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EarthBound Beginnings: Difference between revisions
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During development, Itoi drew upon multiple sources for inspiration, including the iconic Stanley Kubrick film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) 2001: A Space Odyssey], which can be seen with ''Mother'''s extraterrestrial themes and the importance of [[Eight Melodies|monkeys]] within the game's plot. To provide a fantastical element in the game, the city of [[Magicant]] was created, in which [[Maria|its ruler]] is critical to the story's progression. One inspiration led to another when forming ''Mother'', which Itoi himself calls a "blending of genres". This principle applied to the music as well, with the composers Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki drawing from the works of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician) Prince], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa Frank Zappa], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles The Beatles], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bloody_Valentine_(band) My Bloody Valentine] for inspiration. Tanaka was also the engineer for the Famicom's sound chip, and he pushed the limits of what types of sounds he could create on the system. | During development, Itoi drew upon multiple sources for inspiration, including the iconic Stanley Kubrick film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) 2001: A Space Odyssey], which can be seen with ''Mother'''s extraterrestrial themes and the importance of [[Eight Melodies|monkeys]] within the game's plot. To provide a fantastical element in the game, the city of [[Magicant]] was created, in which [[Maria|its ruler]] is critical to the story's progression. One inspiration led to another when forming ''Mother'', which Itoi himself calls a "blending of genres". This principle applied to the music as well, with the composers Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki drawing from the works of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician) Prince], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa Frank Zappa], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles The Beatles], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bloody_Valentine_(band) My Bloody Valentine] for inspiration. Tanaka was also the engineer for the Famicom's sound chip, and he pushed the limits of what types of sounds he could create on the system. | ||
When ''Mother'' was first green-lit, Tanaka was forcibly ordered by his superiors to compose music for the project. He and Itoi also disagreed on the game's soundtrack at first, with Itoi wanting a unique BGM track for the game distinct from other game titles; however, his "technique was incredible", and after composing demo track after demo track for the game, he came to understand Itoi, and they built a firm relationship of trust between them. Keiichi Suzuki, a musician who co-founded the Moonriders, one of Japan's most innovative rock bands, was brought on to help guide the direction of the game's soundtrack and composed the songs "Pollyanna" and "Bein' Freinds" for the game. The approach the duo took with composing the game's songs were "to establish the rules that governed the audio for this world. There were considerations in terms of how time and space were related, how characters were associated with one another, and how the concepts of good and evil were represented." While Suzuki composed the game's soundtrack, Tanaka programmed every single sound into the game, including both the game's BGM and its SFX. This was unusual, as typically separate teams handled the composing and programming; however, Tanaka was confident in his abilities, as he had designed the Famicom's sound chip. He struggled with the Famicom's hardware limitations, especially the memory capacity of the Famicom's audio channels. One such difficulty was a channel falling out every time a certain sound effect played: he circumvented this by leaving a short pause before the note in the song to emphasize the effect. In the end, Tanaka wasn't able to implement all of the sounds he intended to in the ''Mother'' soundtrack. | When ''Mother'' was first green-lit, Tanaka was forcibly ordered by his superiors to compose music for the project. He and Itoi also disagreed on the game's soundtrack at first, with Itoi wanting a unique BGM track for the game distinct from other game titles; however, his "technique was incredible", and after composing demo track after demo track for the game, he came to understand Itoi, and they built a firm relationship of trust between them. Keiichi Suzuki, a musician who co-founded the Moonriders, one of Japan's most innovative rock bands, was brought on to help guide the direction of the game's soundtrack and composed the songs [Mother (soundtrack)|"Pollyanna"] and [Mother (soundtrack)|"Bein' Freinds"] for the game. The approach the duo took with composing the game's songs were "to establish the rules that governed the audio for this world. There were considerations in terms of how time and space were related, how characters were associated with one another, and how the concepts of good and evil were represented." While Suzuki composed the game's soundtrack, Tanaka programmed every single sound into the game, including both the game's BGM and its SFX. This was unusual, as typically separate teams handled the composing and programming; however, Tanaka was confident in his abilities, as he had designed the Famicom's sound chip. He struggled with the Famicom's hardware limitations, especially the memory capacity of the Famicom's audio channels. One such difficulty was a channel falling out every time a certain sound effect played: he circumvented this by leaving a short pause before the note in the song to emphasize the effect. In the end, Tanaka wasn't able to implement all of the sounds he intended to in the ''Mother'' soundtrack. | ||
The president of Nintendo of Japan at the time, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was impressed by Itoi's work on ''Mother'' and proposed the idea of a new company meant to support new talent within the video game industry. Itoi then formed the company Ape Inc. on March 1987 with him serving as chief executive producer, which then joined the ''Mother'' development team towards the end of the game's development. In coming up with the name for the project, a temporary title, "ESP1", was used until the word "mothership" provided the primary influence for Itoi. But the title held other meanings as well; the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon John Lennon] song "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(John_Lennon_song) Mother]" served as influence, while Itoi felt that the game had a "motherly" feel compared to other RPGs at the time: the feeling of motherhood was also present in the game through [[Maria]]'s maternal love for [[Giygas]]. The title could also evoke connotations with the feel of the phrase "Mother Earth" as well.While the development was painful for a multitude of reasons (It was littered with detailed limitations due to the RPG's contemporary setting, which the team had to overcome), Itoi felt that by the end of the game's development, it had turned out to be something "really interesting." | The president of Nintendo of Japan at the time, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was impressed by Itoi's work on ''Mother'' and proposed the idea of a new company meant to support new talent within the video game industry. Itoi then formed the company Ape Inc. on March 1987 with him serving as chief executive producer, which then joined the ''Mother'' development team towards the end of the game's development. In coming up with the name for the project, a temporary title, "ESP1", was used until the word "mothership" provided the primary influence for Itoi. But the title held other meanings as well; the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon John Lennon] song "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(John_Lennon_song) Mother]" served as influence, while Itoi felt that the game had a "motherly" feel compared to other RPGs at the time: the feeling of motherhood was also present in the game through [[Maria]]'s maternal love for [[Giygas]]. The title could also evoke connotations with the feel of the phrase "Mother Earth" as well.While the development was painful for a multitude of reasons (It was littered with detailed limitations due to the RPG's contemporary setting, which the team had to overcome), Itoi felt that by the end of the game's development, it had turned out to be something "really interesting." | ||