First Listen: The Music of Let's Build a Dungeon
Hello from Springloaded!
We're currently hard at work implementing feedback from our run of events over the past few months, and can't wait to share more about that with you soon.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365790/Lets_Build_a_Dungeon/
In the meantime... and inspired by a question from community member Ma over on Discord, we're here to share a closer look at the music you can expect to hear in Let's Build a Dungeon. Thanks for all the questions we've been getting, it means a lot. We're going to try and share as much as we can throughout development so please feel free to leave any questions below!
Keep reading for a link to the track previews and a behind the scenes look at the music production for our multi-layered management sim.
Handing you over to our Game Director, studio founder and music maestro James Barnard to share a deep dive into what he's got planned, including an exclusive preview of 10 tracks taken from various parts of Let's Build a Dungeon.
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Hey, James here. Thanks for sharing your support for Let's Build a Dungeon. It might not initially sound exciting to write about music, but I'm very excited to talk about it and share some track previews with you.
In my life before making games, I played music for a job - a job that didn’t pay me anything. Moving into making indie games was almost the same deal... but thanks to our last game Let’s Build a Zoo, we can actually pay ourselves!
Let’s Build a Dungeon is like many things in one, so it stands to reason that the music should reflect and reinforce that. Each portion of the game has a slightly different focus and I want you to know where you are in the game simply by listening to the music.
So, let's get started! We have 3 main musical sections in-game: Building, Workbench (desktop) and Gameplay.
[h2]BUILDING[/h2]
When we first started developing Let's Build a Dungeon I tried out some fantasy music for this segment, but it sounded a bit annoying so I quickly gave up and tried something else. I listened to the Oblivion soundtrack a lot, and really love how quiet it is. This influenced me a bit as I think the building portion of the game should be quite relaxing and meditative, and having this be as relaxing as possible helps bring contrast to the other parts of the game. There is a lot of harp, piano, and synths that make up this part of the game's soundtrack.
[h2]BUILDING (DUNGEONS)[/h2]
As a subtle switch when you are inside a dungeon, you will hear a different set of music. It's similar, but generally more atmospheric, and less emotive. It's intended to shift the mood to something a little bit more tense/scary... as the dungeons are where all the fighting goes on. Also - if you are playing the game for hours on end and focusing on building its good to have an alternate mood to keep things feeling a bit more interesting.
[h2]WORKBENCH (DESKTOP)[/h2]
In the workbench, you manage your game studio and engage in the simulation of “running a business”. For this desktop-style gameplay I wanted something radically different. Using a computer for business is about as Non-Fun-Video-Game as you can get, so I wanted to contrast the traditionally corporate nature of it all with some weirdly awkward electronic music.
I play a lot with bar lengths and awkward endings to the tracks to just make everything feel more quirky while you are on the desktop. It’s my attempt to make it all more entertaining and odd. There are also a lot of beeps and square waves to make it sound as mechanical as possible.
The tracks do have quite a bit of variation, so it's hard to pick one that exemplifies the above without it just sounding too weird! Please enjoy the preview tracks created by fictional band “Work Bench”.
[h2]PLAY MODE[/h2]
For Play Mode, when you enter your own game world to play what you designed, we want it to feel like an old game and starkly different from everything else. I decided to make all of the music using classic console emulators, and mostly it's made with one synth that emulates the NES/Famicom. The drums are samples that are “bit crushed” to be in line with the kind of thing you could have done on the SNES/Super Famicom. I do cheat a lot, because the original NES could only support 5 simultaneous voices (Max of 5 sounds or notes at one time). Some of these tracks would have required 20 NES consoles running in parallel to be able to actually play! You might recognise the track 'The Skulls of our Deadlines' from our very first announcement trailer.
[h2]PLAY MODE (DUNGEONS)[/h2]
In the overworld we currently have a lot of very happy action packed tracks, and the dungeon actually gets a lot moodier. I think I need some more relaxing chip tracks to play when you are just walking around the town and stuff, so I will keep on writing more and more music!
[h2]FINAL NOTE[/h2]
As you know, in Let's Build a Dungeon you can make your own games, and we will talk more about how that ties in with music at a later date. But for now, please enjoy a sample of 10 preview tracks from across all three segments of the game. We'd love to know which one is your favourite!
We're currently hard at work implementing feedback from our run of events over the past few months, and can't wait to share more about that with you soon.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365790/Lets_Build_a_Dungeon/
In the meantime... and inspired by a question from community member Ma over on Discord, we're here to share a closer look at the music you can expect to hear in Let's Build a Dungeon. Thanks for all the questions we've been getting, it means a lot. We're going to try and share as much as we can throughout development so please feel free to leave any questions below!
Keep reading for a link to the track previews and a behind the scenes look at the music production for our multi-layered management sim.
Handing you over to our Game Director, studio founder and music maestro James Barnard to share a deep dive into what he's got planned, including an exclusive preview of 10 tracks taken from various parts of Let's Build a Dungeon.
---------
Hey, James here. Thanks for sharing your support for Let's Build a Dungeon. It might not initially sound exciting to write about music, but I'm very excited to talk about it and share some track previews with you.
In my life before making games, I played music for a job - a job that didn’t pay me anything. Moving into making indie games was almost the same deal... but thanks to our last game Let’s Build a Zoo, we can actually pay ourselves!
Let’s Build a Dungeon is like many things in one, so it stands to reason that the music should reflect and reinforce that. Each portion of the game has a slightly different focus and I want you to know where you are in the game simply by listening to the music.
So, let's get started! We have 3 main musical sections in-game: Building, Workbench (desktop) and Gameplay.
[h2]BUILDING[/h2]
When we first started developing Let's Build a Dungeon I tried out some fantasy music for this segment, but it sounded a bit annoying so I quickly gave up and tried something else. I listened to the Oblivion soundtrack a lot, and really love how quiet it is. This influenced me a bit as I think the building portion of the game should be quite relaxing and meditative, and having this be as relaxing as possible helps bring contrast to the other parts of the game. There is a lot of harp, piano, and synths that make up this part of the game's soundtrack.
[h2]BUILDING (DUNGEONS)[/h2]
As a subtle switch when you are inside a dungeon, you will hear a different set of music. It's similar, but generally more atmospheric, and less emotive. It's intended to shift the mood to something a little bit more tense/scary... as the dungeons are where all the fighting goes on. Also - if you are playing the game for hours on end and focusing on building its good to have an alternate mood to keep things feeling a bit more interesting.
[h2]WORKBENCH (DESKTOP)[/h2]
In the workbench, you manage your game studio and engage in the simulation of “running a business”. For this desktop-style gameplay I wanted something radically different. Using a computer for business is about as Non-Fun-Video-Game as you can get, so I wanted to contrast the traditionally corporate nature of it all with some weirdly awkward electronic music.
I play a lot with bar lengths and awkward endings to the tracks to just make everything feel more quirky while you are on the desktop. It’s my attempt to make it all more entertaining and odd. There are also a lot of beeps and square waves to make it sound as mechanical as possible.
The tracks do have quite a bit of variation, so it's hard to pick one that exemplifies the above without it just sounding too weird! Please enjoy the preview tracks created by fictional band “Work Bench”.
[h2]PLAY MODE[/h2]
For Play Mode, when you enter your own game world to play what you designed, we want it to feel like an old game and starkly different from everything else. I decided to make all of the music using classic console emulators, and mostly it's made with one synth that emulates the NES/Famicom. The drums are samples that are “bit crushed” to be in line with the kind of thing you could have done on the SNES/Super Famicom. I do cheat a lot, because the original NES could only support 5 simultaneous voices (Max of 5 sounds or notes at one time). Some of these tracks would have required 20 NES consoles running in parallel to be able to actually play! You might recognise the track 'The Skulls of our Deadlines' from our very first announcement trailer.
[h2]PLAY MODE (DUNGEONS)[/h2]
In the overworld we currently have a lot of very happy action packed tracks, and the dungeon actually gets a lot moodier. I think I need some more relaxing chip tracks to play when you are just walking around the town and stuff, so I will keep on writing more and more music!
[h2]FINAL NOTE[/h2]
As you know, in Let's Build a Dungeon you can make your own games, and we will talk more about how that ties in with music at a later date. But for now, please enjoy a sample of 10 preview tracks from across all three segments of the game. We'd love to know which one is your favourite!