Calling All Dawns

October 15th, 2009 Soren Johnson


Christopher Tin’s new album, Calling All Dawns, came out a couple weeks ago. Have a listen:

Besides being able to record new pieces in Abbey Road with the Royal Philharmonic (not to mention Anonymous 4 and von Stade and Dulce Pontes), Chris also got to redo Baba Yetu with the Soweto Gospel Choir. As you can hear above, they did an incredible job finding the piece’s exuberance and abundance of joy. I especially enjoy the (new?) solo voice that rises above the bridge. In fact, Chris did change a few things for this version (via Steinar Kristoffersen):

    Steinar: ‘The last time we wrote you mentioned that […] the audio guys over at Firaxis decided to remove your percussion and replace it with their own. I must confess I’m curious [about] why the decision to replace your percussion was necessary or even desirable. I’ll also admit, however, that – alas – I do like both versions of the track, and I probably have a particular fondness for the Civ 4 version, if only because I heard and fell in love with that versionfirst. Which is, from a composer’s point of view (a point of view I can relate to and understand), unfortunate since that’s not how you intended the track to go, but, well, there it is. It’s still a wonderful track either way, and I’m happy to have both versions on my playlist.’

    Chris: ‘Yeah, it’s unfortunate that most people heard the Firaxis version first; and now that I’m creating yet a THIRD version, I have to figure out how to add something new, yet appeal to those who already fell in love with the first two versions. Nuts. :) ’

    This album has been Chris’s labor of love for quite some time. If you appreciate his music, go buy it now.

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Really?

July 14th, 2009 Soren Johnson

Well, at least it beats those Evony ads…

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This Will Surely End Badly

March 23rd, 2009 Soren Johnson

So, I have finally joined the pseudo-masses and am now on Twitter. I’m not sure how this will all play out – perhaps my blog will someday report that I lasted twittered 283 days ago – but it’s worth a try. I’ll be twittering my GDC thoughts this week (assuming I can make it work from my BlackBerry). Come to think of it, this might actually allow me to record the GDC notes I’ve always wanted to take but never did (or misplaced). Also, by twittering, I’ll get to skip writing my annual, three-months-late GDC summary! So, there’s that…

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Back to School

December 2nd, 2008 Soren Johnson

This coming Wednesday, I am going back to Stanford, not as a student but as a judge for the annual CS 248 (Introduction to Computer Graphics) Video Game Competition. This event has been run by Prof. Marc Levoy since 1999, and it is traditionally judged by industry professionals. In fact, in the inaugural year, a game Julie Chin and I submitted called GridRunner was selected as a Finalist by judges from EA. The project was a networked, multi-player light-cycles game, and the fun story about that one was that I had never actually tried a four-player game until I gave the demo for the competition. I had multi-boxed it, of course, just for sanity’s sake, but as we were a team of two, and the game was Unix-based, we didn’t have much time or reach for beta-testing. But it worked! Needless to say, I wouldn’t demo something like that nowadays. Here’s a pic for posterity; as you can see, graphics were never my strong point…

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Now Hear This!

December 1st, 2008 Soren Johnson

Select posts from my blog are now available for your listening pleasure at IndustryBroadcast. Thanks to Ryan Wiancko for providing this service for game development junkies.

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Awesomeness

November 5th, 2008 Soren Johnson

from Patrick Moberg via mightygodking

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Designing within Constraints

March 8th, 2008 Soren Johnson

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I’d Like to Apologize in Advance…

February 15th, 2008 Soren Johnson

…to all the people I’ll meet at GDC this year. Due to a mix-up, I have no business cards! Thus, forgive me if I can’t take part in the traditional card exchange. If you need it, my e-mail address is on the About page.

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Presentations

November 5th, 2007 Soren Johnson

Continuing the trip down memory lane, I added a section to my sidebar chronicling various articles or presentations I have done over the years. I will expand it further as I find new links. (Unfortunately, the link to my 2004 GDC slides appears to be now dead. I’ll provide my own source for this talk when I get a chance.)

Update: GDC 2004 link is now fixed thanks to Apolyton!

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Interviews Page

November 1st, 2007 Soren Johnson

One of the nice features of WordPress is a managed system for adding Pages, which are like permanent entries always available in my sidebar (or elsewhere if I change my theme). Besides my About Page, I’ve added one compiling all my interviews and chats over the years. It’s mostly for my own nostalgia, but if you want to relive the heady days of the Civ3 1.21 patch, it’s the place to be!

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