Aram Zero

It’s really hard to put into words the excitement and disbelief I’ve been feeling since last night, when the news arrived. I co-produced a song for Rift of the NecroDancer (my very first job in an indie videogame) together with @alex_moukala and… (it continues in the comments)

Rift of the Necrodancer was one of the very first games I ever wrote music for... and it won a Best Music award last night at the indie awards! On top of that, our soundtrack was also nominated for the Steam Awards alongside my absolute favorite OST of the year: Expedition 33. It's kinda funny seeing them there together, but in a way it also makes total sense too. Despite being wildly different, Rift and Expedition 33's soundtracks have a very important key factor in common that made them what they are. It's something I've noticed when I interviewed Lorien Testard and Guillaume Broche from Sandfall earlier this year, which can be summarized into a single word: Trust. Lorien is a composer with a lot to say, whose musical intuition comes from a pure place of passion and reverence for the art. Guillaume, the game director, saw this and trusted Lorien's musical choices across the board while working on Expedition 33. I asked them if they ever had moments of contention or creative mismatches, and they clearly answered: no. Guillaume always let Lorien cook, encouraging him and trusting his vision every step of the way, allowing him to create a soundtrack that will echo for generations to come. Interestingly, I think this was the very same dynamic between Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu during the earlier Final Fantasy games. I've had the pleasure of working on a number of games these past few years and I've noticed that, sometimes, there are directors who really micro-manage you and make you doubt your own creative voice in ways that will inevitably lead to make your music worse. And then there's people like Guillaume, whose trust, respect and excitement lead you to do your best work. People who "let you cook". I was extremely fortunate in this respect many times in my career, working with very capable folks who saw the best in me and got the best out of me. The very first team who did this in my case is the one I'm celebrating in this post: Rift of the Necrodancer's team! We had a ragtag crew of composers in this project, from different countries, different walks of life but most especially very different music styles. ( @dannyBstyle , @FamilyJules7x , @visagermusic , @hollett_samuel , @nicknausbaum & my secret weapon: @Aram_Zero ) At every step of the way, the entire Rift team has been nothing but supportive, appreciative, curious and pushed us to truly get crazy, never making us doubt our creative voice. I want to believe that it's not a coincidence that the game's soundtrack ended up being so beloved that it goes all the way to winning / being nominated for awards. I can't take much credit for it, as I was just one of several composers who worked on it after all! But I do take pride on the whole team, for how amazing they have been to work with. Sending my congrats to them, and a high five to all game directors out there who let their composers cook!

@alex_moukala @NecroDancerGame 🥹🙏 thanks buddy.

@alex_moukala @NecroDancerGame

It’s really hard to put into words the excitement and disbelief I’ve been feeling since last night, when the news arrived. I co-produced a song for Rift of the NecroDancer (my very first job in an indie videogame) together with @alex_moukala and… (it continues in the comments)

@alex_moukala For never giving up, and for being stubborn enough to keep making heavy-ass music no matter what. Thank you all. Let’s keep our fingers crossed! Aram

@alex_moukala it has been nominated for Best Soundtrack at the Indie Game Awards. I’m beyond grateful to everyone involved for their incredible work: starting from @braceyourselfgames , to @alex_moukala, colleague and above all dear friend, and… to myself.

@alex_moukala @HatingMirror @NecroDancerGame Absolutely 🔥🔥🔥

@HatingMirror @NecroDancerGame Me and @Aram_Zero appreciate it!! 🙏🏾

Thank you everyone for over 150,000 wishlists and 50,000 demo downloads so far! We are truly blown away by your support. As we say farewell to the old demo for the new one for #SteamNextFest, we wanted to share some fun stats 🧵

theverge.com/2024/5/8/24152… Aight.

youtu.be/YUluVynIgIo?si… ^ the full version

Death Stranding 2 trailer SOLO music; I recomposed it just because it is SUCH a banger man @Ludvig_Forssell

Apparently, people at Steinberg overheard us talking about killing Cubase in the task manager and want us to lawfully wait for Cubase to close, because in C13 killing it is taking an awefully long time. Especially after a crash! 😴💤

@neverbreeze_s It looks amazing!!

Been working on a new project. Genshin style RPG made in #unity3d. Let me know how it looks so far #indiedev #IndieGameDev #indiegames #gamedev #gamedeveloper #gamedevelopment #gamedesign #gameart #Genshin_Impact #Genshinfanart

I just discovered this game today and I couldn't resist @RipoutGame

@Borislav_Slavov @DroppedFrames 100% deserved man, your guitar arpeggio while roaming in the city gave me chills EVERY time.

No better way to start the week! The Community at @DroppedFrames awarded Baldur's Gate 3 OST with Favorite Music of 2023! Thank you for this recognition, guys! ❤️🙏

@RipoutGame Oh boy, hold my beer.

Want to pass? Think again 😱 #indiedev #videogames #Ripout

@slava_dev Ohh I LOVE it! Townscaper on steroids!

Hey👋 I'm a solo developer working on a cozy game where you build cute Italian neighborhoods and listen to grandma's stories. Here is a small timelapse of building a diorama and walking in it after. #indiegame #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

@naezith It looks BRUTAL man!! is this something you're working on?

Trying out a city map, feels like Prototype 2! #indiedev #gamedev #indiegame #screenshotsaturday

The Darkest of Days is now AVAILABLE for presave! ffm.to/presave_tdod.O…

Travelers by @andrewprahlow with a respectful touch of metal. Only those who have played the game can understand how hard would have been producing this thing without tearing. And I failed, btw.

@pmcomposer Thank you so much for your words man!! Yes I tried to be as melodic as possible in the first section and then ka-boom :>

@Aram_Zero This is awesome! Love it, when the metal kicks in proper :D.

youtube.com/watch?v=9Nyuex… Sometimes some of my reels go well and this metal cover flew high over the #frostpunk's subreddit. Happy new year everybody!