Heroes! Welcome to a new behind-the-scenes devblog. ⚔️
I’m Katelyn Isaacson, the composer behind the music of Monsters are Coming!
As you've probably guessed from my role, today's blog is all about the game's music. Audio has its own unique challenges, and every piece has been carefully crafted to complement the gameplay and chaotic nature of Monsters are Coming!, helping bring every run to life.
We've also seen plenty of players curious about how we create the soundtrack from scratch, so today we'd like to take you behind the scenes. We'll walk you through our creative process, explain how the audio team collaborates with the rest of the team, and share some of the decisions that helped shape the game’s unique sound!
As with many projects, this one started with musical references. The team wasn't tied to a specific musical genre, but wanted to emphasize an emotional feeling: determination! We're a little dude in a big, scary world, but there's no time to think. We just have to put our head down and go! We listened to genres from metal to sung army marches, all of the pieces with that forward momentum, that constant motion.
It took several musical sketches and rounds of feedback to get to the music you hear in the game today. I went back into the spiderweb-crusted old files on my computer to find the first quick sketch I wrote in a Nuendo project aptly titled Music_Default (warning, terrible MIDI trumpet incoming). We decided the music needed to be darker, heavier on percussion and bass—this was too light; it didn't have a sense of struggle in it! So I went off, focusing on hard-hitting percussion and loud bass to write the music you hear in the Road of Elderwood today.
[dynamiclink href="https://youtu.be/geUBxdhAIfY"]
When it comes to video game music, implementation and systems design make a big difference in how a composer might approach writing a piece of music. I was interested in using information from what was happening in the game to affect the music, rather than having something loop continuously no matter what. We experimented with several different ideas, one being the number of enemies on screen.
Wouldn't it be cool if after a certain number of enemies were on screen, the music changed to be more dramatic? In theory, yes; in practice, it could lead to very odd and non-musical-sounding changes, as things can change very fast and quite often in a fast-paced game like Monsters are Coming! I did manage to use the number of enemies on screen during the intro section of the Road of Elderwood music. From 0-7 enemies, there's a low-anxiety chill loop; then from 8-15 the percussion picks up, and starting at 16 enemies we go into a short interlude before the music really takes off.
In terms of music implementation, each biome has its own music made of different loops that can play in various orders, with different instruments coming in and out, all programmed in FMOD, the program we use at Ludogram for putting audio in our games. Here's a screenshot of a section of the Road of Ice music, where part 1 can go either into a duple or triple version of part 2. The duple version might go into a key change or might not, but if it does, it'll then go into either part 3 or into the triple version of part 2!
Each biome is also split into four parts, with a Refuge in between each part. When you head into the second part after resting at the first refuge, you'll notice a new layer of percussion has been added to the music. Start playing part 3, and an additional synth layer will play (always the first time, and then subsequent times it might play or it might not). The “Tronc” I wrote in the track names is short for “tronçon”—after living in France for 7 years, I've become quite the expert in Frenglish!
Part 4 is the biome's boss, which has its own track using much of the same instrumentation as the biome's regular music, plus some additional instruments to make it feel more epic (these tended to be strings and brass). Every biome also has specific music for Refuge Arenas that uses musical motifs and instrumentation from the biome's regular music to keep everything musically consistent. Fun fact: the Arena's “real” action music will only start once you step into the circle and enemies start spawning. If you hang out in the Arena but outside of the circle, you'll hear a more chill version of it!
I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about the music of Monsters are Coming! I had a great time composing, recording, and implementing the music in the game, and I hope you have a great time playing it!
