HMXEnosity’s Comments

Sorry for the delay, but I bring you...

Awesome in Phase (PART TWO)

01) Beck - Dark Star - (David Andrew Sitek Remix)
02) Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Disasters Are Okay
03) Andrew Bird - Fiery Crash
04) Ratatat - Wildcat
05) Alaska in Winter - Rain On Every Weekend (Remix Version)

5 great songs that are a blast to play in Phase.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Hey Everyone, If you do not want to rock on 4/20 but still want to go to a show...
I'll be playing at TT The Bears. This will be a special electro-acoustic "full band" show with some fellow hmxers filling in. We'll be on first! More info below...


theINFORMATI / The Baltic Sea / Full-Source

Apr 20, 2008 9:00 PM @ TT The Bears
10 Brookline St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Cost : $7 - 18+

9:00pm - Full-Source - myspace.com/fullsource
10:00pm - The Baltic Sea - myspace.com/thebalticsea
11:00pm - theINFORMATI - myspace.com/theinformati

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Hey, I finally got around to playing through my Phase EP on various difficulties. Check out my earlier blog post for more information.

An Actual Exclamation EP HIGH SCORES

EASY - 140,145
MEDIUM - 460,761
HARD - 825,410
EXPERT - 1,144,787
INSANE - 1,485,781

So there are my High Scores. I think they all can be beaten. Maybe not for Easy though. That may be the highest score possible on that difficulty. I highly recommend playing this EP on Expert for maximum fun.

Phase Away!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

I've come across some songs that are amazingly fun to play in Phase. I'll be periodically posting these songs in sets of 5 for your enjoyment. Expect some blazing gem paths and great gameplay moments. Enjoy!

Awesome in Phase (PART ONE)

01) Beck - Broken Drum (Boards Of Canada Remix)
02) Basement Jaxx - Broken Dreams
03) Me Shell Resounds - I'm Breathing Happiness
04) Fluke - Hang Tough
05) Aphex Twin - Iz-Us

You can download the Me Shell Resounds track right here for free!

Friday, March 7, 2008

My new EP, "An Actual Exclamation" is the first five song EP of music designed to be played as a Marathon for the iPod game, Phase.



Full-Source - An Actual Exclamation EP (a 15 minute Marathon for Phase) - file under indietronic synth pop

01) You're Phasing Away (02:46)
02) Out Run (02:44)
03) Too Many Tornadoes (02:39)
04) Fast Is Far (03:33)
05) No More Moon (03:52)

An Actual Exclamation!!! - Designing a Marathon for Phase

Designing music for Phase was a strange process. It's about 60% music creation, 30% knowing how the game works and 10% luck. Before I tried to create music for Phase, I spent a lot of time just playing anything and everything. Granted that was my part of my job but it was also critical in understanding what works and what doesn't work in Phase. Although this is an opinionated statement, here's what worked for me in Phase: Most beat driven pop, rock and electronic music. To clarify, basically songs that have noticeable spikes in audio levels and any songs with short, spaced, notes. Songs that I found not to work: Most things with long drones, sustains or strings.

When creating the music, I used the following things as a guide line:
a) Each song needs to have short spaced notes to generate a lot of spikes in the volume level of the song.
b) Each song needs to have lots of notes spaced close together.
c) A fast BPM (beats per minute) wouldn't hurt.
d) Each song should fit the vibe of the game as presented in the game's artwork.
From there out it was trial by error. A few of the songs I needed two or more passes on before I was happy with the song’s results in Phase. For tracks 3 and 4, I hit it right the first time through.

So what makes a good Marathon then? Here's my opinion:
a) Length: I went for under 20 minutes as a goal. It was short but not too short. Over 30 minutes and I find myself really trudging through the last couple songs just to get the Marathon over with.
b) Difficulty Ramping: This is just like designing a game. You start easy and work up to difficult. Tracks 1 and 2 are easy, tracks 3 and 4 are hard and track 5 is in the middle but the longest of the 5.
c) Flow: As with any good album or level in a game, the whole thing needs to flow together.
A Marathon can be a great challenge for anyone since there are an infinite number of challenges that the user can create, find and receive. The most important advice I can give to anyone interested in making a Marathon for Phase is to make it challenging but keep it fun.

More links:
Archive.org page with album artwork downloads
Actual Exclamation on Last.fm
Official Full-Source Site
Full-Source MySpace Page
Official Phase Site

Enjoy,
Tim Dwyer

Monday, February 25, 2008

I normally don't post my top albums but I managed to compile a list sooo why not...

MY TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2007

1. Amiina - Kurr
2. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3. The National - Boxer
4. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
5. Stars Of The Lid - And The Refinement Of The Decline
6. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
7. Blue States - First Steps Into...
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
9. The Octopus Project - Hello, Avalanche
10. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum

MY TOP 5 FREE NET LABEL RELEASES OF 2007

1. This Mess Is Mine - Sign The Drafts EP
2. Nic Bommarito - Taciturn
3. My First Trumpet - Frerk
4. Le Mépris - Le Mépris
5. Teamforest - Leave EP

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

If you own an iPod that will play Phase and haven't picked up a copy of it yet, either you're crazy or don't have the internet. I'm sure you have the internet though since you're reading this. I worked on the game and I STILL PLAY IT ALL THE TIME. "As many songs as you own". That's how much replay value it has... I'm working on some new songs that you'll be able to enjoy in Phase and not in Phase... RAWK&AWE

Saturday, January 5, 2008