Smintheus: Deviated Valley - Soundtrack

Most part of my game development is done. Now I am focusing deeply on music producing (since there's nothing left to do but this). This tune is little bit extended in some parts because of intro scene that game presents at the beginning of the game.

There is YouTube video where i play this song live - directly from the DAW: https://youtu.be/OaoDV4n0mko

New Beginning

Second track for second level. It has this deep house or chillout or whatever vibe with some synth jams that go jazzy at moments. Groovy layered bass with drum sequence that oddly doesn't have snare drum sure defines the major atmosphere of the track.

You can watch youtube version of the song where I play it directly from the DAW: https://youtu.be/zesO0uLlo4Y

Spotlight Bird

Tilting at Windmills is a little bit unusual track comparing to other game soundtracks. Yes, it's synth music and yet it radiates with medieval tone that is accompanied with pure pathos. 

It was written according to specific level in the game where main character meets a knightly order of mentally disturbed knights. These knights sincerely believe in their secret ideology and they treat their personal vision of the world as dogmatically objective fact. But to others they are just clowns wearing bucket as a helmet and pretend that they are real knights. Some might say tribute to Don Quixote and they might be right :p

P.S: You can watch YouTube video of this song playing directly from DAW: https://youtu.be/uMeprMTf4Aw

Tilting at Windmills

Got carried away recently and spent more time on this track than I planned. This piece vividly relates to "gaming" mood and pushes 80s vibes a bit more further. 

At the end, after consulting with few friends, i decided to cut a HALF of the track. The cut fits very good to the game and loops pleasantly. I'll deal with the removed part later, gonna make it as separate track. 

So, the story behind this track is quite simple. Protagonist meets a dimwit character that tells him legend of the wishing well and with no other options available decides to give it a try and play along with that legend. The music is "painted" accordingly to the personality of the Incitatus, the dimwit horse!

YouTube Link of live play from DAW: https://youtu.be/Vu8QR9HqbWA

The Great Dunce

The fifth track of the Smintheus soundtrack. This one is followed by "The Spotlight Bird". The most groovy/funky among others and perhaps pushes synthwave boundaries a bit. I've used too much samples from Amiga Soundtracker Sample Packs here and couple of Dexed VSTi instances. Dexed is fine emulation of good old Yamaha DX7 synth which is now under my favourites tab. 

The track deals with the hermit character from the game. At first I wanted to write something ambienty, imitate the sound of Himalayas but that wen't into unwanted direction. I had mind image of "swamp hermit with aviator sun glasses " while composing the track rather than wanted "highlander spiritual hermit", thus the mood  turned out to be more night jazzy, oh well... :D

YouTube link for Live version played directly from the DAW: https://youtu.be/EBKIVzi4wSI

Groovy Eye

After 20 days of music production this track finally managed to see the light. It's quite long, complex and versatile track infused with 80s musical and romantic juice. This time you'll hear instrument that I haven't used before in related tracks. I think it fits greatly and even adds to track's "kick-ass-ness". 

Specially written for one of most important game levels. The level is long and challenges player to deal with the stuff without crutches. I hope that players will find this OST to be motivating enough to keep the struggle against puzzling odds of Smintheus. 

Have a great listening experience, folks!

Live Play throught the DAW on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7YarPzb8A-M

Stinging Sensation

Wooohoo! New magnum opus is ready to hit the boards! 

So, what it brought on table this time? The new musical reality that differs from the rest tracks now on genre level - relaxed soundtrack for last level of Smintheus Beta full of shamanic notes and transcendental moments. Is it ambient? Partly... is it Movie soundtrack? You got that right. Something of something made of other "somethings". 

Although track is relatively simple I've used tons of instruments. There are nearly 40 tracks in the project with lots of automated faders for this and that, all executed to materialize the desired atmosphere of the track's idea. Dug out few ancient VSTi such as Absynth and Korg M1 as well as more ancient sample libraries of ethno percussion stored on old scratched CD bought from local store. Speaking of composition, one of distinct moments is the mid part which plays one theme that grows with each bar more and more - a musical trick that i borrowed from Ravel's "Bolero". 

I'll spoil the bits of inspiration this time... the level and music is inspired by well known series of books written by Carlos Castaneda. I think I managed to express this inspiration quite precisely while keeping original style of the rest of soundtrack. Think of movie soundtrack written somewhere in 80s.

YouTube Live Play: https://youtu.be/4IJUO72EbU4

Separate Reality

Prepare for upbeat tempo and catchy melodies with this one. Quite "dancable" tune. This track will be the last one specially made for Smintheus Beta. 

It's packed with the juicy sounds of 80s hardware synths. You'll find stab chords to be dominating here - somewhat intentional move which was done in order to differentiate from the rest of soundtrack. The Uncatchables was designed for the level 7. In this particular level player finally meets his antagonist face to face and confronts him. A humorous picture where the mouse chases the cat :)

Gotta thank the @tiido for the valuable support and necessary second opinion towards this track. You rock, catman! :D

Oh yes, the YouTube version is right here: https://youtu.be/L6C6uXqi0wI

The Uncatchables

Aka "Neuton Mouse". The dude who's responsible for making these retro sounding tracks inspired by 80s era music of almost all genres. New wave, italo disco, spacesynth, synthwave, demo/amiga-scene and chiptunes tracks are at your disposal. I prefer not to limit myself in genres, so you might often hear all kinds of fusions whether it's groovy and jazzy twist or hard rock stuff or whatever I think that fits to this kind of music.

I'm also the "indie game developer" and currently developing 2D Survival Gadget-Building Puzzle Game called "Smintheus". Check out homepage and twitter (especially twitter) for moar stuff.

Smintheus: Deviated Valley - Soundtrack

NM