Soichi Terada – Arctic Wonderland 2 – Ape Escape 3 Soundtrack
Another year has passed and once again I’m sitting here trying to come up with resolutions that have any hope of being fulfilled. The same ones come to mind every year- Communicate with people, be more organized, have a work life balance. Start learning Japanese again, learn some songs instead of just noodling around, learn to cook more than like 4 meals. And finally, to make an effort to find an excuse to go out somewhere, possibly a place where thar be girls (more likely to start training to be an astronaut than follow through on this one). After so many years it’s starting to feel silly. New Years is a time to remember that I’m not happy with life outside of work, and that I don’t plan to fix it.
Oddly enough, though, it seems that as I get older I tend to be happier. I credit this to age wearing down my ability to give a fuck. Every time I say something stupid, see something anxiety inducing, put up a shelf crooked, it becomes easier and easier to shrug it off. Meh. When life gets out of hand I can just let it fall into my bib and eat it later. Let that fart turn into a shit. You can simplify things if you’re happy enough just to marinate in your own sludge, the smell will tell people to seek help elsewhere.
The problem with this plan, is that I still give a fuck. It pains me that I can remember giving more of a fuck, and it tortures me with worry that there could be a point in the future when I just don’t give a fuck.
I don’t believe that life is strictly necessary in this universe. Things where fine before, when rock was the sound of planets smashing together and heavy metal was the result of nuclear fusion. The universe was into it just fine. Then life shows up, along with feelings of joy and suffering. There’s nothing really wrong with life, creatures eating other creatures to survive is pretty impersonal and feels to me like the “no hard feelings” attitude of one sun swallowing up another. But then humans show up and introduce to the concept of being salty. We added hate, cruelty and apathy. We also brought awareness so we could feel guilt and recognize the consequence of our actions, and intelligence so we could do something about it. We can build it up or tear it all down, and how much beauty we bring into this universe is a direct function of how much we give a fuck.
So I don’t want to stop caring. Anything but that. I don’t know what my New Year’s resolution is, but what I’ve been struggling to find this past decade is some way to stop spending my free time staring at the walls in distress and to start enjoying life again. My heroes all focus their anxieties outward in some positive way, they prove again and again that when it comes to pain you don’t have to give what you receive. I still believe that, and have found that nothing brings me peace and tranquility more than to return a punch in the face with a pat on the back. If that somehow leads to our annihilation, then the universe is better off without us.
♫ Your life is over now, your life is running out.
When your time is at an end, then it’s time to kill again!
We cut without a knife, we live in black and white.
You’re just a parasite, now close your eyes and say goodnight!
You better get ready to die!
You better get ready to kill!
You better get ready to run, cause here we come…
Been a lifetime coming now you better get running, and you better get ready to die! ♫
-Ready To Die, Andrew W.K.
Duck game is an awesome game. It has brought so much joy to me and my friends and family. I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate this game. Thank you.
Seriously thank you for the kindness, and thanks for playing <3
Happy new year to you. I hope you can make progress on what you want to progress on, but most importantly, I hope you’ll be able to not hate yourself if you don’t !
Hey man – I just wanted to say your work in Duck Game is really incredible. I have thousands of hours in it, and it’s brought me endless joy. The soundtrack is also incredible, and I wanted to ask if you composed it on the Deluge Synthstrom? I recently got one and it feels like an instant Duck Game track maker!
Thank you man that means a lot! The Synthstrom looks really cool but I’ve never tried one, the soundtrack was made in FL Studio using GENNY, a VST plugin I did that emulates the Sega Genesis sound chips. It uses FM synthesis so it’s possible that there are a lot of FM sounds on the Synthstrom, it’s a very distinctive sound!
🙂 Duck Game is probably on my top 10 list of favorite games. So much fun, and it never grows old. Also, as a fellow game dev, I aspire to make something half as cool.
Also, all of my shelves are somewhat crooked. Who needs level shelves anyway?? Life’s more interesting at a bit of a tilt.
You can do it! Duck Game came from a sincere desire to have something fun to play with my friends, there was a lot of failure and experimentation building up to it but I think as long as you focus on what you’re excited about and keep taking shots at it you will make things you’re happy with. And yeah you’re right, straight shelves are easy. It’s the big picture that matters and the crooked shelves do give some character to that. Thanks man <3