Backfirewall_ - The Music And Audio Design [Interview]

Backfirewall_ is a crazy escapade through a bustling microcosm. As the game is set inside a smartphone, the technological theme accompanies us all the way and is reflected in the music.

Greg Terlikowski and DJ Teho talk about the soundtrack’s brief story, their work on the project, and inspirations. In addition, we spoke with Max Raymond from the dev team about the game’s audio and sound design. Dig into the exciting tale of melodies with the soundtrack, available online on music streaming platforms, resounding in your headphones.

[h3]DJ Teho[/h3]

Teho is an electronic music producer, composer, and label owner, in charge of music for the game. He joined the team in 2020, when Julia Jean, co-founder of Naraven Games and writer for the title (creative director), contacted him. “It was the perfect timing because with the pandemic all my gigs were canceled, so I had time to produce music for Backfirewall_,” says Teho.

[h3]Greg Terlikowski[/h3]

Greg works as a musician, composer, and sound creator. For Backfirewall_, he made musical creations and ambients and built the soundscape. “I had already worked with Julia on the music for the team’s previous game. She asked me to be a part of this one too, and I immediately accepted,” he says.

[h3]Max Raymond[/h3]

For Max, it was his first time working on a video game. He normally works on movie sets as an assistant camera, unrelated to the video game industry, but jumped in when the opportunity appeared.
“It turned out I became the Swiss Army knife of the team, doing a bit of everything, but I’m mainly responsible for any audio in Backfirewall_,” he says. “I did the sound design, placed everything in the game, and programmed ambiences so that Greg and Teho’s work would be on point.”

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[h2]Music in Backfirewall_[/h2]



All right, music. It’s an extremely important element that allows you to feel the game even deeper, to merge with the story, and to sympathize with the emotions of the characters. We talked to Teho and Greg about this part.

[h4]Q: What is the music style in Backfirewall_?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5]It’s hard to put a name on the music because what I’ve done is pretty eclectic, some tracks are techno, some are downtempo/electronic, some are melodic house. Let’s just say it’s electronic music :)

[h5]Greg:[/h5] Indeed, it’s difficult to say. Teho and I worked differently, my approach to this score was: “How does a cell phone sound from the inside?” and to translate that into music.

Electrical connections and buzzing functions were a big part of the creation process, characters’ themes were also important. My part had to be both present and very discreet to let the player focus on essential tasks and gameplay, forgettable and distinct at the same time.

[h4]Q: What are your inspirations for the soundtrack?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5] When Naraven Games asked me to make the music for the game, it was something pretty unexpected for me, mostly because I never did that before. So on my side, I tried to not be inspired so much by other things and kept the focus on the game’s story to produce something new and different.

[h5]Greg:[/h5] Once again I put myself in the right mood. I just took my phone, opened my music app, and started listening to tracks randomly. Like everyone else, I have quite crappy music on my list I’m ashamed of (hopefully some good stuff too :) ), but I think it is representative and it gave me a starting point to work on “how a cell phone should sound”.

[h4]Q: What emotions would you like the music to induce in players while they’re playing the game?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5] A lot of them! It depends on the story, actually. Greg and I tried to make the music fit the scenario. Sometimes the music has to be stressful, sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, etc.

[h5]Greg:[/h5] From the beginning it was clear that emotions would evolve throughout the game, going from naivety to engagement. It was important to support this dynamic through music, evolving with the characters and environments. I think the most important thing in this score was to travel between different feelings, so I would say the entire score is built on “mind travel”.

[h4]Q: What was the elevator pitch of the game, the soundscape the developers were looking for?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5] Naraven Games was looking for a pretty serious soundscape, with a lot of humor but not cheesy. At the same time, they needed a theme all around the game, so Greg composed a few things that we both used in our tracks to have a common thread in the story.

[h4]Q: Did you use any special tools or instruments to create the tracks, apart from the traditional methods of an electronic music producer’s work?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5] Not really, because when we started to discuss the game, Naraven told me to be myself. They gave me this opportunity to make the music for Backfirewall_ mainly because they like my music, so using my “classic” tools was the way to be more confident in my process.

[h5]Greg:[/h5] Personally, I’m not really into electronic music, so it was a good balance between Teho’s part and my own. I used many sound field recordings smashed up through different kinds of FX, especially for backgrounds; real instruments, such as the bass, guitars, piano, and different kinds of percussions, to name a few.

I was free to find the way I wanted to work, so I had fun mixing up reality and synthesis. The goal was to stay coherent in the process. Still, it was necessary to keep the budget in mind. The choir and orchestra parts were composed using different sound banks, thankfully, the technology has well evolved at this point.

[h4]Q: How would you describe composing for a game compared to your everyday work?[/h4]

[h5]Teho:[/h5] It’s really different for me! I had more freedom in my composing process and tried a lot of new things I never did or rarely do. This experience was pretty new to me, but I loved it!

[h5]Greg:[/h5] Backfirewall_ has the particularity of being non-linear, you must always keep in mind that the player is proactive. They will make choices that will influence the game and therefore the music too. The way to implement music in the game is a very important factor—you must keep this in mind as a composer. Your composition will likely be different in the game than on paper; you don’t have the control and need to trust the programmers. In that way, yes, it definitely is very different from my usual work.

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[h2]Sound design in Backfirewall_[/h2]



A soundtrack is only part of a game—the sounds are the icing on the cake. We often don't pay much attention to them, although they deepen our experience as an integral part of any game. Although it’s tedious and laborious work, it can bring a lot of joy to the creator. We asked Max about his work on this task.

[h4]Q: Max, what was your process for creating sound effects for Backfirewall_?[/h4]

[h5]Max:[/h5] I mainly used sound banks because of time and money. All the voice-overs were coming from different actresses and actors via different types of microphones and devices. It was tricky to get all the VOs at the same level of quality. But it did work out in the end.

[h4]Q: Which sound design software did you use?[/h4]

[h5]Max:[/h5] I used Logic Pro for DAW (digital audio workstation) and FMOD Studio for programming and integration in Unity.

[h4]Q: What do you think is the most important and unique aspect of sound design in Backfirewall_?[/h4]

[h5]Max:[/h5] The fact that we had to create what it’s like to be inside a phone, a unique sound experience.

[h4]Q: How do you go about selecting the right sounds for a scene, location in the game?[/h4]

[h5]Max:[/h5] By discussing the general mood of the scene with Julia (creative director
and co-founder of Naraven Games), then trying it out on my side, discussing it with Greg, and finally compiling all the pieces together.

[h4]Q: What is the element of the sound design in Backfirewall_ that you are most happy about?[/h4]

[h5]Max:[/h5] The fact that I started from scratch, knowing nothing about creation, programming, and implementation in a game engine.

We hope that the music and sounds in the game reached you like the Backfirewall_ team intended and that they made your experience more engaging!

[h3]Find the soundtrack here:[/h3]
Spotify: Here YouTube: Here Apple Music: Here Deezer: Here Amazon: Here

[h3]Artist's links:[/h3]
DJ Teho’s website Greg Terlikowski’s profile page

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