Step 1: Never have played Diablo before

Step 2: Saturday morning crash course on the Diablo I OST on Youtube

Step 3: Download a 12-string guitar VST

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit? (still figuring this one out, tbh (the game isn't for sale))

"Tristram" was my 6th Ludum Dare working with the same core team, so we've definitely got a system going.

Unfortunately (for many reasons), I'm in the US and the rest of the team is in Germany, which means nothing happens until they wake up on Saturday morning, and I don't start on music until I wake up many hours after that.

This means I miss out on the main brainstorming session (one of these days I will just stay up until 2am or whatever and be a part of it) but also means that by the time I wake up, there is usually already something resembling a game waiting on me.

This time around, they wanted to make a tribute to Diablo I, a game which holds fond memories for everyone on the team... except me. To their surprise and my great shame, it's just one of those games I never got around to!

So my first task on Saturday morning was, as mentioned above, a quick crash-course on the music of Diablo.

While I was becoming familiar, they temporarily put actual Diablo music in the game while they were working on it, which led to one of the first realizations about how to approach creating the music: Diablo is a dark game, and its music is quite fitting. Our game is an homage, but its tone isn't nearly as dire. Which meant I needed to make not-quite-as-dark Diablo music.

I mean, look how cute our heroes are:

We had to lighten the tone at least a bit.

Track 1: "Village Memory"

First on the docket, the main music of Tristram, the village where the heroes gather before heading into the dungeons. (If you aren't familiar, like I wasn't, Tristram is also the name of the town in Diablo.) For this I had to download a 12-string guitar VST. Even though I am a guitar player, I don't own a 12-string and time constraints prevented me from tracking one down. So I had to go fake!

The main melody was originally played on electric guitar. There was something irksome about this approach that I never quite put my finger on. So I switched it to a VST flute which helped to match the medieval vibes a little better. The problem was, it also felt a little thin, especially in the B-section of the track, so I added an English horn underneath to beef it up a bit.

I tend to not work with orchestral instruments because:

a) in my experience, a lot of game composers tend towards orchestral or chiptune. I don't really like working in either, and

b) putting together an orchestral arrangement is hard and I don't know what I'm doing

But something about the way this track was coming together really pushed me into going outside my comfort zone a bit. 12-string acoustic, electric bass, flute, english horn, cello, and violin aren't the most common orchestral arrangement but, uh... yeah. I think it works!

As you progress in the game, the music builds gradually. First by adding bass and percussion once you've reached stage 2 in the dungeon, and then the strings once you've reached stage 3.

I think the bit around the 3:00 minute mark may be some of the prettiest music I've ever made.

Track 2: "Form Up!"

This track, of the four on the soundtrack, is definitely the least Diablo-esque. When you call the heroes to action, and to form their parties before heading into the dungeon, we needed something kind of invigorating and exciting. The tranquil & slightly sad town music didn't seem appropriate.

For this one, I kind of just went with my gut. I kept it in the same key (I think, again I don't know what I'm doing) so it wouldn't be too jarring of a change, but made something more militaristic with timpani hits, rolling snares, horns, and strings.

All in all, this probably draws more from Final Fantasy music than it does from dungeon crawlers.

Track 3: "Deep Below the Cathedral"

The dungeon music was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to keep using orchestral elements like I had in the other two tracks. I also wanted to lean a little more into the darkness with this one. Having playtested with the original Diablo dungeon music (which was a bit too dark) I wanted to distill the essence of that music without recreating it. I added some wordless vocals (with a formant shift on them to make them sound deeper than my natural voice) and some atonal and dissonant elements. Once you reach stage 3, I also added in some chugging electric guitar with the string section.

For the main melody, I ended up using a couple of Arabic instruments, a plucked string and a flute. Sometimes it's lazy shorthand using "non-standard" instrumentation to evoke an uncomfortable feeling. Sometimes you're making music for a game jam, so fuck it.

All in all, I really like the eclectic instrument selections on this track. It's a bit of a grab bag, but I think it ended up working quite well!

Track 4: "A Hero's Reward"

I originally wrote this as title screen music, but it ended up getting moved to the end of the game instead. It's a simple 12-string acoustic piece with some bass and light percussion. Not really sure what else to say! It's a pleasant way to enjoy a well-earned victory, I think. :smile:

So that's that! I can never tell if shit like this is actually interesting to read about. But if you did enjoy it, please check out our game!

Play "Tristram"!

We just released a post-jam update on itch.io that adds lots of new juice, so even if you have played it already, it might be worth another spin.

If you made it all the way to the bottom, thanks for reading! :green_heart:

PS - If you enjoyed the OST, you can download it for free here.