Ristar

we could have re-arranged it, much like FFZ Act 1 and other acts, but we wanted to focus on keeping the main quest's soundtrack as original as possible. Yes there are little nods to songs here and there (mainly with Parhelion Peak's material) but Mr. Lange's Act 2 was a straight up remix of Lava Powerhouse and most people could identify that in a heartbeat. Having that bang in the middle of the soundtrack just wouldn't have worked, not to mention that it was done in a 16-bit style which is a stark contrast to everything else on the main quest. I don't care if people dislike Smokey Bear (though I think it's pretty bitchin' tbh and my soundcloud statistics would agree) but you need to understand why these creative decisions have been made. Lava Powerhouse is still there and it's nestled quite nicely with some other tunes in a similar vein, but to keep it where it was just wouldn't have worked.

Tell me more about the soundtrack

If you're wanting to go legit in terms of DAWs then I really can't recommend reaper enough. I also used to use Ableton but heard good things about reaper as well as realising how cheap it is for a personal license. Reaper is as good as logic/sonar/cubase/pro tools for mixing. The DAWs themselves have no effect on the sound quality as far as I know, you could make just as good a mix in Ableton as you could in Cubase - it all comes down to interface really. There are differences between the DAWs but as far as mixing multiple waveforms they're all as capable as each other. Reaper has a free trial, give it a whirl and see how you get on. The community is also ridiculously helpful. Also, last I heard, KgZ converted to the cult of reaper.

I thought I'd already stuck my wiener in here and wished you a happy birthday but I guess I didn't. Oh well!

I'm not going to turn this into a flamewar, but you're being a bit daft for blaming the death of your fangame on Lake. The reason it died was because you were asking everyone else to do the majority of the work for you. Sorry but cutscenes and plot are NOTHING compared to the amount of work that goes into everything else you were asking people to do. Unfortunately, no one is going to jump on board a project that has nothing to it but a couple of ideas. Speaking from a composer's point of view, I've had people ask me on more than one occasion to compose about 25 tracks for a game that they've not even finished planning yet. I told them "no" straight up because I knew my work would never see the light of day. It's the equivalent of me saying, "Hey, I've got a really good idea for a car, I know what kind of wheels it's gonna have and how fast it should go. Now I need someone to build it for me." And if you think I'm being a douche, I've had a couple of (what I think) are great ideas for fangames, but I know all I could do is some art and music for it; and that just isn't enough to warrant talented people to jump on board with it. Lake gave pretty good advice to you, he didn't have to, and you've kind of thrown it back in his face on a public forum.

ever been interested in using XNA or something, Lake? I've also heard that Dark GDK is really good to use. The license for Dark GDK is also pretty cheap if you ever wanted to sell something with it.

You don't need anyone else if you're that dedicated to the game. Look at LakeFeperd; the guy has pumped out some amazing fangames all on his own. Did practically everything himself, all it took was hard work and determination. At no point did he make a topic saying "yo who wants to make my fangame for me?". If he can make a blazing game, there's no reason why you can't. Just think, if you were a talented programmer/artist/musician or whatnot; would YOU want to work on a game where the lead guy does nothing but come up with ideas?

David Hayter confirmed he won't be voicing Snake

I have to stress it's not actually a reference to Red Mountain; I just meant that it's slightly similar in feel. As far as I know the track has no references to anything outside of the ATS soundtrack.

I wonder if Kojima is planning to reintroduce a young Solid Snake in a future instalment. It would make sense to get us used to "Old Big Boss" if that's the case. The only loophole is David Hayter played Old Snake, and because Solid Snake is a near perfect copy of Big Boss then shouldn't he sound exactly the saAAAARRGHH my head hurts.

DarkBasic Pro should be free with ad support. It's what I used to use anyway. Overbound posted a link, go check it out, it should answer all your questions.

It's pretty easy to get a grasp on. I'm a full on idiot when it comes to anything related to programming but I think someone else should definitely try it. It's always seemed like the logical next step after MMF or Gamemaker.

You should try learning Dark Basic at some point. I wish more people knew about it because I think people could make some blazing games with it. If someone were to reconstruct the Sonic Worlds engine in it, add a tile editor or something I would actually give them a big kiss.

No Dave Hayter though. Can't say I'm happy.

Are you going to do a special European release called Sonic Megadrive?

Worry not, it's still there!

https://soundcloud.com/funk-fiction FFZ2 carries over the main melody and the same chord progression but mainly introduces new stuff. Sonic OVA references are no more (and tbh I never realised that the riff was even a reference to Sonic OVA). I might do a guitar playalong with it at some point but it's currently tuned to open D minor so we'll just see...

We kept FFZ Act 2 as original as possible so Lava Powerhouse is gone. In its place is something more akin to Metropolis/Red Mountain. Think Industrial Drum kits and chunky guitars.

The problem has been that, especially over the past couple of months, free time just hasn't made itself available to some of us. Lake has been ridiculously cool and understanding about everything that's gone on behind the scenes of the soundtrack; people have been very busy over the Christmas period with work, college etc. but things are definitely coming back together. I was run off my feet over the xmas holidays with my job and that's nothing compared to what others had on their plates. The thing is that even between us all, the soundtrack has been a massive undertaking. There would be something in the region of 50-60 tracks overall, including cutscenes (which though short, can be extremely tricky to get right). We're all 100% behind Lake and we all want this game to be the most bitchin' Sonic Fangame to hit the internets. Everyone is working hard to make this thing happen.

Because sfghq is run by the man.

Factories don't create jobs. Not over in the UK anyway. Ever since the recession there have been nothing but news reports about factories either closing or laying off thousands of workers. It's more profitable to lay off a bunch of employees and have one machine do all their work for them, no lunch breaks required, just regular maintenance which comes pretty cheap. Reliable source: many many old people that don't need to be asked to tell you all about this.

I like how clean everything looks. Kind of got a dragon quest vibe off the graphical style.

Couldn't watch it. Cringed too hard.

Was never really a huge fan of Jak and Daxter. I always preferred Ratchet and Clank and even then I got a little tired of those games towards the end. I guess I'm just not such a huge fan of platforming adventures anymore. It's probably because I have a very short attention span. I don't like grand adventures, just a short walk ;-)