EPTTo start with, rdein had sent me the theme of his previous game, Momodora as well as the theme from an unfinished game called Moonchild. He wanted me to take the main melody of the Momodora theme and do it in a similar style to the Moonchild theme. “No problem,” I said as I ventured into my basket of snes soundfonts, looking for something suited to the task at hand. I still remember the moment bright as day, when I opened up that one soundfont called Rock Organ. That single soundfont altered the course of the entired song, as well as the song following it. After an hour or so of composing I approached rdein with it. “Look,” I said. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but it just needed to happen.” There’s this feeling that sometimes takes a hold of me, when I hear something amazing. I just completely lose control until I’ve fulfilled the task that the creative part of my brain requires me to.
My first attempt at a theme for Momodora II is on the OST, carrying the name Title C, and while rdein absolutely loved it, the song still wasn’t what he wanted in a theme. And so, I carried onwards to my next attempt.
That one is on the OST as well, named by rdein as Momodora Space Rock. Let’s just say I was working on a darker take on the theme when the damned Rock Organ grabbed hold of me again. It sounds pretty majestic though. I went through a third attempt, this time getting grabbed by the desire to funk, and again rdein said no. It wasn’t until April 1st that I somehow stumbled on exactly the right sound for a theme. Well, until rdein decided he wanted a musicbox style song for the title. Still, I am immensely proud of the theme I put together, Title B on the OST. It’s heavily orchestra focused, with some piano and drums filling in the rest of the soundscape.
Early on rdein made it very clear how he wanted the game to sound. Well, to a point anyway. His original request went something like this “make it like cave story or chrono trigger.” I instantly took his meaning to be a mix of these two clashing style which would probably not work out. So I set out and started listening to some chrono trigger songs, as well as other songs from the era. I also worked on acquiring more soundfonts so I could more easily diversify my sound as it suited my creative vision. In the end we settled on a relatively ambient score with some orchestra elements, as well as other instruments, depending on what I was into at the time. Most of the songs include some sort of melody but I always took extra care as to not make it the driving force between the song, as I am want to do in my other music.
We went through a similar process almost every time. First he handed me the list of areas, with relatively descriptive names. However I usually wouldn’t start working on a particular area song unless he had the area either completed or playable in some form so I could try and get a feel for what mood he was trying to communicate in each particular area. In some cases I put together a song for some of my other projects that turned out to be fitting for one of the ingame areas, so I went through the process of converting them.
It’s interesting to look at actually, I’m starting to feel like the sound changes as the game goes on, it becomes more and more like my other work, more melodic and less ambient, while still retaining all of the moodyness required. I think Demon Jazz and Immemorial realm especially show that, where the sound had shifted more and more to a piano focus, while still retaining some orchestra elements.
What was perhaps the biggest struggle of them all was the ending song. Rdein provided me with a list of his all-time favourite video game ending songs, as well as telling me some things he’d like to see in the song. After some time and lots of experimenting with piano medleys, I sent two songs to him. One of them is a very solemn and sweet piano song that becomes more and more endearing every time you hear it. The other was also a slow piano song, more sad and designed around incorporating a leitmotif of the main momodora melody into the song at one point. Rdein decided to go with the solemn and sweet piano song, and while I was not completely satisfied with it, the song itself has grown on me alot in these past few weeks.
The ending song was the final piece of the puzzle and the game was finally ready for release. And released it was, to a great reception, with high praise for gameplay, graphics and music alike.
In the end it was quite an experience to finally see my first video game music project through to its completion. Over this span of five months I’ve started approximately sixty songs and finished fourty. Of those songs, twenty made it onto the soundtrack release and twelve made it into the game. I think that number is a testament to how adamant rdein was about getting the perfect sound to compliment his game. Even so, there were some hurdles along the way, mostly having to do with me creating something I considered really awesome and him calling me out on how completely off it was for the area in question. The hardest part for me was to control my desire to go crazy with my musicking instead of focusing on what he wanted. So I just kind of embraced it instead and made a ton of music, giving him the pickings of all my creations.
You can find the game over at www.bombservice.com and the soundtrack here.
