🕹️🧦 Britt's Arcade Paradise Launch Day Diary - "As the whole experience was an almost surreal one, I thought I’d document it here" 🧦🕹️ @KingWashArcade

As mentioned before on the site, Arcade Paradise was quite a unique gaming experience for me, in that my band’s music was part of the game’s soundtrack, and so I couldn’t review the finished product, as I was too close to it (my editor Rich recently reviewed the game, however) but it did mean that I was invited to the launch party up in London in a venue located at the Leake Street Arches. As the whole experience was an almost surreal one, I thought I’d document it here, more from my perspective as a musician than a writer for GF.

I first became aware of Arcade Paradise around the time I wrote my review for the amazing Tux and Fanny, I saw a comment that Dre (Andreas Firnigl) - head honcho at Nosebleed Interactive – had made on Twitter, stating that Arcade Paradise contained within it 35+ fully playable games.

Now, my love for mini-games and games within games is no secret, as they had won my heart in titles such as The Touryst, Intrepid Izzy and the aforementioned Tux and Fanny. I was instantly intrigued by Nosebleed Interactive’s Arcade Paradise and my trousers were sufficiently tightened so as to stop them from flying off and beginning a new life by themselves.

After doing some more research into the game, I discovered that it was set in the ‘90s, and on a whim, I send Dre a message stating that my band – Recluse – made music that was certainly influenced by that era, and would he be interested in taking a listen?

Fast-forward a few weeks of mutual music appreciation, and amazingly – Recluse had four tracks featured on the in-game jukebox, Throat, Idols and The Quiet Hours* from our album Lay Your Darkness Down with Me, and Bury Us Separately from our previous album, The Quiet Hours.

As the only one in the band who regularly plays games beyond Mario Kart – I look at you, @Reclusetom – I was almost levitating with excitement at this prospect, as I’ve always loved the thought of our music appearing in a video game – previous releases had appeared on small TV shows, and even as an entrance theme for American wrestler Tim Donst…but never in the gaming world.

The whole process was enthralling to me, getting the credits and rights sorted, ensuring that all was clear from a DRM point of view so that the music could be safely streamed for YouTubers and Twitchers etc. some parts were challenging, but it was always an interesting learning experience. For instance, there’s a line – now removed in the Arcade Paradise mix of the track- in The Quiet Hours, “She came to me like a cigarette to an ashtray” that – as it referenced smoking – needed to be removed, cue me sweating over a laptop for an evening, fiddling with the instrumental master tracks we have! Luckily, it all came together in the end, and so I was sent a preview build of the game in June.

It’s hard to describe how I felt upon hearing our music for the first time in Arcade Paradise. As I selected The Quiet Hours on the in-game jukebox, and the opening distorted notes came growling out of the jukebox, as the album cover rotated on the display, I had a huge swell of emotion, not only was our music in a game, but it was also in a bloody good game. I played that beta for several hours, getting hips deep into the games on offer, washing laundry…and naturally popping back to the jukebox to keep the music pumping.

I sent videos of how our music is implemented in the game to the other members of the band and excitedly showed my fiancée and family members, I was essentially a trouserless supreme being by this point, my joy dial had been turned up to max, and was on the cusp of snapping off entirely.

The next morning, I had a message from Dre at Nosebleed Interactive, one of the biggest streamers in Germany (Gronkh) had streamed the beta of Arcade Paradise and had selected our song The Quiet Hours on the jukebox in front of 20,000 viewers. The clip of that will be with me forever, the gentle head bob as the guitar comes in, and the open-mouthed, shocked ‘wow’ when the cavernous drums and bass join the fray. I must have watched that clip twenty times and seeing the leap in numbers on our streaming accounts and album sales trickle in from Germany, it was an absolute joy to know that so many people were enjoying our music.

Fast-forward a few weeks and I was invited to the launch. After booking what turned out to be the most depressing hotel room in Western Europe, I headed up on the train from Cardiff to London Paddington, propelled by nervous energy and unbridled excitement at the event. I’m not great at small talk, and I’d only conversed with Dre through messages on Twitter so had no idea what to expect.

The second I walked into that venue, thought all nervousness evaporated and my trousers turned to dust – I knew it was going to be a great night. Beautiful Arcade Paradise-inspired graffiti adorned the entrance and there were tasty treats being handed around to soak up the cocktails and Jack and cokes from the open bar.

Everyone was in high spirits, and the arcade machines dotted around demanded my attention, it was the first time I played Donkey Kong with a pair of red knickers hanging off the corner of the cabinet! There were live bands performing music off of the soundtrack, high score competitions (which I entered and did NOT win, there were some seriously talented folks there!) and a press section showing off Wired Productions’ other upcoming releases such as Tin Hearts, Tiny Troopers: Global Ops, The Last Worker and Gori: Cuddly Carnage. 

There was an itinerary up on the wall, and the evening began with the Arcade Paradise soundtrack blasting through the speakers above the merriment, the experience of hearing our songs pounding through those speakers above the party was a moment I will forever cherish, and the feedback from the community and everybody involved in the game has been really cool, and it’s given the band a huge boost in terms of loving everyone enjoying our music.

As I bumbled around in a happy daze, I finally got to meet Dre, an awesome, humble, talented and excitable guy who was my guide for the evening, as I was introduced to Leo Zullo (Wired Productions’ main man) Doug Cockle (THE voice), Keiron Pepper (A man who knows his way around most instruments), Mono Memory (a fellow soundtrack-aneer), Si and Amber from Norwich’s Regen Games (who also know our mutual friends at WAVE Studios) as well as Sam and Steve from Wired Productions, and the rest of the Nosebleed team.

Whilst the evening was full of highlights, I really enjoyed the moments spent with the Nosebleeders (Dre, Gordon and Izzy) as they played through a few minutes of the focus of the night, their creation - Arcade Paradise. Asking them questions about the game, how they felt now that it was about to be in the hands of thousands around the globe, what they loved the most about development etc. it was a series of great conversations that really stuck into my memory as moments to treasure.

Naturally, after drinking a load of cocktails, and then Jack Daniels;’ when the cocktails ran out…things got slightly hazy towards the end of the night. The live music was energising, with a real rap/hip-hop vibe running through, and I remember thinking I’d seen streamer MrSausageTV in the toilets and I was about to tap him on the shoulder and ask, “Are you Mr Sausage?” when it dawned on me through the booze haze that it wouldn’t be an ideal sentence to say to a man I’ve never met -in a public lavatory.

I had a great and brief conversation with some fellow journalists who were there to cover the game, we discussed our shared memories of arcades and machines in unlikely places in our hometowns, not just record stores and pubs but chip shops and the like, which was good fun.

I also had a conversation with Gary of Wired Productions which I really wish I’d recorded as he is a wise man with a lot of important things to say, plus I got to finally meet the myth that is @WithnailMarwood

Around 1 am, it was certainly time to move on, as the festivities slowed down and the house lights came up. I wandered out into the night clutching my goody bag with a head full of booze and memories, the last thing I remember before disappearing into the night was a conversation with Nosebleed’s Gordon that had me doubled over laughing and ended with him saying the immortal words,

“Do you want to take a picture of me kicking myself in the balls?”

Good.

It was an amazing evening filled with amazing people, the raw sense of positivity and celebration was almost a physical essence, and I wish everyone involved in Arcade Paradise nothing but good things. The week following the launch of Arcade Paradise has also been full of awesome moments, such as planning gigs for the band that are further afield, catching up with people I met that night as well as getting contacted by people who want to use our music on other projects, or even have questions about lyrics etc I am always happy to talk about Recluse.

If you need me,

I’ll be lost in an Arcade Paradise.

*I feel I have to clarify something here that has caused some confusion online, completely the band’s fault! We released an album called The Quiet Hours in 2015, on which a secret track was a scratchy acoustic, be-banjoed version of the song The Quiet Hours. This was fully fleshed out into a full band rock version for our next album Lay Your Darkness Down with Me…so whilst the Quiet Hours is on The Quiet Hours, the ‘proper’ Arcade Paradise version is actually on Lay Your Darkness Down with Me – we won’t be doing this again!