David Celis is a Ruby on Rails developer based out of Portland, OR. He is also the founder/creator of goodbre.ws
Here’s a video of me playing and singing my aforementioned transcription for Owen Pallet’s version of “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars.
Writing an Interactive Fiction: Schoolyard Justice
So I’ve decided to participate in a video game development “pageant”, the theme of which is Justice. That’s the only restriction, so I decided to try my hand at writing the type of game I’ve always wanted to: an interactive fiction, or text-based adventure game. Going off of the theme of Justice, I’m taking my story to the playground. Here’s a peek at what I have so far.
Playground
You are standing in the playground of Lincoln Elementary School, where you are a student. Other children race around the school yard, brimming with the energy bestowed upon them from a school lunch composed almost entirely of starches and salt. A cacophony of screams and cries ring out across the twisted, metal spires of play structures that rise from the rubbery, plastic mulch. To the north lies the school and the relative safety of being indoors, where there are adults.
A pair of double doors leads into the school.
You can also see a group of children laughing at you here.
> look at school
Ah, good old Lincoln Elementary. You have so many memories of this place. See that water fountain near the doors? Your classmates just love to put their fingers over the spigot and spray you in the face when you try to take a drink. Good times.
> look at water fountain
It’s just a water fountain. Aside from the water usually seeming to hit your face instead of your mouth, there’s nothing special about it.
> look at play structures
The playground offers a variety of activites for young children like yourself. There is a swing set, monkey bars, a slide, a seesaw, and even a small merry-go-round where the kids can spin so fast that they vomit.
> look at children
The children all appear to be laughing at you. Why? Several of them seem to be pointing to your lower half. You notice that one child is holding a small water pistol.
> look at water pistol
One of the children, whom you recognize as Jim, is holding this small water gun. Based on its small size, it was probably quite easy for him to sneak it into school undetected.
> look at pants
Jim shot your pants with the water gun so as to make it appear that you wet yourself. Classic.
> take off pants
You probably shouldn’t do that in public.
> cry
You cry like a little baby. Feel better, little baby?
I want the game to antagonize the player just as much as the bullies do.
Transcription: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Final Fantasy)
This is one of my favorite songs. Back in 2005, Canadian Indie band Stars released this song as a single. In 2007, they released another album aptly entitled Do You Trust Your Friends? full of remixes by, well, their friends. Well-known artist Owen Pallett, then known as Final Fantasy, took it upon himself to arrange this song for piano, vocals and strings.
Link to a YouTube video of the song (Owen Pallett’s version)
Link to the original Stars version
For a while now, this is a song I really wanted to learn to play on the piano and sing. Usually I’m great at picking things up by ear, but the orchestra playing along with the piano made it difficult in this case. I decided to see if there was any sheet music that had been printed for the song. Unfortunately, I found only a single, unofficial transcription that just sucked. Finally, I got fed up and decided to transcribe it myself. I think I did a really good job, and I’m fairly sure it’s at as accurate as it can be. Note that I’m just a pianist, so I did not transcribe any of the strings!