Varis aka 20-Sided Songs

AFTER PROCESSING THE LOSS OF MY LAST PERMADEATH SAVE FILE IN HOLLOW KNIGHT…

I have decided I will work on stream to get it back up. Which will be soon.

It’s also the 30-year anniversary of the Pokemon games so prepare for me to be INSUFFERABLE

Drawing of woman with fluffy red hair pulling up goggles, right arm is robotic.

I think she could fix me.

Branching Shadows (16bit) - Free Release | 20-Sided Songs Get more from 20-Sided Songs on Patreon

Speaking of Through Dark and Danger, our other free release for the new year: a 16-bit conversion of the TD&D tune Branching Shadows!

A city which two of our characters call home.
A city where shadow has encroached upon courtly elegance and natural beauty.
A city they will save.

By Steel and Stalworth Album Preview! | 20-Sided Songs Get more from 20-Sided Songs on Patreon

Whew! After getting busy/sick for all December, I'm finally able to start the new year with this album preview! As a commission album, this will release alongside usual Patreon tunes.

Much more typical Fantasy than some other stuff, but more on the bombastic side than Dark and Danger for now!

Hey, friends! I'm doing a Fall Sale for character bust art, starting at 35USD! DM me or email if interested!

It is very hard to mix horns.

It is a LITTLE hard to mix strings. It is very hard to mix horns.

(16bit) Severed Spring - Free Release | 20-Sided Songs Get more from 20-Sided Songs on Patreon

Just put out another free 16-bit(ish) release! Breaking a lot of rules though - I think this one has like double the channels of the SNES soundchip. Still, I like how it turned out!

Bit of an exploration track for a place where the wilds run... run wild. Where the trees turn troublesome. Where the-

(16bit) Carta Arcana Paradisia - Free Release | 20-Sided Songs Get more from 20-Sided Songs on Patreon

My fourth 16-bit(ish) song release is now out for free! Descending into an arcane paradise, hidden between the planes.

Figuring out the sound design was pretty fun for this one; I'm starting to wrap my head around Chipsynth SFC's excellent tools.

[ #dnd | #ttrpg | #retro #music | #gamemusic ]

It's yes, the answer is yes. I'm just making music here.

But I'm still tempted to be as authentically SNES-y as possible, even though my main focus should just be on like... listening... enjoyment.

Working on 16-bit-style music for the last couple of months, and I keep asking myself questions like... is it ETHICAL to use an EQ plugin on this track? (Made with the excellent and very accurate Chipsynth SFC)

I've also happily put 30 HOURS into hand-coding my own website, but immediately set it down for the weekend once I got to "Okay now it's time to actually write about myself."

It's DEFINITELY a good idea to set up a business where I am part of the product and I have to talk about myself a lot. 🙂‍↕️

The way I'll spend 8 hours putting Linux on an old work macbook, but spending 30 minutes on a Patreon post terrifies me.

I'm so excited. I took tomorrow off to work on music all day.

I can't wait to take music off to play Last Epoch all day.

"Video" made with FL Studio ZGameEditor Visualizer plugin.
Image by rawpixel on Freepik. Except the Majora's Mask part. That's Nintendo.

Client: Can you make a song for like, a paradise? Peaceful, but with some mystery.
Me: Sure! But what if maybe a moon is falling on it?
Client: What? No-
[ #dnd | #ttrpg | #music ]

VGVaris - Twitch Hey! I'm Varis, the composer of 20-Sided Songs! I stream composing, D&D and roleplay stuff like prep and sessions, and whatever games strike me at the time!

Not quite my usual TTRPG music thing, but going live to work on some old chiptune blitz compositions!

Spinning up new 10-minute compositions for folks who sub or cheer a few bucks :>

www.twitch.tv/vgvaris

I didn't have "switching to Bitwig" on my bingo card for the new year, but I love this software.

Coming from FL Studio, the workflow is very familiar, just without all of the tedious little things that bugged me as a composer.

...And they know it too, with their support for FL project files lol.

Maybe the fact that it doesn't feel like it came from me helps me enjoy the finished thing more lol.

Lots of artists dislike their art, but I actually really like the end result. It's the dark forest of "doing the thing" that kind of scares me.

I'm completely bewildered about where the final thing comes from, and I COULD NOT tell you the steps to get there.

My process for musical projects is pretty well-refined. The golden keys:
1. Wtf I have no idea what I'm doing.
2-55. Wow okay that was weird, let's try to fix that.
56. Oh huh this sounds pretty good how did that happen

As a beginner video editor, Davinci Resolve is just so sick until it suddenly and ruthlessly gives me an aneurism.

Back on badsite I got like 7 of these the moment I tweeted the word commission, lol

Yes and no! I put together what I can, but I like to enlist some aid from artist friends when I can as well.

I put this together for the kind of... headline album for my Patreon, but I'm enlisting the aid of the talented @lunchbauks.bsky.social to spice it up with a creature in the back.

Yeah I need to bundle and zip 5 collections of Patreon music by Monday (and I could use two more album covers for that), but my new task tracking system is all buttoned up and my BACKBURNER tasks are like 80% done!

Set up some task management in Obsidian for new year projects.

On the one hand, it's the most productive I've been on personal life stuff AND goal stuff in months.

On the other hand, I'm firmly hitting "Oh this is new procrastination and I have stuff due on Monday" territory.

And the algorithm is more interested in showing me knit art than celebrity drama and politics.

Love the article, and building soundtracks for my game.

It's REALLY satisfying for my players to say "Oh no, oh no, why is it the CREEPY dungeon music," or to hear how they get excited every time the Big Mystery music comes on. That association between music and emotion is powerful storytelling.

YouTube video by 20-Sided Songs Opulence Overgrown

Hmmmm, I guess I should post SOMETHING until my newest stuff is available.
youtu.be/B3DwQoAHlp4