I'd like to thank everyone that has tried out Iron Reckoning so far! A big part of this game's development was crafting music that fit the mood of each scene and carried consistent melodic ideas to bind the soundtrack together. The OST features a lot of instruments and motifs that get repeated throughout each track to build the character of IR's music. Today I'm proud to announce that the entire soundtrack is available on Steam right now! You can check out the store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1404290/Iron_Reckoning__Soundtrack/
There are nearly 2 and a half hours of content in the OST, a feat that took everything I had in terms of energy and creativity. I'm happy to say that this is by far the best music I've ever crafted for a game project, or at least the most pleased I could be with the result so far. I'd like to just talk a bit about some of the most impactful tracks and how they came about, as I find music analysis to be pretty interesting and music in general to be crucial to the whole game experience.

Descent Revitalized

This is the first track I made for IR. Well, the first track that actually made it into the final game. It started with a chord progression on strings--highly inspired by Nier: Automata, I wanted to provide a chromatic shift to really make the mood seem intense and magical. The 6th bar of the chord progression is the key behind that shift, and really becomes the core of what Iron Reckoning's music revolves around. Halfway through writing, I tagged on a very retro arp instrument to reinforce the sci-fi ideas shown throughout the game. By the time I heard the fast melody I had crafted, I was in love with the sound. In fact, I accidentally jumbled some of the notes together resulting in a gap during part of the melody, but I actually liked the spacing and rhythm it created, so I kept it in. The sound was crafted from an instrument that replicates the JUNO-60 synth. From then on, this became a key instrument in future songs.

Corruption Amplified

I opted to make a few "dynamic" tracks for IR this time around. It's a concept I've implemented before, and really enjoy due to how much variation you can get from different gameplay situations. The idea is to build multiple layers of music that play at the same time, and vary the volume to match what happens on-screen. I believe this is called "vertical mixing" or something like that according to FFXV music developers. For Corruption Amplified, there are 2 tracks; one for ambient exploration, and another for combat. The song itself uses a slow-building piano melody along with an industrial drum loop to give the feeling of machinery being crafted. More retro instruments fade in over time, and a cathedral organ plays ominously in the background. This is a trick I use in many of IR's songs to really fill out the sound and provide theming. The dynamic version plays back a lead synth with heavy filters that I created for another song, Unbridled Prognostication.

Unbridled Prognostication

For this one I really tried to use a lot of synths, and vary the sound after the intro. The goal was to make a lot of small repeatable melodies within the synths, akin to what I did for my last game, Burden of Proof. The lead synth was a huge step forward for me, the modification and filters gave this very off-putting noise that highlighted the feelings of being surrounded. A gong hit plays in the background to emphasize the drops.

Tranquil Prognostication

I took a vastly different approach for this song. Starting with a weird flute instrument, I made an eerie melody that took center focus. Then slowly faded in the stems from Unbridled Prognostication to live up to the song's namesake. This flute melody was another huge part of the soundtrack, and I used it several other times to bring back the isolation felt through this instrument. This song plays when you uncover the field in Lumia South, a huge open area. I felt it was the perfect track to set the mood for really realizing what you've stumbled into when it comes to the Aalegan Isles.

Boss Tracks

I utilized a lot of organ progressions and choir instruments for songs like Cultivated Ascension and Cultivated Destruction. The goal was to make this big, epic reveal and transition to the action that you would soon be playing through. The turning point in writing was when I took a bass and played really low, ominous notes throughout the main chorus. I think what I learned from these songs was to make sounds that represent what will appear on screen; the low bass could've easily been a noise coming from the Vagabonds, that's why it fit so well.

Reckoning Unlimited

This is the ultimate boss track. To make this, what I did was literally stick 3 different songs together, and then rearrange the parts until it sounded coherent. I also swapped a lot of parts for many instruments to vary the sound and make it unique. But at the same time, I did keep a lot of dissonance on purpose to really make all these different themes clash together. This is the culmination of all areas and enemies fought prior to this point, so it had to pop. That's why I built up to a huge drop at the end, combining the main theme (Descent Revitalized) with the strongest instrument at my disposal: the lead from Unbridled Prognostication. I think this is the most intense track in the whole game, and I was pretty proud when it was completed.

Conclusion

I hope some of you found that interesting! This soundtrack has been a huge aspect of my development time, so I hope you can appreciate the dedication I had in creating a coherent OST. I'm always open for more discussion about development, so if you have questions you can always ask in the Steam discussion forums! You can keep up with my latest news and announcements on Twitter. Thank you again for checking out Iron Reckoning and listening to the music; making content for people to enjoy is my passion, and I'm happy to be able to share it with all of you. I'll continue working on my new ideas for games and updating you all when I have more to show! Stay safe! -Matt

[ 2020-12-04 18:41:01 CET ] [ Original post ]