What’s a “Soul Gem?”

Two of the sounds in our new Soundpack (available for the Game Masters iPhone/iPad app or as mp3 downloads) are called “Soul Gem claims a victim.” The sound is available in male-victim and female-victim varieties, in the interest of gamer equality…but what is a “Soul Gem,” and what game system uses it?

It’s whatever you want it to be, really. We conceived of a magical stone that opened a portal to some other dimension and would capture the spirit of some unlucky character, trapping it in that dimension…but of course in your game it doesn’t need to be a stone, or open up another dimension…it could just be a spell that destroys your opponent. We made a cool sound and had to call it something, and that’s what we came up with. It’s not specifically the Soul Gem from Elder Scrolls or World of Warcraft or any number of other games/comics etc. that use the term.

This is the same concept we employ on our “Monsters” and “Strange Places” effects collections as well: we made a bunch of awesome sounds for you to use for whatever you like…and we had to call them something.

iPhone/iPad app update

Dale Barnes has released an update to the Game Masters Collection iPhone/iPad app. V1.2 includes a larger selection of free sounds as well as some functionality fixes. He’s also updated the Support page.

Bell-Bottom Blu-Ray

“See this? Gonna make CDs obsolete. Guess this means I’ll have to buy the White Album again…”
–Tommy Lee Jones, Men In Black

PC world asks: why doesn’t anyone want a Blu-Ray player?

Their conclusion, “Home theater buffs and early adopters may take to Blu-ray, but most consumers will likely bypass HD discs altogether and advance directly to movie streaming and download services”, is probably spot on, but for me, I dunno…

I bought a bunch of albums on LP.
Then I had to buy them again on CD.
I bought a bunch of movies on VHS.
Then I had to buy them again on DVD.

I’m really not looking forward to re-purchasing my whole collection again.

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On a related note, why is it that consumer video technology is getting better by leaps and bounds, but in the music world we’ve gone from LP and CD down to mp3?

#apollo: twitter theatre

Much as I loathe people texting in theaters, I thought this was kind of cool: a theater in Portland invited audience members to twitter about the word premiere of their play, Apollo, in real time during the performance. Reading through the log of twitter comments from the show is fascinating, though I wish I’d seen the show…or do I? I kinda enjoyed just reading the feed and imagining.

It’s amusing, though, to see the real-time (and conflicting) reactions to the play’s choices:

msalt: #Apollo Wake up little Susie for Sputnik, good choice.

ladyfriend: #apollo Oh God… “wake up little susie” AND Bobbie Sox? Is there no less tired way to get across the idea of 1957??

Gimmicky? Yes, but as social media and portable data devices become more and more a part of our lives, I think we’ll see a lot more experimentation with incorporating them into theatre pieces.

thanks to Maryann Devine

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