Game Composer/Musican

  Game composer. Credits include The Ranch of Rivershine, MidKnight Story, Lemon Cake, Cendric, Alchemy Story and more! Enjoys writing many styles. He/Him. matthewharnage.com  

[matthewharnage]

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This is my first post here! Not quite sure how everything works, but am figuring it out. 

Currently working on the score for a game called “The Ranch of Rivershine”. Also working on composing more elaborate and long loops for bigger sections of the game too. 

One interesting thing with this piece is that it is through composed and about 3 minutes long. Due to the in-game time systems I think this will help it from getting stale or monotonous. There are still some mood shifts, but all within the same “emotion”. 

Live fiddle here is by Irina Markevich

[matthewharnage]

I wrote this piece for a mobile game late last year. With this track I focused a lot on using oboe, as well as marimba/kalimba to create these common "island" colors. I also made it a point to try and have the instruments "communicate" with each other more vs something with one main melody instrument. In the game, this track plays in the 4th overworld that transitions to being underwater, as well as in a small port city. I tried capturing both of those environments in 1 piece instead of using 2 separate themes. I also made a point not to overuse the steel drums lol, as I feel like that’s the easiest and most cliche way to make this vibe. 

Also reallly love the cinematic studio oboe here, I feel like it carries so well on top of everything. Also I’m surprised I could fit that tin whistle in here too haha

[composerinprogress]

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A composition from the Goncharov soundtrack so inspiring that I used it as a basis for one of my own original scores!

Enjoy listening!

[matthewharnage]

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2nd post here, so lets go for it! 

This the Autumn Day theme for a game called Mangato: Life In Taiyokawa that I’m writing the music for. 

There are a few things I really tried to hit with this track. The main emotion to me is “nostalgia” which is why I chose acoustic guitar as the main melody instrument. You’ll also notice quite a lot modal mixture here, but I think its handled smoothly for the most part. Something about mid-range trumpet also just fit that emotion in a way I can’t quite describe. 

There are strings here also, but they’re really subdued and even mixed a bit oddly (really old sounding). If you listen closely you can also hear me playing what are called “harp harmonics” on guitar near the end, a technique where you finger the harmonic with your right hand AND pick it with the same hand. I think it added some sort of nostalgic quality too. One other thing I did with guitar was use a slide to sort of “emulate” birds flying overhead in the intro (sort of like birds flying South for Winter). I’m not sure if that intention is heard, but its there (listen on the left side). 

Lastly one of my favorite things is the 1 bar of 5/4 around 1:20 in the drums. I heard that in a Masayoshi Takanaka track once and just loved it. I think it works so well to telegraph the change at 1:23. 

Anyways I hope you like this track! Listening back now, I kind of want to mix the strings in a more natural way haha. 

SO to Tyler Mire for playing trumpet on this one too! 

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

Nobuo Uematsu’s Diary (Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine #41, Feb. 2001)

[matthewharnage]

This is amazing and such a vibe lol