fairy intelligence

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Wonder how he would have felt about fairy tale video games ?

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The Only Tune

We took a short vacation but now we’re back. Putting the final touches on the first sister we will be unveiling from the game quite soon! :o

While working, I’ve been listening a lot to Mothertounge by contemporary composer Nico Muhly. There are three versions of a folk song on the album with lyrics I feel earn the label of “horror song”. Thus very inspiring for what I’m doing right now:

There were two sisters walking down by a stream
Oh the wind and the rain
The older one pushed the younger one in
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

Pushed her in the river to drown
Oh the wind and the rain
Watched her as she floated on down
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

Floated on down to the old mill pond
Oh the wind and the rain
She floated on down to the old mill pond
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

The miller fished her out with his long long hook
Oh the wind and the rain
And he brought this maid in from the brook
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

Made a fiddle bow from her long yellow hair
Oh the wind and the rain
He made a fiddle bow from her long yellow hair
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

Made fiddle picks from her long finger bones
Oh the wind and the rain
He made fiddle picks from her long finger bones
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

Made a fiddle bridge from her own nose bridge
Oh the wind and the rain
Made a fiddle bridge from her own nose bridge
Cried oh the dreadful wind and rain

And he made a fiddle from her own breast bone
Oh the wind and the rain
The sound could melt a heart of stone
Oh the dreadful wind and rain

The only tune that fddle would play
Oh the wind and the rain
The only tune that fiddle would play
oh the dreadful wind and rain

And the only tune that fiddle could play
Oh the wind and the rain
The only tune that fiddle would play
Was Oh the dreadful wind and rain.

heres what it sounds like:

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creepy but catchy, eh

Read around online and found that this macabre song is traditionally meant to be sung to children. I got curious about the lyrics and, as with most folk songs, there are a million versions of it. Each with a slightly different title, with variations on the theme. But this is what is so fascinating about them! Just passing it on. If you like it i’d suggest giving the entire album a listen. Its very good stuff.

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Inspirations: Eyvind Earle

Now that all the characters are completed, I’ve switched gears and am concentrating on refining the Forest environments. Looking through my folder of inspirations and reference material I come again and again back to this man’s work. Eyvind Earle was perhaps most famous for art directing and painting the backgrounds for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. I’ve admired the style of that film my whole life.

We decided from the beginning to not try to create anything realistic looking. No photographic bark and leaf textures. In fact in The Path we are using gothic ornaments and its funny how this still gives the feeling of leaves. While I don’t try to copy what this guy has done, very modern, very 1950s, I do get into the way his orderly patterning looks. At the same time, I like the chaos of a forest with branches jutting out randomly, creating spooky silhouettes. We want players to be reminded that a forest is a wild unknowable place constantly changing. I think the atmosphere we are creating shares Earle’s use of the stark blackness of the trees, punctuated by shocking colors.

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Inspirations!

Well, this blog will not be all official reports. We want to keep it casual and present things also which we’re looking at and that are keeping us going. So to start, here are two strange and wonderful animated music videos I ran across last night. The first is drawn and animated by  Kondoh Akino. Its just the sort of eerie thing I love to watch while working out character designs. 

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