Music is undeniably a huge part of what makes video games special, both individually and on an industry-wide level. Not only is no gaming award show complete without a gong for the year’s best soundtrack, but even the Proms have started acknowledging that video game scores have come a long way since the 8-bit days (without throwing any shade on chiptune, a legitimate genre in and of itself with some stone-cold classics). That’s probably why, from huge AAAs to smaller indies, music can account for a significant chunk of any game’s budget — and it’s definitely worth the investment.
For this episode, the Indieventure trio have pooled our vinyl collection to talk about some of our personal favourite indie game music highlights. I know you guys say you love long show notes but there’s seriously no way I’m going to be able to list every track we talk about here — which is why we’ve put together [a YouTube playlist] that should cover everything instead! A quick overview, though, sees us talking about the music from games including Balatro, Bombrush Cyberfunk, Braid, Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Dear Esther, Death’s Door, Dicey Dungeons, Disco Elysium, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Fields of Mistria, Firewatch, Hades, Hades II, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Hollow Knight, Hotline Miami, Hypnospace Outlaw, Journey, Kentucky Route Zero, Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp, Minecraft, No Straight Roads, Paradise Killer, Pizza Tower, Pyre, Return of the Obra Dinn, Stardew Valley, A Tower Full of Cats, Trombone Champ, Undertale, Unravel, and We Happy Few.
If you’d like to hear every track we discuss in this episode in its entirety, we’ve added them all to a convenient YouTube playlist that you can find here (or below).
During the course of this chat we also promise you a couple of specific links, so go here for Bombrush Cyberfunk soundtrack memes, and here for one of the Ace Attorney x Danganronpa musical mashup channels on YouTube that Rebecca (and now Rachel too) is so very fond of.
Finally, as ever, are our current hyperfixations! Rebecca has discovered an accidentally awesome double-bill of horror novels with a timely social message in Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays and Grady Hendrix’s The Final Girl Support Group; Liam’s been having a whimsical time in recently-released indie platformer The Plucky Squire; and Rachel is having a moment with girly pop in general, and Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter in particular, thanks to the recent VMAs award show.
Our music, meanwhile, was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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