Category Archives: No Man’s Sky

Si bheag si mhor

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Today I was thinking that I could ask fellow students at HCC to participate in the “Last of the 300 Worlds” project (LOT300W). For certain planets I could ask them for guided improvisation. (If the other students help me come up with themes, how do I give them proper credit? Ask Prof. )

I was thinking about which planets I would want guided improvisation, and which ones would I want to be mine, all mine. There are three — the intro / outro (because this is a story that I am telling, a story from my point of view), the Gervays (because they are my buddies, my favorites) and my Home Planet. Note that I have a Home, it is destroyed unexpectedly, and I find a Second Home which is in some ways more beautiful. But this time I know that the destruction is coming, and then both that home and the rest of the universe are lost.

I talked somewhere else about for me (and unlike Lisbeth Scott), music is a form of building rather than a form of self-revelation. But in the case of the Home Planet theme, I will be expressing something personal.

So I was worrying. How in the world will I be able to come up with a theme that is so beautiful and yet so heartrending? I could just picture being at the end of the school year with ONE more theme to do and it is THAT one, and I am stuck. Painted myself into a corner! Argh!!

Then the thought came “Si Bheag Si Mhor”. Pronounced “she beg she more”, this is an Irish tune, probably the first one I learned — on my first bamboo flute. If I’m remembering right,  I was working my way through “100 Best Tunes for the Pennywhistle” — and I came to that one. I heard the first phrase and suddenly it was as if I had known the tune from another life. I didn’t recognize it, more like it fit into my heart like a key into a lock.

Maybe this would be good for my Home Planet theme. Am I allowed to use it? I suppose the copyright has elapsed? When Holst created his Planet suite, the Jupiter theme is like a folk-song. Was it his own tune or did he adapt it?

I also thought that I could use phrases from literal bird calls. I have a wonderful recording that I made of a mockingbird singing late at night. Unfortunately the recording has some traffic noise (hard to avoid here, even at 2 am), but if I was just borrowing from the mockingbird, that wouldn’t matter.

Borrowing? Stealing?

Dr. Greenberg says “If you’re going to steal, steal from the best”

Anyway — now I have some raw material for the most personal part of LOT300W. I don’t have to worry about racking my brains at 2 am during finals week.

Current snapshot of goals

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While talking to Mentor # 1 yesterday I had an opportunity to describe the composition project I would like to work on this year.

  • A suite of compositions
  • Inspired by the moods / virtual environments of a video game
  • The game is called “No Man’s Sky” and is a planet exploration game
  • In the original version of the game, the player is a solitary space traveler
  • Recently the game was updated to include multiple players
  • …which meant that the previous universe was re-written (destroyed)
  • I now have a limited amount of footage to draw from
  • This puts helpful limits on the project.
  • Create 12 themes expressing different kinds of planets and situations
  • ex. dangerous planet, beautiful planet, travel theme, farewell theme
  • Use these themes (motifs) as a basis for compositions
  • Compositions to include examples of things I’m learning about
  • such as monophony, polyphony, chamber group, orchestra
  • Write the manuscript notation of each composition (in Finale)
  • Record  and mix each composition using electronic instruments
  • Also record in “stem” form (keeping individual tracks separate)
  • This is a technique for video game soundtracks and film scores
  • NEXT year, record live instruments and voices?

It did happen!

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On July 24th I was waiting to see what happened when the No Man’s Sky universe was re-written. I had heard that the change would come at 9 am, so at 10 am I checked in. My beautiful home planet was still there! The graphics seemed more detailed, and there was more lag than usual, but that stormy golden world of Tempus Fugit continued to exist. I have to admit I was a tiny bit disappointed. How can you write an epic song cycle about THE LAST OF THE 300 WORLDS when they didn’t actually end?

On the other hand, I wasn’t quite sure “this was it”. After all, the universe rewrite was a new patch to the game, and those usually take longer to upload. I logged out of the game and started looking on the forums. There’s an active Reddit dedicated to No Man’s Sky. I found out, no, the patch had not yet been released. I was on pins and needles and kept checking back. Finally someone posted on Reddit that it was here — about 2 pm. At 3 I logged on to Steam and clicked on “No Man’s Sky”. There was in fact an update and it took about 45 minutes to download. I had promised myself that I would not get caught up playing the new version of the game (called “Next”), but I did want to see what the new world looked like. I clicked “play” and watched the loading screen, which I have seen so many times before — stars coming into view in the distance, drawing near and streaming past. The star-stream ended with white fog, which cleared to reveal….I’m no longer on Tempus Fugit. I’m on a space station. My ship has changed — it’s full of obsolete technology — and it runs on different fuel now. The star system has the same name as before, but I didn’t dare fly down to explore the planets for fear of running out of “gas”. The space station was much more extensive, with all kinds of aliens walking around instead of the usual half a dozen guys sitting around a table playing cards. In fact the new, improved space station reminded me a little of the space station in Mass Effect called The Citadel.

Meanwhile, the game went on sale and I got copies for several of my young friends. I’m hoping they will get started exploring this new universe and that later I can tag along with them. “What do we use for fuel now? How do I build a base? How do we do multiplayer?” etc. They seem to pick these things up much more quickly than I do.

In conclusion

It did happen! The universe changed. I can write The Last of the 300 Worlds, rather than My Home Planet Has Better Graphics Now.