{"id":3907,"date":"2017-10-27T11:04:32","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T15:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=3907"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:26:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:26:53","slug":"writing-spooky-game-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/writing-spooky-game-music\/","title":{"rendered":"How Undertale helps us write spooky game music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does the Lavender Town theme from Pok\u00e9mon<\/em>\u00a0give you the shivers?<\/h2>\n

Do you remember running from the monster piano and flying books to the creepy music in the haunted house from Super Mario 64<\/em>? With Halloween right around the corner, there\u2019s no better time to dive into a piece of “spooky” video game music and the compositional techniques that elevate the fear factor of the game. More specifically, let’s take a look at the soundtrack of a more recent video game\u2014Undertale.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Your Best Nightmare” (Undertale<\/em>)<\/h2>\n

There’s a heated debate in the Undertale<\/em> community on whether the scariness of Flowey compares to that of Earthbound<\/em>\u2019s Giygas, considering the Earthbound<\/em> franchise is said to have influenced game developer and composer Toby Fox when he was creating Undertale<\/em>. Some view Undertale<\/em> as nothing more than a big homage to Earthbound<\/em>, but wherever you might stand on the matter, it\u2019s undeniable that Toby Fox maintains a unique voice as a composer and storyteller\u2014Photoshop Flowey\u2019s battle theme proves this, standing distinct from Giygas\u2019 theme or other spooky video game pieces in general that come to mind.<\/p>\n