For the Downhill Dash game project my responsibilities included all the audio design, soundtrack composition, and audio programming using Unity and FMOD. The soundtrack was recorded in Reaper, with me playing guitar and bass, and using drum loops from Splice.
Here is an overview of the FMOD project, showing how various sound effects and other audio pieces were built.
Other Turborilla titles had rock/metal for their music and with how similar longboarding is to skateboarding, it seemed only fitting to do some skate rock music for Downhill Dash too.
As there was a limited time to make the soundtrack (and juggle it with my PO and UI roles), I sourced a variety of short drum loops from Splice to help nail a decent, acoustic drum sound.
After some brief experimentation, I realised that trying to find loops to match guitar riffs I wrote was difficult. So instead I created entire tracks of just drums, following traditional song arrangements, and jammed along with them to come up with the music. This meant the guitar riffs followed and complemented the various drum rhythms and fills, making the tracks tight and consistent.
It was really interesting to seek out a constraint that then gave me a lot of context and inspiration I would not have otherwise had, and the soundtrack is all the better for it.
I aimed to write an upbeat, midtempo rock song to establish the tone of the game but still allow space for the actual level soundtracks to go harder and faster.
Colombia has a lot of attitude and swagger, whilst Norway is a more traditional punk rock track. Both aim to help make the game feel fast, cool, and a little bit dangerous!
The two Leaderboard tracks play after crossing the finish line. The sense of speed is dropped, the sound is less layered and busy, and we settle into something a bit more groovy.