Hi. I'm Mandikat.

Music Music For Video Games That Don't Exist

Ordinary World

Hey! How was your week? Mine was quite exciting; I got a bit of news that I can’t wait to share with you! Things are still in the works, so I’m keeping it hush-hush, but if you simply can’t wait another moment, feel free to drop me a line and ask!

Here’s a piece I wrote this last week for The Game That Doesn’t Exist. It was designed to be a Pastoral piece that plays at the beginning of the game, the tutorial level where everything is gentle and peaceful, and nothing can reasonably hurt you in a way that matters. It’s Arcadia, Joseph Campbell’s Ordinary World, Palette Town, The Kokiri Forest, the sleepy little be-flowered village from whence our hero hails.

Long ago, in a far away land, there lived a young girl and her trusty canine companion.

I wrote this one (as I often do) using the free digital audio workstation LMMS and a fantastic (and free!) set of soundfonts provided by the St James Orchestra, which you can find on Zanderjaz. My biggest inspirations were Toby Fox (he is fantastic at creating a feeling!), Yasunori Nishiki, and the immortal Nobuo Uematsu.

Thanks so much for listening!

April Ducks 11-13

Did you miss them? Wait – don’t answer that. In the month of April, I challenged myself to draw as many ducks as I could. I ended up drawing a total of 22, and this is part of the slow duck rollout. I’m not sure when I’ll be out of ducks, but if it helps, we’ve now crossed the halfway point.

Even though they’re goofy, and not terribly well-crafted, they still make me happy.

Geo-duck, because I didn’t want to draw that unpleasant mollusc.

Sometimes artists put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make marketable work. When you make a living off of your creations, it can feel like an act of defiance to create something for the sole purpose of entertainment. And while of course I am just as much a fan of money as the next duck enthusiast, making these ducks felt.. important somehow.

I’ve been working on a few projects lately that have been important.. Learning challenging songs outside of my comfort zone for students, fulfilling commissions, completing a proposal for a PhD program that I may or may not be accepted into..

Flying! Get it? Because ducks have wings, why would he be flying a plane? Silly duck!

It makes me happy that I have the privilege to dedicate a little time to creating something silly for myself, something that I know has no possibility for failure.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Collaborations Music

Chuir Iad Mise Dh’eilean Leam Fhìn

Post author By mandikat
Post date May 31, 2021
2 Comments on Chuir Iad Mise Dh’eilean Leam Fhìn

With the pandemic being in full swing for over a year now, my Gaelic Choir hasn’t been meeting in person. But we’ve all been doing our best! We’ve been meeting via zoom to learn pieces, so that when we are able to meet in person again, we’ll have things to sing.

When lockdown first started here, I arranged a traditional Gàidhlig piece for 3 voices (SSA) that my dear friends and fellow choir mates, Naomi and Shay, were kind enough to lend me their voices to record!

We recorded our parts separately on audacity, but it seemed to work pretty well! I’ll let you read the translation while you listen if you like!

I’m the top voice, Naomi is the middle part, and Shay is the lowest part.

________________________________

They sent me to an island alone
An island of the sea, far from land

William likes our Anne
Ruairidh likes the cattle maid

They sent me to an island alone
An island of the sea, far from land

Allan likes the brown-haired woman
Ruairidh likes the cattle fold

They sent me to an island alone
An island of the sea, far from land

far, far, far from land

________________________________

This was a really fun arrangement to make, and it was fun to hear our voices together, even if we weren’t actually together. I’m hoping to write another arrangement soon, and maybe the three of us can even sing in person soon enough.

And don’t worry, more ducks are coming.

Thanks for listening!

April Ducks Art Series

April Ducks 7-10

Gosh, we sure are getting a lot of these ducks out of the way. Sort of. Now, I should give you a disclaimer: these are probably the worst ducks I’ve drawn in the series. It’s a shame that they’re all clumped together like this, but the other option was to present them non-chronologically, and I don’t think I could handle that.

Now that you’ve been warned, enjoy!

Long. It’s a duck that’s long. He’s got a long neck. He’s a long necked duck.

I feel like there were more creative ways that I could have handled these prompts, but hey. It was a busy week.

This next one I drew using my mouse, and I fear as though my mousepad may have interfered with the line quality. But I’ll let you be the judge…

Reminds me of when I’d go into office supply shops and draw silly animals on MSPaint. Did any of you do that?

I’d like to take this time to reiterate: I did not make these prompts!

By the time I had finished this last… piece… I had a smidge more time, and had worked out a relatively navigable system.

A fair warning, the final duck in this series is.. a bit peculiar, and perhaps a bit inappropriate for those with sensitive stomachs. I had to have lost you by this point, though! The final prompt in this set was “Duck With Arms”, and I think I may have budgeted all my creativity for this one.

You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

I know I promised 4 ducks in this post, but I believe I have proven that there are 5.

Because I’m one odd duck.

Thanks for visiting! Quack quack!

Music

Spectra

Post author By mandikat
Post date May 17, 2021
1 Comment on Spectra

By now I figure you’re probably ready for a wee break from all the ducks, so here is the first piece I recorded using my Arturia Keylab 49 essential, named after her (her, being my keyboard, Spectra).

Short, I know, but I’m pretty happy with it!

I absolutely love this keyboard (even though I have a lot to learn on it), and even though it’s currently still a little easier to plunk notes in by hand on the piano roll, I know that won’t always be the case if I keep working with her.

The percussion is made entirely using Andrew Huang’s Canada Sample Pack, specifically the sounds of a toque, syrup cans, and jingling loonies and toonies. Thanks, Andrew Huang! *high five*

Thanks so much for listening. And for the anatidaephiliacs out there, just know they’re returning next week.

Thanks so much for listening, and for visiting. I’m glad you’re here. 🙂

April Ducks Art Series

April Ducks 4-6

Here are the next 3 fulfilments of the silly Duck Challenge that I undertook with my friends in the month of April. Prepare yourself for the aforementioned wildly varying degrees of quality!

The name for this one was DUCK, but in very glitchy font that I cannot replicate.

For those of you who are generally a fan of me and generally not fans of ducks (I wouldn’t mind seeing a venn diagram of that overlap), you may be relieved to know that next week’s post will be a musical one.

This duck may have been my favourite of the lot to draw. I’m a sucker for rainbows!

Actually while I have you here, folks within the venn diagram, I have to ask – what do I have that ducks don’t? Don’t get me wrong; I’m quite flattered by your preference, but if you are under the conception that I am in any way superior to a duck, I believe you may be missing some crucial pieces of information.

That being said, if you rightfully prefer the drawing of ducks to my usual content, you’ll be delighted to hear that my next duck post, due to poor quality, will be compensated for in quantity. 4 ducks in a fortnight, folks. Get it down in your calendars.

Yes, I know I’m ridiculous.

Thank you for being here anyway. Quack Quack!

April Ducks Art Series

April Ducks 1 – 3

With May finally being upon us, I am happy to share that I have now completed a very, very silly challenge that a few buddies and I made for ourselves for the month of April. The challenge was to illustrate as many ducks (of varying degrees of quality) as reasonably possible between April 1st and April 30th.

Did I mention we had prescribed themes for each duck? We had prescribed themes for each duck.

Wouldn’t you believe it, I made it all the way to 22! That’s one for every weekday this April, so I’m quite pleased with myself. Some are certainly of higher quality than others, but all in all, 22 ducks in one month is nothing to sneeze at.

Can ducks sneeze? Intuitively I question whether they can.

Deciding on a plan on how to release these duck depictions (duckpictions?) has been a bit of a challenge. Releasing 22 ducks one at a time puts this space at a high risk of being “that blog with all the ducks”, but considering that each one of these illustrations took between 2-3 hours to make, I couldn’t justify spending upwards of 50 hours on a single blog post.

Here’s my solution: I’m going to release them in sets of 3 over the next few months, staggered with music and other current projects.

I cannot stress enough how ridiculous this project was, but I had a lovely time.

I quite enjoyed this project, and I hope you enjoy the ducks as they unfurl.

Thanks for visiting! Quack quack!

Music Music For Video Games That Don't Exist

The Villain’s Sad Backstory

Post author By mandikat
Post date April 26, 2021
No Comments on The Villain’s Sad Backstory

Another silly little ditty for The Game That Doesn’t Exist. I think that a good portion of the games I’ve enjoyed have a villain with a backstory that explains their villainy. This music is designed to be the background music for their expository flashback.

“He never used to be like this. When we were children, we would play together. Until one day…”

Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for listening!

Music Music For Video Games That Don't Exist

Jump the Gun

Here’s another fun little chiptune for The Game That Doesn’t Exist, a big of a fun swung Masato Nakamura inspired 8-chord loop piece. I imagine this being paired with a quick jump-based platformer, the kind where the camera keeps moving up, with or without you.