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News the music for the Mario Vs Donkey Kong remake was composed by staffers at the Digipen Institute of Technology (the initial origin of NST)

Krvavi Abadas

Krvavi Abadas

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In early 2022, Lawrence Schwedler, program director for DigiPen’s audio degree programs, received a call from Nintendo that’s had him going “Wahoo!” ever since. Nintendo Software Technology (NST) told Schwedler they were remaking their 2004 Game Boy Advance (GBA) classic, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, for the Nintendo Switch. Not only that, they were wondering if Schwedler would be interested in adapting and reproducing the original game’s soundtrack, which he had created nearly two decades earlier, for the new updated version.

“I’m still pinching myself. I can’t quite believe it,” Schwedler says. “This was the opportunity of a lifetime.” When players roll credits on the game, they’ll not only find Schwedler’s name featured, but also those of 11 fellow faculty members — nearly the entirety of DigiPen’s Department of Music — enlisted through Schwedler’s sound production company to arrange, compose, engineer, and perform for the game’s updated, hi-fi soundtrack.
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article

this has gotten a bit of attention in the Nintendo First Party discussion thread, but it's worthy of getting split off on it's own.
to recap for those unaware. Nintendo Software Technology and Digipen have been directly linked since the beginning, with the founder of the latter also creating the former in 1998. and the two shared office space for several years.

the first project they ever created was a basic Noughts & Crosses/Tic Tac Toe game which was designed for the "Nintendo Gateway System" SNES terminals that were deployed at various Hotels and Airports across the US. there are also assets for a Hangman game left in the files, which was similarly made solely for the Gateway. suggesting they might have worked on all three of it's exclusive titles.
while the article unfortunately doesn't provide any further info about this nearly forgotten (Lawrence claims that the studio only made "sequels, ports, or reenvisionings of pre-existing games" prior to M vs DK) older work, it does provide some key details that further fill out the backstory.
notably the fact he joined NST back in 1999, since he's not listed in the Noughts & Crosses credits. this provides a rough timeline implying it was released around 1998-maybe early 1999.
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the article also has a reminder that he left NST back in 2012 to work at Digipen full-time, meaning he was brought back for this game (the credits label him as having his own studio, "Schwedbeast Studios, LLC") as a contractor.
 
It's so wonderful to see NST and DigiPen together again like they should be. I hope they go back (if they had stopped) recruiting graduates from DigiPen as time goes on. Clearly a fuckton of talent comes from there. Case and point; the Portal team. Criminal Nintendo let those folks slip from their fingers when Portal could've easily been an NST game on Wii or something. Oh well, hindsight and all that.
 
This is a cool kind of peak behind the curtain I feel like we don't normally get for Nintendo games. And after seeing how proud and confident they are about the soundtrack, it's definitely gonna be something I'll make a point of paying more attention to once I start playing
 
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I'm happy for them, and it's great to see this as an opportunity to also develop skills for those at DigiPen. The modern OST is pretty good, particularly when it adds a bit of flair to existing themes, like Spooky House C (though some are little over-orchestrated, like Fire Mountain).

EDIT: It's interesting to note they were approached in Early 2022. Wonder when - and for how long - this game was in development. Perhaps Nintendo sat on it for a few months when it was done? I can't imagine a project of this scale having taken any more than 1.5 - 2 years to complete.
 
Hero of Legend said:
It's so wonderful to see NST and DigiPen together again like they should be. I hope they go back (if they had stopped) recruiting graduates from DigiPen as time goes on. Clearly a fuckton of talent comes from there. Case and point; the Portal team. Criminal Nintendo let those folks slip from their fingers when Portal could've easily been an NST game on Wii or something. Oh well, hindsight and all that.
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That's not how this works. It's not how it has ever worked.
 
How cool!! I've been really impressed so far with the music in the remake. Very lively arrangements for all the tunes. I haven't played the original so can't compare, but I've loved what I've heard so far
 
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Hero of Legend said:
It's so wonderful to see NST and DigiPen together again like they should be. I hope they go back (if they had stopped) recruiting graduates from DigiPen as time goes on. Clearly a fuckton of talent comes from there. Case and point; the Portal team. Criminal Nintendo let those folks slip from their fingers when Portal could've easily been an NST game on Wii or something. Oh well, hindsight and all that.
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lol the reason portal worked so well for valve is because it was a showcase for PC hardware at the time + it was a big group effort

if the Wii were to do portal as is it would explode and Nintendo almost certainly wouldn't have greenlit that game nor would they have as many similar staff to Valve; PS3/360 had a lot of work done to make it and the sequel run nicely.

I do hope this is the start of a NST comeback though. The dark period of project hammer and endless lemming clones are finally behind them with this and F-ZERO 99
 
SeafoamGaming said:
lol the reason portal worked so well for valve is because it was a showcase for PC hardware at the time + it was a big group effort

if the Wii were to do portal as is it would explode and Nintendo almost certainly wouldn't have greenlit that game nor would they have as many similar staff to Valve; PS3/360 had a lot of work done to make it and the sequel run nicely.

I do hope this is the start of a NST comeback though. The dark period of project hammer and endless lemming clones are finally behind them with this and F-ZERO 99
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That... doesn't make sense when folks got Portal to run on an N64 and DS. Literally nothing prevented the game from working on Wii in that case.
 
buildz said:
I'm happy for them, and it's great to see this as an opportunity to also develop skills for those at DigiPen. The modern OST is pretty good, particularly when it adds a bit of flair to existing themes, like Spooky House C (though some are little over-orchestrated, like Fire Mountain).

EDIT: It's interesting to note they were approached in Early 2022. Wonder when - and for how long - this game was in development. Perhaps Nintendo sat on it for a few months when it was done? I can't imagine a project of this scale having taken any more than 1.5 - 2 years to complete.
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NST isn't very big are they? They also were the developers for F-Zero 99, so the team was already split considering how close these games are to each other.
 
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Hero of Legend said:
That... doesn't make sense when folks got Portal to run on an N64 and DS. Literally nothing prevented the game from working on Wii in that case.
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That isn't Portal. Those are Portal-like games people made that work on a Wii and a DS after being inspired by Portal, but they aren't Portal.

Also, they had no involvement from any of the Portal dev team. I shouldn't need to explain any of this, but apparently you need it.

DigiPen is a school, not a pipeline for educating specifically NST hires. That DigiPen used to be based on the same campus as NOA and NST doesn't change that.
 
Hailinel said:
That isn't Portal. Those are Portal-like games people made that work on a Wii and a DS after being inspired by Portal, but they aren't Portal.

Also, they had no involvement from any of the Portal dev team. I shouldn't need to explain any of this, but apparently you need it.

DigiPen is a school, not a pipeline for educating specifically NST hires. That DigiPen used to be based on the same campus as NOA and NST doesn't change that.
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Don't the fan versions use the same portal mechanic? How are they not Portal then?

And I recall NST literally hiring DigiPen graduates back in the day during the 90's/2000's, so if I read correctly, that's exactly what they've already done before. Why not seek talent right at your doorstep?
 
Hero of Legend said:
Don't the fan versions use the same portal mechanic? How are they not Portal then?

And I recall NST literally hiring DigiPen graduates back in the day during the 90's/2000's, so if I read correctly, that's exactly what they've already done before. Why not seek talent right at your doorstep?
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...Because the original devs didn't make those fan games? They made a PC game called Narbacular Drop as their senior project. Which they then showed off at a career fair, where a Valve dev saw it and went "holy shit, we're nabbing this." I don't think NST ever stopped hiring DigiPen graduates, but it's not like they have first dibs on everyone that comes out of the university. Valve simply saw them first and made them a good offer: "come with us, and you can flesh out and build on this concept you seem really attached to." An offer that I'm not sure NST would have given them, honestly.

Still, maybe someone at NST did see that original proof-of-concept while strolling around the campus that day and ended up kicking themselves a few years later, who knows?
 
Hero of Legend said:
Don't the fan versions use the same portal mechanic? How are they not Portal then?

And I recall NST literally hiring DigiPen graduates back in the day during the 90's/2000's, so if I read correctly, that's exactly what they've already done before. Why not seek talent right at your doorstep?
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They're fan games inspired by Portal. They are not Portal, just like I could make a Super Mario Bros. fan game that runs on the Genesis and call it Super Mario Bros. Genesis, but it wouldn't be Super Mario Bros.
 
Hailinel said:
They're fan games inspired by Portal. They are not Portal, just like I could make a Super Mario Bros. fan game that runs on the Genesis and call it Super Mario Bros. Genesis, but it wouldn't be Super Mario Bros.
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Oh okay yeah, total agreement there.
 
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