Michael Taylor: Audio Design & Composition

Showreel Update

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:13:00 +0100

Recently, I had noticed how poorly my sound-to-picture reel reflected my skills, so with work on MIn: A Space Adventure wrapping up (news on that soon…) I decided to take action.

Embedded below is the first fruit of my labour; A sound replacement video of the Demon’s Souls attract movie. Featuring a lot of foley work, synthesis and creature sound design, it is quite an involved and detailed clip, and I hope I have done it (and myself) justice. Other videos will be incoming soon!

February 2012 Update

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:35:00 +0000

As always, its been a busy few weeks since my last update! As well as ongoing sound design and music composition for Cwerki’s debut title ‘Min: A Space Adventure’ , I’ve been tidying up a few pesky audio bugs that snuck into the December release of ‘Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD’. I’ve even begun work on a couple of projects I’m remaining quiet on for now…

I’ve also been working on some multimedia projects, including working with Nerdvice.com, The team behind ScrewAttack.com ‘s ‘Safety First’ and designing an audio branding for the University of Cumbria Students’ Union. Hopefully the fruits of these projects will be public rather soon!

In the meantime, I’ve joined the DesigningSound.org editorial team, taking over Game Audio duties from the almighty juggernaut of audio knowledge, Damian Kasterbauer, AKA lostlab. Once I’ve got into the groove of contributing to the site, I’ll be looking at creating some great features for game audio professionals!

And on a personal note, i passed my driving theory test! Which means I’m one step closer to terrorising the roads of the UK!

New Showreel Video

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:00:06 +0000

With all the activity over the last year or so, my showreel has been a bit neglected as I’ve focused on completing active projects. While I’m preparing to create new reel material, I quickly edited a music/sound design only mix of the announce trailer for Cwerki’s ‘Min: A Space Adventure’, which is conveniently embedded below!

All these videos, plus the rest of my audio design and implementation reels are available to view on my YouTube channel

The original version of the trailer, complete with voiceover, is embedded here too!

January 2012 Update

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:09:44 +0000

It’s been a hectic couple of months recently, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD has finally been released worldwide to a fantastic reception, the ‘Play It Forward’ charity album I contributed to has been successfully raising money for Childs Play and the EFF and work on Cwerki’s debut title ‘Min: A Space Adventure’ is continuing at a steady pace.

I’m looking forward to an exciting 2012, and so I felt it would be appropriate to share my most exciting composition of the last year: the main theme of Min: A Space Adventure!

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD is out now on PSN!

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:20:31 +0000

After almost a year since the PC ‘Oddbox’ release, Stranger has finally landed on the PlayStation Network to fantastic reviews. I was hired by Just Add Water to convert the audio from an Xbox-specific audio to a multi-platform system, and at the same time upgrading as much of the audio and dialogue as possible using the original assets from the Oddworld archives.

For more information on my involvement with Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD, check out the Developer Diary I wrote last year, or my interview with NerdVice in the summer!

Play It Forward Album Release!

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:56:00 +0000

I recently contributed a composition for the ‘Play It Forward’ album, a charity project by an ensemble of musicians who share a passion for video games!

All the proceeds from the album will be split between Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There is no minimum donation for the album, but please give what you can to help out these fantastic organisations.

http://playitforwardalbum.bandcamp.com/

There are 13 phenomenal tracks on the album, most of which are instrumental and electronic based. There are a few great deviations from this though! Oh, and my track, ‘Astral Meltdown’ has the dark, energetic sci-fi genre covered!

Hope you enjoy it, and help us spread the word!

November 2011 Update

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:10:17 +0000

Once again, its been a busy couple of months for me! I’ve been ultra busy working with Cwerki Studios on the UDK based project ‘Min: A Space Adventure’, for which we released the above trailer a couple of weeks ago. We are fundraising to try and finish the production with as high quality as we can, so please share the link and help us out.

I’ve also been finishing up work on my ‘Play It Forward’ charity album track; There should be more news on this soon, but having heard some of the other composer’s demos, I can tell its going to be something special!

And finally, last week Just Add Water submitted Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD to Sony, and should be hitting PS3s around the world soon. If you need a reminder on why this is cool, check out my Audio Dev Diary on Just Add Water’s website, and this interview I did with Nerdvice

In the meantime, a Dynamic Theme for the PS3 I edited sounds for is due imminently on PSN. A silent clip of the theme in action can be seen here

Cwerki Presents... 'Min: A Space Adventure'!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Cwerki Studios are proud to unveil the project they have been working so hard on for the last few months…. Min: A Space Adventure!

As usual, I have been providing music and sound effects for the project, as well as recruiting voice contributors and our amazing voiceover artist, Lu Caplin (AKA Soundmouse )

We are currently holding an IndieGoGo fundraising project to help us complete the game with the style and flair it deserves. if you feel like dropping some coins into our piggy bank, click the widget below!

Thunder Recording Download

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:39:11 +0100

Thunder Recording Download:

A freak thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere right over my head! I managed to get my computer on and record a couple of strikes with a Rode NTG1 Shotgun mic (It was the only mic i had to hand - my trusty Zoom H2 recently died a painful death)

http://soundcloud.com/stomp224/thunder-mono-ntg1-061011

Ive uploaded the mono 96kHz/24Bit file to Soundcloud and enabled downloads. Every audio designer always needs more Thunder sounds, right?

We need your voice!

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:28:00 +0100

With the reveal of Cwerki’s website yesterday, and our progress on the game, I felt that now would be an excellent time to ask you, dear internet, to contribute to our game!

We need voices. Lots of voices. If you have a voice, we want to hear it and put it in our game!

All you will need is a means of recording your voice, and transmitting it via the intertubes. It’s that simple!

While I can’t discuss too much detail right now, drop me a message at mike@cwerki.com to register your interest and I’ll be in touch in the next week or two with the specifics.

Introducing... Cwerki!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:16:00 +0100

Cwerki is a brand new indie studio formed by Daniel Haddad and myself. I worked with Daniel on the Microsoft Imagine Cup finalist project: ‘Tale Of A Tree Wisp’, and for the last few weeks have been working hard on a brand new game using the Unreal Development Kit! This amazing pic is some concept art from the game.

Cwerki’s website has gone live, have a look, and keep checking back for more news! Check it out here!

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD Trailer!

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:48:00 +0100

EDIT: The video wasn’t playing to well with Tumblr, so here is a link to it instead: YouTube

Check out this new trailer for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD!

My work with Oddworld is now complete and the game should be hitting PSN in the next couple of months!

Gem Twyx Out now for iOS!

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:39:00 +0100

BovioSoft’s latest iOS puzzler Gem Twyx is out now for iOS Devices and the Mac App Store! I wrote the game’s soundtrack, as well as designing all the audio effects.

EDIT: A gameplay trailer is available here: YouTube

Gem Twyx on iTunes

My favourite track from the game, ‘Aquamarine’, is embedded below for you to enjoy:

Aquamarine - Electronic / Ambient by Stomp224

Michael Interviewed on Nerdvice.com!

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:52:59 +0100

Michael Interviewed on Nerdvice.com!:

I was recently interviewed by gaming website nerdvice on what audio designers do all day, and my recent work on Oddworld with Just Add Water. Hope you find it informative!

Click here for the interview: Nerdvice.com interview

www.stomp224.co.uk v2.0!

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:01:11 +0100

Welcome to the new version of my website! My previous iWeb site was set up in a matter of hours, and was always meant to be a temporary solution, so this has been almost 2 years coming!

I hope you like the new layout - Im also working on new showreel content to accompany the new site!

August 2011 Update

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

This months big news is that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to convert the music system of ‘Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee HD’ for the upcoming rerelease on PS3 and Playstation Vita! Working with the original DirectMusic Producer files to reproduce them for these formats has been a very rewarding, but challenging task!

Also this month, I’ve been working on BovioSoft’s ‘upcoming iOS puzzle game ‘GemTwyx’. This should see a release next month hopefully.

DOTStudio has released ‘Crazy Rabbit’ for iOS devices, featuring my audio & music!

July 2011 Update

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Once again, I’ve had quite a busy month/six weeks!

I’ve been very busy working on D4W Developments Microsoft Imagine Cup entry, creating sound effects and writing several pieces of music ready for the competition finals in New York this week. A new trailer for the project can be seen here.

I’ve added two of my compositions to my Soundcloud player on the Audio page of this website ( The Discovery and The Exploration ), as well as some music I was commissioned to write for Cadbury’s Buttons Furry Tales website (‘Hatchlings’) which I worked on at the end of May. I have also added my previously private UDK and Wwise implementation videos.

Another commission I worked on for Chunk Games was displayed on an article about game development in Scotland, and my audio can be heard on the game at the bottom of this page: The Scottish Sun

Finally, last month I had the pleasure of being involved with the re-recording of some minor Oddworld characters for Stranger’s Wrath HD, and will be visting the Just Add Water offices this month to iron out the last couple of audio issues for the PS3 version.

Until next time, folks!

May 2011 Update

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

April/May has been a very busy month for me!

In-between moving house, contributing audio design to Boviosoft’s MineSweeper & Break The Code for iOS, and working on a couple of web-based projects with Chunk Digital, I have also contributed original music to D4W Development’s winning entry into the Microsoft Imagine Cup: ‘Tale of A Tree Wisp’!

Tale of A Tree Wisp is a very exciting project, and I’m looking forward to working on this in the run-up the the Imagine Cup finals in New York this July.

In other news, I recently contributed an 8-bit remix of the 80’s Men Without Hats song ‘Safety Dance’ for popular comedy web series ‘Safety First’. You can watch the episode it appears in below!

April 2011 Update

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

In the last few weeks, in between projects, I contributed two posts on Audio to the AltDevBlogADay site, a website for game development folk to share ideas and knowledge regardless of discipline and experience. My first discusses my experience with porting interactive music from one platform to another, and my second focusses on Mobile Audio.

As I have written several such posts recently, I felt that it was time to add an ‘Articles’ page to this site so that my words of wisdom can be easily located.

Project wise, I have been continuing work on updates for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, contributing to Retrocoder’s Xbox Indie DreamBuildPlay 2011 entry and preparing for a couple of projects in UDK