As part of a forthcoming issue of Soundscape Mag we will be focusing on music and composers from in and around the Video Game Industry. It’s a big industry and not knowing where to begin I found myself Amid Evil talking to the brilliant Andrew Hulshult whose work includes reanimating soundtracks from Rise Of The Triad, The IDKFA Music Mod and the upcoming Dusk.
Let’s talk! Amid Evil the new retro inspired First Person Slasher/Magic Missiler. What exactly is it and do you think it might redefine what we should expect from a 3D game?
*Laughs* Magic Missiler. I love it! Amid Evil is a fast paced fantasy FPS that takes inspiration from a lot of early 3D / 2.5D sprite based shooters but is also a good mix of old and new. I have no idea if it will redefine what to expect because we are still treading on a pretty fresh retro revival of early fps territory. It’s a lot of stuff that has already been done years ago but hasn’t been touched on much until recent years, so there is a whole new generation of people who are checking all these games out for the first time. We can only hope it has some significance like that but that’s pretty much the fans decision.
Inspired by Heretic, and Hexen; and possible even Witchaven. How does it hold up against those prodigious titles?
Heh, We are humble lads. It was actually never directly inspired by Heretic, etc, it’s just the easiest comparison to make since there are few fantasy shooters.
“Dusk felt like a Quake style game to me so I looked at a lot of old industrial groups and drone type music.”
What kind of soundtrack will Amid Evil have? For example most older titles with a similar aesthetic to Amid Evil had tracks tied to their levels however there are examples of other games (Monkey Island 2 and the iMuse system) using a dynamic system of incidental tracks to accompany or augment the mood the designers are inspiring.
Amid Evil’s soundtrack is a nice blend of synths, strings and abstract thought. We generally take about three to four tracks and choose where to blend them together with some sort of stinger during the crossfade to suit the pace or feel so it’s somewhat dynamic but it’s [engineered] more around the pace of the level.
When I started thinking up questions for this interview Heretics’ E1M9 started ringing around my head, will we find any secret nods to games similar to Amid Evil from yore?
There are tracks kind of similar but it’s not by design at all so Musically? Not so much. I wanted to create something new and fresh for myself and my friends at Indefatigable more than anything else. You might hear a certain laugh that I voiced that will seem somewhat familiar though.
3D Realms are also getting back into the spirit of old skool FPS and have released Ion Maiden which offers a fully mod-tracked score. How did you approach the scores for both Dusk and Amid Evil and how did you decide on what instruments to use that would achieve your vision?
Ion Maiden is great and I am super happy for the guys at Voidpoint for making something so cool and it’s nice to see 3DR publishing! I actually almost made the music and sound assets for that game but I was tied up with another title at the time.
Dusk felt like a Quake style game to me so I looked at a lot of old industrial groups and drone type music. I also looked on the opposite side of that as what is gritty and very violent and took inspiration there as well and we make them flow back and forth in game. The one thing I wanted to nail with Dusk first off was the early distortion pedal plugged directly into the board sound and it was a lot harder to nail down than it would seem. To me that was a staple of the time period and era for games like Quake so it had to hold things together here as well.
“Duke [Nukem] is a total badass but he hasn’t been to hell yet.”
Amid Evil just felt like it needed something abstract and odd but really pretty just like the game itself. Two things that I use more than anything else for Amid Evil is a Roland SE-02 model D clone through a lot of long reverb and filters and 8dios string software called Majesitca.
Let’s rock! Megadeth or Metallica? Duke or Doomguy?
Metallica and Doomguy.
Dave Mustaine is a great songwriter but he can’t stop talking politics and Duke [Nukem] is a total badass but he hasn’t been to hell yet.
Would you ever consider taking your soundtracks on the road and touring with them?
I would like to for a short period of time but touring isn’t cheap and I’d like to still come out ahead. Maybe in a few years.
Is there, will there, ever be a remastered Doom 2 soundtrack from you?
Hopefully! I’m just really tied up in development at the moment. IDKFA was made during the free time I had while focusing on one project and now I have a lot of them.
Are there going to be anymore retro inspired and awesome surprises coming from your studio?
Maybe? *smiles*
