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[StianStark]

Blog post here.

[FasterThanSleepyfish]

The intent and thoughtfulness put into these pieces is fantastic. The piano compositions are also amazing by themselves, I wonder if they could be used in game at any point.

While brighter feel of the Galatia Academy piece compliments the institution's nature, but I can't help but wonder if it could feel a bit... grungier in some respects?

[Wyvern]

Neat! I'm even less of a musician than I am an artist, but it's still interesting to read about, and then hear how that translates into the actual piece.

[StianStark]

While brighter feel of the Galatia Academy piece compliments the institution's nature, but I can't help but wonder if it could feel a bit... grungier in some respects?

Fair point! Whenever the music is about a portraying a faction or people belonging to a faction I try to lean in the direction of providing a "how they see themselves" perspective rather than how an outside entity would see them. This makes all the factional music sound somewhat idealized and probably in most cases less grungy as well.

(( I think this choice goes back a long, long time when I realized that the universe of Starsector was so grungy to begin with that I was going to be writing nothing but grunge unless I adopted this idea of a slightly shifted perspective. ))

[RadrNerv]

Surprisingly for myself, I enjoyed piano arrangement immensely.
May I ask, will there be piano arrangements of other tracks?

[StianStark]

Surprisingly for myself, I enjoyed piano arrangement immencely.
May I ask, will there be piano arrangements of other tracks?

Glad you liked it! The piano arrangement of the main theme is on SoundCloud here:

https://soundcloud.com/stianstark

[ithis]

Love the composition! There's a neat little contrast between the brighter, synthy track and the raw piano - the latter seems more intimate to me, like it belongs in our private meetings with them. Maybe some of those limitations could be lifted eventually

[Cybersomatic]

Surprisingly for myself, I enjoyed piano arrangement immencely.
May I ask, will there be piano arrangements of other tracks?

Glad you liked it! The piano arrangement of the main theme is on SoundCloud here:

https://soundcloud.com/stianstark

The main theme piano arrangement has a very different feel to it while retaining a bit of familiarity. Love it. Thank you for sharing!

[Wispborne]

Initial reaction is that it's a nice enough track for a pixel art game, like Stardew Valley or even Golden Sun.

The instruments make it a different style than the rest of the Starsector tracks, using MIDI-like synths instead of (synth) strings. It's a bit jarring.

[ishiggydiggydowop]

My original opinion was that the piano arrangement was good but quite melancholic. Hearing the final track was an "it's all coming together" moment. I do really like the idea of the chord pairs, thanks for the insight into your creative process!

[StianStark]

Initial reaction is that it's a nice enough track for a pixel art game, like Stardew Valley or even Golden Sun.

The instruments make it a different style than the rest of the Starsector tracks, using MIDI-like synths instead of (synth) strings. It's a bit jarring.

The less orchestral instrumentation stems from this being music tied to a location and all the diegetic ("in-world") sounds that entails. I wanted to have something "lobbyesque" in the overall feel that supported the illustration, hence the synthetic, bell-like plucks. Hope it makes more sense when you hear it in-game!

[nathan67003]

Extremely rare Stian blogpost!!!!

Very much like the final version, fits the Academy rather well imo; generally inspiring/upbeat with the odd dark undertone overall.

Another plus is that unlike the player's faction's theme, it doesn't have a sound that could be easily mistaken for a chainsaw or other yard tool so I won't be checking outside every time it loops to see if someone's cutting trees nearby XD

[Doctorhealsgood]

Extremely rare Stian blogpost!!!!

Very much like the final version, fits the Academy rather well imo; generally inspiring/upbeat with the odd dark undertone overall.

Another plus is that unlike the player's faction's theme, it doesn't have a sound that could be easily mistaken for a chainsaw or other yard tool so I won't be checking outside every time it loops to see if someone's cutting trees nearby XD

Chainsaw?

[Cryovolcanic]

Wow. No wonder the music in this game is so good.

[CV514]

That's very interesting, thanks, Stian!
Now Academy sounds like it's something very stand-off from entire Sector, more vibrant and not that "gnarly", so to speak. It almost feels like it should change alongside player progress in main quest, accentuating more on new faces being present there. Also, entire mood vibe reminds me a little of music from Vintage Story by Hayden Davenport.