After the Starbound beta hit, like many of you, I played the heck out of it. Now that there have been a few game patches and people have tried out the beta, I wanted to ship a few questions over to our friend Curtis Schweitzer, who composed the game score. I was happy to hear that he was interested in talking with us about how things have gone since launch and what we can expect going forward.
jdodson: The Starbound beta has shipped and the reaction seems to be quite good. Right now, Starbound is the number 3 played game on Steam and all those people are listening to your music. How are you processing all of that right now?
Curtis Schweitzer: I'm just enjoying seeing how much people love the game! It is so fun to see this thing that you've been a part of for so long finally get released. Watching streamers figure out little tricks, or discover those little details that Tiy and his team have squirreled away in the hidden parts of the game is really delightful. And of course I'm enjoying seeing so many people liking the soundtrack too! :)
Whiteboyslim: Is there one track in particular that you are especially proud of?
Curtis Schweitzer: Of the new tracks, the Glitch racial theme is my favorite. It is really cinematic, and I was happy to see it get used for the first half of the game's trailer. Made me quite proud!
jdodson: Tim Morrison covered one of your songs “Atlas” on Ukulele and posted it to YouTube. Any fan requests to someone covering one of your songs in any specific way? Mira on flugelhorn perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjwyfcbKgQc
Curtis Schweitzer: I'd like to hear some piano arrangements of the existing orchestral tracks. My primary interest is piano, so I'd love to see what the fans can come up with. I'm sure it will be amazing!
jdodson: We last talked back in May, I wonder what has been happening in your world since we spoke last? Any new projects we should be looking forward to?
Curtis Schweitzer: I'm working on another game that I can't talk about (yet), but we should be launching a Kickstarter soon! And of course, I'm working on the "Seventh Spectrum" films (www.seventhspectrum.com) too!
jdodson: You are stranded on an alien planet. Strange and new things surround you! You can pick only 3 things to take from your previous life, what do you take? You are already outfitted with your trusty matter manipulator, wheat seeds and a small sword.
Curtis Schweitzer: Well, I'm going to start with that grappling hook. Man, that's awesome. But I supposed I'd also take one of bartwe's instruments, and maybe a hunting bow so that I can get some alien steak for dinner.
jdodson: The Starbound score is now available on Steam for purchase and contains a raft of game music, some of which you can’t hear in the game. Has there been any talk to add more music to Starbound and if so will the official Steam score be updated when this happens?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/268090/
Curtis Schweitzer: We don't have an "official" answer for this, but my inclination right now is to leave this soundtrack "as-is", and if we write more for the game, release it as a "Volume 2". At 5+ hours, I think the first set of music for Starbound is pretty complete.
Whiteboyslim: When we interviewed you back in May you said at the time you had around 5 hours worth of music written for the game. How many hours worth of music did you end up writing?
Curtis Schweitzer: Well, I lost a couple of cues because I was never really happy with them-- the Forest battle stuff always struck me as unbalanced, so I haven't put those on the soundtracks. (You can still hear them on my Soundcloud). The official soundtrack (including my stuff and Solatrus' stuff) is about 5 hours, 44 minutes. So we wrote almost another hour of new stuff, including new racial themes for the Apex, Florans, and some battle music.
jdodson: I want to thank you for taking the time to get back to me Curtis, anything you want to say as you bask in all the Starbound beta launch glory?
Curtis Schweitzer: Its been fun, and I'm looking forward to making new music in the future! I want to compose music as my primary living, and this is a big step toward getting there, so I'm excited what the future holds!
http://curtisschweitzer.com/
If you are interested, you can check out our interview with Curtis back in May:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1248
jdodson: The Starbound beta has shipped and the reaction seems to be quite good. Right now, Starbound is the number 3 played game on Steam and all those people are listening to your music. How are you processing all of that right now?
Curtis Schweitzer: I'm just enjoying seeing how much people love the game! It is so fun to see this thing that you've been a part of for so long finally get released. Watching streamers figure out little tricks, or discover those little details that Tiy and his team have squirreled away in the hidden parts of the game is really delightful. And of course I'm enjoying seeing so many people liking the soundtrack too! :)
Whiteboyslim: Is there one track in particular that you are especially proud of?
Curtis Schweitzer: Of the new tracks, the Glitch racial theme is my favorite. It is really cinematic, and I was happy to see it get used for the first half of the game's trailer. Made me quite proud!
jdodson: Tim Morrison covered one of your songs “Atlas” on Ukulele and posted it to YouTube. Any fan requests to someone covering one of your songs in any specific way? Mira on flugelhorn perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjwyfcbKgQc
Curtis Schweitzer: I'd like to hear some piano arrangements of the existing orchestral tracks. My primary interest is piano, so I'd love to see what the fans can come up with. I'm sure it will be amazing!
jdodson: We last talked back in May, I wonder what has been happening in your world since we spoke last? Any new projects we should be looking forward to?
Curtis Schweitzer: I'm working on another game that I can't talk about (yet), but we should be launching a Kickstarter soon! And of course, I'm working on the "Seventh Spectrum" films (www.seventhspectrum.com) too!
jdodson: You are stranded on an alien planet. Strange and new things surround you! You can pick only 3 things to take from your previous life, what do you take? You are already outfitted with your trusty matter manipulator, wheat seeds and a small sword.
Curtis Schweitzer: Well, I'm going to start with that grappling hook. Man, that's awesome. But I supposed I'd also take one of bartwe's instruments, and maybe a hunting bow so that I can get some alien steak for dinner.
jdodson: The Starbound score is now available on Steam for purchase and contains a raft of game music, some of which you can’t hear in the game. Has there been any talk to add more music to Starbound and if so will the official Steam score be updated when this happens?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/268090/
Curtis Schweitzer: We don't have an "official" answer for this, but my inclination right now is to leave this soundtrack "as-is", and if we write more for the game, release it as a "Volume 2". At 5+ hours, I think the first set of music for Starbound is pretty complete.
Whiteboyslim: When we interviewed you back in May you said at the time you had around 5 hours worth of music written for the game. How many hours worth of music did you end up writing?
Curtis Schweitzer: Well, I lost a couple of cues because I was never really happy with them-- the Forest battle stuff always struck me as unbalanced, so I haven't put those on the soundtracks. (You can still hear them on my Soundcloud). The official soundtrack (including my stuff and Solatrus' stuff) is about 5 hours, 44 minutes. So we wrote almost another hour of new stuff, including new racial themes for the Apex, Florans, and some battle music.
jdodson: I want to thank you for taking the time to get back to me Curtis, anything you want to say as you bask in all the Starbound beta launch glory?
Curtis Schweitzer: Its been fun, and I'm looking forward to making new music in the future! I want to compose music as my primary living, and this is a big step toward getting there, so I'm excited what the future holds!
http://curtisschweitzer.com/
If you are interested, you can check out our interview with Curtis back in May:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1248
