Hello everyone,
I’m brand new to the Unreal 4 community however i’ve long been an avid gamer, taking C++ over a decade ago and creating from scratch my own Zelda: Link to a Past level from scratch as a High School project. Since then i’ve had experience in being a machinist (as in reading blueprints and drafting, as well as making metal objects, such as turning a metal pole into a hammer), film producer, cook and the business side of the restaurant industry, so now I feel alot better about getting into developing games. I had 100k in real estate that was a Venue/Film Studio/Recording Studio/Whatever that I was managing, so while it went south the experience will pay off here.
Anyways getting into the actual topic here, i’m also a violin player, with a classical and fiddle background, meaning I can give samples of Bach AND drunken Irish jigging music in the same take, and with a background in audio engineering I also already have tonnes of material that can be used as scores, tracks, whatever. What I do know from that experience is violin is one of the hardest to capture naturally, something I can do easily though as a violin player.
So first I can offer services of creating custom string tracks of whatever mood, being it an orchestra film setting track creating a dark mood, or say for a bar environment when you need a music track that brings the bar atmosphere to life. Now because I put the work into recording all these audio tracks and editing them myself, I can license them rather cheaply, as I can also mix any audio track (that is mixable) as well as create any track of my own.
The other kicker as a musician is I have a tonne of musicians friends who can also accomplish unique tasks different projects may need. Want a custom track that sounds like Led Zeppelin? I got just the guy for you. Neil Young? I know exactly who.
The price would really be determined by how much time is needed to complete the task, a simple recording of whatever is alot faster than trying to capture a specific sound. The idea for me is though for whatever money I can make offering my services in audio, I can then use to buy other things I need on the marketplace like blueprints and texture packs and such, so if its only working with me, i’m also willing to trade deals! While I can use my own music in my own games, i’d also like to make as good of games as I can.
Any artist I work with myself I can work out how we split the revenue, as the tracks themselves are recorded by me and except for 4 albums, are legally mine, while some I won’t be able to sell myself I can 99% get permission, just a matter of asking since they are my friends who like money haha.
For the artists it would help get their talent out there though as they usually play for crap money in the bar scene or have to tour, and are great voice actors etc.
Here’s an example actually of a friend who is also a violinist, who did a duet with her friend on this track, this is one of the takes and is currently unmastered, but it was a great capture for the most part because it fit a perfect ‘sound’ if you will.
So say if I figure out what people what and release a pack based on it, I can constantly update it as well as I have more tools to do my job better, however another service I can offer is taking say a voice track, and just making it sound fuller and better, say more human like, which is based around balancing the EQ, compression, reverb etc. I can offer free test samples.
I guess the idea here for the tracks, is i’m not selling the tracks themselves as anyone can buy some of them online, more the right to put them in your own projects freely, with credit to the artist attached to said track. Obviously if someone just downloads a track, puts it in their game and doesn’t pay anything, its just kind of a ■■■■ move. So any recording of famous composers like Bach I can issue, preferably smaller sections as say Bach Chaconne is extremely difficult to master in a single take haha.
However theres loads of potential there to really add an atmosphere to a story, I really love how much easier it is to do cinematic scenes in Unreal 4 compared to real life haha. No need to deal with actors and such. But i’ll leave a video of Bach Chaconne just to give people an idea of what they may want, what I love about Bach is in a song thats only a couple minutes, he’ll explore every side of the human emotion which really made me understand why every stroke of a painter is so important, it carries a lot of weight later on once the rest of the painting has been applied. Essentially Bach Chaconne is an exploration into the human adolescent phase, as a man who had many children of his own die young. However I will probably refuse to sell anyone a performance of Tchaikovsky concerto as I have my own idea for it lol.
I also do read and write scores although i’m no Saint-Saens yet I can at least provide those parts as well, want the Mendelssohn solo in one of your games? I can provide a clip! At the same time as i’m doing all of this, i’ll also be working on my own games i’d like to make.
Since it’s all new though i’m still learning the Unreal 4 engine.
I also haven’t really considered working on other projects themselves yet as i’m not sure fully what I can offer game development wise yet, however I am a great facilitator which is why I was given a job for the government as a film producer, current video games include Battlefield 1, Assassins Creed Origins and… NBA 2k15 cause 2k18 is trash. Also a big Total War fan (Napoleon and Rome 1), Knights of Honor, Half-life 2 (back in 2002), Age of Empires, Red Dead Redemption.
I’m amazed at how accessible some of these gameplay mechanics are now though.
Currently my focus is to combine a FPS with a story adventure game set at least 75 years ago in a city environment. Basically I can create a storyline where Red Dead Redemption meets Mafia II haha.
I really don’t know what else to say at the moment as i’m brand new to the site and community, so i’d love to chat with whoever about whatever. Right now just kind of having fun with it all. So I guess thats my long ■■■-post.