#8 Composing the music

Exographer’s music was scored by Yann van der Cruyssen, author of the Stray and Seasons after Fall soundtracks, among others.

Yann confesses that producing a soundtrack for a game with retro graphics is always a tricky business. The sound has to be neither too old school nor too modern. In fact, this isn’t the first time Yann has worked on this kind of game. Over the years, he has accumulated a number of tools to meet this goal. For Exographer, he used a mixture of FM synthesizers, emulations of old machines, wavetables from retro games and, sometimes, more HiFi samples passed through effects to degrade them.

Among the 22 tracks produced, there are several recurring themes or patterns:

Yann first wrote the main theme, The Natitan Academy, with its chorus that worked very well on piano but took a long time to adapt in retro mode. This was the basis for the rest, with the same synths, and bits of melody taken up here and there. 

Yann’s favorite theme wasn’t the easiest to produce: Cathode Rays was initially composed in a rather static way, with an organ echoing the level, reminiscent of a church. It didn’t work, and the track was almost thrown away. Until Yann replaced the organ with a more rhythmic LoFi pattern. Finally, after a few tweaks, its five-beat melody became the game’s most recurrent leitmotif. 

Another track that was almost thrown away was Gelma’s prayer. On receiving it, the team was dubious. What place would this quasi-medieval track have in our universe? But Yann didn’t give up, and it wasn’t until the track was mounted in the game that everyone embraced it. 

Composing music for a game with a wide range of moods is never easy. The specificities of each level must leave their mark: flutes and percussion in the cosmic mount, glass sounds for the underwater levels, unstable harmonies in the absurd world, electrical artifacts for the most technological moments. 

A final subtlety: several tracks have been exported in separate layers to vary the intensity according to what’s going on in the game. 

Overall, Yann tried to produce a quiet universe for Exographer, because despite the platformer aspect, it’s more a game about reflection.

Fun fact: one of the 22 tracks produced didn’t make it into the game. Can you find out which one?