POST-ANTHROPOCENE

Post-Anthropocene is a fighting game set after the extinction of humanity. The remaining animals have been left to clash over the Earth they have inherited.

The Characters

Hawk Moth

Mesmerised by the vestigial lamplight of ruined human cities, it haunts the streets and attacks anything that might threaten to plunge the world into darkness.

Orangutan

Left to its own devices in an abandoned zoo, this orangutan has developed its own fighting style to defend itself against species of lesser intelligence.

Vampire/Bat

An ancient evil that once fed on humans, must now make do sucking the blood from other (less tasty) animals.

Shoebill

The angriest bird in the world, fights without a cause in a blind rage.

Ratking

A shape-shifting bundle of rats that rules over the underground with an iron fist (well, several). Dreams of dominion over the surface world.

Walrus

Far off in the middle of the ocean stands a mysterious lighthouse. A walrus defends the island from outsiders, unaware of an unnatural presence compelling it from within.

Pale Horse

The very steed of Death itself. Left without purpose after the extinction of humanity, this horse feasts on the remaining animals without remorse.

Chimera (secret character)

Something's very wrong here... Created by visiting aliens, a mashup of various abducted animals so unsettling that the inhabitants of Earth feel obligated to put it out of its misery.

Man (secret character)

The lone survivor of the human race, was found cryogenically frozen after falling into a supermarket freezer aisle.

The Tracks

For this soundtrack I used lots of samples, all either from freesound.org, 90s sample CDs or the sample library from the PS1 game Music 2000. It's a bit of a departure from my previous jam entries, hopefully some of the tracks sound ok!

1. Title Screen

Just a jungle wildlife sound I found, pitched down, stretched and put some effects on. I think it makes for an interesting title screen, imagine this song playing over something similar to the cover image.

2. Choose Your Animal

Most fighting games have really crazy upbeat songs for their character select screens, but I wanted to do at least one slower track. You might be able to hear the first of many vocal samples here, I've mangled it up though so you probably can't tell it's saying something about "losing yourself in a jungle of ambient sound".

3-4. Lamplit Back Alley (Hawk Moth stage)

Really happy with the bassline on these ones (not a sample!). I was trying to find the balance between a traditional funky/danceable fighting game track and something a bit more ambient and creepy (to fit with the theme). These are a bit funkier, some of the later tracks are creepier. I was lucky to find some vocal samples that kind of fit the moth theme.

5-6. Primate House (Orangutan stage)

I think the wind chimes sound cool here. You can pretty clearly hear the sample chopping technique I used on most of the songs on the drums and bassline.

7-8. Manor Ruins (Vampire/Bat stage)

These are my favourite on the soundtrack. They were some of the earliest ones I made, I was trying out cutting out different instruments fairly frequently (especially in the round 2 version) and I think it sounds really cool. Fun fact, the start of the laugh sample was used in Banjo-Kazooie!

9-10. Rainy Field (Shoebill stage)

I had a bit of trouble with this stage's theme, there is a completely different scrapped version that had a guy saying "there are no bad guys, just disturbed guys" with some evil sounding instruments, but in the end I decided it sounded crap and completely redid it. I think this more melancholic idea works a lot better.

11-12. Palatial Sewer System (Ratking stage)

To start with I tried making something king-related but that just sounded silly so instead I focused more on the rat part. I tried to paint a picture of horrible scurrying rats with the sound choices, not sure if it just works for me?

13-14. Lighthouse Rock (Walrus stage)

The instruments fading in and out and panning around were meant to be like a lighthouse's lamp. I think some of the sounds are pretty spooky, I did a lot of reversing, stretching and pitching using Ableton's Complex warp mode.

15-16. Plains at Armageddon (Pale Horse stage)

These were the first tracks I made. I love the "just won't stop singing in my head" sample, I think it's kind of catchy. In the Bible there are meant to be trumpets sounding at the end of the world so I put in some reversed trumpets. I'm proud of the bassline I managed to get out of Ableton's Operator instrument although it unintentionally sounds a bit like a revving engine.

17-18. Space-Lab (Chimera stage)

I went for a bit more of a drum and bass sound for these ones. I struggled a bit with the round 2 version until I decided to pull my finger out and add some orchestral stuff which I think works pretty well. The TTS voice is meant to be saying "chimera", I used Plogue's chipspeech VST which I've had for a while but struggle to find opportunities to add to songs.

19-20. Supermarket (Man stage)

I listened to a lot of musak for this. I didn't manage to replicate the authentic sound because it uses lots of real instruments (guitars, horns, flutes etc.) which don't really sound any good when faked with free soundfonts and VSTs. And I think I'd need to take some actual composition lessons to be able to write some of those chord progressions and melodies... I'm decently happy with the result anyway.

21-29. Training Mode

You will notice I have tried to stretch out my ideas in an attempt to reach 1 hour of music by making round 2 versions of each stage theme. I had originally also planned to do ending themes for each character but I haven't had as much time to work on this stuff as I would have liked because of exams and other end-of-uni-year activities. As a last-ditch attempt I came up with the idea to do training mode themes for each character, reusing the drum parts of each round 1 theme and adding the same accompaniment to each. Some of them sound a bit strange but I think it works quite well on a couple. This still doesn't reach 1 hour but I'm pretty much out of time and to be honest can't be arsed to make any more songs.

And that's it! I have been getting a bit bogged down with my Computer Science degree over the last year so this time round I decided to prioritise having fun over making compositionally complex and well-mixed tracks. I hope you enjoy them anyway!