Life is a Gift

Post #14: A new trailer and A new song!

Hi All!

This is post #14 for Dancing with Ghosts. The Kickstarter is almost 70% there, with about 10 days to go. Thank you again for all of your support!

For those of you already backing, you get the updates so you’ve probably already seen the new trailer. I thought I’d share it here too, for those of you that haven’t seen it. Seeing this reminds me that making a trailer is really a story-telling craft in and of itself. The fellow that did this for me, Wonnakorn Thongjam (I spelled it right this time!) did a great job. It really focuses on the relationship of the two main characters, which is the heart of the story and the game. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Also I have some fun news and something fun to share with you. I’ve mentioned before that one of my favorite singers, the talented Genevieve Goings from Choo Choo Soul is singing songs, as Mai, for the game. I’ve shared a few of these with you already in these Substack posts. I’ve also mentioned that I have been in contact with Conkarah, my all-time favorite reggae singer, who helped me get through some tough times with his positive songs. I recently spoke with him and told him about having him as a stretch goal for the Kickstarter. He is such an incredibly gracious and good-hearted guy, he said “Naw, I’ll just go ahead and sing your song for you… and he did!” In just a few days he sang a song I wrote for the game. Isn’t that wild? Of course, if I can generate enough from the Kickstarter I still want to send a thank you to this wonderfully generous guy.

This song is one that is going to happen towards the end of the game. There is a story thread where Mai really likes this guy Dee, who is half Jamaican (His mom Litia is Jamaican), but Mai is too shy, and awkward, to bring herself to talk to him. In true Manga-K-Drama-J-Drama fashion, Mai’s ghost-friend Pim, pushes her into opening up and getting to know Dee. As it happens Dee has a love of reggae-island music because of his mom’s influence.

There is a lot more to this story thread but I don’t want to ruin for people. Better if you experience the story in the game. There comes a point in the game when Mai and Dee make a new song together and Dee plays his guitar while Mai (and Pim) dance. I wrote a song for this, and Conkarah and Genevieve are going to both be singing it as a duet. Conkarah sang his part of the song and I thought I might share that with you.

The song is called Life is a Gift. You will notice that is has a strong reggae vibe, because that’s part of Dee’s story, as we just described. I will probably save the final duet version for the game, but I thought you might enjoy hearing this first pass with just Conkarah. The song is not mastered yet, which means the levels haven’t been balanced. It’s rough in that way, but perhaps what’s really important is the spirit of the song.

Please listen to the words. The words of this particular song, express, more that anything else, the one key idea I hope people will take away from Dancing with Ghosts. It’s the lesson I learned through all of my own personal hardship.

Grasp every moment of life.

Don’t wait.

Everyday that passes will never come again.

Appreciate and celebrate it all.

Thank you again to everyone for helping me make this all happen. If you have any questions for me, or any comments, don’t hesitate to either leave them here, or reach out to me via email. (greg@humanaturestudios.com).

Life truly is a gift.