End of the Year, End of the Semester

It's been a long second year at UOIT Game Development and it's been a blast (I FINALLY just finished my exams and moved back home). There have been tons of moments of great fun and other moments with a lot of stress! In comparison, first year was a breeze compared to this year in terms of work load and difficult. Somehow, my group and myself managed to get through all the hardships of learning 3D game code and crazy shader algorithms.


Project for the Year

The first year, we had to make two seperate games, but this year we made one whole game, starting it in first semester and continuing on in second semester. The game was called Ultimate Gladiator Coliseum : 80 AD. I don't remember if I talked too much about it already, I only mentioned it briefly as a project and some of the problems we faced in making it.


Essentially UGC:80 AD, is a third person action game that controls along the same lines as the Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim might. You battle your way through 8 coliseum battles. In between battles you have access to a forest area, where you can talk to a Blacksmith to perform quests to gain gold and purchase upgrades to your stats for gold you earn from quests and coliseum battles. 


In battle you have access to an array of different techniques from the start like power attacks, spear throws, etc. The techniques themselves aren't complex or all the numerous, the system is supposed to be simple and easy to understand. The game's look is also based off a lego look, so the entire world looks a blockier on purpose. Since it's a lego look, it means the game itself isn't taking itself seriously and the entire world, from animations to models all look silly intentionally.


That's pretty much the game in a nutshell. Here is the link to our website and the project right here.


This game is where all the effort went for the year. Our team poured all our effort to making a fun game and to be honest I think we did really well for ourselves. It's definitely not the best game and it can be improved, but it turned out surprisingly well and it's good fun.


I'll update this page or make an annoucement if I get permission to link the download for our game.


Other Accomplishments


The fact that this blog even exists, I have to thank Professor Lennart Nacke & Professor Andrew Hogue for. It's been really fun to make all these blog posts every week and this blog will continue to exist even after the school semester is done. I plan to use this for future courses and any other hobbies I plan to pick up as I continue to become a Game Developer. This blog will continue through the summer months as well, though maybe not as frequently (or maybe more frequently since I have more time). 


I hope everyone has enjoyed reading the blog so far and that it will improve with time!

First Year Game – Art Evolution

Back in first semester of first year at UOIT, our group was known as Team Underdogs and only had half of the same members as it does now. In our first game (A Night in the House of Evil) we were required to make was a text-based game. This begs the question, why is art evolution in the title of this blog post if our game was text based? Well that’s because I poured my heart and soul into this game. I took the initiative of trying to do most of the coding right from the start and making the main gameplay system. Not only that but I poured a lot of effort into the designs of the characters both in terms of story and in terms of actual art design.

Looking back I am not satisfied anymore with either. The story got confusing even for myself so I am sure it was confusing for other people if they even got far into the game. We also featured our art in the game in some of the “cut scenes and introduction” of the game. I managed to find a way to get images and video to show up in our program so that I could explicitly use these pieces of art for those scenes. But looking back to the art too, it is not even close to representing what I would be able to do now.

I haven’t been drawing very long at all and I have never taken any art classes (aside from the mandatory one at UOIT), I just drew casually. The art I drew for our game “A Night in the House of Evil” was just me continuing to draw every now and then and learning more as time went on. It’s now pretty much a year and a half later and I can say for certain my art knowledge now is much better than it used to be. With this in mind, I remembered hearing a suggestion for our group to try and revamp our old games. This inspired me to look back at A.N.I.T.H.O.E, and I saw my art. I became quite displeased upon seeing it again, so I wanted to try and revamp it up to my standards now. I am not going to do all the art, just a few pieces at most (because there is a ton of art I drew and I don’t have time to do them all until exams are over).

So here is the result of revamping one of the old artworks in A Night in the House of Evil.

Old Picture (Fall 2010)

New picture (Fall 2011 / Winter 2012)

Yeah... things have changed a lot. Yay! Now time to go study.

Graphics : Gamecon & Shaders

Unfortunately due to crunch time, there has been a lack of blogs lately and exams are coming up to so this will probably the last one until they are done.

Poster for Ultimate Gladiator Coliseum 80 AD

My group Scorching South Studio’s game was just recently completed and show at UOIT’s gamecon where students of all years showcase their games to the audience. Our game Ultimate Gladiator Coliseum was showcased along with the other second years and we got overall very positive feedback at the event. A lot of people had fun with it and we didn’t hear any complaints about the game so that’s definitely a plus for our group. There were some technical issues at the beginning that caused stress, but overall the experience was quite fun.

Now that gamecon is over and our game has been submitted, we were also required to do a post-mortem of our game to see what wrong and right. Since this is a graphics blog, I am going to look at one specific problem we had, and that was late implementation of shaders. Our group was so preoccupied with other tasks over the semester that implementing shaders was pushed back until late. We should have known we would run into errors along the way  and should have anticipated it would be easier said than done to put shaders in our game, even though we knew how to do it in other programs.

Here is how our game looked like without shaders (and older models)

This caused a lot of stress on several days and in the end, we got most of the shaders we wanted but not all of them. Had we not pushed it back so far, we probably would have gotten every single shader we would have wanted for the game. There were just tiny errors that we had to overcome to get them in, but alas the time constraints near the end didn’t let them in. That means graphically, in our opinion the game was still lacking because of those missing shaders we wanted. Nevertheless we got a lot in still, just not every single one we wanted.

Here is what the final game looked like with shaders

It was definitely a good learning experience, because it shows us never to underestimate how much time we need. Our group needs to make sure not to underestimate how long it can take to finish up a task, especially as one as complicated as shaders. We tried putting it in while thinking of the best case scenario, when we should have went in thinking with the worst case scenario. If we had done that we would have gotten the rest of the shaders that we wanted and overall be able to polish our game much more.

I don’t have much time to really write this post so I am going to end this one short for now. Maybe later I will talk more about how more aspects of the game went in specifics but for now I want to get to studying or at least relaxing my tired brain. This may be the final post for the semester but hopefully this will continue into the summer!

Game of the week 14: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

Now is the time once again for the game of the week blog, and in our text book, I took the initiative of looking at one of the topics, which was puzzles. The definition of puzzles was broader however, and compared and contrasted how puzzles relate to how games should be made. Puzzles need not only refer to things such as Sudoku or Crossworld puzzles, but many a game of course have puzzles. Puzzles come in all shapes and sizes, having different effects on gameplay. Some can feature puzzles as a mandatory to the gameplay, such as in Legend of Zelda games, where puzzles are mandatory in most dungeons but they are usually simple enough so that young players can still progress and have fun doing them. Others feature mind bending puzzles as the main form of gameplay the whole way through, I would probably compare this to Catherine (my previous game of the week) as the main game play is the fast paced, difficult puzzles. There are certain features that puzzles should contain to keep them accessible and a fun part of the gameplay but I will get into those later, for now I’d like to introduce the game of the week, or rather series of the week.

This week, I’ve decided to feature a series originally created for the Game Boy Advanced and later ported to the Nintendo DS. The series in question is Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. The main series on the GBA features three games, the original, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney : Justice for All and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney : Trials and Tribulations. The first game was originally released in 2001, and the remake for the Nintendo DS in 2005, with the sequels following in 2002 and 2004 on GBA and then 2006 and 2007 for DS.

The game features the main character, Phoenix Wright defending his clients in a variety of legal cases, though pretty much all of them relating to murder in some fashion. With his assistant Maya, he goes about collecting evidence, talking with various witnesses and finally going to court room. There he cross examines witnesses and their testimony in order to find facts that will prove his client’s innocence. The game is essentially a take on turning the legal system into gameplay.

Gameplay

There are two different sections of gameplay typically in the game, there is the investigation section and the courtroom section.

Investigation sections, where all the exploration is

In the investigation section, you go out into the scene of the crime and any related areas to gather evidence. You get to collect pieces of evidence that are added to your inventory for future reference, as well as other characters around who may provide more information, including evidence and such. Over the course of the game, you are given various tools that help you search rooms for evidence. This evidence will eventually be used in the courtroom, as that is the main section where all the drama and revelations in the game occur.

The courtroom sections, where all the action happens

In the courtroom section of the game, the collected evidence and knowledge that you obtained over the course of the investigation section is what you are armed with in the court room sessions. Much of it consists of listening to Witness testimony, pointing out any contradictions you can based on the evidence you possess. You’ll have to do some “puzzle solving” by doing some logical thinking and seeing where they are wrong. That’s essentially the main aspect of this entire section, pointing out where the logic is wrong and shoving it in their face. Of course there are consequences for not pointing out the logic correctly, so you have a “life bar” of sorts that depletes. If you lose all of it you have to restart the court room sequence.

Cross Examination sequences are where you do all of logical thinking to break down the witness' testimony

Now the thing about this game is that it is fact, a very linear game. Most of the game actually consists of text to read, which in fact makes it like a “Visual Novel”. These games usually consist of a lot of text, or dialogue, and they are mostly story in fact. This genre of games mixes with the “Dating Sim” type that I spoke of earlier in my blog regarding Catherine. Anyways, in Phoenix Wright, there is one set path usually. Only on the rare occasion can you get different endings. In the investigation sequences, you will ALWAYS get all the evidence you need before you can proceed to the court room sequences. And in the court room sequences, you will ALWAYS have all the evidence you need to proceed. If you don’t then it’s scripted for you to not have that evidence at the time and things will proceed as normal.

Now the fact that I mention it’s a linear, visual novel game now means what really makes this a game? Well like I mentioned earlier, the “puzzle solving” in the court rooms is where the game play truly lies. You have to use your brain quite a bit to decipher the clues given to you. This also applies in the investigation sections, most of the time you should think about where you want to go next, what areas to visit, who you want to question and doubt.

Game Design of the Week: Puzzles

In our breakdown of puzzles, we identified a variety of different puzzles types, which included, riddles, lateral thinking, spatial reasoning, pattern recognition, logic, exploration and item use. In Phoenix Wright, the main puzzle types used in the game are logic, exploration and item use.

Logic is used constantly in the court room sections, like I said you have to break down everything the witness on the stand is saying and point out any contradiction, no matter how tiny.

Exploration is used in the investigation sequences, since you have to explore every nook and cranny of every location available to you in order to find ll the evidence you can.

Item use is also used quite a bit all over, a combination of using your logical thinking, presenting the correct items at the correct times so that you can either reveal more information, or take down a witness’ testimony. Of course items are obtained through exploration as well!

You'll be using those 4 puzzle types all over the game

Puzzle basics

There are also four basic characteristics to puzzles. Affordances, identifiable patterns, ease of use and reward player skill.

Affordance means it should be easy to figure out the rules and controls. In Phoenix Wright, well you don’t really have too many crazy options in terms of controls and rules. It really makes the game easy to play and pick up for anyone, all you have to do is use logic.

Identifiable patterns means the puzzle should be clear so that players are able to identify the ways the puzzle can be solved. Well in PW (Phoenix Wright), you are given all the evidence you need and as long as you paid attention to the information you were given during the game, you should be able to figure out how to proceed with the case. (You can still look back on information you gathered too)

Ease of Use meaning good interface (User interface). Like I said, PW features not too many controls or rules to go by and the user interface is pretty simple. In courtroom for example, when cross examining, read the witness statement, press him for more information, present evidence to show a contradiction or move to the next statement. Simple as that.

Reward Player skill is so obvious, not gonna say that it does! And well PW helps you thinking logically throughout, or at least logical for PW standards, so it holds your hand that way.

Phoenix right is able to use the basic rules of puzzles quite well

Puzzles in Phoenix Wright?

At first when I played the game, I hadn’t thought about it as a puzzle game. I usually associated puzzles with crosswords and such. I forgot to think about using logic and deductive reasoning as puzzles, since you’re really trying to solve something based on the tools and information provided. Puzzles like cross words of course make you use your brain to think about what words will go, but of course that uses logic and deductive reasoning too. For some reason I hadn’t made the connection, I thought of PW more as a visual novel then a puzzle game. But now I can see it’s a good part puzzle game as well, using all that logical thinking to break down witnesses.

Conclusion

The main reason I feel satisfaction from doing this though is because the game’s characters and script throughout the game are fantastic. Without this high quality from the script and great characters, I would not have enjoyed the game nearly as much. They made the game what it is. I played the game for the story mostly but still felt satisfaction from breaking down witnesses and such. That’s how the puzzles are rewarding and that’s another lesson we learned in class. Puzzles should be rewarding, providing the player with some sort of benefit and for the players of this game, the benefit was to see the storyline continue. The story in most of the cases were all fun to go through and most of the character’s you cross examined in their testimony had neat reactions (Such as pulling their hair out, but more interesting than simply that) that made it even more satisfying.

Anyways that’s all I wanted to cover this week. If you have never tried Phoenix Wright before, I suggest you do. It’s a fantastic series and a lot of fun to play. I loved it simply for the characters and story and the puzzle aspect of it made me more engaged in the storyline all together!

Level Up 2012 Experience

Level Up is an event where many universities around Ontario are invited to showcase games that have been developed over the year. UOIT was invited to this event as well and we were able to bring and showcase our games as well. My friend Moose has already talked about his Level Up impressions as well as going in depth into the testing results we got from our game, so instead of talking about those tests, I am going to talk more about my personal experience at the event.

At 12:00 pm, we left to take the bus and train to reach Union station in downtown Toronto. From there we walked all the way to the Level Up venue. We arrived by 3:00 pm, where we were then offered Pizza (my only meal for the next 7 hours) then a speech by Microsoft for recruiting university students. It was definitely something I noted, the process of getting into Microsoft was made much clearer after this speech and definitely became a possibility I could pursue in the future. The fact they are going for university students like this is a good sign.

One of the other University's games, Gentleman Explorer

Afterwards we set up our booth, which was only a table whereas other people had projectors and TVs. Apparently we had to bring our own, and I wasn’t fully aware because I wasn’t intending to go to the event at first, but a last minute decision on Monday led me and my group member Moose to Level Up. So all we had was a table and our laptops. Some of the other groups in UOIT got lucky and managed to snag some TVs, but we were unfortunately not so lucky. Here is a list of the 2nd year UOIT groups that I remember seeing...

Base8

Team Pandasaurus

Team RAM'D

Team Overload

Scorching South Studios (Moose and I)

A view of our table

Moose and I shared a table with fellow GDW group Team Overlord. There were only a handful of groups there from our year, I believe it was 5 total? Not many considering there are around 12 to 15 groups. I am not sure of their reasons for not coming, but game or not it was a good experience to go. Moose and I didn’t even have a fully complete game yet, our HUD wasn’t even working which is a pretty essential part of our game but all the normal gameplay was in at least so it wasn’t a total loss. Even so we got some good feedback and some impressed people from the fact we built it from the ground up. I think Moose and I can agree that made us pretty happy to be praised like that.

A four player, local area connected game

The rest of the schools consisted of U of T, OCAD to name a few, the others I honestly can’t remember but all of their games were really great. Gameplay wise, they were superior to ours and graphically as well. The thing is that most of them didn’t make an engine from the group up like we did, they used Unity game engine. Now their games are still all great, I am not going to put them down or anything. They were all legitimately very well designed and some had some rather unique quirks to them. In comparison to ours, since they were done using a built game engine, much of their time was focused solely on the design of the gameplay and aesthetics. Much of our time was preoccupied with learning to code new techniques and get them into our game. Had we used Unity, our game would have had much more time to look more polished and be on the same level of quality that the others had.

A game set up to use the Kinect

But nonetheless all the games showcased on the floor were good. Some even used Wii-motes or the Kinect for their controls. Most of them had controllers of some sort in any case, many of them using Xbox 360 controllers. There were some that stood out, such as a flight simulator (flying as a bird) and using your arms as wings to soar. All of the other games were quite polished and you could tell everyone had passion into making their game.

A zombie shooter using the Wii-Mote

Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to play all the games but I was able to look at them. Since it was only Moose and I from our group, we always had to have at least one person at the table to get feedback from players. We also had no chairs, which meant pretty much a good 6 to 7 hours of standing up. We only got maybe 15 minutes of sitting down each? Both of us stayed at the table for most of the time and only one of us wandered off every now and then. So by the end of the day, my back and feet were killing me. Also I got super hungry, not the best combo.

Team RAM'D 's Werebear game

Despite the fact we didn’t have a full game, like our professors said, it was a very good experience to just go to the Level Up venue. It was also a good bonding experience with my fellow GDW classmates, definitely worth it for even that. We got some insight into how other people are making their games, some experience in presenting our game (Other games had stands and banners for their game and only one of our UOIT groups had a poster), and a look into the fact many other schools use engines to build their game rather than hard code. People, like I said, were generally impressed with discovering it’s an engine built by us. If they didn’t discover that then it was mostly just a decent game.

Team Pandasaurus' "Pandausarus Rex"

Nevertheless everyone on the show floor was impressive and I look forward to participating in next year’s Level Up and other future events such as this. It’s definitely a great experience that I would like to attend again.

P.S.

Of all my pictures, I didn't get a proper one of our game nor Team Overlord's. And sorry to any other groups I didn't get a picture of.

Game Design: Music in Games and Film

After having gone to the Distant Worlds Concert, it’s really inspired me to talk about the music in games. I feel like it’s something special, that many gamers overlook though I still know there are plenty who greatly care about it. There are many songs that instantly get recognizable such as the Mario theme, but there is plenty of music out there that is absolutely beautiful but is not allowed the spotlight simply due to it not being as known as these “popular themes”.I wanted to dedicate a post solely to the music present in games and the kind of bonds they forge with the game that can completely change the experience.

Music is extremely important to a deep game experience. It’s often an overlooked part of a game and not always given the attention it deserves by gamers. There are tons of games out there that have excellent music but are often not widely recognized. There are gamers who will simply play the game and the music will just be in the background, sometimes not even paid attention too. Once the game is over, the music goes along with it. On the other hand, there are other gamers who recognized the great pieces played in some games and will seek out the soundtracks. I am one of these kinds of gamers.

I will be honest, game soundtracks are the main form of music I listen to. I am not into pop, rock, or any form of mainstream music usually, at least nothing on the radio. Sure I will listen to it and I enjoy it, especially some songs but my entire music collection consists of either film or game soundtracks. It’s partially my taste in music that is the cause for this, but there is something else. And that is the experience between the game/film that the music provides.

Glorious Charge : Memories of Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers

Lord of the Rings The Two Towers : Glorious Charge

I remember when I first watched Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers. The end of the film at the Battle of Helm’s Deep, our heroes were surrounded by Uruk-Hai, with little hope left. Aragorn convinces Theoden to lead one last charge to delay the Uruk-Hai from reaching the woman and children in the caves. As soon as the charge starts, one of the most heroic pieces at the time for me played. Aragorn and Theoden led a glorious charge, cutting through Uruk-Hai to the great music. It only got better as Gandalf arrived with Eomer and over 2000 riders of Rohan. Suddenly the music reached new heights, I can’t even describe how I felt the first time I saw the scene and heard the music. Gandalf led the charge down the hill, the over bearing sun light behind him while some of the most “holy” feeling music I have ever heard played. It was just amazing, I felt chills down my spine when I first saw the scene, it was just so breathtaking for me. What really hit me was the music. It was short, but it was amazing, it fit with the scene so perfectly.

LOTR: TTT OST - Theoden Rides Forth

This scene alone sold me into watching the Two Towers at least five more times in theaters as well as rewatching the movie every year and also fast forwarding to this scene every now and then. The music along with the scene created just the best moment for me, one of my favourite movie experiences. I am sad that I will never be able to experience it the same way I did when I first saw it in theaters. Of course the entire movie was fantastic and the music is beautiful in every scene, but that was the one scene that stood out the most to me.

Lord of the Rings The Two Towers Video game

This love for the movie got me to buy the Two Towers video game. The movie tie –in that, in it’s day was actually a pretty good action game. I had a lot of fun with the game and the music helped quite a bit, but one thing was missing. First off the game didn’t feature all the scenes from the movie, nor my favourite scene, and second it didn’t have most or any of the Two towers music if I can recall correctly. It was all music from the Fellowship of the Ring. Of course I love the Fellowship of the Ring as well, but I wanted to hear the Two Towers music going right with the scenes. The Battle of Helms Deep has a certain battle music in the film that I was hoping to hear as I fought along the walls of Helm’s Deep. But I didn’t get that and so my experience was not as great as I hoped it would be. I wasn’t able to relive the moments of the film the way I wanted to. 

That’s because it wasn’t the music I remember hearing in the film, and so with that mindset, though I enjoyed those sections, they just weren’t the same. (I did however play through the game over 20 times anyways).

The point I am trying to make here is this connection to the experience. Because I had a mindset of wanting to hear Two Towers music and instead heard Fellowship, my experience was changed, it could have been greater. That’s the strength that music had on my mindset. It’s like playing a game with a certain soundtrack and then trying to play through again but someone changed all the songs. It just feels different.

Games and Mainstream music

Games like Final Fantasy have had some fantastic music. I know there are many out there as well that know this music is beautiful, especially the arrangements provided in Distant Worlds. Even games like Uncharted and Gears of War have some pretty good music. But for even the greatest video game music, the only public form we see them in is concerts. You’d never dream of hearing them on a radio, because they never seem to get the recognition that “mainstream” music gets. Even fantastic orchestral pieces in Final Fantasy you wouldn’t hear on classical radio. Now I don’t know if video game music will ever get that kind of recognition, I highly doubt it.

Gears of War 2 : Hope Runs Deep (Main Theme)

There are a lot of things that keep them out. It could be the age and audience, a lack of awareness of the game music, or just a lack interest. The lack interest also stems from lack of awareness because a lot of game music doesn’t get circulated very well. Some people just have an immediate biased to discovering a piece of music is from a game versus being not being made for a video game. Even if it’s a great piece of music, some people may not like it just because it’s from a video game.

Halo Reach : Overture

Also not everyone can get into a game’s soundtrack like that and maybe not even those people spread their knowledge around. People who listen to game soundtracks are generally in much smaller niche than anyone listening to other forms of music. That makes it a little harder to spread all the knowledge of great soundtracks around. Also with so many games out, it can be hard to keep track of all those soundtracks anyways. I know there are some out there I still should hear but I just don’t know what they are.

Music and Memories

Continuing on with experience that music provides, there are actually quite a few games out there that provide instant familiarity. For a lot of people, the themes of Mario and Zelda immediately invoke nostalgia. There is a reason these themes are remixed so often, because everyone loves those themes. Same with the prelude of Final Fantasy, which has been present in every game except some of the more recent ones. Within those themes invokes memories and a link to a franchise that everyone has grown to love and know.

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword : Main Menu theme. An iconic track in every Zelda game

Even in standalone games not part of a franchise, particular great pieces of music can stand out to represent a moment in a game. For myself, Terra’s Theme from Final Fantasy VI will always play out in my mind as seeing the three mechs walking in the opening of the game. I can easily piece it in my mind with the music. Even music in Tales of Vesperia, one particular theme played whenever there were sad moments and I particularly liked the piece. I can still remember many of the moments it played in the game. For me, the music invokes these memories if I was attached enough to the game and the music and experience was powerful enough.

Final Fantasy VI : Terra's theme. It will always remind me of the opening of FF VI

This is what popular and mainstream music can’t do for me, it cannot invoke those memories for me. I like music that invokes a memory or an attachment, like if I played Street Fighter music, I immediately think of Street Fighter and can help set me in a certain mood. If I want to draw a Street Fighter character for example, I will put that music on. This is what both video game music and film music can do for me.

Super Street Fighter II : Guile's Theme. It immediately sets me in an energetic mood

Even if it’s a really bad game, if it has really great music I still might be able to have a positive experience. Or at least listen/buy the game’s soundtrack. For example, I criticized Sonic the Hedgehog(2006) a while back and I stand by that. But one thing that redeemed it partially for myself was the final boss music. I love it, it’s actually one of the video game songs I listen to fairly often.  The game itself is a dark moment for Sonic but this song helps me get into a “Sonic” mood if I feel like. It reminds me of the days when Sonic could be badass and the song just overall fit’s into any times I want to be inspired by something “epic”.

Sonic 2006 : Solaris Phase 2 (Final Boss theme)

So really, even a bad game with great music can help elevate it the experience for me. Before writing this blog I didn’t think too deeply into this, but really, video game music is really important for me. I never thought about how it sets these moods and memories for me but now I know for sure that it truly does. That’s why I have never been interested in popular music. Character themes, great epic music for cutscenes have always been my cup of tea because I just connect with them so much better. Video games are my life and these songs help me relive those memories and feelings and keep me in a great mood depending on the song.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 : Main Theme. I still listen to it frequently

Like the main theme of Final Fantasy XIII-2, I have been listening to it pretty much every or every other day since the beginning of the semester. I am still not tired of it and I listen to it because it’s a great piece, it just sounds absolutely beautiful. Though the game wasn’t the best, this theme invokes all my favourites and more emotional memories of the game. If I don’t think too deeply into my memories of the game, then the song just sounds so uplifting and helps my mood lighten up. It’s also particular calming so it’s great for studying and doing work as well.

Final Fantasy XI : Distant Worlds. I have not played Final Fantasy XI before but this song is absolutely beautiful. It doesn't matter that I haven't played the game before. The song itself is great enough to enter my collection of music that goes on repeat forever.

I am not too sure where I am going with this blog but I guess I wanted to say how much of an effect video game music has had on me that I hadn’t fully realized until now. Even films get this effect as well, particularly my Two Towers experience. There is just something about video game music that mainstream music will never be able to fulfill for me. And even if they are not from a game I have played before, the music can be just so great anyways. The work of these fantastic composers should be recognized even by those who have never experienced the game.

Distant Worlds : Music of Final Fantasy - March 31st 2012, Toronto

For a long time video games have had a great array of great tunes that are as catchy as the gameplay itself, with some of them being as beautiful as the gameplay itself. It was only a matter of time before the great tunes of video games made themselves to concert form where everyone could enjoy orchestral or other variations of their favourite tunes. I myself, got the pleasure of experiencing a concert dedicated to one of the most beloved RPG franchises out there, with some amazing music from one of my favourite video game music composers. This concert is...

Distant Worlds : Music of Final Fantasy

Starting in 2007, Arnie Roth has been conducting all the iterations of Distant Worlds, which features music from most of the Final Fantasy franchise, many of the most memorable and well known songs by composer Nobuo Uematsu. On March 28th 2012, they came to Toronto for the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy. Arnie Roth was once again conducting and we got the pleasure of having Nobuo Uematsu present as well, which made the concert even more exciting.

Everyone wants to buy some Distant Worlds merchandise

The event was held at the Sony Centre and was jam packed with people. There were also many people dressed up as characters from Final Fantasy. I always enjoy seeing others cosplaying as it shows their passion for the game and source material, not to mention it looks/is a whole lot of fun. If I had a Final Fantasy costume I would have certainly brought one myself.

Two passionate fans dress up as Hope (left) and Lighting (right) from Final Fantasy XIII

Tickets were pretty much sold out but I managed to get a early set of tickets all the way back in December. There was even a chance to meet with Nobuo Uematsu but we didn't book early enough sadly. In the Sony Centre, there was unfortunately no program to go with the concert, mostly because they wanted to make the song selection a surprise for the fans. I think that worked a lot better because I wasn't expecting certain songs to come up and when they did there was usually great applause.

My brother and my view from our seats to the orchestra

The concert started with the prelude theme of Final Fantasy. I have to admit the starting notes gave me chills. In fact I pretty much had chills throughout the entire song, it mixed a beautiful orchestra and an amazing chorus. It was the perfect opening to the concert, and I am pretty sure I had a really stupid grin on my face as I was listening, but it just sounded too wonderful. They were able to mix nostalgia and beauty right into that opening piece perfectly.

Distant Worlds II : Prelude of Final Fantasy

They then went to another well known song from Final Fantasy 8, Liberi Fatali. Like the prelude, this song was played in such an excellent manner and fit with the style of the original song. I am just going to say right now so I don't have to repeat myself that every single song they played stayed true to the original song and made it sound wonderful with orchestra and some choir music. There are orchestral versions of the songs and Distant World soundtracks already released, but hearing it up close and live is a completely different experience.

FF8 : Liberi Fatali

Before continuing on, they gave us the Battle Victory theme, much to the applause of the entire audience. It was easy to see Arnie Roth was very passionate about conducting Final Fantasy Music, he repeatly talked about how much he was digging through the all the songs for new music to add to the roster of ever growing arrangements.

FF 10 : To Zanarkand

Afterwards, they gave us many other songs, including from Final Fantasy 9, "you're not alone", Final Fantasy 4 "Love theme", FF 8 "Fisherman's Horizon, FF 10's "To Zanarkand", FF 11's "Ronfaure", FF 13's "Blinded by Light", and before the intermission the "Chocobo Theme".

Distant Worlds : Swing de Chocobo

I want to highlight another great aspect of the concert. Behind the orchestra, you can see a screen which displays footage that matches nearly perfectly with the Orchestra. Based on the song, they show footage from the game that the song originated from, and matching with the music in a very engrossing manner. I was engaged by the visuals and the music, because seeing the visuals go with the music allowed you to see how the beautiful music truly resonated and fit with the games. Not only that but it brought back nostalgic memories, not to mention the footage used was also handled very well. Most notably in the "Chocobo Theme", they used it very well, gaining tons of laughs from the crowd due to how they were able to integrate the cheery music and the footage from all the games in the series. It definitely helped make the experience what it was, without the visual aid the concert wouldn't be the same.

FF7 : Opening ~ Bombing Mission

The intermission followed, and soon after we were ready to go at it again. Usually Arnie Roth would annouce what music is being played next but didn't even do so and simply started with the music right away. People immediately recognized it as the "Bombing Mission/Opening Theme" of Final Fantasy 7 and people immediately cheered for it. It reinforced again how dedicated and passionate these fans are about the music. Being in a crowd like this for a concert is so much more invigorating because you know everyone in the concert loves these games and their music, the composer and conductor love them as well. There is passion for this series all around the room.

FF6 : Terra's Theme

Most of the 2nd half was dedicated more so to Final Fantasy 6 and 7, as the next song was "Aerith's Theme" from Final Fantasy 7, followed by FF 8's "Man with the Machine Gun", FF 5's "Battle on the Bridge", FF 6's Dark World (Which featured Nobuo Uematsu on the keyboard, playing piano and using atmospheric sounds), FF 6 had another song title "Maria and Draco" which was essentially a play in the game which featured 3 great soloist singers that all had very strong, "opera" qualities. The song all by itself tells a story without need for visuals which made it quite a bit different than all the other songs. FF 6 went one more time to finish with "Terra's Theme / Main Theme" of Final Fantasy 6.

Nobuo Uematsu & Arnie Roth on stage, so brightly lit that my camera can't handle it so they are glowing like crazy

Thankfully though it wasn't really the end and Arnie Roth teased us with one more song with the promise that we had to sing along. He had someone play the tune of the lyrics and everyone immediately recognized it was FF 7's "One Winged Angel". He even had Nobuo Uematsu say the lyrics of "Se - Phi - Roth", much to his embarrassment and the audience's laughter. Nobuo Uematsu joined the rest of the chorus at the back as Arnie Roth had the orchestra do their encore for the audience. A great conclusion to the concert it was, featuring the most intense orchestral and visual performance of the concert. The video fit perfectly with everything the orchestra was doing and was edited in such a good fashion while the orchestra was putting their hearts into making the song sound as amazing as possible. I have heard "One Winged Angel" on discs but hearing it up close, live, is just way better. Same goes for every song played.

FF7 : One Winged Angel

Unfortunately we couldn't rouse them to get a second encore, as the audience was cheering for minutes on end, getting several bows from both Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu. Overall though, the experience was just incredible. It's a way different atmosphere than other concerts I have gone to. That's possibly due to the nature of the audience and the age. The average age of this concert was quite low, maybe high teens or low twenties? But you could tell there was so much passion for the game and music throughout the audience and you could tell both composer and conductor were just as passionate. It made it way more fun than any other concert I have been too.


I don't know when or if they are ever going to come back to Toronto, but I know if I ever spot them coming again, I will be trying to get the first tickets possible. Not only that but I wish to meet any of the Final Fantasy composers if I have the chance. I would rather not miss the chance again. I am dying to see some other video game concerts as well. I know the atmosphere will be just as positive as this one. There is just something about a gaming concert that brings people together, there is just this great energy in the air.


Anyways I am tired, it was fun and hope people who read this get some incentive to see a video game concert. It's amazing.