"Do you want to make the world a slightly better place and be rewarded some games for being an awesome human being? It's simple: choose a charity you like from the three we have here (WWF, Worldbuilders, and Gaming for Good), pick out 3 games you like out of 13 offered, pay $5 or more, and we will give 100% of your donation to charity*! You can also pick more than 3 games, and your minimum donation will be raised accordingly. Want to donate more? No problem--you can set the amount manually. Don't need the games, or already have them? Select the "Gift this order" option at the checkout, and make some other gamer happy."

GOG.com is running a charity bundle featuring some awesome Indie Games and all the proceeds go to one of three Charities you can pick. The bundle is featuring some great indie games such as Anodyne, FTL, Escape Goat, Incredipede, Darwinia, Oddworld Abes Oddysee, Driftmoon, Botanicula, Walking Mars, Creatures Village, Gemini Rule, PID & The Whispered World. This bundle is a bit different in that you can only pick three of the above games when you donate.

Cool to see GOGcom jump into the Charity bundle scene. Any plans to pick any 3 of these games up on GOGcom?

http://www.gog.com/news/charity_promo_pick_3_games_donate_5_or_more_100_goes_to_charity

After an absolutely killer Kickstarter, Hyper Light Drifter is now dropping on us some absolutely amazing gameplay footage. Featuring some awesome music by Disasterpeace, the video is very promising. My only gripe? I wish the gameplay footage were in HD.

With a final Kickstarter funding level at 650k of the initially asked for 24k, this game should be coming strong. According to the developers Hyper Light Drifter will launch mid 2014 on PC, Linux, Mac, PS4, Vita, Wii U & OUYA.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1661802484/hyper-light-drifter

The Playstation 4 will release November 15th but there are already unboxing videos flying around the interwebs and this morning I saw one that was really interesting. Wired Gadget Lab posted a video exclusive of Sony's Engineering Directory Yasuhiro Ootori unboxing the new system and taking it apart. A really fun video and he does a great job explaining what everything inside the new system is. Watch the magic below:

http://video.wired.com/watch/gadget-lab-playstation-4-unboxing-the-new-game-console

-

"PLAYSTATION 4 NO DISASSEMBLE!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjeptaI2T8E

This was a special episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable as @CapnCurry and @Travis were out hunting Vampires that sparkle. We talk a bit about the games we are playing and dive in to some awesome game news.

We give our thoughts on the new Starbound Beta and just how much of it we will play. We both break down some new Steam Machine news and Valve's promise to not release SteamOS exclusives. We round things off with some PS4 happenings as well as some awesome games on Kickstarter right now.

As always, if you don't watch and subscribe to your YouTube channel, Mario needs to go to one more castle to find the Princess.

show notes

• Terraria 1.2


• My first thoughts on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft: http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1702


• Organ Trail: http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html


• Super Meat Boy comes to Linux on Steam: http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1719


• Starbound Beta is coming in three stages: http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1703


• Valve will not release SteamOS exclusives: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/05/valve-shows-off-steam-hardware-promises-no-exclusives/
  


• Engaget hands on with a Steam Machine: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/valve-steam-machine-hands-on/


• Steam on Linux released a year ago, now there are 231 games for it: https://twitter.com/icculus/statuses/398153339440881664


• PS4 "Can't Do" http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/sony-releases-list-of-things-the-playstation-4-cant-do


• Paradise Lost: First Contact Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183462809/paradise-lost-first-contact


• SCALE Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1188957169/scale

Recently Super Meat Boy on Steam was updated to add Linux as a platform and refresh the Mac port to fix some bugs and get it working on newer Macs. The port and fixes were done by everyones favorite Linux port guru Ryan Gordon. To celebrate the games 3rd anniversary and its recent Mac and Linux love it is 80% off on Steam right now.

Ryan Gordon recently posted a bit about the update:

"- Linux version now available on Steam. If you already own the game for Windows or Mac on Steam, you get the Linux version for free right now. Otherwise, your three dollars gets you three platforms of Super Meat Boy, plus SteamOS support some day.
- Now using SDL2, which means...
- ...game controller support that actually works!
- Tons of bug fixes.
- Super Meat World now works on Linux.
- 64-bit support on Mac OS X.
- Steamworks support on Linux (32-bit only, not my fault!)
- Fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
- Better fullscreen support on Linux.
- Mac framerate should be dramatically better.

Updated Humble Bundle builds coming soon, but I'll probably wait a day or two for Steam feedback before packaging it up."

Awesome to see this awesome Indie title getting some attention and it takes one game off my wish list of things to come to SteamOS.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/

Read Ryan Gordon's post:

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z12aub0rzuzfdhyks223zr2gotv1fblaa04

List of games i'd love to see come to SteamOS.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1692

Legend of Dungeon tops the list of awesome games i've played this year. The game brings a fresh face to the rouge-like genre while keeping it true to its most basic dungeon exploration elements. One part of the mix that makes the game work so well is its score. I was able to contact David Dirig, the composer for The Legend of Dungeon score and he agreed to talk with me about it.

jdodson: When you started the process of creating the music for Legend of Dungeon, what was the sound and tone you were going for?

David Dirig: -When I started the project I wanted to maintain a very strict ancient/traditional sound. I had a very limited palette of instruments and sounds that I thought would fit the mood and spaces in the game. However, as the project progressed, I found that I needed to include more modern elements in the music. The introduction of various electronic elements allowed the music the opportunity to hold the interest of the listener while still maintaining my original goals. Plus it made it a lot more interesting for me as the composer.

jdodson: As I play Legend of Dungeon the score conveys a sense of dread and somber darkness. Was this something you planned or did it just come out naturally?

David Dirig: When I started the soundtrack I knew that I wanted to stay on the darker side when it came to the feel and atmosphere created and maintained by the music. I wanted the feel of the Dungeon to be ever present throughout the OST. When the music started I wanted it to almost give the listener a sense of spacial recognition. Incidentally, I wrote the entire soundtrack in a completely dark space lit only by my monitor.

jdodson: “Zombie” is a fantastic song. I really like the way it brings out the guitar and the strong drum rim hit with the synth. At what point in the score process for Legend of Dungeon did Zombie come and how long did it take to complete it?

David Dirig: Thank you. Zombie was actually the first song that I wrote and I used it as a measuring device for the rest of the soundtrack. It conveyed everything I wanted to say with the OST. As for the time, When I’m composing, I tend to get large pieces of music almost all at once. The first rough version of Zombie was done in around 20 minutes. I hope this doesn’t cheapen it’s value, but that’s just how the process works for me sometimes. Some of the other songs took an easy ten hours to rough out.

jdodson: What are you working on right now?

David Dirig: I have been working to complete a few projects, one of which is compiling an album of some of my newest compositions for release in the next few months.

jdodson: The landscape of composers is pretty broad, for you who stands out to you as someone you admire?

David Dirig: -I love listening to Zimmer. I particularly enjoy the Dark Knight score. I was obsessed with it while writing the LOD soundtrack. I also have to mention Zoe Keating. I came upon her work a few months ago and her compositions are both beautiful and mesmerizing.

jdodson: Did you have access to the game when you were composing it in some form to help the process?

David Dirig: Absolutely. I had access to nearly every version during it’s creation. It was incredibly helpful in adjusting the mood and feel of the music as well as finding what wasn’t working.

jdodson: Is there anything you haven’t done musically that you want to try or get into?

David Dirig: Scoring a film would be amazing. Most of the music I write has a visual inspiration at it’s inception and I would love the opportunity to work on a project where it’s possible to help someone else describe an Image or a particular set of emotions sonically.

jdodson: How involved were Alix and Calvin in how you went about writing the music for Legend of Dungeon?

David Dirig: I typically spoke with them nearly every week about the games progression and regularly presented them with ideas I had musically. They were wonderful to work with and allowed me every opportunity to be creative and just do what I do.

jdodson: I wonder what the typical setup you use to compose is? Do you use any particular gear, software or configuration?

David Dirig: I used garageband for the entire project. I wanted to see what I could do with it. Gear wise, iMac, Audio-Technica ATH-m50 Headphones, Jackson 7-string and a takamine tc28c Classical Guitar running through a Boss GT-5 processor and an M-audio interface, A Kawai ES-1 electric piano as a MIDI controller. Pretty plain and simple.

jdodson: Zombie starts off the Legend of Dungeon score and Succubus closes it. How did you compose these songs in relation to each other if at all?

David Dirig: The songs in the soundtrack are presented in the order that they were written. When writing Zombie, I wanted it to convey a sense of nervous anticipation and mystery. For Succubus I was going for after battle swagger. One opens, one closes. In addition, all of the songs in the soundtrack were written in the same key and tempo. The music heard during actual gameplay is randomly created from elements of each of the songs in the OST. I wanted the in game music to never get boring or predictable. I broke the 18 songs in the soundtrack down into the 244 tracks from which they are made. I then compressed the tracks into 2:08 loops. The song elements fit seamlessly due to their afore mentioned composition. The individual loops are randomly assigned to creatures, places and things in the levels and proximity controlled to fade in and out of the game audio mix. When you as the player hit the reset button the game music effectively changes completely while maintaining the same feel and hopefully staying interesting.

jdodson: When you look at Legend of Dungeon now, is there anything you may have changed in any of the music you created for it?

David Dirig: There is a single point in Minotaur when one of the tracks is too low in the mix. It bothers me every time I hear it, but no one else has complained. When composing, you can always find things that can be changed. There comes a point in the creative process when you have to recognize that the work is done and start the next creative endeavor. I reached that point and feel that I did my best.

jdodson: It’s awesome you were able to do this Dave, anything you want to say before we finish up?

David Dirig: This has been an amazing project. Thanks to all the people playing Legend of Dungeon.

https://soundcloud.com/daviddirigaudio

Ben Prunty, the composer extraordinaire behind FTL and the upcoming game SCALE posted the title track on Sound Cloud. It's a very moving piece rocking some really great qualities I hope to hear in the final game score.

SCALE is 11 days away from its Kickstarter conclusion and isn't funded yet. If the game seems like something you want to see made, kick it!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1188957169/scale

If you need to placate more of your Ben Prunty fix, check out our interview with him about everything rad:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1552

I have added learning this speedrun to my list of awesome things I need to do before the year is over. It's not too hard to do and is pretty incredible.

If I had more time, I always thought getting pretty heavy into speed running would be a fun thing to do. I imagine the joy of finding a new faster way to beat a game would be pretty incredible.

"Jonathan Blow is an independent video game developer best known as the creator of Braid. He’s been developing a new game called The Witness with a team of 3D modelers, programmers, and architects since 2009. It will be released when it is done, hopefully in late 2013. He’s interested in pushing gaming to its full realization as an art form and his talk is about the unique and exciting properties of the medium of video games, and ways in which forward-thinking designers are pushing the medium."

Creative Mornings is a really awesome thing that happens in Portland. A few months ago they got Jonathan Blow to give a talk and I was signed up to attend. Then I forgot to set the alarm in my calendar and i slept past it. I still chalk that up to a really unfortunate moment, I mean how often do awesome people in video games talk in Portland?

Incredibly interesting personal tragedy aside, Creative Mornings has posted Jonathan's talk on YouTube and I thought it was well worth sharing. Jonathan talks about the advancement of video games over time and how money has been made from them. He talks about social games, like candy crush being "The new bad TV." Totally dig his premise and it gave me quite a bit to consider as I contemplate making my first set of games.

What did you think of his talk? Do you think Candy Crush and Farmville are the new bad TV?

http://creativemornings.com/talks/jonathan-blow/1

Capybara Games just released a new trailer for it's upcoming game Super Time Force. The trailer uses hand drawn time lapse to work its magic. The trailer spends quite a bit of time explaining how the time travel part segment of the game works to create a single player co-op experience. You should watch the trailer to see it for yourself but the idea is you play the game up to a point and rewind time and teleport in another character. What you have done up to the rewind start point is saved and you can start afresh with the new character playing alongside the other.

Super Time Force will initially release as an XBox exclusive. Heres hoping the exclusivity window isn't too long!