Battle Report: June 25th

New game of DIVINE RIGHT this week. The nations of Zorn, Immer and Dwarves are struggling for hegemony. Their players are yours truly, Werepuppy and, team coder OutofNod. This is just a basic game but, quite a few interesting things happened. Immer and Zorn ended up fighting right away, being neighbors. From here, we begin.

The Gap castle ended up a major flash point between Immer and Zorn, begin host to the majority of combat in Minaria so far.

Battle Report: June 17th

Another week, another game of DIVINE RIGHT. The game this week is a continuation of last week's between, Jared, Werepuppy and yours truly. With the kingdoms being, the Dwarves, Pon and Immer respectively. 

Last time, Immer utterly dominated Northern Minaria, effecting great victories against Pon with it's alliance. Near the end, Pon was focused on nursing its wounds and the Dwarves had stepped up their attacks. From here we start. 

Battle Report: June 10th

Just a new quick game of DIVINE RIGHT this week. Just three players this week. Jared, Werepuppy and yours truly play as the Dwarves, Pon and, Immer respectively.

From here, we begin.

What Is Mixing?

A short post for devs who are not musicians.

Mixing is making a song or sound effect sound good at any volume on any playback device. There's a bunch of technique involved, but what matters is this: just because a song sounds OK to you on your headphones doesn't mean it will sound good on someone else's cell phone or home entertainment system. What do I mean by "sound good?" Simply put, the audio image is blurry and not as impactful as it could be.

Imagine if the colors on your computer screen changed, drastically, depending on the shape of your room and the dirty clothes on your floor. That's acoustics. The playback device and the room are a system, meaning they cannot be meaningfully isolated from each other.

Also, the balance between sounds in the frequency spectrum change unevenly as volume increases. Broadly speaking, sounds towards the top and bottom change in volume faster than sounds in the middle. At loud volumes they are louder than the mids. At soft volumes they are softer. If a particular component of the audio image - an instrument or part of a sound effect - has more extremes than mids, it moves into the foreground of the audio image as volume increases. This distorts the composer/sound designer's intention.

The mixer works in the closest he can get to an acoustically neutral space and tests the mix on a wide variety of devices at all volumes to ensure the accurate transmission of the composer/sound designer's conception. Done well, the mix is effective in the widest circumstances. 

And now you know what your audio guy is doing when he's mixing.

Battle Report: June 6th

Minaria Awaits, in a another game of DIVINE RIGHT. There were two games last weekend but, I am going to focus on just one. This game is a continuation of the ADVANCED one from last week. Elfland, Hothior, Pon and the Eaters of Wisdom, are played by lastRedoubt, Werepuppy, Jared and yours truly, respectively. 

In the last game, lastRedoubt was on a major tear as Rombune, forming a grand alliance with Shucassam and Muetar. Unfortunately, Rombune's monarch died after being chased down by Hamahara the Air Dragon, while fleeing from an unsuccessful campaign in Hothior. Losing his first kingdom lastRedoubt rejoined as Elfland. Hothior, weakened following their conflict with Rombune, now faces an invasion from the Eaters of Wisdom. Who have begun to siege their northern fortress of Tadafat. To the east, Pon is slowly coming together, their plans are still indeterminate however. From here we continue.