Hello. I am KIVΛ.
Over the past 3 years, I have been working under Rayark Inc. on the rhythm game title 《Cytus II》 as Sound Director, as well as music and sound effects production, together with story design and a portion of motion design. In June last year, I found myself going into different paths with the company, so I left the position as regular staff member, but continued to work with the remainder of the project until version 3.0, where the story finally reaches the finale, so did my journey and objectives for this game development journey. Having this opportunity, I would like to share some of my thoughts regarding this epilogue.
Since I joined this project, the focus of design has always been the joint experience of story and music. With the story reaching the end, I would like to potrait the overall ambient to be more film-like, which players might experience the tension of the climax through music. Having such thoughts, I was determined to unify the music genre in 3.0 as film-score like, blending in motifs from song lineup of each and every game character. I am totally aware that level design for symphonic music is difficult, especially in emphasizing the groove like how it was usually done in electronic music. I want to thank all level designers for their hard work in overcoming such challenges.
The epic vibe from combining contemporary electronic and symphonic music is something that I always wanted to attempt for, and in my previous works there has been appearance of such sound elements, but by using only virtual instruments it might just not reaching my expected result. I want to thank Rayark for being so generous to provide all the support, making the symphonic recording come true.
Having such opportunity, I went for two of my friends who I have never work together with: Shao-ting Sun, a recording engineer in Carnegie NYC; Chamber Chu, a symphonic music producer. They have been my game peers for quite a while, but I have always been admiring their aesthetics and abilities in sound design, and these two grandmasters have definitely outperformed themselves. I spent a whole week staying with Chamber for the arrangement of symphonic parts, which was a very precious experience in music creation. The recording team that Sun brought together, as well as the professional performers that participated in the recording session, is by no doubt astonishing. Recalling that we rushed for the full score of all the pieces until the very morning of the recording session (our sincere apologies), but it took no more than 5 takes for all sections to get the desired outcome. Absolutely fascinataing.
It is also worth mentioning that the entire team of roughly 60 were all Taiwanese. I guess we might have made another achievement in the history of Taiwanese game music production. I am so honoured to have the opportunity in leading such a groundbreaking project, together with all the grandmasters.
3 years isn't that long, but it is more than one out of ten for my life. There were other creation experience that were fun but painful, and many achievements were unlocked when I worked in this company. Standing on the stage in front of the screaming crowd, working with Japanese voice actors that I admired for so long, having so many supporters of my work, all these could never be possible without Rayark. Even I left the company going for different paths, I still wish for the very best of this company to become a even better one.
It is a pity that I can no longer work together with the fantastic members of Team Cytus. Perhaps they are fed up with my twisted personality and being stubborn for what I wanted to create. I would like to thank you all for your understanding and forgiveness. Each of you have the profession and passion, and I found myself so tiny and unintellegent working with all of you, and I have learned a lot over the years. I wish all of you could push the creative industry in Taiwan even further forward. I am returning as a mere artist, working hard on what I could. No matter how harsh life is, I am still working on it, as this is the only thing I am capable to do.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all of you players that have supported this game. Without you, this could never happen. No matter to me, to the Team and to the players, 《Cytus II》 might not be the perfect piece of game, we might have different imaginations on the enormous world settings, characters or even the game design itself. What in common was we spent 3 years to experience the creation and playing process. It is the story and music that linked us together. I believe this is the charisma of the game. I wish you are all loving this game, loving the characters, and loving the time that we created together.
There are so many more to thank, to apologize, the satisfaction and sorrows, and they are all included in this ending music. It is time for me to step down.
Thank you, and goodbye.
