Indie Game Soundtrack | The Lazarus Sign
Indie Game Soundtrack | The Lazarus Sign
Misuse of power, abuse and suicide, and the potential for technology to redeem are some of the mature themes featured in The Lazarus Sign, a new indie RPG game developed by Stephan Ortelbach.
The Lazarus Sign draws inspiration from indie games like To The Moon, written and produced by Kan Gao, and taking inspiration from To The Moon, The Lazarus Sign is also being developed in RPG Maker.
Developer Stefan Ortelbach got in touch to discuss music for his project.
After chatting for an hour or so, we both felt that the simplistic retro charm of RPG Maker might not necessarily be where the game would succeed. But it could punch above its weight by focusing on an engaging, original narrative and a great soundtrack!
Stephan recommended the Main Theme of To The Moon by Kan Gao as a good reference for the score, so I’ve used this track to gauge the mood and feel of the opening theme for the Lazarus Sign soundtrack. You can check out the composition below. ↓
The Lazarus Sign is based on several core characters, and I'm writing themes for each of them that can underscore their dialogue and the scenes in which they feature.
Alongside the character pieces, I've decided to write several extended compositions that pass through contrasting moods.
The longer compositions are intended to cover extended periods of free gameplay playing as a continuous sequence or divided into smaller loopable segments. Stefan can then select which areas of the track he wants to use and loop the desired section.
Providing Stephan with several 'flexible' tracks should make dropping the soundtrack into the game easier - having fewer audio files to manage can save precious development time on a solo dev gig!
Working on a smaller game project like The Lazarus Sign, I also think getting the biggest bang for your buck is essential - a few tracks that work in several ways can be cheaper than lots of shorter cues!
I'll post progress updates on this project, so please check back for future developments.
Until then, here's an excerpt from one of the extended compositions.
I hope you enjoy it!
For news on current work, please visit my Home page. For soundtrack enquiries, please drop me a line below. Thanks!
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