Final Major Project Pitch Jack Fry My Final Game Idea

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Final Major Project Pitch Jack Fry My Final Game Idea Final Major Project Pitch Jack Fry My Final Game Idea Took certain aspect from each of my ideas. • Idea 1: 2D, 8 Bit Visual Style and interactions with vendors. • Idea 2: Medieval, Fantasy and using objects to your advantage. • Idea 3: Gothic Horror. • Idea 4: Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Lovecraftian Mythos being a key aspect to my game idea • Taking inspiration from The Old Ones, such as Cthulhu. Research into genre and Visual Style Books • H.P Lovecraft • Dracula and Spinoffs • Berserk Movies • Van Helsing • Sleepy Hollow • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street Games • Castlevania Why did I choose 8 Bit as my Visual Style? • Bloodborne • Visual Style I have always been fond of. • Experience with the Art Style on Photoshop. • Achtung Cthulhu • Most of the games I play use this art style. Created Moodboardson my chosen • A suitable and different visual style for the chosen genre. genre Moodboards Lovecraftian Mythos Berserk My Fears Castlevania Dracula & Other Bloodborne Vampires Research into 2D Sidescrollers Shovel Knight • Visual Style • HUB World • Shop System Design Rogue Legacy • Item Ideas • Level Design • Loot System Salt & Sanctuary • Boss Designs • Skill Tree • Visual Level Design Research into Audio My Ideas for Audio Audio Inspiration • No music playing during each level. Dark Souls • Only ambient, environment and item sounds. • Iconic themes for each theme. • Music will play in a boss fight. • Realistic environment & weapon sounds. • Each got a different theme. Shovel Knight • Music will play in the HUB World and Towns. • 8 bit themes and soundeffects. Furi • Different boss themes. Castlevania • 8 Bit themes and soundeffects Research into Gameplay My Ideas for Gameplay Gameplay Inspiration • Realistic Combat. Dark Souls • • Variety of different items to use. Variety of different weapons. • Role & block mechanics. • Role & Block mechanics. • Challenging boss & enemies. • Every weapon being different & unique. Salt & Sanctuary • Enemies & bosses being a challenge to the • Role & Block mechanics. player. • Different boss & enemies mechanics. • Replayable levels. Castlevania • Variety of different items to use. Bannerman • Realistic combat. Research into Interactive My Ideas for Interaction Interaction Inspiration • Interact with objects. (E.g, Chests, Doors, etc) Castlevania • Villages with shop keepers to interact with. • Interact with certain objects. (E.g, Blacksmith, Merchants, etc) Shovel Knight • Use background objects to your advantage. (Make a certain object fall onto enemy's) • Vendors and villages. • Interact with the HUB World Map, similar to Hearthstone Hearthstone. • Interact with the surroundings while you play. Enter the Gungeon • Use objects to your advantage (E.g, Table) Aims and Objectives • The aim of the game is to reach the end of the stage & defeat the boss. • You will come across monsters and obstacles which will try and stop you (E.g, Vampires, Ghouls, Ghosts and many more) • Defeating the boss grants incite into the Old Ones, providing more information on them to the player. • Which can be used to find and locate Old Ones. • Three different endings for the final game. Software Skills I wish to Develop • Improving on my Pixel Art to create detailed Sprites, Tile Sheets & Flipbooks. • Creating Concept Art to help with my designs. • Becoming more advanced with Shading on Pixel Art. • Create coding by myself. • Basic understanding on Editing Videos for my Blog. • Create 8 Bit Animation Concept Art Steps I will be following • Sketch a design in my sketch book. • Redraw on Graph Paper. • Sketch the design again on Photoshop • Hand draw my concept art then use Marque Tool. • Add digital paint on Photoshop. • Redesign on Aseprite. Why did I choose this idea? • Liked all my ideas, so I decided to take inspiration from all of them. • I tend to play Indie Games, with most of them being 8 Bit, majority of them being Sidescrollers. • Experience with 8 Bit Visual Style before hand on Adobe Photoshop. • Dark Souls & Bloodborne series being one of my favourite, which took inspiration from H.P Lovecraft. • Always been very interested in the Lovecraftian Mythos & H.P Lovecraft. • Watched many Gothic Horror films (E.g, Original Dracula Trilogy) • Played many different Gothic Horror Games (E.g, Castlevania, Amnesia: The Dark Decent, Arkham Series) Rough Visual Overview.
Recommended publications
  • Download 2014 Program
    Inaugural Year! &amer's Rhaps dy a video game media expo Sponsored by: TECHNOLOGY AND APPLIED COMPOSITION @ SFCM Announcing SFCM’s new Technology and Applied Composition Major Auditions San Francisco Feb 9,15 Austin Jan 10 Interlochen Jan 24 Chicago Jan 26 Boston Feb 25 New York Feb 27-28 Focus. Transformation. Education for Life. Now accepting Scoring and Sound Design for Film, Games and New Media applications for Fall 2015 A Rigorous Conservatory Composition Curriculum Early action deadline State-of-the-Art Recording, Mixing and Production Studios December 1 Industry Partnerships with Bay Area Media Companies Software Certification Credentials Extended deadline Study in a City that Leads the World in Technology, February 1 Inovation and the Arts 800.899.SFCM [email protected] www.sfcm.edu/tac 2014 Guests of Honor Disasterpeace - Video game composer and Musician - OverClocked Remix - Video game music community - Dale North - Video game composer, musician, and blogger Jake Kaufman - Video game composer and musician Tim Turi - Senior Associate Editor of Game Informer - - - Nerd Enhanced Sound - Video game music jazz trio Do A Barrel Roll! - Video game music band - Saturday Programming Main Stage 9AM DOORS OPEN 4:30PM OC REMIX: DIVEKICKING 9:30 OPENING CEREMONIES YOU IN THE FACE WITH VIDEO GAME 9:45PM DISASTERPEACE MUSIC SINCE 1999!! By OC ReMix 10AM NAME THAT TUNE By Jayson Napolitano - 11:00PM JAKE KAUFMAN - Wave Productions. - - 11AM WHAT MAKES A GOOD REMIX By Dale North 6:00PM DALE NORTH workshop. Shantae, Q*Bert, and more. 12PM “HEY, LISTEN!” LINKING VIDEO GAME MUSIC TO ITS CLASSICAL Jam Room ROOTS By Panelists: Emily Reese, Karl, Will, & Marty Brueggemann (The Super Marcato Bros.) Moderator: Tim Turi to share.
    [Show full text]
  • A Retrospective Diagnosis of RM Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula
    Journal of Dracula Studies Volume 12 Article 3 2010 All in the Family: A Retrospective Diagnosis of R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula Elizabeth Winter Follow this and additional works at: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Winter, Elizabeth (2010) "All in the Family: A Retrospective Diagnosis of R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula," Journal of Dracula Studies: Vol. 12 , Article 3. Available at: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol12/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Commons at Kutztown University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Dracula Studies by an authorized editor of Research Commons at Kutztown University. For more information, please contact [email protected],. All in the Family: A Retrospective Diagnosis of R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula Cover Page Footnote Elizabeth Winter is a psychiatrist in private practice in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Winter is on the adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins where she lectures on anxiety disorders and supervises psychiatry residents. This article is available in Journal of Dracula Studies: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol12/ iss1/3 All in the Family: A Retrospective Diagnosis of R.M. Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula Elizabeth Winter [Elizabeth Winter is a psychiatrist in private practice in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Winter is on the adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins where she lectures on anxiety disorders and supervises psychiatry residents.] In late nineteenth century psychiatry, there was little consistency in definition or classification criteria of mental illness.
    [Show full text]
  • Nintendo Switch
    Nintendo Switch Last Updated on September 30, 2021 Title Publisher Qty Box Man Comments サムライフォース斬!Natsume Atari Inc. NA Publi... 1-2-Switch Nintendo Aleste Collection M2 Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! Mebius Armed Blue Gunvolt: Striker Pack Inti Creates ARMS Nintendo Astral Chain Nintendo Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori Nintendo Bare Knuckle IV 3goo Battle Princess Madelyn 3goo Biohazard: Revelations - Unveiled Edition Capcom Blaster Master Zero Trilogy: MetaFight Chronicle: English Version Inti Creates Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 505 Games Boku no Kanojo wa Ningyo Hime!? Sekai Games Capcom Belt Action Collection Capcom Celeste Flyhigh Works Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Every Buddy! Square Enix Clannad Prototype CLANNAD: Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de Prototype Code of Princess EX Pikii Coffee Talk Coma, The: Double Cut Chorus Worldwide Cotton Reboot!: Limited Edition BEEP Cotton Reboot! BEEP Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz: Limited Edition Arc System Works Dairantō Smash Bros. Special Nintendo Darius Cozmic Collection Taito Darius Cozmic Collection Special Edition Taito Darius Cozmic Revelation Taito Dead or School Studio Nanafushi Devil May Cry Triple Pack Capcom Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze Nintendo Dragon Marked For Death: Limited Edition Inti Creates Dragon Marked For Death Inti Creates Dragon Quest Heroes I-II Square Enix Enter the Gungeon Kakehashi Games ESP RA.DE. ψ M2 Fate/Extella: Limited Box XSEED Games Fate/Extella Link XSEED Games Fight Crab
    [Show full text]
  • Blood and Images in Dracula 2000
    Journal of Dracula Studies Volume 8 2006 Article 3 2006 "The coin of our realm": Blood and Images in Dracula 2000 Alan S. Ambrisco University of Akron, Ohio Lance Svehla University of Akron, Ohio Follow this and additional works at: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ambrisco, Alan S. and Svehla, Lance (2006) ""The coin of our realm": Blood and Images in Dracula 2000," Journal of Dracula Studies: Vol. 8 , Article 3. Available at: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol8/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Commons at Kutztown University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Dracula Studies by an authorized editor of Research Commons at Kutztown University. For more information, please contact [email protected],. "The coin of our realm": Blood and Images in Dracula 2000 Cover Page Footnote Alan S. Ambrisco is an Associate Professor of English at The University of Akron. His research interests include medieval literature and the history of monsters. Lance Svehla is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Akron. He has published work in such journals as Teaching English in the Two-Year College and College Literature. This article is available in Journal of Dracula Studies: https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol8/ iss1/3 “The coin of our realm”: Blood and Images in Dracula 2000 Alan S. Ambrisco and Lance Svehla [Alan S.
    [Show full text]
  • Dracula in Translation
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Not so uncanny after all: Bram Stoker’s Dracula in translation Tina Resch Master thesis in Comparative Literature / ILOS UNIVERSITETET I OSLO May 2011 NOT SO UNCANNY AFTER ALL: BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA IN TRANSLATION Illustration inspired from the 1992 motion picture Bram Stoker’s Dracula, source: http://www.holistix.org/person/mz/album-mz-eng.html © Tina Resch, 2011 Not so uncanny after all: Bram Stoker’s Dracula in translation Tina Resch http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=118295 Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo Abstract What is the cost of translation? This is the essential question of this thesis. Comparing three interdependent texts, namely a Victorian novel and its Norwegian and German translations, is the means by which an answer to that question shall be given. Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula is today one of the standard works of Gothic fiction. Modern vampire fiction shows clear references to Stoker’s original work. Also translation of the text is an intertextual act of interpretation and reference. But do the existing Norwegian and German translations of the text do justice to the original work? Dracula, being a complex work, composed of diverse texts, albeit edited by a more or less unknown editor. This complexity asks a lot of the reader – and the translator – who has to (re-)construct the plot during the reading process. The reader is confronted with different media, different genres and different registers of languages use in this one fin-de-siècle novel.
    [Show full text]
  • Revampings of Dracula in Contemporary Fiction
    Revampings of Dracula in Contemporary Fiction Margaret L Carter [Margaret L Carter, author of The Vampire in Literature: A Critical Bibliography and editor of Dracula: The Vampire and the Critics, has recently published Different Blood: The Vampire as Alien (www.xlibris.com/DifferentBlood.html).] Although Count Dracula is slain in the final pages of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, throughout the subsequent century he has enjoyed innumerable resurrections in film and literature. Many of these incarnations might be unrecognizable to Stoker as the character he created. Fictional treatments of Dracula, especially those that have appeared within the past thirty years, reflect changes in attitudes toward vampires in general. In contrast to the characterization of vampires in Stoker’s own fiction and that of his contemporaries, in recent decades various authors have rendered these “monsters” sympathetically. Earlier nineteenth-century works do contain a few hints of sympathy for their vampire characters. They inspire sympathy or attraction, however, despite their inhuman nature rather than because of it. They still must be destroyed. The eponymous monster in Varney the Vampyre (1847) displays remorse for his bloodthirsty past and finally commits suicide by leaping into a volcano. Carmilla, in J Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella (1872), presents herself initially as victim rather than predator, and the narrator, Laura, finds her attractive, yet Carmilla’s existence nevertheless ends in violent destruction. Nina Auerbach characterizes pre-Stoker vampires as “not demon lovers or snarling aliens ... but singular friends” in a literary period when “it was a privilege to walk with a vampire” (13). This “sinister, superior sharer” enjoys an “intimate intercourse with mortals,” even though a “dangerously close” one (13).
    [Show full text]
  • ANTI-SEMITISM and the VAMPIRE THEME MP Odessky
    chapter ten ANTI-SEMITISM AND THE VAMPIRE THEME M.P. Odessky (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia) Modern versions of vampire poetics can fruitfully be dated beginning from the Francis Ford Coppola lm Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992–1993), which provided the vampire lm tradition with a new impulse. Since the open- ing of the third millennium, the avant-garde Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary by the Canadian producer Guy Maddin (2002) continued the same intellectual line: Stoker’s novel is here recast as an esthete’s ballet, with the characters wearing makeup to resemble Coppola’s characters, and acting in a mainly grey-scale silent lm meant to evoke associations of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (rendered in English as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, or Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, 1922), the expressionistic master- piece by F.W. Murnau, which instantiates the perpetual opposition between Victorian chastity and vampire sexuality. In the lms Vampires (1998) by John Carpenter (also known as John Carpenter’s Vampires) and Van Helsing (2004) by Stephen Sommers, the struggle against vampires is extravagantly transformed into an action-packed thriller with vampire exterminators fea- turing as an elite ghters’ unit in the service of the Vatican. The lm Dracula 2000 should be considered part of the same series, with the “2000” which appears in the title understood as an allusion to popular eschatology of the millennium. The producer, Patrick Lussier, made a movie based on an origi- nal script (written jointly with P. Soisson). The movie is not meant for family viewing; it rather addresses itself to intellectuals (a notion corroborated by the Miramax Company trademark).
    [Show full text]
  • Over 1080 Eligible Titles! Games Eligible for This Promotion - Last Updated 3/14/19 GAME PS4 XB1 NSW .HACK G.U
    Over 1080 eligible titles! Games Eligible for this Promotion - Last Updated 3/14/19 GAME PS4 XB1 NSW .HACK G.U. LAST RECODE 1-2-SWITCH 25TH WARD SILVER CASE SE 3D BILLARDS & SNOOKER 3D MINI GOLF 428 SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE 7 DAYS TO DIE 8 TO GLORY 8-BIT ARMIES COLLECTOR ED 8-BIT ARMIES COLLECTORS 8-BIT HORDES 8-BIT INVADERS A PLAGUE TALE A WAY OUT ABZU AC EZIO COLLECTION ACE COMBAT 7 ACES OF LUFTWARE ADR1FT ADV TM PRTS OF ENCHIRIDION ADVENTURE TIME FJ INVT ADVENTURE TIME INVESTIG AEGIS OF EARTH: PROTO AEREA COLLECTORS AGATHA CHRISTIE ABC MUR AGATHA CHRSTIE: ABC MRD AGONY AIR CONFLICTS 2-PACK AIR CONFLICTS DBL PK AIR CONFLICTS PACFC CRS AIR CONFLICTS SECRT WAR AIR CONFLICTS VIETNAM AIR MISSIONS HIND AIRPORT SIMULATOR AKIBAS BEAT ALEKHINES GUN ALEKHINE'S GUN ALIEN ISOLATION AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 AMBULANCE SIMULATOR AMERICAN NINJA WAR Some Restrictions Apply. This is only a guide. Trade values are constantly changing. Please consult your local EB Games for the most updated trade values. Over 1080 eligible titles! Games Eligible for this Promotion - Last Updated 3/14/19 GAME PS4 XB1 NSW AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR AMONG THE SLEEP ANGRY BIRDS STAR WARS ANIMA: GATE OF MEMORIES ANTHEM AQUA MOTO RACING ARAGAMI ARAGAMI SHADOW ARC OF ALCHEMIST ARCANIA CMPLT TALES ARK ARK PARK ARK SURVIVAL EVOLVED ARMAGALLANT: DECK DSTNY ARMELLO ARMS ARSLAN WARRIORS LGND ASSASSINS CREED 3 REM ASSASSINS CREED CHRONCL ASSASSINS CREED CHRONIC ASSASSINS CREED IV ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY ASSASSINS CREED ORIGINS ASSASSINS CREED SYNDICA ASSASSINS CREED SYNDICT ASSAULT SUIT LEYNOS ASSETTO CORSA ASTRO BOT ATELIER FIRIS ATELIER LYDIE & SUELLE ATELIER SOPHIE: ALCHMST ATTACK ON TITAN ATTACK ON TITAN 2 ATV DRIFT AND TRICK ATV DRIFT TRICKS ATV DRIFTS TRICKS ATV RENEGADES AVEN COLONY AXIOM VERGE SE AZURE STRIKER GUNVOLT SP BACK TO THE FUTURE Some Restrictions Apply.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Nosferatu' Revisted
    Fewster: 'Nosferatu' Revisted What is it about the Dracula narrative that is attractive dramatically? Its format is hardly exciting in that it is written as a series of letters. Similarly what could one possibly do in a theatrical production that has not been done? This would form the key research question that underlined my own subsequent production i.e. how does one approach such a classic? Indeed, when I ran a research seminar on the intended production, I was met with initial scepticism and resistance with a general response of “Why bother?” This is a fair question when one considers the plethora of dramatic renditions on stage and screen, in particular the ubiquitous vampire television series. Ultimately the answer to this question could only be explored through practice: textual in adapting the script, and physical in rehearsing the play. The capacity for Dracula and the vampires to turn into—variously—wolves, bats, rats and from smoke into the flesh of the living dead stimulated my creative thinking about how one might stage these transformations. I also began to imagine how an audience might literally follow the story’s protagonist, Jonathan Harker and his journey to Transylvania and back through everyday spaces such as corridors, café, paths and old buildings on the University Campus where I work. I re-read the Stoker novel and re-examined the two German films Nosferatu (1922 Dir. Friedrich Murnau) and the remake: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 Dir. Werner Herzog). As a playwright, I chose these sources for two reasons: I did not want to overload my creative sensibility with too much source material and the novel and the 1922 film are in my view historically the key transmitters of the Dracula fable.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Vampire Films in America
    ARTICLE DOI: 10.1057/s41599-017-0043-y OPEN The first vampire films in America Gary D. Rhodes1 ABSTRACT Horror film scholarship has generally suggested that the supernatural vampire either did not appear onscreen during the early cinema period, or that it appeared only once, in Georges Méliès’ Le manoir du diable/The Devil’s Castle (1896). By making rigorous use of archival materials, this essay tests those assumptions and determines them to be incorrect, while at the same time acknowledging the ambiguity of vampires and early cinema, both being 1234567890 prone to misreadings and misunderstandings. Between 1895 and 1915, moving pictures underwent major evolutions that transformed their narrative codes of intelligibility. During the same years, the subject of vampirism also experienced great change, with the supernatural characters of folklore largely dislocated by the non-supernatural “vamps” of popular culture. In an effort to reconcile the onscreen ambiguities, this paper adopts a New Film History methodology to examine four early films distributed in America, showing how characters in two of them—Le manoir du diable and La légende du fantôme/Legend of a Ghost (Pathé Frères, 1908) have in different eras been mistakenly read as supernatural vampires, as well as how a third—The Vampire, a little-known chapter of the serial The Exploits of Elaine (Pathé, 1915)— invoked supernatural vampirism, but only as a metaphor. The paper concludes by analyzing Loïe Fuller (Pathé Frères, 1905), the only film of the era that seems to have depicted a supernatural vampire. Revising the early history of vampires onscreen brings renewed focus to the intrinsic similarities between the supernatural creatures and the cinema.
    [Show full text]
  • Dracula Synopsis Audience Advisory
    DRACULA SYNOPSIS AUDIENCE ADVISORY Professor Van Helsing, a notable expert in the occult, PLEASE NOTE: This show includes effects such as fog, traps moving in the floor causing sudden changes to the stage, noise and strobe light mimicking arrives at the estate of an old friend, Dr. Seward, amid thunder and lightning, the use of fire, simulated explosions, gunshots, whispers of gruesome attacks and strange goings-on. use of fake blood, wolves howling and the use of flashlights in the dark. Seward’s fiancée, Mina, has recently died of a sudden and Violence includes fighting and physical combat that may be accompanied by bloodshed. Content includes suicidal intent and murder. Characters mysterious illness, and Mina’s friend, Lucy, has begun to frequently move throughout the theatre and interact with the audience in display the same symptoms. Could it be that Mina, and ways that can be scary or surprising. When characters are possessed, their voices will become distorted and their movements will become strange now Lucy, have suffered at the hands of a vampire? How to mimic them being unable to control their bodies. During the show, will Van Helsing and Seward fight this supernatural characters are in emotional states during which they may scream or make fiend? a lot of noise, including slamming doors and slamming items on surfaces. SENSORY & EMOTIONALLY INTENSE MOMENTS ACT I – 68 MINUTES Fog on stage with blackout and possible audience screams. Monster attacks OPENING MONTAGE 0-3 and bites. Screams are heard. Floor traps move to allow furniture to rise. 5 Renfield enters and screams.
    [Show full text]
  • Balasko-Mastersreport-2020
    The Report Committee for Alexander Balasko Certifies that this is the approved version of the following report: An Untitled Goose by Any Other Name: A Critical Theorization of the Indie Game Genre APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: _____________________________________ James Buhler _____________________________________ Bryan Parkhurst An Untitled Goose by Any Other Name: A Critical Theorization of the Indie Game Genre by Alexander Balasko Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music The University of Texas at Austin May 2020 An Untitled Goose by Any Other Name: A Critical Theorization of the Indie Game Genre Alexander Balasko, M.Music The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: James Buhler As the field of ludomusicology has grown increasingly mainstream within music studies, a methodological trend has emerged in discussions of genre that privileges the formal attributes of game sound while giving relatively little attention to aspects of its production. The problems with this methodological bent become apparent when attempting to discuss the independent (“indie”) game genre, since, from 2010-2020 the indie game genre underwent a number of significant changes in aesthetic trends, many of which seem incoherent with one another. As such, the indie genre has received relatively little attention within the ludomusicological literature despite its enormous impact on broader gaming culture. By analyzing the growth of chiptune aesthetics beginning in 2008 and the subsequent fall from popularity towards 2020, this paper considers how a satisfying understanding of the indie game genre can be ascertained through its material cultures, rather than its aesthetics or gameplay.
    [Show full text]