Quick little update on the status of Volume 2! We're very close to it being done. I have exactly one more custom to do, and a chart from someone else I was going to port, he got in touch to say he's redoing it. I also have to assemble the bonus video on the making of the shapeshifting final song I wrote for the game, "Umwelt", but I've already got it shot, so that's no big deal. To say I won't be spending December rushing to get shit in order for it like last year is a huge relief.
Late last month, I recorded some playthrough demos of two of the songs on the disc, Jonathan Coulton's "Ikea" and the classic Frets on Fire pack-in song "This Week I've Been Mostly Playing Guitar" by Tommi Inkila as promo if you haven't seen those. The handcams for them are pretty grainy, but they do the job and I've been watching 'em every few days myself.
I've spent the last 24 hours doing the last needed remix of "Umwelt" (which involves Mario Paint and is actually peak :craig:) and also checking and tweaking mixes of other customs, making sure stuff slams exactly as I intend it to. Mixing for Guitar Hero II is hard—songs sound funny in-game when they're too quiet, and the SPU-2 in the PS2 behaves funny, but I've learned how to tame it over time. No need to crank the sound effects down like on basically every other GH2 disc I've seen, especially the Onyx ones.
One thing I was imparting onto Caby last night is that Volume 0, 1, and 2 are all part of this package deal in my head. In the same way I've had my plans for sites and OCs and stuff sorted for years now, there's been many times at various jobs I've had where I've imagined the way these songs would eventually play in marfGH. I would hear the "piano exit" of "Layla" and imagine how it would be to play. I would listen to the songs I picked out for Volume 2 like "Chivaree" and fantasize about charting it.
These discs are all going to be emblematic of a very specific, productive time in my life where I finally clinched all of my rhythm gaming ambitions, both playing them and making stuff for them. You've been getting a peek into my head and things that I've wanted to make and play for a long time now. That alone is special, let alone how great it's all come out or that "Umwelt" is a custom with a feature that has literally never been done before.
The big release will be Christmas 2026 no matter how soon it gets finished, but close friends will get testing copies as soon as the setlist is playable end-to-end. That could be you! Get in touch if you wanna try it when it's ready. Go read about mathematically tiering the song difficulties for each disc in the meantime.
