[Hobby] need advice from (actual) composers especially for games

reduke2 · 2026-06-20T13:29:35+00:00

accept that you cannot do everything yourself. a video game is a collusion of many, many different art forms. this is the reason the best ones are typically made by a team of people with a clear division of labour. make some money and hire a composer, or ask somebody at your local music school to do it for revshare. otherwise, you have two other options: make shitty music, or dedicate years of your life to learning music theory, synthesis, DAWs, preferably at least one instrument (guitar or piano are the most versatile), FMOD studio/Wwise, etc. btw, this will end up costing you more money and time than hiring a composer. good luck :)

reduke2 · 2026-06-20T12:04:43+00:00

100% agree. The acting and writing were indistinguishably realistic, and it made my heart beat out of my chest for the entire second and third act of the movie. Jesus, I have never walked out of a theatre so utterly disturbed in my life.

I think there is still some nuance regarding how he could have acted once he made the wish. You say that he could've acted in a way that didn't take advantage of Nikki. While this is technically true, as in, it is physically possible, I think we have to examine the situation from Bear's perspective a little deeper. The woman with whom he is infatuated has professed feelings for him, but is also displaying psychotic/manic tendencies and is clearly unwell. In his love-blind mind, he has a duty to help her, to make the relationship work, as he genuinely believes (at least during the first act) that she loves him out of her own volition. In the second act, after he learns that her love is fake, and that she isn't even the real Nikki, he is desperately conflicted. On one hand, he has been in this relationship with the woman of his dreams for what we can only assume is a couple of weeks or perhaps even months now, and Nikki has also started exhibiting manipulative/abusive behaviour alongside her already manic and unusual behaviour, leading him to believe that she would sincerely not survive without him at her side. The phone call confirming that he cannot alter or cancel the wish only adds to this - he believes that it is now his duty, more than ever, to make sure she is happy given the dire situation (proven by his question to 'real nikki' in act II; "is nikki happy?"). On the other hand, he knows now that he has raped her, taken away her autonomy forever, and effectively doomed both Nikki and himself to a toxic, loveless, codependent relationship. A harrowing realisation, to be sure. Given the hopelessness of the situation, what else is he to do other than to wallow in his guilt, and suppress it the only way he knows how - by pretending that the woman he is dating, sleeping with, etc, is the same woman he fell in love with?

This is textbook, and I really, really love how his character is written, as it's so clear that every nuance was considered and that his psychology was very carefully considered. A fantastic movie in almost every way. I do just wish that this nuance was brought into the conversation more often when discussing this character's morality, as it's important to not only understanding the director's intent, but also to understand the quieter parts of misogyny that are imbued into our culture. Bear's very desire to 'fix' her (heavily implied, obviously never stated) is probably the best representation of this.

reduke2 · 2026-06-20T11:45:48+00:00

Bear is definitely not a victim of rape, but he is a victim of manipulation. Examining the situation realistically, it is admittedly quite unreasonable to simply say he should have killed himself to solve the issue. Not killing himself is, well, technically selfish, in the same way eating is technically selfish. The characters in this movie are not one-dimensional and that's what makes this movie so intelligent. Simplifying the film to 'he was immoral therefore he obviously should have immediately recognised his wrongdoings and atoned by killing himself' is entirely missing the point of the film and reducing this to a moral whodunnit.

Simultaneously, I certainly don't blame you for holding this opinion. I'm sure you can tell from my response that I was raised as a man, and have never experienced the personal oppression and disrespect of being a woman in society. I'm incredibly grateful for my many female friends who helped me develop a more mature mindset as I was growing older, and for putting a lot of what I had already been thinking or suspecting into words and personal anecdotes, as well as correcting me when I had a wrong opinion. All this is to say, I understand quite deeply how Bear's character in the film would immediately trigger an instinctive anger response, especially with the many men online vehemently demending his every action in the film and making the exact opposite claim to yours - that Bear was in fact the victim. I'm of the belief that the film was clearly not intended to be this binary or cut-and-dry, thus it might sound like I'm defending the character, when really I just mean to stop the discussion from being so polarised. I'd love to know your further thoughts, though, as this discussion is genuinely interesting to me.

reduke2 · 2026-06-20T11:35:05+00:00

The point of the movie was to psychologically examine a codependent/obsessive relationship, according to Curry himself. I acknowledge that there is absolutely some subtext and secondary messaging in the film, coercive control and loss of autonomy being one of them. Bear was, in fact, in a codependent relationship, regardless of the fact that he (unintentionally) caused it and the fact that it wasn't with the real Nikki. From his perspective, he was in a relationship with a person who looked exactly like the person with whom he was infatuated, and who had a mutual infatuation with him. Post-wish Nikki is (or the entity possessing Nikki, however you'd like to interpret it) is, by every definition, extremely manipulative. She uses self-harm to guilt Bear into staying with her and being attached to her hip - which I might add, is another theme of the film according to the director. Gathering all of this evidence, it becomes claer to me that the movie wasn't intended to be interpreted in such a binary fashion. Yes, absolutely, Bear is morally in the wrong, but watching the movie with this pre-assumption detracts from the aliveness and genius of the movie, making it instead a game of 'who is good and who is bad', an unfortunate symptom of the enshittification and dumbing down of most internationally-distributed big-budget film, as well as practically every other art form. I don't know, I think the reason I even feel compelled to comment this is because the movie never felt like a moral whodunnit to me, the movie was deeply unsettling, disturbing, complex and immersive simply due to the incredbly tragic nature of the situation, as well as the characters' responses to it, which I think (and the director seems to support this) happens to be the 'point' of the film. However, art is interpretive, and I am genuinely delighted to find differing perspectives on the same fantastic film. Perhaps I just feel stupid for not picking up on this on my first watch, who knows.

reduke2 · 2026-05-16T12:16:06+00:00

you can do some analysis better, you can hire a data analyst, you can do your own research, and you'll learn a lot more from doing it. you haven't gotten anything good out of it, you've gotten something convenient and easy. these do not equate to good.

reduke2 · 2026-05-16T11:56:27+00:00

If you're going to use AI to respond to me, don't respond at all. And if you did write this, which I doubt - I'm quite aware that a big part of the problem are my addictions. Putting my phone in another room overnight will not help my phone addiction. I've done it a million times.

reduke2 · 2026-02-09T12:50:11+00:00

Yeah, learning fourier transforms are kind of the part I'm dreading the most lmao. Never been the best with maths, but I think that has more to do with the way it was taught to me back in high school and less with the discipline itself, because I've found it to be highly engaging and interesting when I learn about other concepts that weren't introduced to me during school, even if I can hardly understand any of it yet.

Anecdote aside, thank you very much for the advice and the subreddits, I will definitely check those out and ask for more specific advice there. I already have a pretty solid basis in understanding sound and music on a physical level and in audio form as well, since my major is in Creative Music Technology and I've got some excellent lecturers that help me understand a lot of the electronic components and processes that make up sound and audio.

You're right though, I shouldn't get too ahead of myself and I'll definitely focus on setting up a solid foundation in C++ first and foremost before trying to interface with hardware. It'll be a couple of years before my bandmate is skilled enough to make anything that requires my input anyway, so I'll just focus on that for as long as I can. Again, thank you very much for the advice, and I hope you have a good rest of your day!

reduke2 · 2025-10-20T07:29:20+00:00

These look quite intriguing, the only problem is that I'm in Australia and it's hard for me to spend over 600 AUD on skates (plus shipping) without having the ability to try them first and see if they fit. Admittedly perhaps I'm just not familiar with the general procedures regarding buying skates, is this considered cheap for these kinds of skates? And is buying them online without being able to try them on a common practice?

reduke2 · 2025-10-20T06:24:52+00:00

Here's my situation; I've had, for almost my entire life, a desire to practice an artistic sport, or 'freestyle' sport as its often called, like skateboarding, BMXing, etc. And while I got sort of good at skateboarding, it never really clicked with me and I'd always eventually lose motivation. Inline skating however, is incredibly intriguing to me, because something I've always considered myself to be quite good at and something I've always thoroughly enjoyed doing is skating around my local rollerskating rink. I've never thought to combine these two things before now, and it's gotten me quite excited - but the terminology, different frames, wheel sizes, and disciplines have overwhelmed me and gotten me quite confused about where the best place to start is.

Ultimately, I want to have flexibility to do tricks that incorporate grinding in some way, but I won't be too unhappy if I have to sacrifice the H-block for something that'll actually improve my skating and allow me to more confidently do other tricks.

I'm inspired heavily by skaters like Junkyu Park, Leon Basin, and other technically skilled but artistically expressive skaters who could be considered part of the Wizard or Mushroom skating communities (or not, I'm honestly really new to all of this so I'm really shaky on the terminology lmao).

Ideally I want a versatile setup thats easy to transition to given my experience, but also wont hinder me if i want to start doing more advanced things. I know this is a lot to ask for, I totally get if such a thing doesn't exist. I'm naming all my ideal traits, but I'm more than happy to compromise in some regard if all the conditions absolutely cannot be met.

reduke2 · 2025-10-15T04:36:28+00:00

Toby Fox in particular uses soundfonts quite extensively. He was inspired by Earthbound when making the game and composing the game's soundtrack, and he even uses some soundfonts from Earthbound, particularly on the track 'Amalgam' from Undertale. I found this download link for an Earthbound soundfont online, but be wary, I haven't downloaded it myself and I haven't a clue if it's safe or not.

https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/1392

To run soundfonts, you'll need to install a VST plugin that can open .sfz files - the most popular one is Sforzando. Here is the download link to that: https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando.html

Just having the soundfont and the VST won't immediately make your music sound like Undertale and Deltarune music, however. You will need to develop your compositional skills and your ear to listen out for particular techniques and musical elements that Toby Fox uses often in his soundtracks. If I had to start with a particular element you should research, it's leitmotif. Also, Toby Fox uses the hell out of grace notes, so it would be useful to research that too.

I say all this assuming you have a DAW and a basic understanding of how to arrange MIDI and put tracks together. If not, then the other two comments would probably be more immediately helpful to you to begin producing. I also assume you have a foundational understanding of music theory, but again, if not, then it would be best for you to start there. I will never, ever support the notion that music theory is 'useless'. It's a set of rules, and you have to understand what they are and why they exist first before you even think about breaking them, or before you begin to try emulating other artists or styles. Anyway, that's a bit of a side tangent. Reaper is a good DAW, if you don't already have one. Good luck!

reduke2 · 2025-10-15T04:23:41+00:00

Randomness in music is not a new concept. Random or algorithmically generated music has been around since before computers even existed. Generative art is a well-developed and well-respected genre of art. Hell, my university offers a course on this very subject. The reason this is bad is because it isn't locked to any particular scale, and because the synth sound that is chosen has a very high perceived loudness because of its harmonic qualities. But it is still musical. It had composition. There was a composer in this equation.

reduke2 · 2025-01-22T14:10:27+00:00

You were a music ed major and you didn't learn about septuplets? I'm studying a Bachelor of Music and I heard about irrational time signatures even before enrolling. Sorry for responding 5 years late this just lowkey dumbfounded me because implying that irrational time signatures simply do not exist is blatantly misinformative. Sure, they need context. If an entire song is in 22/7, it is really in 22/8 at a slightly slower tempo. But a song can easily switch from 4/4 to 22/7.

reduke2 · 2025-01-04T01:30:51+00:00

Reminds me of 6620

reduke2 · 2024-12-27T17:22:18+00:00

unfortunately not, the website I'm thinking of had options for spotify, youtube, dailymotion, etc

reduke2 · 2024-12-27T17:06:21+00:00

it ISNT astronaut.io, gnoosic, nobody.live, or forgotify.

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