practice under your belt, you can't really make a living with it, so I'll be stuck in other sort of part-time jobs for a good while, still.

On my free time (which is all that I have now), yeah, composing video game music, taking some more theory classes, and I recently started studying japanese again, too, and I'll try to stick to it this time around, so that I can actually become fluent at it someday.

Games? I've been playing Banished and Exit Fate(!!) and my 3DS. Latest game I've finished is probably XCOM, which is an excellent game if you're fan of tactical RPGs (which it reminds a lof of, though I'm not sure of its specific genre.)

"RM Scene?" Well, as I said, I'm composing stuff, which might see daylight towards the end of the year or sometime next year - mostly distributable resources.

As for RMN, I'm glad to see a lot of improvements on the site, though where did latest posts and statuses disappear from the community tab!? Now I actually have to open the community page to access them. :(

Also, I'm looking forward to joining the next mafia game.

What about the rest of you? And Is Forever's End dead for good? Is there much new kickstarter vaporware? When was the last actual meaningful event hosted on the site? Are Chronology of the Last Era and Beloved Rapture still really alive?

Why isn't anyone talking about it here? I'm pretty interested on peoples' stances on it.

Are you for or against an assault against Assad's regime?

Still looking forward to some locker improvements. It still seems rather troublesome to manage locker with a lot of files. I often have hard time telling what each file is and if I want to delete multiple files I have to do it one by one.

Some sort of mass checking and deleting would be nice, similar way to e-mail services.

And if I could just delete files in the thumbnail view, that'd help a lot as I'd be able to see what the files in question are.

Cheers

edit: forgot that I actually can delete multiple files, AS LONG AS THEY'RE ON THE SAME PAGE. Why does the locker always return you to page one if you're managing, let's say page 3, for example?

Recently while searching information about a possible new Suikoden title, I found a fan project called Suikoden Revival Movement that has been successfully gathering some visibility. (Kotaku, Konami UK)



Suikoden Revival Movement's main goals are showing Konami that people actually want more Suikoden games, and reinforcing the chances for them getting localized on the western front.

You can find the official Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/SuikodenRevival

And Suikosource's thread about it here:
http://www.suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13088

Currently they're in progress of trying to get Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki more likely to be localized, as well as getting the Suikoden titles to PSN store. They also just launched a campaign to send Konami any Suikoden related fan material in order to get their attention.

Personally I think this isn't a bad idea at all, and I'm planning to get involved considering Suikoden II still remains as my all time favorite jrpg ever. It may be unlikely that they would ever create another Suikoden quite like it, but I'd even be happy with another Suikoden title as good as Suikoden V, for example.

Hello everyone! This is Happy, also known as 800 M.P.H.; one of the main organizers of the RMN Music Pack!

If you're unfamiliar with the product, you can fix that here: http://rpgmaker.net/musicpack/

I am the person responsible for accepting the songs to the pack, or rejecting them in some cases. I have also provided feedback to the composers and put together the final package.

What I'm going to do here is go through the contributions to the pack, composer by composer and grant a $70 award to the composer who I think contributed the most.

While we got plenty of really nice pieces to the pack, there were many potential pieces that I felt sad to leave out. Many of the issues with rejected pieces revolved around lacking mixing & mastering quality, or the composers simply just not getting back to me with any changes.

The average quality of the submissions was higher than I could have expected, however. Many people surprised me with their abilities to create immense atmospheres or by taking me away with their catchy melodies. This event really turned out more fruitful than I could have even hoped and I hope people will come to notice the potential that lies within these composers!


Here's my take on the contributions of each composer. I hope you aren't allergic to praise, as I already provided the more critical approach to the submissions during the album creation process itself.

Apoc:
All Apoc's entries to the music pack carried a strong sense of musical idea that transmitted to me as a listener very well. I would have liked to take more of Apoc's songs to the music pack, but "A Place With No Water" was definitely the best canditate when it came to a polished soundscape with balanced volumes and sense of space and depth. This submission has a very catchy beat and sense of movement to it also, plus it has a lot of character, making it unique and interesting.


Cornflake:
Cornflake's style definitely stood out for me, and the most so in the song "Evil Approaches" because of its curious and personal movement. For me Cornflake's entries had somewhat classical and "old" vibe to them and I thought they definitely didn't sound generic. "Evil Approaches" is a colorful and interesting addition to the music pack. I am very curious to see where this composer's style will develop in the future.


Gamesfreak13563:
Gamesfreak's ability to respond to feedback and apply changes to his work was pleasing. Desert Crossing has a smooth flow to it and is generally a solid mix that should suit a deserty rpg area very well. In otherwords, a solid addition to the music pack that I had absolutely no reason to reject.


hyde9318:
Cool Island Breeze from Hyde is one of my favorite pieces on the music pack to be honest. The atmosphere here is really spectacular and inspiring. This song has the feeling that it's one of those really great, rarer kind of pieces, that doesn't come to us composers as often as we would like. What I'm trying to say here is that it has this "special something" that we may be able to create only occassionally. Great job with this specific track! Great vibe and flow. I wish communication with hyde could've been more back and forth, but we are lucky to have this piece on the music pack, at least!

Jasprelao:
Alright, it's pretty apparent Jasprelao has quite a bit experience where it comes to composing! All his submissions are very atmospheric and some of them just sound sort of "soulful" with all the transparent "pads" that have been used in them. These songs are fun to listen to even outside videogames and when used in a game they will surely have a big impact on the player. Jasprelao's songs bring a great deal of pleasant atmosphere and beautiful melodies to the music pack and definitely helped to up the overall quality of the pack a lot.

This is professional level work where it comes to melody and mixing. I am very grateful and glad Jasprelao decided to participate in the creation of the RMN Music Pack! I wouldn't be surprised at all to see his name on commercial games in the future, if he doesn't compose for some already! Definitely going to keep my eye out for this guy! Great job!


Jeremiah "McTricky" George:
We have to thank McTricky for supplying us with several dramatic and epic pieces to the pack. This stuff is passionate! Just listen to Composed Malevolence, for example! What would an RPG be without this kind of pieces? This is very inspiring work right here, man. Don't stop what you're doing! Good stuff, definitely grabs you along in the mood.


Jude:
Alright, Center of the Galaxy. This track indeed is out of this world. This kind of dropped my jaw - made me think I was listening to a professional artist, and someone who had nothing to do with the videogame industry or just with rpgmaker.net, for that matter - not to say this song wouldn't fit a video game, but man, you could easily make an album with more of this kind of stuff and profit. This is superb and the atmosphere is great.

The mix quality is professional and the details in the frequency variations are sweet. They definitely hit the sweet spot. This is probably the highest quality track of the music pack where it comes to mixing.


Kunsel:
This guy is creative. All Kunsel's work differ from one another without sounding too similar, yet they all sound very polished and inspired. I love the ideas behind these songs, and the composition definitely communicates very well to me. Let me tell you, this guy's gonna compose some great soundtracks if you let him do his stuff. Kunsel's tracks are some of my favorite ones where it comes to melodies and progression. Kunsel was also very open to feedback and willing to apply changes to his tracks; I would definitely love to work with this guy. Now start sending resumes to those game companies!


Lana42:
I wish there would have been more entries from Lana42! I absolutely love these melodies. They are the best. And hey, the mix quality is great also, plus Lana42 was open to my feedback! Nothing to complain really. Nothing at all, except that there isn't more of this. I would definitely love to hear more stuff from this person - I'm a big fan!


NathanGDay:
There were many songs from this guy with cool ideas, but Fisherman's Prayer definitely worked the best and brought unique take to sea themes. I especially like the contrasts in the progression of the song.


ReclaimedGlory:
Here's a guy who know's mixing very well. All his submissions had really well balanced soundscapes and very solid flow. Midnight Serenade deserves a special mention for one of the sweetest melodies in the pack. I adore this piece! It's a great addition to the pack bringing some music for romantic moments in RPGs. How often do you get good stuff like this? Good work and reliable results.

Snowy Fox:
This guy delivers. All Snowy's submissions are perfectly solid all around. Where there was generally some volume inconsistencies in some tracks of the music pack, in Snowy Fox's work the volumes were polished to a perfect balance and every single detail was right there in place. Snowy Fox's work has really sweet harmonies and progression to them, plus a good deal of detail! This person delivers professional quality results.

If I was making a game and wouldn't want to compose my own music, I would certainly know who to ask.


Subaru:
I like Subaru's style; even though all his entries serve different purpose, they all have this sort of spiritful and lively sound to them. Subaru's entries are a good addition to lighten up the music pack a bit, even if in a subtle way. And where it comes to ideas, he supplied a lot of essential themes!


Tarranon:
I really like Tarranon's abilities creating impactful atmospheres. These harmonies and soundscapes are very captivating. Tarranon's entries feel structurally both very solid and rich in detail. Experience shines here, too. I would love to hear more works of this composer!


Xcalnarok:
Sweet melodies! I feel that both submissions from Xcalnarok feel very minimalist. There's a sweet melody to them and just the right amount of detail and harmony, even if much layers or instruments weren't used. Works very well I say - would definitely want to hear more



The Final Verdict:

Now then, enough of the testimonials. Let's reveal the winner!

The winner of the "Court Composer" aka. Judge's Pick Award and the $70 is:




I'd like to thank everyone for their support and participation in the event. See you!