Category Archives: Video Games

Some Fun Gameplay Videos Featuring Sound & Composition by Aaron Walz!

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I always strive to deliver the best audio for each game I work on, and here are some examples of the fruit of my labors:

Heralds of Chaos by Gaia

Curse at Twilight: Thief of Souls by Game House

Dino Life by GREE

Epic Empire: A Hero’s Quest by Pocket Gems

Pocket Potions by Breaktime Studios

Aveyond: Lord of Twilight by Amranth

Arena of Heros by Sneaky Games / Zattikka

Backyard Bounce by ChaYoWo Games

Dragon Nest SEA by Cherry Credits / Eyedentity / Shanda

Vegas Nights By Mean Hampster

Pixel Whirled by Holmade Games

July was Busy!

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Hey everyone! This month has just been crazy! A new game Walz Music provided audio for has been released: Play Gig-It, a a social platform game for Facebook which brings together social media, fashion, music, and gaming by John Romero and 212 Decibels! Walz Music provided the voice-over talent, along with Sound Design and Engineering.

From July 30th to August 1st, I was the educational content adviser and emcee for this year’s Casual Connect’s Audio Track in San Francisco. As in years past, putting on the Audio Tract was a ton of work, but getting to meet so many amazing people in the game audio business, and working along side so many awesome people makes all the hard work totally worth it! In addition to emceeing Casual Connect’s Audio Tract, I also presented Designing Audio for Casino Games along with Greg Rahn – Audio Director for Kabam, Andreas Montano – Game Producer for Double Down Interactive, and Jesse Holt – panel moderator and Audio Designer for Double Down Interactive. As well as moderated Tips for Being a Successful Game Audio Contractor.

So far August is shaping up to be just as crazy and productive as July. Stay tuned for more updates!

Announcing Arena of Heroes!

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Arena of HeroesWe are super excited to announce our involvement in the creation of amazing game audio and sound design for Arena of Heroes by Sneaky Games, Zattikka, and CAH. Arena of Heroes is a free turn-based tactical game available for Mobile, PC, and Mac platforms! Compete in an intergalactic arena that offers a tactical turn-based game experience across any device! Check out the facebook page here!

New Game Audio Has Been Released!

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Two new games featuring music by Walz Music have been released! Check out Puppy Run: Ultimate Maze Puzzle, and Eat Eat Hooray!
Puppy Run is the first mobile game for SecretBuilders, developed by Renaissance 2.0 Media. In addition to Puppy Run, Walz Music has also supplied some of the voice acting for SecretBuilders!
Eat Eat Hooray! is the latest iOS game by the team at The Playforge. Visit the iTunes store to get your copy today!

WOW how time flies!

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UM my poor abandoned blog!  I have been so busy in the last year. I teamed up with some very talented folks: Greg Rahn (composed for Broderbund and even did Carmen Sandiego OMG!!!), Barry Dowsett and Kevin Tone from Soundrangers (one worked for Microsoft and one has won prestigious awards), and Jesse Holt (audio designer for Game House for 10 years!)  Not only are they talented, they are my friends. We’ve been running all the audio presentations at Casual Connect and Gamesauce for the last few years. We decided to start a new company, the Game Audio Alliance. We each have 10+ years in the game audio industry, so we are quite the force of complimentary skills!  www.gameaudioalliance.com

What else?  I’ve been doing a lot of Facebook games… Mesmo, Mean Hamster, GSN… Those games are very addictive!  OH and I did a bunch of 8-bit music for a game called Pixel Whirled.  It is like Space Invaders, except you can flip the screen over… so you have to play two levels at once!  I also did some voiceover work, which is always great fun.

I’m trying hard to release a new single and album for nR Element, my eurodance project… and my pal Eva Maass was hired to sing for Disko Warp Records’ release of “Butterfly,” a cover of the Dance Dance Revolution song by Smile-dk. I recorded and produced the vocals. Pete made the beats sound sick, and remixers did awesome jobs.

I’m also trying to release an OST for Aveyond 1. Oh speaking of Aveyond, I finished the last tracks for the final installation coming out this winter… kinda sad, but I am so proud to have done all the tracks for the series… it is like 100 songs in all throughout the years.

I am now a board member of the chorus I sing with, GGMC. I’m proud to be more official now.  OH and this last concert, I sang the solo of “Kalinka” which is a Russian folk song that was used for TETRIS!!!  How fitting.

I have big plans and am trying to get unburied… I have certainly bit off more than I can chew! But the fire is still lit and I never ever get sick of making music. It is my life’s passion. Thanks for all of you who follow me and give me strength and feedback. I love you all! XOXO. Talk to you soon, lonely blog and abandoned fans!

A Game Without Sound? A Travesty!

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So sometimes I visit this old-school arcade in San Rafael where I grew up. It has new games but also old favorites like Mappy, Dig-Dug and Ms. Pac-Man!  I’m actually pretty good at the last one, but Jason is amazingly good.  Usually…

This time, apparently the employee got sick of all the sounds (sinner!) near the office and turned them all off. This made playing as well nearly impossible. This was an interesting lesson about how sound not only is fun and enjoyable, but also useful and integral to gameplay.

The sound of the pellets being eaten reminds you that you are going down the right path. The oninous sounds of the ghosts makes you careful. And most importantly, the sound when you get the super pellets… those few moments of invincibility to devour those pesky ghosts… Your mind almost memorizes the length of the sound… and without it, well it’s anybody’s guess! And who can enjoy those flirtatious cutscenes without the cute music? As simple as the sound is, it’s SO IMPORTANT.

Recently we’ve been downloading some Casual Games from Reflexive and other portals and noticing games with no music! Hey, bad place to skimp on the budget, guys! Games with good music and sound effects are more fun and more complete. Well, at least we think so!

Incidentally, the Ms. Pac-Man in downtown San Rafael, at Star Base One, rocks… it’s modded to go super-speed! Go play!

Ms. Pac-Man!

Ms. Pac-Man!

Bomberman (the game!) on a plane

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So Jason and I were playing Bomberman on my laptop during a flight. We kept saying things like, “ooh, I got another bomb!” Or “I’m gonna blow you up!” ETC…

Not a good idea to play this game on a plane these days. Luckily no one even seemed to notice.

Love the game. The theme song is pretty memorable too! And the characters are so cute and their sounds are adorable.

Bomberman!

Bomberman!

Gameplay

Gameplay