We’re at the end of another month. For February, I have made… an album!
I honestly didn’t think I was going to have something ready by end of month that I could call an album. The first couple weeks were not very productive for several reasons, ranging from inefficient work methods to fatigue after completing January’s project to the release of Apex Legends, but after that I was able to fairly quickly produce four tracks which I ended up really liking (Cut Adrift, A Letter to the Living, The Forgetter, and Outside of Reason). I also wrote most of another track, but ended up deciding not to finish or include it because it wasn’t quite as strong as the rest.
I combined these four tracks with four more I wrote several years ago (Every Scratch in the Wood, The Incandescence of Your Filaments, They Only Remember Silhouettes, and Amidst her Glorious Device), then pulled in a couple more tracks which were mostly done and just needed a bit of remastering/arranging (My Heat Cuts the Ice, You’d Be Surprised What You Can Accomplish), and all of a sudden I had ten tracks and 50 minutes of music!
I think it all hangs together pretty well, though I’m a bit hesitant about my choice to have My Heat Cuts the Ice as the first track – the slow start of it is well-suited to the position, but it’s definitely not the strongest track on the album, so perhaps I should have cut it in order to put my best foot forward. I suppose if I change my mind someday I can always recut it and include it as a bonus track. In the meanwhile, I just have it so Outside of Reason is the featured track even if it’s not the first, since I think it’s generally more appealing and expect the album as a whole will make a better impression if that’s the first track people hear.
With this project behind me, next month is going to be focusing on creating a relatively small and simple 2d platformer in Unity. My goals for the next project are twofold, and perhaps threefold depending on how things work out: First, to create a game that feels more complete and polished than the quick prototypes or ambitious experiments of previous months. Second, to understand how Unity handles 2d development and what’s possible within that context, with the idea of possibly porting EverEnding to it in mind. Third, I’m going to be asking around to see if other people want to work with me on this project, so this may be an opportunity to learn how to work better with a team.