Sunday Songs 2015: Alesso's Sweet Escape and Zedd's Addicted To a Memory

WEEK TWENTY-THREE PART A: ALESSO - SWEET ESCAPE

This week is a little bit different! I could have split these two into different weeks, but I've had both of them on the blog before so I'll combine them. Why am I featuring musicians again at all? Because both Alesso and Zedd put out new albums this month, and they're both pretty great!
Alesso released his first LP, Forever. I'll be honest - not unilaterally his best stuff. There's some great gems on the album, but especially his choice of singles is a bit disappointing - he did not make the best use of Tove Lo on Heroes, and Payday is the opposite of what originally attracted me to Alesso. In general, the album takes a more EDM-powered tact, rather than use the trance inflections in a lot of his work. In general, Heroes is a fluke; Alesso knows how to handle vocalists, and needs to do so more often. Under Control (with Calvin Harris and Hurts) and his remix of If I Lose Myself are two of the best songs on the album by a while, but they've also been in circulation for almost a year. That sound, the intro track is a really good lead-in to Payday.

WEEK TWENTY-THREE PART B: ZEDD - ADDICTED TO A MEMORY

Zedd has the exact opposite problem that Alesso has - he needs to lay off the vocalists. He just can't manage them! They're repetitive, uninspired, and seemingly there just because they're "supposed to be" in the modern dance world. Seriously Zedd, it's okay to just be a kick-ass producer of beats! You don't have to include lyrics! It's really not the vocalists' faults - Hayley Williams and Foxes and Bahari are great vocalists and were kinda wasted on their songs. Despite that, Addicted To A Memory is a great song and the back half is great.
(I will note that he worked really well with Selena Gomez, I Want You To Know actually elevates her performance, and I say this as someone who actually likes Selena!)

Project Update:
I play the Example of Play session tomorrow for Legend of the Elements! It's exciting. I'm also currently remaking the cover to stretch around the spine and back. I'm also painting it! Watercolor and acrylic. I'm, uh, not a painter, but I wasn't really vector artist before this project either, so I think it's going well!
I played Shining Void last week and it taught me some things! this game is going toward a revision.
I haven't started on Learning Pixel Art 2nd Edition yet, that's in the information-gathering stage.

End Recording,
Ego

Legend of the Elements: End of the Public Beta

It blows me away that I'm at the point where I can actually say that it's time to not let the public see the game! Frankly, I can't have the whole thing available right up until I suddenly say "now please buy it!" So I'm taking down the free beta on Saturday. I might keep up something, but I haven't decided yet.
Here's the timeline of upcoming Legend of the Elements events.

Saturday 6/6: I finish the peripheral documents. On this day, I will be removing the free version of the game from the internet in the lead-up to a full release. I may leave up something to whet the appetite, but you won't be able to get the whole game anymore. Get it this week!





Monday 6/8: I play a session this evening that I will record so I can write the missing Example of Play chapter.

Wednesday 6/10: Having implemented the Example of Play chapter, I send the files to my editors for review. This is more of a literary review, rather than a mechanical one, but there might be things exposed that I goofed up that will adjust rules slightly.

June 19: I print a bound copy of the game for myself to use at conventions. If I'm lucky, the editors will be back to me, though it's not likely. If not, I'll print another later - I need a copy for Go Play NW.

June 26: Coinciding with Go Play NW, this is the fall-back deadline for everything's completion.
I'll be running two sessions of Legend of the Elements, as well as one session of The Shining Void, so if you can be in Seattle this weekend I'd love to play it with you!

August 28: Coinciding with PAX Prime, I want to have the game up for sale online as a PDF and on Print-On-Demand, with a small pile of copies of my own coming with me to PAX. The end of a...wow, almost three-year line from an idea for my first game design to a published and refined game.

Oh, and if anyone knows anything about where they would like to buy games or where you can get good Print-on-Demand work done, I would love to know so I can work it out.

So get it while it's still here or you'll be paying for it! And frankly, the game's worth it at this point! The latest draft is super-sharp and has a TON of art. I'll be printing it full-bleed with a color cover, though the inner images are all black and white. I can't wait for you to see it.

End Recording,
Ego.

Sunday Songs 2015: Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile

WEEK TWENTY-TWO: WOLF ALICE - MOANING LISA SMILE This is a really good song, but the rest of their songs don't really hold up to this one. Oh well. Sorry. This has been a bad day, I lost my wallet. Also sorry for the skip last week, I've been dealing with some stuff. End Recording, Ego.

WOOHOO I WIN

I just graduated university! BS in Biology, Minor is Religion and History. During my university career, I've designed a game, wrote it, illustrated it, and have almost published it, designed and released a one-page game, and I've written and published a book of art instruction. Science, religion, history, design, writing, and art - I've become a pretty diverse person.

End Recording,
Ego.

Sunday Songs 2015: Solarstone - Swansong

WEEK TWENTY: SOLARSTONE - SWANSONG

FINALS WEEK
I'LL PAY ATTENTION TO ALL OF YOU AGAIN IN A WEEK

End Recording,
Ego.

Sunday Songs 2015: Archive - You Make Me Feel

WEEK NINETEEN: ARCHIVE - YOU MAKE ME FEEL

I don't know much about Archive. This particular album is classic trip-hop. I like it.

Sorry. My weekend has been exhausting and fun and the rest of my week is about to be exhausting and frustrating, I don't have a lot of power right now.

Projects update, Legend of the Elements is undergoing the new layout work, and I'm starting on the art additions. I need to playtest still. Nothing's really moved on tSV. Don't expect much motion this week.
End Recording,
Ego.

Sunday Songs 2015: Mimi Page - The Starving Artist

WEEK EIGHTEEN: MIMI PAGE - THE STARVING ARTIST

To quote Wikipedia: "Page's original music blends breathy, ethereal vocals with beat driven, atmospheric soundscapes. She attributes her ethereal sound to her heavy use of reverb, delay, and layering techniques in post production."
That pretty much sums up her style. It's a lot emptier than Johnny Hollow's sound was last week. Well, emptier sounds like a negative thing...maybe roomier is what I want? It gives me the feeling of being in a wider space than I actually am. It's quiet time music. It's actually really good for meditation.
This particular song just gave me the best vibes for right now. Dunno if I'd call it the best song on the album, but it's the one that speak to me at this very moment.

Project Updates:
Legend of the Elements has a plan for a revision! I'll implement that as soon as I get a break. It's the end of my final semester, cut me some slack!
I wrote down like a dozen ideas for Shining Void revisions on Saturday, so I'm excited to try and write some of them out.

End Recording,
Ego.