Serenades | Dev Diary: Implementation
The new album is releasing in just under one week!
This will be a short one today, focussing on implementation of the music (in games and elsewhere) and where you can expect to find it this time next week!
Games
Let's hit the good stuff first. This music will be releasing as a music mod for:
Europa Universalis 4
Crusader Kings 3
Crusader Kings 2
Hearts of Iron 4
Imperator Rome
Cities: Skylines
I am also considering future additions to (subject to many things, like time and moddability):
Stellaris
Stardew Valley
Minecraft
The list should be no surprise to you: all the usual Paradox games, plus Cities: Skylines. All of these games are at vastly different stages of their lifespan and have hugely different audio engines and audio implementation. CK2 is the easiest, HOI4 is the most long-winded, and CK3 is the most mysterious. So how will the music appear within each game and what is it trying to achieve?
First, for IR & CK2 there is little flexibility. The music just goes in. I have no say over what happens after that; the music will just simply play whenever it feels like it.
Then, there are HOI4 & C:S which have the radio station concept. This poses an interesting question for implementation: do I create a radio station for the album, or Utopia as a whole? So far I've opted for the former. Currently I do not see enough interest or engagement from those games to justify consolidating everything. Plus, people generally like the modularity of seperate mods, which offers choice. In HOI4 the music is tied to peacetime, but nothing much special elsewise. In C:S there are no specific triggers to cues, as I wanted to keep things simple for my first C:S music mod. Additionally, there are no ads in the C:S mod.
Finally, we come to CK3 & EU4. It feels weird lumping these together as they are vastly different to work with and CK3 has a huge amount more flexibility and potential than EU4. Nevertheless the additional power of CK3 engine (esp. triggers) is a mystery I've yet to fully crack, despite a little assistance from PDX themselves. So essentially I'm implementing music in both games with the same intention: general background music to chill out to as you play. For both games, this is strictly peacetime, with EU4 having a slightly more elaborate set of triggers to chance the base chance.
Note: the music will not be added to the Themes of EU4 music mod, as it is not composed for any particular EU4 mod. If you want the music, you will have to grab the standalone music mod.
Streaming & Digital Sales
The music will be appearing on all the usual places for a major release, by the good hard work of my publisher. But for those who don't quite know where to look you can expect to see the music appearing on the Utopia artist profiles on:
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Spotify
Youtube
Youtube Music (fyi listening here grants me royalties vs normal yt which does not)
Bandcamp (I offer free album downloads here)
TikTok (you can add it to your clips)
…plus a bunch of other smaller platforms I haven't really used
In any case, following any of my social profiles will guarantee you find the music on release day. The music will release at midnight Friday morning in your local time - except on Bandcamp due to manual delays.
And finally, of course, don't forget about the listening party we'll be having on Discord on the day after!
Only ~6 days to go! I'm really excited :D
Enjoy!
-u