Game info: Steam
Listening: Bandcamp
Info
Here’s a tricksy puzzle game about trying to make it through a maze where picking up an item by walking into it will modify your movement ability in the direction you just moved, causing you to jump two spaces instead of one or pull items as you move, stuff like that. The soundtrack is procedurally generated as you play, randomly swapping between different predefined groups of layers according to some higher-level arrangement patterns, allowing the tracks to randomly metamorphose over a long session of thonking while also structurally enforcing some ebb and flow. There’s also a little bit of dynamicness in some parts being added when certain special abilities are active.
The musical style is a mix of trip hop and ambient, tending one way or the other depending on which layers are active at the moment. It’s got a little bit of a grungier sound than you might expect from a puzzle game like it with painted visuals, having not just chunky, clanky drumloops but also electronic effects like stuttery tremolo, pitch bending, and tape noise for extra grittiness. I wouldn’t say it’s exceedingly unconventional because it’s still got a chill, repetitive groove and people deploy that in puzzle games all the time, but I definitely do appreciate it having the bit of an edge that it does. Honestly, I just like it when modern puzzle game soundtracks go in a different direction than “comfortable and unobtrusive ambient music.” You have the power to put experimental IDM in puzzle games and no one can stop you! (Oh yeah, we did that in Charge Cycles, didn’t we…)
Anyway, getting back to this soundtrack, I thought it was pretty alright! It doesn’t ever get super weird or complex, but there is a little bit of weirdness, a little bit of rhythmic play, a little bit of minimalist riffing, just some nice things to keep the brain occupied.
Recommended tracks:
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“Horizon’s Fire” is the bendiest, meltingest track in the game
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“Alluvium” brings in a polymetric layer for a bit at 1:35
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