Indie Video games Plus spoke with the builders of Keylocker to speak about designing music for a recreation the place songs are a type of revolt.
Keylocker is a recreation of revolt in a future the place music is unlawful. Are you able to inform us what impressed this idea?
Nana Moon, Director: The primary inspiration got here from two locations (or possibly I ought to say two books)! The primary one could be Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu, considered one of my favourite sci-fi authors of all time, and Blindness by Saramago! Each books are extremely completely different, however they each labored their means into my mind as important inspiration for Keylocker.
From Wandering Earth, I used to be impressed and intrigued by the alien lifeform that the character (who’s a climber) meets in one of many tales. That character exposes the entire historical past of their folks in a brief format all through the ebook saying how his civilization got here from the core and now they’re colonizing different planets. I needed to work out a worldbuilding a few civilization that got here from the core of the planet excavating outwards. That sounded just like the wildest idea to me, however it ended up working for Keylocker. You get the Satellites excavating from the core of Saturn, constructing a tube round themselves and taking pictures upwards attempting to achieve the environment. A herculean process!
From Blindness, I took the idea of music lacking from the world. Blindness is a ebook a few world with out imaginative and prescient, and I assumed that idea of lack was actually engaging for me and I needed to discover it, however by way of one thing that’s typically seen as “ineffective,” like a number of the arts, or music on this case! It’s seen societally as ineffective, however it’s certainly important for our residing and delight of residing.
Two different books that impressed me for the visuals of the world had been Neuromancer and Synners – each actually good cyberpunk books!
How did this illegality within the music have an effect on the way you carried out sound results and songs into the sport? How did this theme have an effect on the sport’s whole design?
Moon: This recreation was the primary recreation we really employed somebody to do sound results for us; we needed the sounds to be actually skilled! We all know how essential sound is for video games, and it was particularly essential for this recreation the place we considered utilizing silence as a story software as nicely, so the SFX needed to be excellent!
For that, we employed Gustavo Coutinho who has an awesome ardour for this topic and did probably the most unimaginable work for the sport, with my favourite half being the prologue that’s fully silent till you discover Rocket and “unlock music.” This can be a very iconic second within the recreation since, as much as that time, the entire recreation is “silent,” or, I assume, as silent as it may be with the chunky however oppressive sound results of chains coming from the jail that B0B0, the principle character, is attempting to flee.
Elektrobear, Composer: There was a aware selection early on to attempt to spotlight this theme by taking away music totally from the primary space of the sport till you meet Rocket, the Jukebot, and he brings music again into your world (actually). It would’ve turned gamers off the sport for the reason that environment early on might be fairly oppressive, however we expect it’s price it for the second you get to have with Rocket’s introduction.
What sort of music felt proper for Keylocker? What ideas went into making a soundtrack for a recreation the place music is towards the regulation?
Elektrobear: Determining what the music goes to sound like is all the time a little bit of a course of for me, personally. It begins with Nana sending me reference music with the form of tone or feeling she desires to achieve, which on this case was an entire lot of soviet post-punk and goth punk. We tried to go for a extra regular Cyberpunk strategy as nicely, however it wasn’t actually figuring out to start out with.
Finally, by way of some trial and error (plus an entire lot of emulations of Synths that outlined the early period of digital music and people basic ‘80s feeling sounds), I began navigating in direction of a sound that pulled collectively inspirations from punk, funk, disco, metropolis pop, cyberpunk, Arabic parts, classical parts, synth-pop, and alt-rock.
In essence, there are 4 types of musical tracks in Keylocker. There are the band’s songs, which combine synth-pop vibes with that form of early ‘00s alt-rock feeling, and Psamathes pulling all of it collectively along with her heavenly vocals. There are the realm songs which attempt to absorb the sensation of the realm to specific and improve it, passing over the widest space of musicality within the course of. There are the battle songs, that are normally my tackle the Cyberpunk music type – darkish driving synths and drums – and eventually, there are the boss battle songs that are strongly influenced by classical music to try to differentiate the Satellites from the remainder of the world as classical was traditionally the music of the higher courses.
Moon: Because the starting, we all the time knew we needed to work with a singer for this recreation, however we didn’t fairly know the way but. Elektrobear had by no means labored with a singer as much as that time, and I needed to abruptly tackle the work of writing lyrics within the recreation’s language (all to make the whole lot genuine to the world), create that language and discover ways to make lyrics that sound good, in addition to serving to Psamathes and Elektrobear to acclimatize with the imaginative and prescient I had that was nonetheless a bit cloudy at that time. I can say that our final music collectively is certainly a lot better than the primary, however I like all of them and I belief my life within the palms of those two if I have to in the case of placing their all into bringing a implausible soundtrack collectively.
Psamathes, our singer, really has a bodily situation that causes her plenty of ache, and he or she recorded the final music for us in excessive ache earlier than going out for her surgical procedure that wouldn’t permit her to report for some time once we had some tight deadlines. Though not advisable, I can actually really feel the fervour that they’ve for music and for creating such unimaginable songs once they inform me these tales (a lot later after doing the songs so I can’t cease them from doing outlandish issues! [laughs]).
How did you need to work music/rhythm into the fight of the sport? What drew you to deliver parts of rhythm video games into the battles? What do you are feeling this added to the fight?
Moon: Some folks come to our recreation anticipating Crypt of the Necrodancer, however our recreation isn’t like that! Our recreation is extra impressed by the Mario RPG video games with their timed hits on turn-based fight. The rhythm is added with a number of the timed hits which might be connected to the BPM of the songs. We even have a Guitar Hero-like part that showcases the band’s music (with the highly effective vocals by Psamathes).
Anglerman, Animator and Recreation Designer: For fight, the principle concept was to remove the RNG accuracy of RPGs and switch it right into a timing problem that required gamers to pay some extra consideration. I consider this helps deliver the gamers nearer to the precise issues occurring relatively than being within the backseat. Keylocker could be very deterministic, with few RNG parts in its entirety – all of which belong to the whims of the Whale of Time within the setting.
Likewise, are you able to inform us a bit in regards to the Electrical energy system and its Offensive/defensive properties? What appealed to you about including this additional technical layer onto the fight?
Anglerman: Me and Nana went over loads of methods to make the basic MP bar extra than simply spell forex. The aim right here was to provide the gamers plenty of management of probably the most significant standing results present in JRPGs: harm and protection buffs (charging EP into LATKs/LDEFs), in addition to having a continuing ‘mana defend’ towards ‘spells’ (EP lowering electrical harm taken).
In-universe, electrical energy takes many shapes and varieties, however it’s all the time about powering everybody up, as Doppelgangers (B0B0 and Seller) are similar to Robots (Rocket) in additional methods than they themselves notice. Subsequently, they reside off electrical energy – they feed on it and use it to operate every day. All recreation methods needs to be topic to the world setting and lore and all tales should respect the gameplay. That’s what we consider in.
Moon: As Anglerman stated, we all the time join story to gameplay, and as that’s our motto, for this recreation we determined that to make the principle character actually be this beacon of hope in a society with out music. She ought to have one thing no one has any extra: a robust voice. Which serves as an allegory to combating oppression, doing so along with her personal voice, actually!
Characters even have many doable choices for fight skills. What ideas go into designing character skills so gamers might be inventive with how the character works? How do you stability them in order that many various character builds are doable?
Anglerman: Keylocker‘s TUBE world could be very a lot outlined by social hierarchy and sophistication hierarchy. Each single character within the recreation is tied to the definitions of one of many 10 doable courses – even the Satellites. Which means every class is accountable for various things in society corresponding to ‘juggernaut’ NPCs dealing with trash compacting and oil extraction, ‘hackers’ dealing with scientific analysis, ‘attorneys’ dealing with all banking endeavors, and so forth.
Taking that into consideration, all class skills have been made to assist each a particular gameplay type (tied to the 4 base actions) and to assist the in-universe position they’d have. The remaining was trial and error and plenty of testing! We discover it extra partaking to have the ability to customise as many facets of characters as doable inside the framework of the world guidelines (which on this case means the 4 base actions).
Like a lot of your previous work, Keylocker is stuffed with hand-crafted fights meant to problem the participant. How do you create difficult fights with out overwhelming your common participant? What concepts are going into creating a superb battle in Keylocker?
Moon: I believe our common participant is certainly overwhelmed! We had a great deal of folks contacting us about their frustrations with the sport. Nevertheless, people who follow the sport finally perceive one factor: with many struggles come many and greater rewards be they by way of a brand new piece of apparatus or a brand new piece of lore to maintain them hooked. The “I have to see what comes subsequent” finally ends up being the catalyst for his or her character arc from frustration to pure bliss! There’s additionally the massive issue that B0B0 is somebody from the bottom caste on this society. If she doesn’t battle with combating the authoritative figures, then it doesn’t make sense story-wise, and fight and story have to be related always!
Anglerman: Lots has to do with the sport’s philosophy of Dualities. Two assaults, two defenses, similar rule for enemies. You’re both within the offensive or within the defensive and the enjoyable factor is to juggle that quite a bit throughout a battle.
We discovered from our earlier video games that recreation parts needs to be extra slowly launched and fights ought to get wilder as time goes on relatively than peak halfway. Our encounters system was very a lot improved from our earlier recreation to permit some drastic adjustments to enemies throughout their turns, corresponding to altering their AI fully based mostly on dropping an ally or forcing them to forged particular spells based mostly on their present LP/EP, transferring actors round to create new beginning factors, dynamic reinforcements that change relying on which enemy was killed first, floor results added to particular tiles, and variable enemy base stats throughout the battle. All is feasible, however solely to the characters who possess energy to change the battlefield in main methods, which is restricted to high-hierarchical figures in-world.
In the long run it’s a juggle between “that is cool” + “that is doable” + “this can make gamers mad.”
What ideas went into the visible type of the world of Keylocker? How did you form this oppressive world and the rebellious forces seeking to take it again?
Moon: I lived in Brazil my entire life and solely lately moved to England, and one infamous change of tempo for me is how a lot calmer issues are right here. I lived in an enormous capital earlier than. I used to be born in Rio de Janeiro and it’s chaotic there, it’s sizzling, everybody is sweet to you as a result of it’s the one option to undergo the chaos, there’s so many individuals round, it’s nicely lived, and vibrant. It’s absolutely the reverse of the small countryside cottage English life I reside now.
The Scrapyard Zone is tremendous impressed by my residence city, not as a result of it has trash in every single place, however since you kinda know everybody and if you don’t, they nonetheless are good to you. That aesthetic of makeshift properties are impressed by favela housing the place folks construct their very own properties across the edges of harmful mountains. I all the time discovered that to be a gorgeous state of being human, specifically as these on the periphery, residing on the literal fringe of a self-contained world. Favelas are like little small self-contained cities – they’ve nearly the whole lot they may want, they usually have a very robust sense of group. That’s what I needed to specific with the folks of the Scrapyard Zone, the primary space you go to in Keylocker.
And B0b0 carries that residence along with her, taking her associates alongside for the experience. I discover it actually fascinating how one can observe these characters evolve and categorical their character arcs as they’re uncovered increasingly more to the corruption of this world. The Satellites needed to look and be the precise reverse of that. There’s no sense of union between them; there’s solely a way of frigid battle. They aren’t associates amongst themselves and even their relationships are thought-about taboo and unacceptable. Their visuals are considerably impressed by the dystopian world staple of people who characterize oppression having outrageous, socially unacceptable style. A bit just like the world we reside in ourselves. Take a look at the Met Gala. It brings a little bit of that sense of not who they’re however as a substitute wanting on the pores and skin that covers their identification, their style being a shadow that attracts their crude selves into darkness.
Likewise, what concepts went into the character design? How did you discover the placing look of your characters, and the way did the unlawful music theme assist form them?
Moon: The characters had been undoubtedly impressed by plenty of visible media from the previous that I like. To say some, I can say Evangelion, Video Lady Ai, Akira, and Ghost within the Shell, undoubtedly. I assume Akira is simply pivotal as inspiration for any fashionable Cyberpunk creation and Telesto is a personality that may very well be featured in EVA (if I do say so myself). Though, the inspirations are so many who it then turns into one thing of its personal variety.
I additionally actually love the aesthetics of PC Engine pixel artwork and needed to seize from that for the portraits and even world pixel artwork. Every Satellite tv for pc idea artwork revered particular character guidelines – they wanted to have some type of encircling ring round them to characterize their overbearing energy as Saturnian’s rings. B0b0 and the characters from the Scrapyard Zone are extra off the sting, residing in a Zone that’s closely noticed however on the similar time deserted, so that they have extra sensible and distinctive apparel from one another, a factor of peripheral tradition the place folks can have their very own type of dressing that could be very distinctive to every particular person.
Characters from Soundwave Metropolis had been alleged to be extremely oppressed – you barely discuss to them as a result of they’re silenced, in order that informs how they give the impression of being a bit extra same-y between one another. Members of the Church use a particular apparel relying on their rank, and it’s all associated to their unusual cult. The Clericopters have cone heads with smiles as a result of they obtain a head transplant upon being settle for as members of the clergy on its first rank, however then afterward you’ll uncover the bloody historical past of this ugly faith and why they give the impression of being the way in which they do.
All of that is related to the world and indirectly related to the roots of Cyberpunk as a style. I principally needed to make the designs extra based mostly on the idea behind what’s cyberpunk, as a substitute of simply making it based mostly on issues that look cyberpunk sufficient. That idea of it being punk, that Vivienne Westwood and the Intercourse Pistols British tradition, that revolt towards the institution – it’s all a nod to that.
What do you hope gamers take away out of your recreation and its story?
Moon: I hope that on the level of ending this recreation, at the very least one particular person on the earth has the proper instruments to start out an anti-capitalist revolution of their very own that hopefully can save us all from this mindless insanity we reside in.
Elektrobear: The sport trade wants extra video games like Keylocker, and avid gamers deserve extra video games prefer it too. The world is way too stagnant and uninteresting for one thing like this recreation to be forged apart for an additional rehash or remaster of final decade’s inventive concepts. We needs to be celebrating and upholding the now and the way forward for video games and transferring ahead collectively. Making new and fascinating issues that problem the norm isn’t all the time a easy highway, however it’s the mandatory lifeblood of our inventive trade and I actually hope folks can see this recreation for what it’s and are available to have a good time it. Extra video games ought to dare to be fascinating.
Keylocker is obtainable now on the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Retailer, Microsoft Retailer, and Steam.
About The Creator
