PixlBit

Classical music meets crowd-funded art.

It's been quite a journey for the game Spate, from initial conception, to successful Kickstarter campaign, to final release on Steam.  Dragged into reality by Eric Provan of Ayyo Games, the game is a dreamy, artistic experience. Ayyo Games might have struggled to make this game, but they didn't do it alone: they were accompanied by classical composer and game scorer Mike Raznick, who approached them during the Kickstarter campaign.  The result is a stark audio experience unlike most games.  Enamored with both the game and the soundtrack, we caught up with Mike Raznick to talk about how he created the score, his influences, and what he thinks of video game music. 

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Kill the skies.

The wonder of some indie games that go for that retro aesthetic is they kind of live up to our brain’s memories of what those old games were like, without the warts we seldom remember.  Sort of like a period film, it might not be like how things really were, but while catering to our modern tastes, a finer piece of art is sculpted, one that has learned the mistakes of the past.  Luftrausers is a game forged out of what once was – not only with its 8-bit aesthetic, but also with its satirical Nazi artwork.  Both of these themes work for and against it, but overall what we have here is a great game that is a commentary not only on the past, but on the future. 

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“Sacred geometry.”

Every so often, I am lucky enough to play a game so delightful, so perfectly engineered for its platform, and so inspiring that I have to take a step back, stunned.  While other arts such as literature and painting seem long in the tooth these days, clutching to cynicism and nihilism like a terminal patient clinging to the sheets in his bed, great games seem imbued with a sort of impossible optimism and generosity towards the human condition.  Monument Valley, a game about redemption through sacred geometry, is one of those games. 

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“Amnesia? Again?!?”

There’s a special place in hell for JRPG fans.  Their sin?  Playing the same game with the same story over and over without complaining once.  I suppose there are worse crimes than this, but there is a sort of masochistic glee in which JRPG fans partake in their vice.  Perhaps we love grinding and crafting so much that we don’t really care about the story too much – despite our claims that we play these games for the tales they tell.  Perhaps it’s the newness of the dungeons or the shiny equipment that makes the tedium of saving the world over and over remain novel.  But, despite these tropes, this genre seems to continue on, and sometimes even with some of the most loathed archetypes and clichés, JRPGs can rise to heights other genres can’t. 

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Throwing punches like a boneless girl.

Sometimes in the sea of dazzling high profile games and personally expressive indie hits, we forget that 99% of everything is crap. Luckily, there are titles like Vivid Games’ Real Boxing, for the Vita, to remind us of the larger ocean of mediocrity.  While it’s a cheap, downloadable experience rather than a full retail game – and should be judged as such – overall it’s not very fun after the initial novelty becomes an unpleasant chore. 

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