The Sound and Music of The Old Republic

I nearly wrote "The Sound of Music..." there. Though regardless today's update shows us that the hills of The Old Republic are indeed alive with it.

What is less alive, however, is the planet that Teneb Kel founds himself in as you can see in today's Blood of the Empire issue:

In the seventh issue of Blood of the Empire™, Teneb Kel finds himself beaten and bloodied in the aftermath of the Lenico colony's destruction. Trapped on a strange planet, he must draw upon the ancient Sith arts in order to ensure his survival--and to learn the secrets he needs to resume his vendetta against Exal Kressh.

Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now!

After that nice appetizer the main course of today's update lies in the sounds and the music used in The Old Republic. Not only do we get a developer blog entry, but also a new developer dispatch video centered around the original music included in the game.

In the blog entry Orion Kellogg, Audio Producer at LucasArts, goes over all the various sound categories included in the game; voices, alien speech, music and sound effects. Here's an excerpt:

"Sound is 50 percent of the moviegoing experience, and I've always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.” – George Lucas

When you consider the legacy of Star Wars™, what you hear has indeed moved and excited its fans: the orchestral score, the Cantina music, Chewie’s roar, and the pew-pew of a blaster rifle instantly take us to a galaxy far, far away. Developing sound for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ requires that we bring together the talents of dialogue writers, cinematic designers, voice-over actors, musicians, engineers, and production teams at both LucasArts and BioWare. It’s our job to create an audio experience that enhances the emotional experience of the game and reaches the quality level expected of the Star Wars franchise. As fans and as game makers, we’re excited and privileged to breathe life into every planet, every weapon, and every creature that beeps, squawks, or just plain talks…and it’s not as easy as it, er, sounds.

Read the rest of the blog over at the official website.

But as nice as it was to read the blog entry, I think the highlight of today's updates is the new Developer Dispatch video. In fact, for me, this is probably the most enjoyable Developer Dispatch video yet. I just love hearing the new music; sounds absolutely fantastic. Here's the official news:

The emotional experience of Star Wars™ comes to life in new music created exclusively for The Old Republic™. From soft melodies that ring in the forest of Alderaan to the magnificent booming of a battle scene on Ord Mantell, a talented team of composers, musicians and developers came together to create a magical score for the game.

Watch Developer Dispatch: Music of The Old Republic to see what goes into weaving the familiar Star Wars riffs with a new original score. And learn how music impacts the thrilling moments in video games as well as movies.

Next week is Comic-Con and as you might've seen in last week's update BioWare is going there as well with The Old Republic. Additionally it seems that they might have a surprise reveal for us, but there's a catch. They want a minimum number of followers to their Facebook and Twitter pages or they won't reveal it (until later). As Sean puts it:

Comic-Con International is almost upon us! You already know about the “Beyond Solo” panel being held on Friday, but we have something extra we want to announce during it. You’re going to work for this one, though. If we get at least 200,000 “Likes” on our Facebook page and 30,000 Followers on our Twitter page by Friday, July 23rd, 2010, we will bring you this cool reveal!

If you don't want to join Facebook or Twitter though then you don't have to. Personally I have absolutely no desire to join either. If they don't reach their target then all this means is that they'll just release the information a little bit later. And I certainly can be patient. Again, as Sean puts it:

Hey everyone,

While I'm sure this is obvious, I'll say it anyways. If you don't want to join us on Facebook or Twitter, you don't have to. And it's not like (pun not intended) we're never going to reveal what we'd like to. Anything we want to reveal will all be done over time and before the game is out so everyone can decide what they want to do with the best information available. So, in the worst case scenario, you just get the information a little bit later.

And I forget who mentioned it earlier but yes, the final result is the combination of the numbers for our English, French, and German fan pages on each of those social networks. So it's not 200,000 each (ie, not 600,000)... it's 200,000 total for Facebook and 30,000 total for Twitter.

And that's it for now. We'll see next week if they reach their target, what happens at Comic-Con and what else they might have in store for us.