Burning Planet Digital is an indie publisher headed up by a team of established punk, rock, and metal musicians including Max Malmquist who tours with bands like Junkstars and Tears of the Fatman, along with Karl Rosqvist who plays drums for Danzig, Michael Monroe, and Joan Osborne. Burning Planet is publishing its debut title Molly Medusa this month which was developed by Niklas Hallin.
In a The Best War Games interview with Hallin and the Burning Planet crew, they about how video game soundtracks call for a unique approach to songwriting as opposed to writing a typical album. Hallin also drew some interesting parallels between the lifestyles of indie game developers and musicians who often share similar struggles.
Molly Medusa's Developer Embraces Opportunities For Weirdness In Video Game Music
Although many game music composers create soundtracks that can feel similar to a typical album, Niklas Hallin points out that the unique situations that arise in video games can inspire songwriters to explore unusual musical themes. The scenarios that players come across in video games are far different from the real-life experiences that most music is derived from, and this is what gives video game soundtracks their distinctive sonic characteristics.
I think video games are so fun because really strange and bizarre scenarios occur. For example, you get the music piece, and you're like, “Okay, so hear me out here. There's going to be a teddy bear from space. They're going to have a birthday party. Can you make something for that?” Like, they're really outlandish, weird, and specific, so there are incredibly specific vibes and aesthetic goals.
Whereas if you’re making an album, the songs must be able to stand on their own. In the video game, they're presented within a context that informs what they sound like. And, of course, as a video game developer, I frequently try to make the games and music as strange and particular as possible, trying to push the weirdness of the combination as much as we can.
As an example of how video games encourage novel musical ideas, Molly Medusa's ancient Greek setting inspired the team to create metal-infused tunes with "deserty vibes," a combination of elements that one might not have considered unless working with this game's particular style.
People Like Molly Medusa's Developer and Independent Music Artists Have a Lot in Common
As technology has grown increasingly accessible for both game developers and musicians, the indie scene for both industries has seen an explosion of innovative projects run by surprisingly small teams. Although solo game developers occasionally make headlines for highly-successful releases like Stardew Valley, Hallin notes that the road to success for indie developers is very similar to that of DIY musicians.
There's a huge overlap between indie game developers and music bands, down to the fact that a regular rock band often has the same amount of members as a small indie team, the group sizes are more or less the same, the kind of promotion and marketing that you're doing, and the project scale and the project scope. There is a big overlap in how this level of musicians and this level of video game developers are doing day to day.
If you follow video game developers on Twitter, and you follow indie bands, punk bands, or metal bands on Twitter, their tweets are almost identical. They talk about the same things. They have the same problems, they have the same issues that they are trying to deal with, and they complain about the same things. The product itself might be very different, but the lifestyle of making them is surprisingly similar.
Indie developers are often at the cutting edge of innovation in the gaming industry, but the industry's extremely competitive nature means developers have to devote considerable resources to branding and promotion while wading through the muck of industry politics. A frustrating reality for creators of games and music is that it's not enough to have a great idea and a great product; many aspects of the business in which talented creators may not be specialized have to be successfully navigated. Thankfully, despite these challenges, musicians and indie game developers continue to pursue their passions and deliver amazing creations for fans to enjoy.
Molly Medusa releases on April 20 on Nintendo Switch.