Picture our hero having encountered a major setback and they’re pouting about it in the rain or the Big Bad has made off with the Crystal of Wossitsname and will soon summon an unsightly, world-ending tentacle fiend. What does anxiety sound like? In video game music terms, you’re talking long, held minor string chords, usually with a downtrodden version of the otherwise triumphal main theme over the top. “Connor’s Life” by Lorne Balfe from Assassin’s Creed III I’ve blogged at greater length about this elsewhere (including film music picks), but we’re aiming for maximum pith and concision here.Īnd you must please forgive the galaxy-sized hole in my knowledge of Nintendo scores. That said, I still thought it would be fun to briefly run through these moods and my general observations about them. These 18 ‘moods’ are, of course, completely subjective and not a little arbitrary - I pretty much ignored outliers that didn’t neatly fit into my nonsense framework. 6,000 tracks later (there were a lot of rainy Tuesdays), I had identified 18 different moods that were common within game soundtrack music. One rainy day some years ago (likely a Tuesday), I started labelling my digital game music tracks by mood, with the vague notion that I would someday study the characteristics of each grouping. How much time can one spend alphabetising one’s Barbie dolls or digitising one’s collection of 19th Century accordion music? Too much time, that’s for sure.
![finale dva botanicula soundtrack finale dva botanicula soundtrack](https://d23pzp3qb0c2ie.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Botanicula2.png)
When you have a sizeable collection of something - for example fridge magnets, traffic cones or video game music - it can be a relaxing, slightly mindless pastime just to sit and re-sort your treasured possessions. Look out for more updates on Chuchel over on its website.We run down the 18 (ish) different moods that video game music tends to adhere to, from ‘anxious’ to ‘victorious’.
![finale dva botanicula soundtrack finale dva botanicula soundtrack](http://www.2dva.cz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/product_img_19_599x599-310x310.jpg)
But do bear in mind that this is an unfinished version and isn’t representative of the final game. It was presented with a first look at Anifilm Gameday in the Czech Republic earlier this year and you can see a glimpse of how it plays in this video from the event.
![finale dva botanicula soundtrack finale dva botanicula soundtrack](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTk3MDUxLzkyMTcwNy5qcGc=/347x500/DgZ7VW.jpg)
That also means you can probably expect more projects to surface from Amanita Design in the future and hopefully won’t have to endure the four year wait between Botanicula and Samorost 3 again.Ĭhuchel has actually been known about for a couple of years now as an unannounced puzzle game. UPDATE: The second teaser is now ready to watch-you’ll find it below.ĭvorský told me earlier this year that Amanita Design has currently split into four teams, with each one working on its own project, which explains how they’re able to tease this next game as “coming soon” not long after the release of Samorost 3. The reason for that would appear to be a large, menacing hand that is likely coming to pick it up and do god knows what with it.Īmanita Design founder and creative lead Jakub Dvorský has said that there are more teasers for Chuchel coming very soon (in a few hours). The teaser trailer for Chuchel is in black and white and shows a blobby creature with stubby legs and a tail quivering with fear under a spotlight.
![finale dva botanicula soundtrack finale dva botanicula soundtrack](https://www.techshout.com/img/15-2-2013-210.jpg)
Amanita Design has teased its next game after this year’s brilliant adventure, Samorost 3. It’s called Chuchel and is being created by the team that made bucolic tree-friends adventure Botanicula (2012), including director Jaromír Plachý and the Czech band Dva, who have provided the music.