The soundtrack

I composed this orchestral piece for Xonotic, in the summer of 2015, when the community held a soundtrack competition. The soundtracks of this game had been predominately electronic music, and I wanted to challenge myself to write one with all traditional orchestral instruments, and for this particular game play.

Music for video game play is a unique genre. In concert music, which I mostly write, music is the focal point. In film scores or video game cut scene soundtrack, all the highlight events (hit points) are spotted in advanced so music can easily match the visual and development of the story. However, music for a live game play has to be generic enough to cover unexpected events, yet interesting enough not to cause aural fatigue. This is indeed challenging for me.

The title Cry Link is a word play of the game's unique weapon "Crylink", in which "cry" is short for "crystal", a lasing medium in the game. Compare to other weapons, Crylink does not deal the most damage; instead, its reflective projectile and the special force can pull back the opponents, making it very difficult for them to escape from a slow death. Such sense of doom of a courageous warrior inspired me to write "Cry Link."

Instrumentation:

• 2 flutes
• 2 oboes
• 2 Bb clarinets
• 2 bassoons
• 3-4 horns
• 2 trumpets
• 2 trombones
• timpani
• triangle
• drum set
• piano
• full string sections (double-bass with C extension).

About the video

• Game: Xonotic
• Game Map: Erbium (by Conrad 'Justin' Slawinski)
• Game Font: Xolonium (by Severin 'Sev' Meyer)
• Players: SPLAT vs. smoke.antibody

Although the main purpose of this video is to showcase the music, Xonotic players will enjoy watching these two virtuosi dueling in the video. This map just won a recent mapping contest so it's new to both players. Observe not only their incredible aiming and movement skills, but also how they quickly familiarize themselves with the map, identify the opponent's pattern, and develop strategies against each other. Also notice how one small wrong decision would lead to point loss much later on. Between two masters, there's little space for mistakes!

I chose Justin's map Erbium to showcase this piece because both our works blend opposite elements: nature growing in an industrial environment; traditional acoustic instruments for the futuristic action.