Soundtrack: Hypnospace Outlaw — invented genre names that double as the game's clues

Introduction — the sound of another internet, seen while asleep in a headset

Hypnospace Outlaw is an observation-and-deduction puzzle released by Tendershoot (Jay Tholen) in 2019 (see Komugi's review; difficulty "Standard," roughly a 9-hour clear time). It's set in 1999, inside a fictional internet called Hypnospace. You put on a headband, fall asleep, and connect to a shared virtual space, where you play an "Enforcer" moderating rule-breaking pages.

Every note is Jay Tholen's own work. Roughly 90 to 130 BPM, swinging page to page — that's just my ear, not a measurement. Open a new homepage and a different genre starts playing. It feels like retuning a radio dial one station at a time with your fingertip.

A puzzle-specific trait — invented genre names that double as the game's clues

The most surprising thing here is that the music itself becomes a puzzle clue. In an interview with the culture outlet Tone Glow, Tholen explains that "dirthaze," "fungus scene," and "coolpunk" are all genres he invented purely for this game. "Dirthaze is a little bit shoegaze, more or less," he says (Tone Glow).

For fungus scene he even wrote his own rulebook: "the music needs to have spring reverb and it needs to have a low synthy-drone somewhere, possibly gurgling with a lot of filters." By his own account, understanding these fake genres "is very helpful to solving two or three of the big puzzles in the game" — once you know which character likes which genre, you know whose page you're standing on. Here, observation and deduction work through the ear, not the eye.

A hidden link with the experience — every track is credited to a fictional band

Every page in Hypnospace Outlaw is styled as somebody's personal homepage, and the music is credited to a fictional band matching that owner: "Seepage," "Fre3zer," "Chowder Man" — none of them real, yet each one nails the feel of late-90s sequenced music or indie rock with startling precision.

This wasn't a one-man job either. Alongside Tholen's own tracks, real musicians contributed under in-fiction band names: Hot Dad (an EP credited to the fictional "Chowder Man"), Chris Schlarb (an EP for the fictional band "Klyfta"), and Zared ("Celestial Reflection"), among others. The official soundtrack spans six discs and over 150 tracks (per Steam's official soundtrack DLC page). Page design, the personality of whoever "wrote" it, and the fictional artist credited for the track — all three line up on a single thread, which is exactly why the pastiche never feels hollow.

The puzzle analogy — the tempo of clicking links, and the tempo of genres turning over

The puzzle-solving here is built entirely out of jumping from page to page: you find a clue on one page, click a link, and land on the next. Every landing swaps the genre playing underneath you. I want to call this "the BPM of clicking."

This isn't music built to protect long, silent thinking. It's the opposite — it turns the sheer overload of information into a comfortable kind of noise. Every time the genre changes, your ear already knows whose home you've walked into before your eyes catch up. The music hands you the hint one step ahead of the puzzle.

Tracks worth hearing

The official recordings can be heard on Jay Tholen's YouTube channel (the auto-generated "Jay Tholen - Topic" channel) and on Bandcamp.

First, "Hypnos 1.04" — Hypnospace's own system sound, essentially its boot-screen theme. A drowsy chord progression, like the moment right before falling asleep.

The other is "Colder Than the Rest," credited to the fictional band Fre3zer — late-90s synth-pop played deliberately a little rough around the edges.

"Millennium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve) ↗," celebrating the turn of the millennium, is another track that keeps reminding you this is 1999.

Closing — what I'd steal

What I'd steal is this: write the "rules" for a fake genre before you write a single note of it. "Dirthaze" and "fungus scene" aren't improvised on the spot — the instruments, effects, and tempo range are decided first, and only then does the playing get free inside that frame.

Build the scene before you pick the sound — that's something I try never to forget myself, black coffee in hand, writing a track. This is a record I want to click my way back through, one page at a time.

References

・Tone Glow: Jay Tholen interview (on building the fictional genres)

・Steam: Hypnospace Outlaw (Original Soundtrack) official DLC page

・Jay Tholen Bandcamp: Hypnospace Outlaw OST Vol. 1

・Jay Tholen - Topic (official YouTube)

・Wikipedia: Hypnospace Outlaw