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Excited States of America
Roc Blocs (video game music)

 

During a recent December the Blake brothers were inspired to create a video game together. The challenge was to start on Dec 1 and have a complete game by the end of the month, including all music and graphics. Growing up loving a certain popular video game where blocks fall from the sky and need to be stacked properly, they decided to make a stylized clone. Imagining themselves as a pair of Soviet-era programmers stuck in a boring town in backwoods USSR, they used public domain artwork from 19th century artists. Ken set about programming the core game while Nick worked on the main UI and wrote & recorded an album of music inspired by Soviet-era rock.

The result was Roc Blocs, a stylized throwback to early video games and rock music.

You can play the demo here. Needs a bit of polish before a serious release, but a fun demo that brings the feels to anyone who enjoyed a certain block-dropping game while growing up.

 

Here's what Nick had to say about participating in the vt's cover contest:

I've been covering artists tunes for years while developing the vt service. It has been a fun and joyful experience singing songs from talented indies.

During our last jazz feature I recorded a cover with my son. He picked out the melody line on the piano and I backed him up on acoustic guitar playing jazz chords. It was super-fun, not only a great jazz lesson for my son and I but also a great music bonding experience for us.

Artist interview coming soon. Apply for membership to stay in the loop.