The Rise of the Indie Game Musical
Quietly, over the course of the past decade, indie game developers have slowly been integrating vocal music into their works; creating lore, ephemeral tone pieces and eventually, full-on video game musicals. From veteran developers to an indie game band, music has become an even more integral part of video games over the past decade. The game medium can also offer a place for unique usage of music. The obvious difference between video games and other forms of entertainment is interactivity, so it’s key when looking at the “adaptation” of musicals into video games that we discuss interactivity. Without further ado, let’s dive into some indie game musicals of the last decade!
(Note: if you think your favourite isn’t talked about here, that’s probably because there wasn’t enough space)
Kentucky Route Zero
At the centre of the musical elements of Kentucky Route Zero (KRZ) rest two fictional groups, the Bedquilt Ramblers, a Greek chorus and occasional players to the story of the game, and Junebug & Johnny, escaped robots out to make it big(ish) as musicians. At certain points in each of the first four acts of KRZ, the camera slowly pans out to foreground the action with the eerie Bedquilt Ramblers spinning a bluegrass yarn of traditional folk songs. This step away from the action hammers down an already alluded to idea, KRZ is a stage play of your own creation. You guide the characters through it, slightly tweaking the script on the fly. These choices make no major changes to the narrative but the inflections feel a little different. Then, every act without fail, the Bedquilt Ramblers come out to thematically comment on the action, while the characters move unaware.
The musical of KRZ reach two separate peaks, during the middle of Act III and at the end of Act V. The middle of Act III features a performance from Junebug and Johnny to a mostly empty room in The Lower Depths, a local dive bar. Much like with the Bedquilt Ramblers interludes, the facade of the game’s stage is pulled away except in a much bigger way. The ceiling of The Lower Depths crumbles away and the stars over the sky background three dialogue options. KRZ is one of those narrative adventure games where it’s clear that any dialogue options you choose aren’t affecting the outcome of the story, but they’re tailoring the experience to you. Like I said before, you’re the director of this play, not the writer. This narrative ethos translates into music as you select the verses Junebug will sing, guiding the narrative. Junebug’s robotic warble is a haunting echo of the lost love in protagonist Conway’s past and the distant longing that all the characters are feeling. Once again musical moments in the game are being used to highlight and intensify narrative and theme.
The game reaches a narrative and musical coda in Act V. Much different gameplay-wise from the previous acts, this change is carried through in the music of Act V. The Bedquilt Ramblers become active characters in the story and when they do perform, it’s a choral rendition of an old hymn (#156 for those interested at home!). This somber and sparse performance is in great contrast to everything else that has occurred musically up to this point and carries the player through the end of the game with the limp the narrative shares.
KRZ is perhaps the easiest game to cast as a musical because it’s so easy to read the game as a stage play but any play with music is a musical in some way. The music of Kentucky Route Zero is consistently used to evoke themes, create mood, and give background on the characters without being explicit.
Tetris Effect
Okay, follow me on this one. Enhance, the publisher of Tetris Effect, is obsessed with synesthesia. It’s right in their company mission statement, “Enhance is focused on the creation of new synesthetic experiences... Our goal is to deliver unique multi-sensory experiences in the form of entertainment, art, devices or services to users around the world.” Simply, synesthesia is the coupling of senses, when you see a number you may associate it with a colour or a taste etc (I am not smart enough to know this myself).
Tetris Effect is not just Tetris with pretty flashing lights, it’s built from the ground up as an audio-visual experience. Which is the whole point, otherwise it’s just another Tetris game with fancy Windows XP screensavers going in the background. Most importantly, unlike any other game on this list, Tetris Effect allows you to be part of the chorus. Each level of the game comes with unique notes for every spin of your tetromino, every line completed and every Tetris scored. Every move you make changes the tune a little bit to the point where no one level ever sounds the same, even if it were replayed an endless amount of times. The interactivity of the player is key in the creation of the music of Tetris Effect. The depth that you can add is so mesmerizing that sometimes when playing I find myself more focused on rotating and completing lines on beat rather than playing Tetris tactically. When looking at games, it’s important to understand they play by different rules than traditional media, so some fudging of the definition of musical is required. More than anything, Tetris Effect is about creating a total audio-visual experience for the player to get sucked into, and if that’s not a musical I don’t know what is.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Simogo’s Sayonara Wild Hearts is a synthony. Completely set to the music of Daniel Olsen and Jonathan Eng with additional vocals from Linnea Olsson, the game takes the player through a fantastical musical journey of mending a broken heart. If there ever were a textbook example of a video game musical, this is it. Blending recognizable elements of rhythm games and runners, Simogo’s concept album of a video game demonstrates the full potential of music within the medium.
While spending your time battling off cursed arcana in another universe, you’re also helping to heal the wounds of lost love in the protagonist, The Fool. Really good, solid narrative metaphor work, and digestible! Taking it to the next level is how the music is used to demonstrate this dichotomy. The first vocal track, ‘Begin Again’ laments:
As you hold me so close
In your arms I just know
It's the last time
And I'm strangely alright
Yet by the end of the game, the chorus of ‘Wild Hearts Never Die’ belts out:
This is not how it ends, this is not goodbye
'Cause wild hearts never die
Wild hearts never die
Taking on the style of the modern pop song, Olsen and Eng are able to weave a tale of love lost and a broken heart restored that echoes the fantastical plot of the game. Making use of the music is effective considering that aside from voiceovers at the beginning and end from the lovely Queen Latifah, Sayonara Wild Hearts has no dialogue. Like all the best concept albums, the music of Sayonara Wild Hearts is able to tell a story and like the best rhythm games, it’s able to let the player keep time. Personally, I’m hoping for an Olivia Rodrigo-scored sequel.
Teenage Blob
Including the collaboration between video game band Team Lazerbeam and music band, The Superweaks on this list is a slam dunk. The two collaborated on the split game/album Teenage Blob that is all about the power of music. Splits are a tradition in the DIY scene involving two bands coming together to put out a record of separate songs, remixes of each other’s songs, collaborative tracks or anything in between. With Teenage Blob, Team Lazerbeam and The Superweaks take that tradition into the DIY games space to write a love letter to music and particularly live shows everywhere (check what Mike wrote about this). Each of the 6 levels in the game is crafted to be unique and in collaboration with the music produced for it which is how you get fantastic moments like the instrumental bridge in ‘Paper Person’ and the inspired Guitar Hero-like section of ‘Guitar Zero’. The game culminates with ‘Ghost Step’ which is a joyous celebration of all things music.
Teenage Blob is a signal for the opportunities that the indie game landscape can afford collaboration between creators. Team Lazerbeam and The Superweaks are able to take their unique talents and create something wholly different than what could be seen in the AAA games space. Working with smaller teams can allow for the music of the musical to become a substantive part of the journey. Teenage Blob represents the best of what music and games collectively have to offer, and they invite us all to sing along.
Music has always been an important and deliberate part of video games. Today, we’re able to see how music has come to shape some fantastic game moments and entire games, and there’s more to come! Sable, releasing this year, will feature a soundtrack created by Japanese Breakfast in collaboration with the dev team and Chorus: An Adventure Musical is in development now, looking to fully realize the concept of the video game musical. The indie space has always been fruitful for experimentation within the industry and now, the time of the video game musical has come.
Written by Jackson Wells