How The Disney Illusion Island Team Created One Of The Best Musical Scores Of The Year

18.10.2023 - 17:01 / gameinformer.com / Mickey Mouse / Best

Disney and developer Dlala Studios announced Disney Illusion Island in 2022, and it immediately shot up high on my list of games to play this year. It did so for several reasons – its beautifully realized visuals, top-notch voice acting, and, of course, the potential to play as some of my favorite characters in a Metroidvania-esque adventure. That wasn't all, though; The snippets of composer David Housden's score in the reveal trailer indicated this team was on to something. 

It was clear from the first listen that Housden and Dlala put a lot of effort into making Illusion Island sound like Disney. What's more, it replicated not just the broader stroke that anyone can hear and go, «Oh, that sounds like Disney music,» but instead created something wholly original that simultaneously sounded like the backtrack to decades of shorts and films starring Mickey Mouse. And I was right about that snippet of score in the reveal trailer because when I played the final game earlier this summer – read Game Informer’s Illusion Island review here – I was humming along the entire time. It features a fantastic score, one of my favorites of the year, so I couldn't turn down an opportunity to interview Housden, the game's composer.

Before diving into my interview, though, Game Informer can exclusively reveal a Making Of video all about the process of creating the game's score. You can watch it below:

Illusion Island isn't the first collaboration between Housden and Dlala, with him composing for the studio's 2020 Battletoads revival and the studio's mobile game, Janksy, before that. And it's far from the first team-up between him and Dlala CEO and Illusion Island director AJ Grand-Scrutton. Their history goes back further to band and local pop-punk in England, when, according to Grand-Scrutton, both of them had less gray hair. He says their separate bands crossed paths in the local scene before Housden eventually filled in for one of Grand-Scrutton's members. 

Housden was in college studying music, but not for games specifically, although his dissertation – an exploration of the techniques and technologies used in modern video game soundtrack creation – indicates otherwise. Grand-Scrutton was at Jagex, the team behind Runescape, working with people across development and quality assurance. After working on recompositions for Silent Hill and Dead Island games, Housden was working with Mike Bithell, now leader of Bithell Games, on the score of BAFTA award winner Thomas Was Alone. 

«Everyone knows zombie games translate really well to [Bithell's] game about squares,» Grand-Scrutton jokes. Humor aside, Housden is now a BAFTA-nominated composer courtesy of a game about squares. 

Coincidentally, Bithell Games released Tron: