The game Nocturne has been in development for 10 years and you'll soon be able to play it.
There are huge gaming studios (known as AAA) with big budgets for game creation and marketing. Then there's the indie sector, where developers try to promote their game as much as possible – and social media is a fantastic marketing tool for reaching a massive audience.
As I was scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled upon a reel of a game with pixel graphics, accompanied by an English voiceover: “I made the soundtrack with the Slovak National Orchestra.” You can imagine my surprise, because our country isn't that prominent and is often overlooked.
Zobraziť tento príspevok na Instagrame
It’s about a small studio called Pracy Studios (with over 30,000 followers on Instagram), which has been creating the game Nocturne for an impressive decade. Nocturne is a role-play genre game that combines rhythm combat and a mysterious story into an intriguing pixelated world.
I contacted developer Benjamin Pracy, who will introduce the title to us, explain why he chose Slovakia for the official soundtrack, how the recording went, what the biggest development challenges were, and so on.
Working on Nocturne for 10 years
Nocturne is a rhythmic RPG, meaning you explore the world, uncover the story, but battle enemies using rhythm gameplay (kind of like Guitar Hero).
“I want players to experience how the music in the game tells a story. Unlike a typical rhythm game that offers a collection of songs on a list, each enemy in Nocturne has a unique track, allowing the music to change themes and tones as the story progresses,” explains Benjamin Pracy, founder of Nocturne, adding that he drew inspiration from games like Chrono Trigger and Undertale.
He was also inspired by the popular Czech-Slovak VR game Beat Saber, where he spent hundreds of hours playing (and which according to many ranks among the best rhythm games).
He adds: “I'm also very inspired by Japanese culture and Eastern philosophy, so you'll see beautiful cherry blossoms and a character that's half a giant koi carp and half a monk.”
Creating rhythm games isn't easy for developers. It can't be too hard for the player, but it still needs to be challenging.
“I had to carefully examine every aspect of RPGs and rhythm games to truly understand how to merge them. In terms of design, nothing is taken for granted and everything is questioned,” he explains.
Benjamin advises that if you want to start creating your own game, definitely begin with a simple, smaller project and not take the path he did – making a game for 10 years.
“If I had first made several smaller games, it would have taught me a lot of valuable lessons that I only learned much later. Game Jams are also a fantastic way to gain practical experience.”
All boss music created by Slovaks
For the rhythm mechanic, the music played during enemy battles – known in gaming as boss music – was key.
Benjamin revealed that he reached out to several contacts in the music industry and heard that the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra would be an excellent choice. It turns out the choir members are quite famous for recording soundtracks for video games such as Star Wars, The Witcher, and Zelda.
Zobraziť tento príspevok na Instagrame
“It was an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life. We spent 9 hours recording over two days, and I sat in the front row listening to them play every note of the soundtrack perfectly. The moment they started playing the opening melody of the game, I burst into tears,” recalls Benjamin.
He adds: “Many people don't know that they are such talented musicians that they can sight-read music on the spot! They also discuss with the conductor how they might adjust the way they play certain notes to get the most emotion or impact out of the piece.”
Under the studio's Instagram posts, you’ll notice a burst of comments from Slovaks who are thrilled to see Slovakia highlighted again. Benjamin was so surprised by the positive response that he decided to include the Slovak streamer Ducklock as a hidden character in the game.
Zobraziť tento príspevok na Instagrame
