Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck!

It’s been a while since I shared a behind the scenes interview with a member of the Cass Bay Games team, so I’m excited to introduce you to Ewan Clark. Ewan is an incredibly gifted music composer, and I’ve been itching to work with him again since he scored two of my short films a decade ago.

I’ll also give some behind the scenes insights into our growing sound team.

Yours piratically,

Ben

An interview with Ewan Clark, Composer

At Cass Bay Games, we’re very lucky to be working with Wellington-based, award-winning composer and orchestrator, Dr Ewan Clark. Ewan specialises in music for film and television, and is now making his debut in games with the exciting, adventurous score for Davy Jones’ Deckhand. He holds an MMus from the Royal College of Music and a PhD from the New Zealand School of Music.

We’ve asked Ewan a few questions for this edition of Below Deck, and hope you enjoy this short interview!

What is some of the work you’re most proud of?

My score for the indie feature The Turn of the Screw won awards at the Istanbul Film Awards and Terror in the Bay Film Festival, and was a finalist for the 2021 APRA Best Music in Film award. I’m also proud to have scored projects including TVNZ1’s Doubt: The Scott Watson Case and shorts including the acclaimed The World in Your Window and Shmeat.

As an orchestrator, I’ve worked on feature films The Inventor, One Thousand Ropes, and Beyond the Edge.

What’s your ideal environment for doing your best work?

I love working with collaborators that value music’s role in their project, enjoy what I bring to the table, and have a clear vision for what they want.

What is on your musical bucket list?

I’d love to compose for any moderate to high budget film, TV, or game projects, but have a particular ambition to score things in the action/adventure genre.

What drew you to Davy Jones’ Deckhand?

I had a very positive experience in 2013-2014 working with Ben Childs on the short films Birdsong and Space Trash Men. So when Ben approached me about working on DJD, it was the perfect opportunity to cut my teeth in the game music space, but with a known collaborator. I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be good to diversify and add game music to my skill set. I also love that DJD calls for an orchestral action/adventure score.

What’s been your favourite part of working on Davy Jones’ Deckhand so far?

I’ve really enjoyed the aspects that are unique to composing for games, namely the use of adaptive music. It’s been fun to figure out how the music might adapt naturally depending on gameplay factors such as the player’s level of health or which characters they are fighting.

Finally, what’s some advice you have for aspiring music composers?

My advice is to build a rich, varied musical life. The young musicians who go on to thrive as versatile composers are usually the ones who’ve spent years doing a range of things like playing in ensembles, singing in choirs, writing notated music and hearing it performed, producing music in a DAW at the forefront of music technology, listening widely, and engaging seriously with theory and orchestration studies. Those diverse experiences create the foundation of a flexible, well-rounded composer. So identify any gaps in your skills or musical experiences and fill them steadily, in line with your goals, and never lose sight of your love for music and the media you want to write for.

You can learn more about Ewan and listen to his work on his website.

https://www.ewanclarkmusic.com/

While we’re on the subject of sound…

We get lots of positive comments on the sound design in Davy Jones’ Deckhand, and there have been lots of people involved. Our first sound designer was Roco Moroi Thorne, a recent Masters graduate who had studied under Dr Ewan Clark. Ewan brought Roco on to help with the technical implementation of his dynamic music, but we ended up blown away by Roco’s keen instincts for all aspects of sound design. Sadly (for us, but not a surprise) Roco was scooped up by none other than Grinding Gear Games, one of New Zealand’s most successful studios, to work on their Path of Exile series.

Following in Roco’s footsteps, the studio has now welcomed two more of Ewan’s students, Erin Thomas-Riley and Sarah Paton Taylor. For the past six months Erin has been doing a fantastic job, and we’re excited to start working with Sarah as the newest addition to the evolving sound team.

We’ve also had some voice artists lending their talents to the game: Benjamin Pilbrow, Caitlin Thomas-Riley, and Sam Polwart.

Farewell to Tepene

Tepene Marsden-Boyd has stepped down from the Cass Bay games team due to clashing family circumstances.

Tepene has had a huge impact on the game and studio, not only for his beautiful artwork, but he has also been a dedicated, smart business partner, and joined Ben on two massive trips this year promoting Davy Jones' Deckhand in both Germany and Australia. Thanks Tep for your passion, skill and hard work. 

We're going to miss having you on the team!

What we’ve been working on

We have shifted into development of DJD’s secondary game-loop. Here’s a very early sneak peek at some of the work-in-progress systems. We’ve started implementing point-and-click style navigation and a new dialogue system for conversations with NPCs.

When you finish a roguelike voyage, you’ll be able to disembark at your current port, peruse the town, take on side-quests, purchase new artefacts, find secrets, and upgrade your weapons. This won’t ruin the true roguelike experience though, as any artefacts you collect will still be limited by the cargo system that only allows you to bring a few select buffs along at the start of new voyages. The meta progression is intended to give you new ways to play, not to dramatically reduce the difficulty of the runs.

Watch this short pre-alpha gameplay clip.

Join the crew!

Don’t forget to wishlist the game on Steam, blackmail your friends and family to do the same, and help us market our pirate game!

If you'd like more regular updates and to chat with the team then please join our public Discord server, we'd love to have you join our growing community. You can also follow us on social media at the links below.

Wishlist now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3544900/Davy_Jones_Deckhand/

Discord invite: https://t.co/sBqCnmZi9T

Previous editions of 'Below Deck' can be found on our Itch Devlog.

Playtester sign ups: Fill out this form to access the playtest 

Until next time me hearties, yo ho!

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