avatar! wrote:By the way, you have a ton of Bjørn Lynne albums listed. Almost none of them are game music. Sure, he's written some game music, and much of his music is game-inspired and sounds like game musc, but nevertheless it's NOT game music. My suggestion, don't include it in the database if it's not the soundtrack to a game.
Yes, it's technically NOT game music, but there is still a connection. Non-VGM albums will be included only for artists that are mainly known as game composers. Bjørn Lynne is one of those, but Harry Gregson-Williams would be a counterexample. Although he worked on three games, this wouldn't be a strong enough reason to list his ~50(?) film soundtracks. But sometimes, evaluating if that kind of album should be added or not for a composer isn't evident, as was discussed on VGMdb. One thing is certain, I won't abuse the usage of this category and try to limit it to pertinent entries.
To avoid any kind of confusion for those looking strictly for game music, there is a short description in the top right corner of each album page that mentions if it is an original soundtrack, an arrangement, or non-VGM material. On artist pages, this is also clear with the segregation of these albums in a different section. However, while browsing the album lists, there is no mention of this attribute. I will add a column with this info, then clarity should be sufficient.
Ramza wrote:Rimo, I get your logic: vgmdb and gmr are covering album releases, and not enough Western VGM comes as a separate CD release. So you're going to focus your coverage on console / PC games ... and their music? Or will it be more focused on artist profiles?
Whatever your plans are, I wish you the best of luck. There are some great Western composers out there, particularly the European folk. Some of the soundtracks for recent PC titles (The Witcher, Gothic 3, etc) have really blown me away.
Yeah, that's pretty much the idea.
The way I see game music, it is 'music from games'. So, the starting point or basis are the games themselves, otherwise there wouldn't be music. For each, there is an artist who composed the music. For certain games, there are official album releases which can be obtained to have an easy access to the music, but if none is available, the music still exists (so albums are more expandable than games, although I'm aware arranged albums and similar projects stretch this logic). By not including the games, a lot of music and artist information would be lost. Similarly, not including albums would also lead to a loss of information. Covering both, plus the artists, was the best way to go in my opinion and this is why these are the three key elements of VGM Rush.
Someone browsing the site could try to look up who did the music for a game he played. In the process, he could discover if an album was released for this title and also, which other projects the composer worked on. "Oh, he did that too", could say this person. Clicking on that other game, he might realize there was a co-composer for it. "Ah, who's that other guy?", he interrogates himself. Another click leads to another page, and so on. In the end, he'll probably end up browsing the whole site (if he has enough time on his hand, that is), hehe.
I know that I'll probably talk through my hat, but for Japanese games (or at least the most popular titles), someone could browse on a database like VGMdb just like the scenario above and be able to explore a lot just by going through album entries. But if he ended up browsing Western releases, the album scenario would be a lot shorter. So yeah, it sums up to the fact the music from most games from the West unfortunately don't exist on official albums.
If no VGM website existed at all, my project would have been to tackle game music broadly since I also love Japanese material. But, with the numerous sites already existing, it was best not to produce an almost straight copy of one of them or try to make something too big and end up being discouraged in the process. Noticing the lack of a site covering the Western side globally (computers + consoles) with a database approach, and the fact I have a particular interest and curiosity for it, this lead to the creation of VGM Rush.
Yeah, while it's known that most Japanese soundtracks are incredible, several European ones are also pretty hip. I didn't have a chance to listen carefully to Gothic 3, but like you, I enjoyed what The Witcher had to offer.
Megavolt wrote:I like your site. It's a good idea and it's something that helps to inform VGM fans about the *less familiar* western portion of the VGM world. As someone who only made a deliberate effort to explore CRPGs and WRPGs in general a few years ago, it's much appreciated.
I have a question. Do you know which Follin brother composed which song on the Plok! soundtrack? I'm wondering whether it was Tim or Geoff who composed the track Akrillic, as it's a personal favorite of mine.
Thanks! I certainly hope the site will serve its purpose well.
Hmm, Plok! was actually to be composed by Geoff alone. The game was revised and Tim had the chance to contribute some music. There is sadly no credits breakdown, but there are reasonably more chances that 'Akrillic' was done by Geoff. If I can find out for certain one day, I'll let you know.
