Indie Games

Game Music, Indie Music

CrossCode Original Game Soundtrack Now Available

September 21, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on CrossCode Original Game Soundtrack Now Available Share this

The hype train of retro-inspired games keeps chugging along and doing quite well for itself. The 2D Action RPG CrossCode by Radical Fish games has only been out a day and is already receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews from gamers and review outlets alike. You can now also nab the game’s soundtrack on several platforms to enjoy offline too!

The CrossCode Original Game Soundtrack was composed by German indie artist Deniz Akbulut (that “Rice Ball” the devs refer to…yes actually) and features a huge repertoire of 60+ original tracks that themselves harken back to the early days of 16-bit gaming on the SNES and beyond.

I started writing the the soundtrack way back when I was graduating from high school. Since then, I worked on it on the side while I attended university. CrossCode has always been part of my life, and I always tried to push myself to my limits to go out of my comfort zone. I hope you all have a great time with CrossCode and enjoy its music! – Deniz Akbulut, Composer

<a href="http://interovgm.com/album/crosscode-original-game-soundtrack">CrossCode (Original Game Soundtrack) by Deniz Akbulut</a>

<a href="http://interovgm.com/album/crosscode-original-game-soundtrack">CrossCode (Original Game Soundtrack) by Deniz Akbulut</a>

With well over two hours of music to enjoy, the CrossCode OST is well worth the price of purchase. You can pick it up on Bandcamp, iTunes and Google Play or just nip over to Spotify and stream it for your Friday workday enjoyment.
Game Music, Indie Music

Soundtrack Released to Horror-Adventure Game Whispering Willows

January 10, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Soundtrack Released to Horror-Adventure Game Whispering Willows Share this

Back in 2014, Night Light Interactive and Akupara Games released an indie horror-adventure title on Steam called Whispering Willows. It was a beautiful little 2D games with a girl named Elena who spoke to the spirits of the dead and looking for her missing father and received favorable reviews from players. The music of the game is appropriately eerie and morose and composer Steve Goldshein makes use of piano and synth sounds to help immerse the player into the game’s macabre setting.

Now, over 3 years after the game itself was released, the official soundtrack for Whispering Willows has been released by Akapara Games and Materia Collective.

<a href="http://akuparagames.bandcamp.com/album/whispering-willows-original-game-soundtrack">Whispering Willows (Original Game Soundtrack) by Steve Goldshein</a>

<a href="http://akuparagames.bandcamp.com/album/whispering-willows-original-game-soundtrack">Whispering Willows (Original Game Soundtrack) by Steve Goldshein</a>

The album contains 12 tracks (one of which is a dance remix) and is currently available on Bandcamp, iTunes and several other platforms.
Game Music, Indie Music

Tobey Evans’ “Behold The Kickmen” OST Now Available

August 2, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Tobey Evans’ “Behold The Kickmen” OST Now Available Share this

Fans of fun sports-related ridiculousness along the lines of Rocket League can probably appreciate the silly semi-competitive nature of a game like Behold the Kickmen. Released last month to Steam, the game is a soccer (ie. football) simulation game that in no way takes itself seriously and allows the character to enjoy the game more casually with it’s goofy charm.

The game’s soundtrack is equally as goofy, though in a way that works with the game. Composer by Tobey Evans (The Swindle), the music for Behold the Kickmen features fast-paced and trippy combinations between dubstep, techno and chiptune mashups that help reinforce the game’s departure from traditional soccer/football games.

<a href="http://tobeyevans.bandcamp.com/album/behold-the-kickmen-ost">Behold The Kickmen OST by Tobey Evans</a>

“The game is not a serious depiction of the sport. Similarly, the music is a silly (and sometimes wonky) take on some fairly established Electronic genres. It’s been a really fun project to be involved with.” – Tobey Evans, Composer

<a href="http://tobeyevans.bandcamp.com/album/behold-the-kickmen-ost">Behold The Kickmen OST by Tobey Evans</a>

The album features 14 tracks and is currently available on Evans’ Bandcamp for about $4 American.
Game Music

Kamil Orman-Janowski Talks Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath OST

July 6, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Kamil Orman-Janowski Talks Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath OST Share this

Composer Kamil Orman-Janowski (Warplane Legends, Beyond Space and Isleron: The Rending) has expanded upon his composing for indie online RPG game Path of Exile with the new expansion, The Fall of Oriath.

The newest expansion will feature six new acts in total. Orman-Janowski relates to the new music in a developer diary featured on the Path of Exile website.

When it comes to the sheer amount of work and attention to detail, The Fall of Oriath takes Path of Exile’s music and composition to another level. The fifth act is also the first act for which the soundtrack was composed as a complete “package”, with tracks notably relating to each other.

Path of Exile was released in 2013 free-to-play on Steam by Grinding Gear Games and follows a similar style as that of the Diablo games. Orman-Janowski was one of several composers working on the game’s music throughout the first four acts of the game, with the new expansion being worked on by him alone.

With Path of Exile we are also lucky in that we can keep on improving the music. Instead of having one deadline for finishing the game, and then moving on to the next game like most game companies would, we can continually expand on and improve old content. Path of Exile’s music is something that is constantly evolving and expanding, not only with each major expansion, but sometimes in smaller patches as well. The small and often-seen patch note, “Incrementally improved effects, animations, sounds and world areas” sometimes hides very big musical changes.

The six new acts introduced in The Fall of Oriath is currently available for pre-purchase with a beta playable. The full release will be launched later this month. You can also check out more by Kamil Orman-Janowski on his website and preview more tracks from the Path of Exile expansion on his Soundcloud.
Game Music, Indie Music

Gamer’s Edition brings Stardew Valley to Vinyl on June 28th

June 27, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Gamer’s Edition brings Stardew Valley to Vinyl on June 28th Share this

The well loved farm-life simulator from 2016, Stardew Valley, will be receiving its very own 2-LP vinyl edition on June 28th. Produced by Gamer’s Edition, the UK-based gaming goods shop that brought us the vinyl of Rogue Legacy, the Stardew Valley package will include 2 disks on thick, triple-striped vinyl with inner sleeves and a gatefold jacket with art from Kari Fry. The full Stardew soundtrack contains 70 songs but for this vinyl pressing composer (and one-man creator of the entire game) Eric Barone has chosen 36 of his favorite pieces which have been mastered for vinyl by JMJ45 Studio.

If you’re interested you might want to keep an eye on the product page though, only 600 copies are being sold initially with no guarantee of a second run after they’re gone. The album will be sold for £29.99 (approximately $38 USD) starting Wednesday, June 28th. And if all this has you simply interested in hearing what Stardew Valley sounds like you can check out a sampling of tracks on the game’s Soundcloud page.
Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

Survival Horror Sounds: Overlooker Original Soundtrack (Review)

July 22, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Survival Horror Sounds: Overlooker Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this

Overlooker is a Gameboy Color inspired Survival Horror game created by Connor O.R.T. Linning in just under 22 days. He supplied OSV with a review copy of the soundtrack he created for the game which he describes as a top down 2D game combining elements from action and horror genres. His goal was to keep the game as minimal as possible and used it as the basis to learn about video game development. He also wrote the music for the game which I took the time to listen to this week.

The game is free to download and although I didn’t play it, I spent some time this week listening to the music. Read on to hear my thoughts on the soundtrack to Overlooker.

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Game Music, Indie Music

Strategy RPG Kenshi Soundtrack Available Now

May 17, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Strategy RPG Kenshi Soundtrack Available Now Share this

The soundtrack for the new indie RPG strategy sandbox game Kenshi has now dropped for your listening pleasure!

Available on Steam in early access, Kenshi is a free-roaming RPG with squad-based combat and several class types for you to group up and roam the open-world environment with your team. The soundtrack of the game is equally diverse, being composed by Kole Hicks (Pixel Privateers) and featuring some unique style in its composition.

The music system in Kenshi has been designed in such a way, that as you play through the game the engine randomly selects from a handful of different musical elements to create new compositional excerpts. It is this ambient approach and “non-player interactivity” of the music that reinforces Kenshi’s indifferent tone. – Kenshi Bandcamp Page

The music does indeed seem random in its style, but it’s not jarring or off-putting as one might think. Although the title might make one think the music would be Asian-inspired, rest assured that the soundtrack has a good blend of several styles, including a title that actually makes me think a little bit of Diablo‘s “Tristram”, which is never a bad thing.

The Kenshi soundtrack is available for purchase on Bandcamp and Loudr.fm for $5.00.