Soundtrack: TOEM — written 90 percent pretty, 10 percent playful, for a game about walking

Introduction — a quiet frame, walking through a black-and-white town

TOEM is an observation-and-exploration puzzle game released by Something We Made in 2021 (see Komugi's review; difficulty rated "Easy," with an estimated 5-hour clear time). You walk through a town that looks like black-and-white papercraft, take photos of the scenery, and help people with small favors. No combat, no timer, anywhere.

The music is by Jamal Green and Launchable Socks (real name Joost Kraaijenbrink). According to an interview with the industry outlet Game Developer, tracks from Rumsklang and Anes Sabanovic are woven in too (gamedeveloper.com). Roughly 80 BPM, maybe — that's only my ear, not a measurement — never fast enough to hurry your walk.TOEM (official Steam screenshot)

A puzzle-specific trait — using the gap between tracks as music itself

In that same interview, Green says "the audio effects are equally important in putting the player in a certain mood," and that the team deliberately placed silence and ambient sound between musical pieces to let players "breathe" (gamedeveloper.com).

TOEM's puzzles carry no timer and no failure state. You're given the whole of your time back just to raise a camera, peer through a telescope, and simply look. I hear that stretch of near-silence as something folded into the score's own design, not a gap left over from it.TOEM (official Steam screenshot)

A hidden link with the experience — a Swedish seaside town and "an exercise in restraint"

Launchable Socks wrote this score while living in a small Swedish seaside town, aiming, in his own words from that same interview, for "the peace and tranquility you can find in small towns and nature in Sweden" (gamedeveloper.com).

He calls that restraint itself "an exercise in restraint—making sure you don't add too much when the track already says everything it needs to say" (same interview). TOEM's whole interaction is built from two plain gestures: raise a camera, look through a telescope. I think the music is written the same way, by subtraction rather than addition.TOEM (official Steam screenshot)

The puzzle analogy — a camera that doesn't rush you, and music that doesn't either

TOEM's photographs never have just one right answer. Change the angle of the light or the timing even slightly, and the same subject becomes a different picture. It's less a game about solving a puzzle than about noticing one.

I hear the same ratio the team named — "90 percent pretty, 10 percent cute" — laid over that. Lean too far into cute and it becomes background music; lean too far into cute-as-a-joke and it undercuts the mood. Music built to hold your attention on observation is made of that 90 percent prettiness: it never makes you laugh, and it never hurries you. Even my ear, always itching to count a BPM, never feels the urge with this score. I think that not-wanting-to-count is exactly the point.

Tracks worth hearing

The official audio streams on Jamal Green's and Launchable Socks's own official channels (YouTube).

Start with Jamal Green's "Photo Of Home" — a track that turns the town's warmth straight into its title. Then Launchable Socks's "Fisherman's Tune," a melody with the salt-air feel of a seaside town, where I think Kraaijenbrink's "small-town quiet" comes through most clearly.

If you'd rather sit with the tracks one by one, the same music also streams on the official Bandcamp pages linked below.

Closing — what I'd steal

Here's what I'd steal: the design of the gap between tracks. Deliberately placing silence and ambient sound isn't just about staying quiet — it's a calculated pause, sized so a player can actually breathe for one beat in their head.

One more thing: decide the ratio — 90 percent pretty, 10 percent playful — before you write a note, instead of falling back on one-note cuteness. Next time I score an observation-style puzzle, I want to start with the sound for the moments when nothing is happening at all.

References

・Steam: TOEM Original Soundtrack — official DLC page crediting Jamal Green / Launchable Socks

・Game Developer: "TOEM - Something We Made" (composer interview discussing restraint and the "90 percent pretty, 10 percent cute" ratio)

・Launchable Socks's official Bandcamp

・Jamal Green's official Bandcamp

・Jamal Green's official YouTube — "Photo Of Home"

・Launchable Socks's official YouTube — "Fisherman's Tune"