The Mad World Discussions

Hey guys! JandiMan here. Today I sat down with JY_S who is our music composer, and chat about many things related to music, from her personal background to the BGM of Mad World. Hope you guys have a great read! Why did you decide to become a composer? My childhood dream was to become a maestro, so I started playing the piano and violin, but I came to a realization that most maestros were originally either a professional pianist or a violist. I wasn’t very confident in becoming a professional in either of them. I was good but I never managed to reach the level of a professional, so I even thought about giving up music. Luckily my music teacher at the time suggested composing, and the rest is history. Why game music? I’ve loved the music in games since I was a kid. My uncle used to live with me under the same roof, and he was a game fanatic. One of the games he played was Final Fantasy and I felt in love with its music. That’s how I got interested in game music. Come to think of it, the games that stuck with me for a long time are usually the ones with great music. What games do you play? I love the Zelda series. From the old school Zelda I played on Gameboy and NDS, to the more recent ones that came out on Wii and Switch, I loved them all. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has to be the game I spent the most time playing. What kind of music do you listen to? Any particular genre you like? I actually don’t have any particular genre I prefer. I enjoy listening to all different kinds of music and I try to keep it that way. When I find a music that I really like, I listen to it for hours non-stop. Come to think of it, no music had me do that in my recent memory, which is unfortunate. What are the things you consider more when you write music for games compared to other entertainment media? Both the quality of music itself and how supportive it is to a particular scene or a map are important. It’s just a matter of which one you prioritize, and game music falls into the later, because when you write just music, you only focus on writing good music, but game music’s job is to help emphasize the feel of a particular map or scene, to raise the level of immersion. I think about those things when I write music for Mad World. Mad World MMORPG - BGM 1 Where do you get your inspiration? I don’t get an inspiration watching a scenery or things like that. I usually visualize images with given keywords. When I write music, my hope is that the people who listen to my music will visualize the same images. What are the keywords or instruments that echo throughout the music in Mad World? The concept of the setting of Mad World revolves around emotions like despair, darkness, and fear. I figured that string instruments would do a good job. I’m currently playing around with them in various ways to convey those emotions, and I have tons of fun doing that. Sound1 DarkCamp - BGM1 Will the BGM change depending on the situation? Players will experience changes of emotions not only aesthetically but also through music. For example, if your character comes across an elite monster, the tone of the music will change to give more intensity. We are trying to add more of this type of circumstantial auditory changes. Thank you for the interview! Is there anything you want to say to the fans before we leave? Thank you for your patience, and I hope you get to experience the musical side of Mad World soon! Head over to Facebook to discuss Check out previous wip videos on our Youtube

We figured it would be cool to share our recent work of exploding belly. Check out how it was made from the artworks to the animation and effects!

From the main theme to the inspirations behind our game , we checked in with the writers of Mad World to see what they have in store for us in today’s dev diary. What is the main role of the writing team? To fully appreciate Mad World, players need to indulge in the world as if they are actually living in it. From the ground up, we had to build the base for every single thing that exists in our game to make it as immersive as possible while keeping the Mad World’s own reality alive. We are doing our best to build the setting that maintains the level of believability while keeping the gaming aspects alive. Can you briefly describe to us the setting of Mad World? Mad World takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. A civilization matchable to that of early renaissance was built, only to be destroyed mercilessly by the hands of the Demons overnight, dragging the civilization back to its primitive times. From massacre,starvation and diseases,more than 90% of the total population perished after a series of disasters hit them. Under the control of the Demons, those who managed to survive now live in absolute despair That’s the setting of Mad World:, a world of despair. What makes the setting of Mad World different from the ones of other MMORPGs? Usually the story of an MMORPG revolves around a main character who eventually becomes a hero, journeying through a world full of legends and fantasies. In contrast, the world of Mad World is full of despair. This new world order was built by the ones who lost in touch with humanity after going through absolute desolation and fear brought by the demonic apocalypse. The Players will be required to maintain their humanity while battling between the choice to remain good or end up giving up into evil. In Mad World, players will need to make many choices. Depending on what choices they make, results will vary, offering players different experiences, influencing the NPCs and their related stories. . As to what extent they will be affected, we are currently experimenting with various game mechanics and methods. What are the Demons in Mad World? The word “Demon” has a deep-rooted history. In Christianity, good and evil are very confrontational. In Mad World, we took out the concept of good part, only leaving the evil one interpreted from human’s point of view. For example, let’s say your home is infested with termites and you decided to eradicate them with an ant killer. In this case, you wouldn’t necessarily be considered evil from a human’s point of view. However, to the termites, that act is absolutely evil. The humans living in Mad World are just like the termites. The evilness of the demons in Mad World are not absolute but relative. That’s the concept behind the demons in Mad World. Can you tell me more about the Demons in Mad World? Each of the demons in Mad World takes extreme pleasure in a particular thing. For example, one of the greater Demons in our game, named the Corpse Collector, takes extreme pleasure in feasting on flesh. . It constantly gulps everything in its sight to maintain its level of pleasure. It would be nice if it decides to prey upon the flesh of other demons. Unfortunately he goes after humans to stay sated because they make an easy prey. Needless to say, that act is evil in human’s eyes. If a demon takes pleasure in love, he/she will try to stay that way by cherishing and loving humans. He/she is good in human’s eyes. However, the only thing they indulge in is taking pleasure, and what each demons takes pleasure in can come in various shapes and forms, allowing us as game developers to come up with all kinds of unique types of demons. Emotions exist as a spectrum, giving us unlimited resources of ideas for creating unique demons. What are the challenges you have to go through creating the demons and writing the story of Mad World? Trying to build a setting for demons uniquely designed for Mad World that are not cliche is a big challenge because we as a company value in creativity and challenging the status quo. Mad World is a fantasy-based game, but we are trying to ground it in some bases of reality. It takes much imagination to build a completely unique setting from the ground up, something that’s unlike the usual fantasy tropes we’ve become accustomed to. To break out of the typical mold, we had to get rid of all the common denominators of so called fantasy. It was as if we had to throw away all our traditional values, and fill them with new ones, which was a difficult task indeed. Generally speaking, when a studio develops an MMORPG, many times, systems are built first, followed by the setting that the game will take place. However, we are doing our best to do it the other way around. In closing Mad World will offer a very interesting setting especially to the ones who enjoy making the tough decisions that are not possible in real life. Thank you for the read, and see you in the next dev diary. JandiMan Head over to Facebook to discuss Check out previous wip videos on our Youtube