Fortnightly Update #8-2022
Welcome to the eight music update of 2022
Welcome to another project update. Today we are exactly halfway through the year! So, naturally that means we're halfway through all the music releases too, right?
Sadly, yes. And equally as sadly, no.
Currently, I have more than a dozen pieces of music stuck in the release backlog. Typically, that means that the Client is still finishing up their work so the music can release alongside their project. Does this mean we will get lots of new music in the second half of the year? Not necessarily. The longest lived piece in the backlog has been there for over a year!
What I can say is that the second half of this year is looking to be an exciting one, and the first half of next year even more so (yep, I'm already booked out on major projects for the next year).
Can I tell you what's come? Yeah, sure!
Ante Bellum 1.8 Music
With the Ante Bellum 1.7 update coming next month no doubt fans are starting to turn their mind toward 1.8. With that, I can confirm that I will be working on a new music track for 1.8, as well as an adaptation for the announcement trailer. You can expect more news on this after the 1.7 update releases.
Extended Timeline Music
The hawk-eyed among you will remember me saying back in February that July was the month I would start working on ET. This will remain true and after a short vacation next week I plan to start bringing my crazy idea for a main theme to life. Does this mean that the ET OST will finally begin full production? Unfortunately, no. Due to rapidly increasing demands on my time and new unique opportunities (see below) I am again pushing back development of the soundtrack. One of the key drivers of this is the huge investment (I've planned almost 50 pieces) against an unknown performance risk. So, I'd first like to publish the main theme and see how it is received before fully diving into the OST.
Music Soundtrack Expanded
Yep, you read that right. The Expanded Mod Family is going to get some original music from me. But not only that, it will also get music from my fellow co-composers and other members of the community in an expanded collaborative effort to bring a large and dynamic set of original music to Europa Universalis 4 AND Crusader Kings 3.
Oh yes, you're not getting one piece of music from one composer for one game. You're getting lots of pieces of music from lots of composers specially made for TWO games.
Or at least, that's the plan. We are in early stages of developing the project, but the community collaboration offers unique opportunities for the PDX music community (myself included) to grow.
For my part, I will be leading the EU4 team of composers, providing creative direction, quality control and, of course, music. This project will be my primary focus for the second half of the year, before new projects kick into gear. Note this does not necessarily mean that the Soundtrack will come at the end of the year; we need to experiment with our shared workflow and fully onboard our composers before considering release dates. Nevertheless, I plan to talk about progress and gather feedback here regularly, so if you ever wanted game music tailored perfectly to your preferences the time is nigh!
This is a really exciting project and I can't wait to dive into full development and see what magic we create.
Etc
So what am I not telling you? A lot actually. Go back and read again the size of the unreleased music backlog. These are finished pieces that are just waiting for me to hit go! Oh, and finally, I'm just going to leave this screenshot here.
Enjoy!
- Utopia