When we started planning out the game for Shoot For the Stars, we knew we wanted to work with Swyka again after giving us incredible work for the Hyde & Zeke Soundtrack. After making arrangements to work with him again, we went straight to work on planning the tracks we knew we wanted for the demo. We ended up with 9 tracks and quite a few planned sound effects for the game.
Here's a look at his musical work for the Hyde and Zeke project:
After deciding the scenarios these tracks would represent, we then wanted to find existing tracks to create a “mood” or “vibe for the overall theme for the game. With the game taking heavy inspiration from the Persona series, we went with a jazzy soundtrack, with a more electronic twist to the music.
Upon finishing the demo tracks for us, we also got some insight from Swyka himself:
'For the music in TerraZone, we've been trying to really capture a very casual, laid-back, jazzy kind of sound. A lot of the inspiration for the tracks came from various Final Fantasy and Persona tracks, so I've been trying to adopt bits and pieces, either melodically or instrumentation-wise from those and similar sounding soundtracks. My biggest focus on each of the tracks has been the way the track feels or grooves, even without a melody. Practically every track was made with a groove first, melody second. It's not that the melody isn't important, but it seemed really important to make sure the tracks felt good as an underscore to what is happening in the game. The music for general day-to-day activities like school primarily features a jazz-fusion ensemble, while the music that has relation to the card game itself has a bit more of an electronic ensemble, and an upbeat attitude. We all felt that there should be a distinction there musically, as the card game really is a distinct, new exciting thing that takes everyone away from their normal, day-to-day grind.'
~Swyka
With that, we’d like to share a taste of three of the tracks that will be in the game:
TerraZone Main Theme
This song will play in the main title screen of the game.
TerraZone Battle Music
This song will play during a card game battle.
TerraZone Midday Song
This song will play in the afternoon as the main overworld song. This song changes based on the time of the day.
Thank you Swyka for your input on the project as well as once again adding a fresh new sound to our game. For those reading this devlog, you can find out more about Swyka and his music in the links provided:
Swyka Media Social Media
Next week we will take a look at some lively NPC updates. In a world as vast as The TerraZone one, NPC characters must show great excitement! Thank you once again for tuning in on another devlog and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to keep up to date. See you next time TerraZone fans!