You can check out some game info and the entire Rorasuketo soundtrack by Michael Chadwick here . It's absolutely divine. When I said I wanted to pay homage to the Super Nintendo games of my youth, he went to town and grabbed some soundfonts from games like Final Fantasy IV, Earthbound, and Battletoads . I am so happy with the results. The battle tracks are head-bangers, and the emotional lows are perfectly bittersweet. I wouldn't change a thing. I've known Mike since the boom days of of LiveJournal — which is a long time, for the kids following along at home. He's an immensely skilled guitarist and songwriter, and has a really impressive catalog of work . Originally, I was going to write the music myself, but Mike has far more experience. And in creative projects like this, doing everything yourself has the potential to turn out an inbred, constipated piece of art. Collaboration adds depth to the work that you might not have realized before. It lightens the workload....
It has been a strange week. There was a death in my family, and it's a complicated one, so loss is on my mind. There is a sort of "empty chair" exercise at the front end of the game where you have the opportunity to talk to someone who has hurt you. Now that the person I envisioned in that exercise is gone, I decided to tag a graveyard on the back end so the player can speak to someone they've lost - whether it's someone with whom they had a good or not-so-good relationship. I'm all about the catharsis. I've considered both a setting from my childhood and a graveyard for other projects - but added them to Rorasuketo . Maybe I will get around to those other projects someday, but the areas are nice to have in here, too, just in case they don't manifest otherwise. I've been canvassing my city, and one of the themes I'm advertising is that it's a game about mental health recovery. There are times I've wondered if that's a good idea. I ...