Project Introduction

As a musician in the 1980s, create music and sound effects for video game releases! Meet programmers, editors, innovators, all passionate about their own projects, in the crazy decade that started the digital revolution. Make music, for real. Play games. Be rewarded. Upgrade your app, learn new features and new skills along the way.

Music Power Up is both a game and a music production application.

You will start your career as a musician in the 80s. Meet other musicians, game programmers and editors, share their excitement in the early days of microcomputing. Visit the pub, the computer fair, the electronics store. Explore programs, play games and make music from your bedroom. You will soon be hired to create music for new game releases.

Music Power Up includes a complete music studio with 4 to 8 tracks, a versatile drum box and featured-packed synthesizer. You can shape your sounds and create your melodies from scratch, or you can use pre-composed patterns, assemble your tracks and go into the details later. You can create your song in sequencer mode or in real time through the performance mode. Once you're happy with your soundtrack, submit your work - it's time to ship the game!

You will receive a magazine issue with a review of each game, along with articles about sound, music and microcomputers.

During your early career, you will create music and sound effects for 10 video game titles, inspired by retro classics. Each one of the 10 games is actually playable and once you have completed the job, you can launch them as many times as you wish. Plus, they've got the best soundtrack … since you made it!

You are very lucky to be friends with Jenny. As a self-taught programmer, she disassembled your music app and she is now adding features one at a time. You'll soon learn that this isn't the only project she's working on.

You will follow the evolution of computers, synthesizers and digital music. After starting with a limited feature set suitable for chiptune music, you will progressively unlock new features like filters, additional tracks, FM synthesis, wavetables, new modulation capabilities, sampling…

About Developer

My name is Gilles Pommereuil and I have been working mostly solo on this game, for the last 2 years. I will be joined by a game artist, Jean Haffner, starting this summer and until the release of the game.

I have previously released two games, Neuronball and Starblast, as a partner in a small game studio, Neuronality. Since 2019 I am developing a free and open source game engine, microStudio (https://microstudio.dev).

Music Power Up aims to celebrate the digital revolution of the 1980s from a European perspective. The action unfolds in England. You will make friends with a hacker from Germany, active in the demoscene, and many other characters involved in creating games, founding game publishing companies, running arcades, and developing microcomputers.