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Nick Perrin

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About Nick Perrin

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    Enjay's bodyguard

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  1. Nick Perrin

    Most depressing WAD?

    So I wasn't the only one who found those maps surprisingly evocative? I think it must be due in part to the fact that, given it's BRUTAL DOOM, we're expecting over-the-top silly action from start to finish, but it does get pretty dark. The radio thing was very effective. The whole atmosphere just made me want to get out of that place (those maps) as quickly as possible.
  2. Nick Perrin

    Becoming a better composer.

    This is a really broad and probably very inaccurate statement. Theory doesn't make interesting music, it gives you tools to lead the ear in ways it's been trained to listen. Theory can't help you with broad emotional arcs, innovative or original ideas, or good melodic gestures... and it doesn't take audio production into account either. Nevermind the amount of "rule breaking" required to do a whole lot of interesting things (theory itself being reductive, so all of these rule breaks eventually ended up as codified theory on some level of critical analysis). However I agree that learning not to rely on 'inspiration' is a skill that can be learned (and MUST be in order to produce high quality consistently). rdwpa, I think one thing that's really worked for me (and composers on a higher level than me) is planning out your work in advance. The details of how you approach this can vary wildly but questions like: What feeling do I want to communicate? Or more specifically: What atmosphere do I want this to have? What sonic palette or texture(s)? Maybe you have a melodic idea that you want to develop over an emotional arc - plan the arc and try to make it work through that over the course of several minutes (or whatever it takes). I think just jumping in and making it up as you go is great, BUT if you have a more or less fully formed idea of what your track is going to be, it's like the script to your movie or the design document to your game. The rest is filling out the details and bringing your creativity to life to bring that plan to fruition. Bits and pieces will change, be dropped or added, and there will still be making-it-up-as-you-go, but you will find less "what the fuck do I do now?" moments. It will also help make your music more dynamic and flow better - thinking of music just as 8-bar chunks can over time make things sound very "sectional." Often to your advantage, often not. This kind of planning is more important when you have deadlines for your music, but it still makes a big difference for the cohesiveness, coherence and vision of your work regardless. IMO.
  3. Nick Perrin

    John Romero makes first new Doom map in 21 years

    Except for the intro ambush where I nearly choked, crushed it on UV. Very cool to be back in a zone created by the man himself. A kind of videogame historical revisionism. Otherwise, not exactly some kind of masterpiece, but if this means he's going to be active in making new maps from now, that would be very very cool. I was listening to a late 00's interview with John and it really made me wonder what it must be like for so much of your life to be defined by one game, and for that community to still be going so strong and keep you in the loop (this goes for anyone of course who had one single great, marked, massively popular/influential accomplishment and has been a part of that legacy ever since, and perhaps nothing else ever living up to it afterwards). I wonder if he's acknowledging that Doom is kind of his virtual home by coming back to creating inside of it. It's cool that this is bringing some oldies back to the forum too (I haven't been here myself in ages).
  4. Nick Perrin

    How do I MAKE music for my WAD?

    People are all giving valid advice here, but please realize that making decent music is a skill that takes years to develop. If you don't know anything about music yet, you may or may not have a few good moments in your material early on but composition is an endlessly deep craft that demands respect. Don't mean this to discourage, if anything, start going at it and if you simply enjoy making music you will make quick improvements! Keep in mind that working with MIDI also limits the sonic quality of what you do, but the advantage is, if you're just starting to write music, it will also set a baseline level of sound quality than is higher than what you'd get if you tried to start recording real instruments with no prior recording/mixing/production experience. So MIDI is a good starting point for experimentation, and could be a gateway to more advanced audio tools in future. And of course for DOOM it's the obvious choice for easy compatibility.
  5. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    When I first played ROTT as a kid I had a blast with how wild and crazy and gimmicky much of it was, but to play it all the way through would have been too much of a chore. It really does get repetitive and boring. It's amazing how much monster variation and HEIGHT variation in maps makes a difference, ROTT has neither. But shrooms mode has to be one of the highlight features of early 90s gaming.
  6. This functionality exists in existing audio software. For example, Celemony's Melodyne plugin is built as a pitch correction tool, BUT because it analyzes the pitch and duration of recorded notes to allow for effective manipulation, it is also able to export MIDI from the data collected. Therefore, hum a tune into a mic and record it, run it through melodyne, save as MIDI, use MIDI as a guide to remember your tune when sequencing it properly later on. The simpler way is of course to learn an instrument, and over time you can easily remember the tunes you think of, play them out and record the audio (or MIDI data if using any number of existing MIDI controllers modelled after pianos, drumkits, guitars, wind instruments, guitar hero controllers, etc) directly, as well as harmonize/improvise on the fly.
  7. Nick Perrin

    What are you playing now?

    I love it when that happens on the finale of any boss map. Best ending.
  8. Nick Perrin

    What are you playing now?

    Beat Vanguard on UV with Brutal Doom. Damn that was intense! Then did a run-through of UAC Ultra again (since I love it so much), this time on Nightmare w/ Brutal Doom again. You really have to use cover a lot more when playing this way, especially since most of the environments in the mapset are fairly closed off. BD already makes the enemies faster, so add a little extra speed on Nightmare and they fire literally the instant they see you. So many projectiles moving so quickly, it almost turns Doom into COD with all the cover I was taking. Almost.
  9. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    So basically it's just that god mode is more fun for you than using saves? (At first you mentioned having to restart a map with no weapons, which is remedied by saves on both points)
  10. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    What I meant was if you're going to play a map "normally" and you don't usually play hard maps, playing Sunder "normally" is a bad choice when there are other maps far more suited to your skill level. That's all :) Oh yeah, like I said, I have downloaded maps just to sightsee plenty of times. This becomes especially interesting when you make your own maps/mods. But it's not my primary way of playing maps, more of a secondary novelty. I just found it weird to make that the primary play style. Truth is I don't technically play doom maps "normally" anymore either, as I feel Brutal Doom really balances well with the vast majority of pwads and actually makes the core gameplay a lot more FUN. Faster, harder, more intense, sonically & visually more interesting (better feedback and feel, more dynamic gameplay overall). Anyway, what you say makes perfect sense, and I understand liking the aesthetic of Doom. It's hard to describe, but I think at least one part of it is because of its age - a good-looking map is far more impressive when made on older tech, or with certain familiar limitations, and you can make out the clever tricks or design techniques used to achieve new and creative map styles/effects. There's just something cool about it. So that's settled, but my question to Arjak still remains - "why not save your game?" I fear this might go forever unanswered, haha... At this point I think I can live without the answer
  11. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    I've done this several times as well. It's just not my main method of play. But I can really relate to loving the atmosphere and ability to just OBSERVE in a virtual world. Obviously my post was really asking Arjak what his reasoning was, so it's not targeting you. But if your goal is atmosphere and visuals, why not pick up a game like Skyrim? (not saying Skyrim specifically, just any game with great atmosphere and exploration, that boasts stronger visuals and more dynamic aesthetics than Doom). At this point it's 2012, Doom is hella old, and gameplay is all it really has left. And why not just use the -nomonsters flag? Also, Sunder is a bad choice if you're not interested in crazy hard slaughter... but that's a whole 'nother topic. Anyway I completely understand your approach because it's something I love to do as well, but I tend to outlet that desire in other games which do it better than Doom. But when it comes time for balls-to-the-wall action, Brutal Doom + a well-designed and tough mapset = my first choice. (Yes, I confessed this earlier in the thread, once I got used to Brutal Doom I never switched back. MUCH more fun/fast/intense than vanilla play, the extra gore is just a bonus)
  12. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    Indeed, this makes the issue even more confusing. One would think 100% godmode would render the game boring pretty fast, when exploration, atmosphere or the environment in most doom maps isn't worth seeing on its own compared to many other current titles you could cheat your way through and still really enjoy on that basis alone...
  13. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    Hahah thank you. My point is that you can enjoy Doom in the most fun way without worrying about that by using the incredible SAVE functionality, which has been there since '93. Why someone would choose godmode 100% of the time over saving here or there is what's confusing to me!
  14. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    I still want to hear this explained. If it's sarcasm, or if it's real, I want to know. It's so confusing a sentiment that I can't sleep at night anymore.
  15. Nick Perrin

    The Doom Confessional Booth

    This is the most confusing thing I've ever read.
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