What Austin Wintory learned while composing the music of Stray Gods
10.08.2023 - 13:37
/ gamedeveloper.com
Composer Austin Wintory has a secret that might surprise you. For years, his work in games like Journey, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and Aliens Fireteam Elite has consisted of sweeping scores populated with orchestral swings and emotive choirs. You'd be forgiven for thinking his musical passions were strictly inspired by cinematic soundtracks or the symphony.
You'd be wrong. Wintory's secret is this: he is a giant musical theater nerd.
If you're familiar with the premise of Summerfall Studios' Stray Gods, that may not surprise you. It's a unique experiment of a role-playing game—it's a choice-driven murder mystery that's also a full-length musical. And even though it's about the Classic Greek pantheon, there's more of Sondheim, Fosse, and Lloyd Weber in this game than Hades, or God of War.
To hear Wintory tell it, a game like Stray Gods is something he's been waiting for a long time. Buried in his past are a number of musical projects. He and some friends once staged an unauthorized musical inspired by Buffy the Vampire spinoff Angel, and a decade ago Australian musical trio Tripod (who joined him to work on Stray Gods) staged an evening-length musical with Wintory's deep collaboration.
So when he teamed up with Summerfall to make music for Stray Gods, he knew he'd be able to bring one of his great passions to the world of video games. But he also knew it would be a daunting project—any video game score demands close collaboration with developers, and making a musical would practically mean he was stepping into the roles of level designer, narrative designer and more while doing the work of composer.
That's no easy feat. But Wintory was glad to share some of what he learned by taking on those additional tasks—lessons that might help you if you say, decide to make a riff on Vampire Survivors with Busby Berkeley musical numbers.
Wintory explained that making Stray Gods (which changes musical styles as players make different narrative choices) introduced two unique production challenges. First, each of the different musical paths had to be distinct and avoid referencing events (or melodies) encountered on the other paths.
But second, each of those paths had to be consistent, to sell that uniqueness. They're each defined by a different color, personality trait, and musical style. The "red" options are more "kickass," choices labeled in green are "compassionate and empathetic," and choices in blue would be "clever."
"Red drags things in a hip-hop direction," Wintory explained. "It's not that it turns into a hip hop song, it's that suddenly [the song] gets chattier and there's more density to the lyrics. It's the same way the best hip hop is like this tsunami of poetry.'"
In that section, Wintory would lean on an