Inspirations of Hungry Whispers

To elaborate on my last post, I thought I would write a little bit more about the original inspirations for Hungry Whispers.

My main aspirations is to write music for games.

Theme: Chinese Ghost Month / Festival

The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries..  

...In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living. - Wikipedia

I have been interested in the horror genre in movies since I was a child.  I watched loads of films that contained monsters since I was fascinated with how people designed monsters and created the atmosphere in scenes.

Since studying music and music technology for the majority of my life, I found that the horror genre gave me a lot more freedom in terms of music composition as well as sound design.

Halloween has been done to death so I focused on Asian horror, and basing Hungry Whispers on the Ghost Festival (almost like the Eastern equivalent to the Western Halloween), it was the perfect theme.

Music/Sound Design: Silent Hill

I have also been an avid gamer which influenced the direction in which I wanted to take my music in.  After playing Silent Hill 2 and watching the making of and appreciating the depth of the audio detail, I wanted to create my own. A moment in (game) time in which the player/listener has such a strong subconscious relationship with the audio along with the game that it practically dictates the player/listener emotions.

Art/Gameplay: Phoenix Wright / Hotel Dusk / 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

I remember the first time playing these games that I was utterly blown away by the story and feeling emotionally attached to the characters in 999.  I love that feeling in which as a player you are so engrossed in the plot that after you finish playing, the experience of your adventure sticks to you.

The art and gameplay style of the puzzle/visual novel genre is also the most fitting technical aspect for Team Wasabi's first full game.  It doesn't require any psycho-level programming or animation but many aspects of playability comes from reliving your favourite scenes.

Obviously with due time, I hope Project Whispers would expand and reach many more fans of games like Silent Hill, Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk and 999.  I also hope that by working on this project, Team Wasabi members will be a step closer to their own creative goals and that I will be the next Akira Yamaoka a game music composer with an actual game title under my belt.

-Wasabi