Interview with Jorge & Guillermo of
Badolato Music
Interviewer: Eric
Eric: Let's start off this interview with Zombie BBQ. How did you get
the opportunity to work on this classic Nintendo DS game?
Jorge: We contacted the company and sent them our bio and demos and a few
days after they called us back and started working on their next three videogame
tittles.
Eric: Do you find it a lot harder to work on cartridge games than CD
based games?
Guillermo: It's always a challenge to work with the limited memory &
cartridge storage resources available to the smallest consoles. The main
difference is that instead of directly using samplers and/or live instruments as
you would do on a CD music production, you usually have to compose the music in
Nintendo DS midi format, building the instruments from the ground up using just
a few samples, compressing them to the maximum you can so they fit on the space
you have available on the cartridge and still sound good.
Depending on the game and after knowing what is available for audio, we'll have
to calculate the compression settings for both sfx and music instruments needed
for a given project, the number of instruments to use on each track, polyphony,
etc...
Using so limited number of samples, you'll have to achieve expression by
real-time volume changes to simulate for example strings
crescendos/decrescendos, panning automation, etc.
There are a few games that use normal audio tracks highly compressed and the
result is better than NDS midi, but this is mostly reserved for just the
intro because it takes a lot of space and the developers always looks into
production costs ;-)
All music we did for Doodle Hex NDS game are compressed wavs, however Zombie BBQ
includes a track like this with real guitars when the game starts, as most
of NDS games do.
Eric: Would you have changed anything if Zombie BBQ was a CD game?
Jorge: Sure! We would have done all music production without the limits
mentioned above, using the best sampler libraries available and all
orchestration that we would wanted to use for each track.
Additionally, nowadays most of next-gen consoles games use dynamic music
systems, which allow to build the music in layers, and mix them depending
of what's happening on the gameplay and screen. That would have been great for
this game! We composed the music for "Wheelman" videogame that way.
Eric: What moment in Zombie BBQ stands out as the best musical aspect
of the entire game?
Guillermo: Well... we think that the gamers would have to answer that
question ;-)
Hummm... we like most the intro and some bosses moments..
Eric: Animal Boxing just came out this week for the Nintendo DS. Can
you give us a run down on this game?
Jorge: It's a boxing game that uses an innovative gameplay mechanic in
which you have to turn the DS so it shows your opponent body on the touch
screen, you play hitting them with the stylus directly where you want. There are
a lot of animal characters to fight with.
Eric: Was it a lot different working on a game like this than Zombie
BBQ?
Guillermo: When starting a new DS project, the difference is always
basically related to adapt to the game producer's taste and the memory resources
available. Working on various projects allows you to change music styles, which
is very fun.
The main difference between these two games, is that Zombie BBQ has general
terror/creepy tracks and Animal Boxing uses fun background music related to the
place of the combat (jungle, artic, forest..) We would have liked to had the
same memory resources for a boxing game than what we had for Zombie BBQ
thought...
Eric: Badolato Music has worked on other consoles. Recently
Playstation 3 owners got the chance to download a little game known as Elefunk
on the PSN Store. How does it feel to have worked on a game that has such a huge
following on Sony's latest console?
Jorge: Feels really good! That game was a lot of fun to do, it's a very
humorous and fun platform game to play.
We mixed the tracks we did for it in surround 5.1 and although they had to be
short in length, the quality was cd standard, so we could use anything we wanted
;-)
Eric: Are there any other PSN games you guys on working on at this
time?
Guillermo: Not for PSN at this time. We´re working on a few unannounced
projects though...
Eric: Role Playing Games are known for having some of the best music
in the video game industry. Would Badolato Music like to work on an RPG sometime
in the near future?
Jorge: Absolutely! That would be a great work to do. We enjoy composing
all styles of music, as well as playing all types of games... RPG´s allow
composing tracks using the full orchestra and hybrid elements, which we love to
do.
We've already recorded original works/orchestrations with "The Budapest Film
Orchestra" for a CD of Sonoton´s Music Library, and would be great to have the
opportunity of working with a live orchestra again.
Besides other styles, we have some RPG-style demos on our website. We daily
use one of the best orchestral sampler libraries when developer's budget doesn't
allow to record live, which is almost always ;-)
Let's see what future brings! ;-)
Eric: Before we end this interview I think everyone here would like to
known about Wheelman. How does it feel to work on one of the most anticipated
games of 2009?
Guillermo: It's been a honor for us to work with Midway on this title, we
clicked with them from the start and we had A LOT of liberty on the music
composition, which is great.
Working on a game such amazing as this one is a blast. Can't wait to play the
final version!
Eric: In general how does the current soundtrack to Wheelman sound
like? Does it have a lot of variety or is it full of rock tunes?
Jorge: Although much of the trailers feature the rockiest tunes, the game
play soundtrack features a combination of mixed styles inspired by the music of
the actual classic car chase films. You can expect intense modern orchestra
music tracks spiced with a mix of electronic, rock and Spanish elements.
The game features a dynamic music system that make the music sound less or
more intense depending on the action. For the video cut scenes, the music we
composed is also cinematic orchestral style.
Eric: When can we expect to see Wheelman in stores?
Guillermo: It's expected to be out on February 2009. There's a countdown
that can be checked on their website
www.wheelmangame.com
Eric: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I can't
wait to play and hear Wheelman in 2009.
Jorge & Guillermo: Thanks to you Eric, it's been a pleasure for us ;-)
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