The Solid Core Experience

Vote for my latest song in the FiXT remix competition!

2010-06-08T19:35:00.002+02:00

Yay i made the top 20 in the latest remix competition. Please vote for me and help med get a top 10! (Mine is the "Haste Mix by Benni Sines") http://www.fixtremix.com/news/v/vote-for-celldweller-quot-the-best-its-gonna-get-quot-winners/170/

Voting ends december 20th!

2009-12-19T17:33:00.003+01:00

My song is finished and the voting has begun. I'm writing this a bit late and there's only one day left to vote!

Please consider voting for my song here:
http://www.fixtremix.com/remix/v/louder-than-words-benni-sines-bridge-ambience-mix-final-version-by-benni-sines/481/

More info about the competition can be found here:
http://www.fixtremix.com/contests/v/louder-than-words/1/

Louder than Words remix diary 5

2009-11-11T20:12:00.003+01:00

I had a couple of more sessions in the studio since the last post I wanted to tell you about. A LOT of work has gone into reshaping the remix to be more my own and less Celldweller's. I've cut down on the singing a lot, created my own bassline and melodies for verses and generally shredded the chorus. It feels a lot more mine but I think enough is left of the original to still being able to call it a remix.

On this picture you can see some of the work in Cubase if you're interested. This is by far the biggest project i've ever made and it shows:

Louder than words remix diary 4

2009-10-09T09:43:00.003+02:00

So i got some quality studio time yesterday. i filled in all the gaps, rearranged a bit, improved the beat and made some mixing. I decided to kick this version out to the world so i submitted it last night to fixtremix. We'll see what people say. I'm sure there are things to be improved but i'm pretty damn proud of this track. Didn't think i would be able to pull off this much power and ambience.

Getting back to this empty space soon to tell you about the comments and post a link to the uploaded remix.

Louder than Words remix diary 3

2009-10-05T23:39:00.003+02:00

I finally got some quality studio time. After having only a mockup intro i've now extended and fine-tuned the intro and added transitions and breaks to the first verse. That part is pretty okay now. I fleshed out the song placing all the remix files where i wanted them and created a special calm second chorus. Added a bass but it feels a bit lonely. I need another bass layer and a sweep synth as well as some creative sweeps and pads to fill out and really make the remix my own. I'm pretty happy with the setup so now i'll focus on filling out and doing clever things with what I have to make it unique.

Continuing on the space-ambient theme i've used synths and ultra-ambient pianos to create more atmosphere than the original song had. I'll also only run the chorus once and the verses once and fill out the rest with my own extra bridges and ending.

I hope someone will like it.

Louder than Words remix diary 2

2009-10-01T23:04:00.002+02:00

Continuing on, finally got my cubase 5 grace update. Going through the new stuff and collecting all the sounds available to me and learning the new software. Started up the project for the first time and started importing the remix files and loading up the synths and effects i'm gonna use. Not sure i'm allowed to post anything as i'm working. Better check the remix rules first...

Louder than Words remix diary 1

2009-09-28T20:13:00.005+02:00

So finally the fixt "Louder than Words" remix competition is on! I thought i'd try putting down a few words now and then how i'm going about creating this remix in a kind of diaryish format. The competition ends november 27th so there's plenty of time playing with the song.

Got the remix stems this morning and i'm now spending a few hours sorting through the audio. Lots of awesomeness and almost equally much crap i can't use. Some people may have other plans though. I'm trying to take a mixed approach here. Take what i liked in the original song and enhance it and play more of it, then mash it together with the "Louder" experiment in my previous post. I'm looking for a space-breaks hybrid ambient sound with a simpler bassline, lots less vocals, more of the bridge stuff from the original and bring more of the spacy and unused stuff to the front and top it off with effects and parts of the song you may not have noticed.

Well, back to slashing my way through the audio...

Music showcase

2009-09-20T20:03:00.004+02:00

I've made a few music snippets the past month. Maybe someone cares enough to come with constructive criticism? I've made about one full song every year since 2003 but i decided to step it up a notch and i'll be participating in the Celldweller Louder Than Words remix competition starting the 28th. Really looking forward to making a real try at a remix! So, look at these as sound experiments to gain some experience needed for the competition. Well enjoy and feedback is appreciated.

Quick demo by BenniSines

The song survival is intended as a sound demo for a future song in sense. Do you think it fits the game?

Oh and while i'm at it. The new sense release is still a few weeks off but i've made a lot of progress with the technology. I've prepared things like splitscreen multiplayer, multipler weapons and enemies, more visual effects, factions for players and monsters and lots more which should speed up new features once iteration 2 is released by quite a lot. I also intend to release with very small changes in the future so you can comment the new features as they come available.

I'll see you around... or the other way around.

Artist promotion - Celldweller, Blue Stahli and FiXT

2009-08-25T21:53:00.006+02:00

An alternative headline could've been "guide to making $$$ from your music in the 21st century" but that would've been too long.

Well I gotta get this out. I really adore the way the artists Celldweller and Blue Stahli take music distribution and fan interaction to the modern age. Using blogs, twits, behind-the-scenes-videos and a close relationship with an independent download shop (fixtstore.com) they efficiently include fans into their work, build a relationship with them and then release songs cheaply and DRM-free.

I gotta say this is the way to distribute music nowadays. They put a lot of work into it but they're having fun, get direct feedback and probably get a lot of motivation because of it. People following the artists this close probably never think twice about paying for their work. The fans have seen how much blood it cost for them to get the music out there.

I also have to mention Imogen Heap who just released a new album and have a similar approach to the fans. Answering twits and even releasing the album for stream-only listening IN FULL. I'm very impressed by their courage and determination to do this their own way.

BT is another example but noone understands his twits.

If everyone released their music like this I'm very confident we wouldn't need a piracy discussion. Now only the rest of the world has to follow...

Sense progress update

2009-08-19T23:44:00.002+02:00

If anyone's reading this you're probably wondering what's happening with Sense. After finishing the first iteration I learned a lot and noticed some major cases of bad coding. With the help of the incredibly nice people at spellofplay i've sorted out some architectural errors and I've now restructured and rebuilt much of the code to be much more maintainable.

The changes seem to solve many problems already and it looks like it will be really easy to work on it from now on. This however means that I have to be happy about seeing the player move and so on again.. working on rebuilding the tile map to the new system now.

After that i need to fix particlesystems and enemies and i should be back where i was when iteration 1 was released and can concentrate on the new weapons and enemies which is the goal to include for the next iteration. I'd estimate it to be a few weeks off yet because my vacation is up and I start working at my regular job on monday again.

The new dimension of atmosphere

2009-08-19T17:00:00.004+02:00

I finished the indie-game World of Goo last night. I just have to write about it. Since the indie-scene have developed to provide these gems of commercial quality smaller games some really impressive works have found their way out of the game development underground.

For me, two that stand out are Braid and World of Goo.

These games are made by one or two people and it's just unbelievable. The attention to detail, humor and solid gameplay is amazing. And, what i think impressed me the most, is that they are filled to the brim with atmosphere and a sad undertone. The sound, subtle messages and creative and original music just takes these games to a new dimension. Playing Braid and World of Goo i found many of those few gaming moments where i've felt totally immersed and really feel like i've stepped into their world.

Thinking a little bit about it i realized that it's not mainly the graphics or gameplay that creates this for me. It's the incredible soundscape and these small details everywhere with tidbits of mysterious messages and information about the world i'm now in. This further proves the point that visual feedback, story, music and sound, however little there is, is a lot more important than many developers realize to give players this feeling of immersion. I will definitely try to include more of this in my games to eventually give other players the joy i've had playing Braid and World of Goo.

I bow down before my masters of gamedevelopness.

Sense iteration 1 released on hUb!

2009-08-03T12:50:00.002+02:00

The first iteration of my in-development shooter is available. Currently only on Spell of Play's hub platform so everyone easily can get the latest version. Download hub here and just doubleclick on Sense!

In this iteration you can try the game in its current development state on a small map with one weapon and one enemytype. Enjoy!

Benni Sines album Beginnings now available!

2009-07-27T13:55:00.001+02:00

For less than a cheap lunch ($4.65) you can now buy Benni Sines - Beginnings at indietorrent. Go there now!

Motionfield becomes Benni Sines

2009-07-25T19:20:00.003+02:00

My music project needs a restart and before uploading my music to indietorrent i decided to reboot my music homepage and create a simple, easy and accessible site to download and listen to current and future productions. Also, i had to change artist name because motionfield is used by another more succesful musician. I decided to go with Benni Sines which is a morph on my name together with a clever synth reference.

Well, the new site is done. Here's the result! Visit www.bennisines.com now!

Sense update with screenshots!

2009-07-19T22:33:00.010+02:00

I've been hard at work these past couple of weeks and as you can see below i've implemented quite a few things:

Simple tilemap with zelda-esque dungeon graphics (thanks Henrik Samuelsson for the textures!) with collidable walls. Bolt shots bounce on walls for a couple of seconds until they disappear.
The light weapon Bolt Rifle works and has preliminary audio.
Basic enemies and AI (walk randomly, seek, shoot, follow). This enemy is a huge version (there will be a variety of sizes with different aspects) of the "Seeker" which is the Hearing enemy. The two other types ("Spike", Touch and "Seer" Sight) are partly implemented with programmer graphics (will be shown later).
Particle systems and collision callbacks works great as players and enemies can now kill each other.
That big red bar is the player health (quite temporary graphics).
Notice as you hurt enemies their colors drains.
I've made my current design document available here for the curious. (Always a day-to-day work in progress based on feedback and ideas).

Anyway, here's a couple of screenshots. Probably pretty boring if you don't know the above list or is interested in the game's development. :)

This is an experiment release which means much of the game features aren't implemented in a flexible enough way and some architectural changes will have to be made as there's progress on different gameplay elements like weapons, enemies and visual effects.

I'm also considering changing architecture approach to Model-View-Controller and combine it with Immediate Mode GUI and object management to be able to be more flexible and productive in the future. This will among many other things help to prepare the game better for multiplayer. But it does mean quite a lot of redesign of some fundamental code. But better to do it now than to realize i'm stuck in 6 months and need to redo all that work then...

I'm pushing that to iteration 2 though since i want something basic out there for you to play soon! Iteration 1 will feature 1 player (playing with WASD and mouse) with 1 weapon (Bolt Rifle) against a group of one enemy type ("Seeker") in a basic level (the one in the screenshots) where killing enemies will give you score until you die. At which point the game restarts itself and the best kill count is stored for the session (nothing will be saved when the game is restarted). That's the plan anyway. It sounds simple enough, but you never know =)

This week i'll work out the kinks of the current design (like the player taking damage from all physical objects, even walls!) and experiment with the basics of the monster spawning and scoring systems (which should be the last to do in iteration 1!).

See you next week!

Electronic distribution

2009-07-16T00:02:00.004+02:00

I've been annoying everyone ever since the Napster phenomenon with how electronic distribution is done poorly and explaining how it should be done. Today I found someone who put my thoughts into words better than i ever could. This is really interesting read for everyone, not just music enthusiasts. I think gamedevelopers, tv and filmproducers all could benefit from the ideas presented.

It's late so i can't bother with a complete summary but basically it details a torrent service where you can buy music, upload music and all works are released under your selected license and with your own price tag. And best of all, all income (save for a few percent to have the site running) goes directly to the artists. Can you get 85% of the revenues in any other kind of deal and freely walk away when you want to? Didn't think so.

Unfortunately the site isn't very nice to look at and the music availability is near-zero but I think that the manifesto sums up all my ideas about how things should be distributed in the future very well and that's at least a good start.

Sense: Survival Prelude announced!

2009-07-02T22:51:00.010+02:00

Finally i get to reveal my new project called Sense: Survival Prelude.

It will be a casual top-down action game in the style of RIP and Crimsonland, but I won't simply make a copy. To keep this simple and to get a game out there for you to play as soon as possible I have decided to make this prelude which will be simpler, cheaper and it will give you the chance to affect how the full game ("Sense") turns out.

But I won't compromise on the fun! I will focus on the basics and visual and sound feedback to make the core gameplay as fun and rewarding as possible. The full game is planned to be a more action/adventure type of game with more story elements and network co-op gameplay.

Here's a quick and dirty video showcasing some physics, movement, camerahandling, aiming and (stupid) AI in a couple-of-months-old VERY, VERY UNDER CONSTRUCTION build.

The current plan is to make a survival game where up to 3 players on the same computer try to survive as long as possible from oncoming hoards of 3 types of enemies. What makes this unique is it's use of senses and physics. The players weapons and the enemies skills are all based on the senses touch, vision and hearing. In the prelude this will provide a kind of rock-paper-scissors scenario where the 3 players each fight with one sense and the enemies are hurt by one sense. An online leaderboard will record the best teams for some quick replay value. You can play by yourself (and have all 3 weapons) or with one or two friends (and you share weapons).

It has seen one year of casual spare time development. Using all the good free cross-platform libraries available I have built a framework and some gameplay tech tests. It's amazing what you can get together with what the open source community provides today.

For the developers out there I'm using SDL (+ the ttf and image addons), OpenGL, Chipmunk, Fmod, freetype, boost and Frank Vanden Berghen's xmlparser.

Huge thanks to NeHe and Sean Chapel of Seoushi Games (Kore Engine) for easy-to-understand tutorials and code.

I'll be back with another video of further development. In the meantime, what do you think?

Open game development

2009-07-02T22:22:00.003+02:00

Some people find the courage to move into the new century and explore today's technology. The 2-man team 2D boy of World of Goo fame impresses me.

First they make a game that reinvents pretty much everything that almost everybody loves, then they freely release a prototyping framework for everyone to use, and finally i read that they sell their game completely free from DRM. And their effort doesn't go unnoticed. Hundreds of comments appreciate their decision and the game still sells well. People are extremely happy with the quality of the game, the price and that they can use and copy it as they like. Isn't this the right way to go with games today?

We charge almost as much and use a simple serial system and frankly haven't sold that well. What if we followed their good example by lowering the price, make the game more accessible and even give people the option of donating to pay what they can afford even if they got a pirated version?

In the end, i think you'd reach a bigger market and people will be much more happy playing your games. And happy players, are paying players. 2D boy proves what I've suspected for a long time and I hope all developers eventually realize it too. If we continue in this direction people will enjoy easy purchases and great games, and forget all about that "free" alternative.

Well, except for the odd guy who'd never pay for anything anymore. But DRM doesn't stop him so why put hard-earned money and energy into it?

The beginning of the journey

2005-12-24T01:20:00.001+01:00

I am Benny Samuelsson, a swedish gamer and game developer and one of the founders of Solid Core Entertainment which is an independent game development team.

I've always loved games and been interested in game development. I have just as much liked to discuss every little detail about games and how they are made. What was good and what was bad and how could it improve?

In high school my interest for making games grew and I started my journey to designing the games I wish were already on the market through our first big project, Roadclub. It is finally complete and can be played and purchased by going to the official Roadclub website!

This blog is dedicated to discussing the entertainment world, how we game developers can stop doing things players get annoyed by and move on and keep improving, and how the industry should use the technology of the new millenium to please all the fans craving for the perfect game.

Why don't you check back every month or so? I intend to make bigger posts discussing certain subjects ranging from game details like cameras and characters to general entertainment discussions about things like piracy and filesharing.