Hey everyone,
We’re excited to share some big news about the game: our soundtrack is being composed by Andreas Waldetoft!
If you’ve played titles like Crusader Kings II & III, Stellaris, Hearts of Iron IV, Europa Universalis IV and more, you’ve already heard his incredible work. All of us at the studio have been fans of Andreas' work for a long time so it's been pretty awesome getting to collaborate with him.
From the very first sketches, Andreas really captured the tone and atmosphere of our world. The soudtrack isn't final yet, there is still a lot to do but we just wanted to share an early WIP of one of our favorite tracks, meant to be used in our tropical environments. Check it out:
Behind The Scenes
We approached the soundtrack process with a thoughtful and layered mindset by:
Starting with MIDI mockups with virtual instruments and getting the foundational arrangement right.
Adding live players selectively and focusing on where acoustic nuance truly elevates the track.
Our first live-instrument test featured flutes performed by the very talented Sandro Friedrich, who we previously worked with on our game Valley. Everything you’ll hear is still fairly rough and unfinished. Some of the music will go through proper mixing and polish before launch. But even in this early state, the addition of live flutes completely changed the track’s energy compared to the mockup.
Here it is with the live flute: https://youtu.be/z5kozEWs3fw
We've also been tapping into our own team’s talents. Our Technical Director and co-founder, Brenden Frank, happens to have a real knack for music, so he recorded piano renditions to bring our quieter nighttime sequences to life. The idea was to take Andreas’ tracks and have Brenden play them live on piano for a slower, nighttime version which would expand the soundtrack and reinforce the theme.
You can listen here if you're interested in hearing the differences:
Andreas’ WIP Version (No Piano): https://youtu.be/U0tKBOVDfzc
Brenden’s Version (Live Piano): https://youtu.be/O6n6DhVo4f8
Let us know what you think so far! We have so much more to share in terms of development with everyone. Thanks for your patience with us, please stay tuned for more! We have so much to share soon.