Those that have been following Cloudherder for a while are no stranger to the fact that I am very much a fan of Bear McCreary as a composer. The sheer amount of thought and care that goes into his compositions really show in both the intricacy of the music itself, as well as the staggering attention to detail each cue reflects when tying in with the fiction it accompanies.

Thankfully for us, he is also very well-written and introduces the public to each work he’s involved with in a behind-the-sheet-music view that details everything from the themes and how they’re composed to the talented instrumentalists that play his work.

Bear’s latest blog entry goes into great detail about his most recent project, Dark Void. While it appears that the game may not be living up to the great ambitions of both the developers and his score, the music itself is—even divorced from the associated material—a perfect example of how to create and evolve effective themes, motifs, and associate them in an extended and nonlinear form while still accommodating for live instrumentalists in an inventive way. (That was, admittedly, a bit of a mouthful.)

Even if you don’t understand exactly all of the technical terms being thrown around, give it a look and listen. It’s a rare glimpse into the creative process of a very talented composer.

Every day the same dream… is a fantastic experiment in interactive game design. While it at times could be interpreted as being pretentious and artsy, the game creates a study of game design in a side-scrolling world. What happens if you make all the choices the game expects you to make? What happens when you don’t? What happens when you go the other way? Break free of the traditional tropes of automatic gaming reactions and become a new person.

This past spring, composer Bear McCreary posted an announcement about his involvement with the game Dark Void, including a snippet of the main theme. He also added an additional chiptune-style remix he created using samples of NES synths. At the time, it was simply an homage to his favorite game series, Mega Man. Later, Capcom’s Unity Blog used this remix to help fuel a hilarious April Fool’s joke about a complete re-tooling of Dark Void to make it an 8-bit NES style game.

Fast-forward most of the year later, and we come to Capcom’s holiday gift to us all: The 8-bit game is real, and in the works for DSiWare, PC and mobile phones. Due in January, the game Dark Void Zero is an amusingly nostalgic jump into the “long forgotten” franchise Dark Rift, later renamed Dark Void and revived to “create” the 360/PS3 title to be released next year. In its revisionist history, Capcom created Dark Void as an NES game that was forgotten due to the entrance of the Super NES and its overshadowing presence. Now, a re-creation of the original title has been salvaged for all to enjoy!

While the game itself looks to be a fun jetpack-fueled shooter ala a fusion of Contra and Mega Man, one thing caught my attention: The trailer used to announce the game contained that same 8-bit Dark Void theme! Sure enough, what used to be an homage is now being transformed into canon. And if that wasn’t enough, Bear is breaking out the chiptunes in full to create the soundtrack for the entire Zero game. Listening to the clips alone you can hear both his unique style fused with callbacks to classic Mega Man textures and drum fills. I’m sure this must have been a dream project for him, and it’s going to be great hearing the full end-result come January when the game releases for digital consumption!