TAG
#soundtrack
0 篇评论 · 100 篇随笔
相关随笔
Soundtrack: Day of the Tentacle Remastered — one mansion, scored by three composers across three centuries
Day of the Tentacle is a time-travel adventure where three heroes solve one puzzle across the past, present, and future of a single mansion. The score splits the same way — Bajakian scored the past, McConnell the present, Land the future — and LucasArts' adaptive music system iMUSE lets it shift smoothly, scene by scene. Over black coffee, I trace how the same trick that turns wine into vinegar for the puzzle happens to the music too.
Soundtrack: Hypnospace Outlaw — invented genre names that double as the game's clues
Hypnospace Outlaw is an observation-and-deduction puzzle set inside a fictional 1999 internet. Composer Jay Tholen invented genres that exist nowhere else — "dirthaze," "fungus scene" — and built them into the game's actual puzzles. Checked against a Tone Glow interview, Doremi reads how a six-disc, roughly 150-track soundtrack tied to fictional in-game bands lines up with the rhythm of clicking from page to page.
Soundtrack: Wilmot's Warehouse — variations as the order for a shelf with no right answer
Eli Rainsberry wrote every note of Wilmot's Warehouse's score, answering a sorting puzzle with no right answer with music that never hurries. He jokingly calls the work "the Wilmot Variations." Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, dig out what a composer can steal from it.
Soundtrack: Bonfire Peaks — the more you carry, the heavier it sounds; burn it, and it lifts
Bonfire Peaks is a Sokoban-style puzzle game where Corey Martin handled design, programming, and music himself. You carry your belongings up a cliff and burn them in a bonfire at the summit. Doremi reads the score he called "equal parts warm, pretty and unsettling" alongside the game's path from a 2018 jam about sacrifice to a story about nostalgia.
Soundtrack: TOEM — written 90 percent pretty, 10 percent playful, for a game about walking
TOEM is an observation-and-exploration puzzle game where you walk a black-and-white, papercraft-like town taking photographs. Composed by Jamal Green and Launchable Socks (Joost Kraaijenbrink), the score is checked against a Game Developer interview: deliberate silence and ambient sound placed between tracks, and a stated "90 percent pretty, 10 percent cute" philosophy. Doremi listens for how the camera's unhurried pace and the music's unhurried pace line up.
Soundtrack: Thomas Was Alone — one melody that changes clothes every time a rectangle joins
The score for Thomas Was Alone dresses a single short melody in new clothes, track after track. Composed by David Housden, the sound shifts texture each time a new rectangle joins the cast. Cross-checking his own interview and critical reviews, black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart.
Soundtrack: Quern - Undying Thoughts — a score that doesn't rush you, so it can protect your long thinking
Quern - Undying Thoughts is a Myst-like puzzle game built around studying mechanisms and reusing the same tools with new meanings. Composed by Marcell Kerepesi, its official soundtrack runs 38 tracks over roughly 115 minutes. Doremi checks reviews that praise its unrushed, meditative score, and listens for why it never steps on the machinery sounds that are themselves the puzzle clues, and how its tempo balances against a puzzle design built on returning again and again.
Soundtrack: 7 Billion Humans — hire more workers, and the band grows too
7 Billion Humans is the sequel to Human Resource Machine, where a single new hire became a whole floor of workers all running the same program at once. The composer is still Kyle Gabler. Where the first game ran almost everything through one software synth, the sequel brings in a real guitarist and cellist and even swaps genres mid-album, as on "Stressed Out Bossa Nova." Gabler's own liner note calls it music for "happy multi-threaded programming" — the band, like the workforce, gets bigger to match.
Soundtrack: Minit — the sound that gave up on stillness to keep pace with sixty seconds
Minit resets you to zero every sixty seconds, cursed sword and all. Composer Jukio Kallio originally imagined something quiet and ambient, then realized a hard time limit woven into the gameplay wouldn't allow it, and rethought the whole approach. The game's hidden jukebox recostumes one melody into nine genres, from country to black metal. Doremi listens for how the sixty-second panic and the music's tempo line up.
Soundtrack: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy — even the silence was a measure the composer wrote
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy's score is built so its tempo shifts the closer you get to cracking a witness. Drawing on an interview with composer Masakazu Sugimori, Doremi listens for how the letter-by-letter dialogue and the music's silences stay in sync.
Soundtrack: La-Mulana — sounding out a past that never existed, in 8-bit memory
La-Mulana scores a fake ancient civilization with the memory of an 8-bit computer that, in this exact form, never existed either. Composed by Takumi Naramura and Houryū Samejima, Doremi draws on the developers' own 2009 blog Q&A and Wikipedia to hear why the game's hardest puzzles never wear out their welcome — and why one fan-favorite track had to be quietly rewritten.
Soundtrack: Escape Academy — the man who dressed 47 rooms in 47 genres
Escape Academy's score swaps genres wholesale from room to room instead of racing the clock. Composed by doseone, Doremi listens — drawing on a developer interview and a hands-on preview — for why the music never accelerates under time pressure, and how its 47 tracks mirror the game's own choice of breadth over depth.
Soundtrack: Infinifactory — the factory sound that never rushes you, no matter how many rebuilds it takes
Infinifactory is Zachtronics' puzzle game where an abducted human builds factory lines for unseen aliens. The score is by Matthew S Burns, the same composer behind EXAPUNKS and SHENZHEN I/O. Scoring only happens after you run your build, and the loops sit at an unhurried 67–98 BPM. I, Doremi, take apart what a composer can learn from a soundtrack built never to rush you.
Soundtrack: Trine 2: Complete Story — from a forest lullaby to a battlefield of drums
Trine 2: Complete Story is a physics puzzle-platformer built around switching between three heroes. Drawing on an interview with composer Ari Pulkkinen, Doremi listens for how the score grew from the first game's gentleness into something built on drums.
Soundtrack: Tetris Effect: Connected — every rotation adds a note to the song
Tetris Effect: Connected’s score is music written as a system: every move you make adds to it. Drawing on interviews with composer team Hydelic and a technical audio breakdown, Doremi listens for how line clears, the Zone mode, and elapsed time all grow the song.
Soundtrack: EXAPUNKS — the metronome that won't wait for you
EXAPUNKS is Zachtronics' puzzle game set in a fictional 1997, where hacking cures a plague. The score is by Matthew S Burns, the same composer behind Opus Magnum. I, Doremi, take apart the beat of a program that starts ticking the moment you hit RUN — and the synth textures around it — through a lens you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Untitled Goose Game — the piano that reveals itself the louder you misbehave
The score for Untitled Goose Game is a solo piano performance: Debussy's Préludes, re-recorded and sliced into hundreds of fragments. Composed by Dan Golding, it runs through three states — silence, watchful low-energy, and full chase — all keyed to how suspicious the goose looks. Over black coffee, I, Doremi, take apart this idea of a performer who's watching you.
Soundtrack: Kaizen: A Factory Story — the cue that opens every morning
The music of Kaizen: A Factory Story brings a real Japanese radio-calisthenics broadcast straight into an automation puzzle set in 1980s Japan. Composed by Matthew S. Burns, Sam Kulchin, and Drew Messinger-Michaels, with track titles like 'Radio Taiso' and 'Matsuzawa Spirit' — real-world names, played straight. Over black coffee, I, Doremi, take apart that trick.
Soundtrack: The Witness — the seven-year decision never to write a score
The Witness's soundtrack is designed by refusing to exist. Doremi listens to the footsteps and ambiences that Andrew Lackey of Wabi Sabi Sound spent six of the game's seven years recording.
Soundtrack: Inscryption — The music changes genre the moment you leave the cabin
Composer Jonah Senzel rewrites the genre wholesale every time Inscryption's story turns a page. Doremi listens to why the four Scrybes' track titles double as a design document.
Soundtrack: A Little to the Left — music that never rushes you to finish
The music for the tidying puzzle A Little to the Left was written by Canadian composer Justin Karas. A design with multiple right answers and no failure state gets a score with no wrong-answer sound at all. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, dig out what a composer can steal from it.
Soundtrack: Terra Nil — music written for an ending, on a wasteland
The music of Terra Nil was written by French ambient composer Meydän. Its track titles trace the game's own arc — purify, plant, leave — and this "0 BPM" score, unusually, even writes itself an ending. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, dig out what a composer can steal from it.
Soundtrack: SUPERHOT — Composing Without Any Music
SUPERHOT, the first-person shooter where time only moves when you do, has no music at all — only sound design wired directly to your own speed. Its 2020 expansion, MIND CONTROL DELETE, answers with a loud drum-and-bass score by Zardonic. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart this swing from silence to noise for what it teaches about writing music.
Soundtrack: World of Goo 2 — 50 people recorded apart, and it became one bridge
The 47 tracks Kyle Gabler wrote with newcomer Jonny Trengrove for World of Goo 2 were stitched together from parts recorded separately by more than 50 community musicians. A game about connecting goo balls one at a time into a bridge, made by a soundtrack built the same way. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart that coincidence for what it teaches about making music.
RiME 原声带 — 在回应呼喊的岛上，悲伤的五个阶段层层堆叠
一座只要呼喊，石像便会回应的岛；随着章节推进，也一步步攀上悲伤的五个阶段——在《RiME》中，David García Díaz 所写的音乐，采用的是让一个主题“边成长边回归”的设计。我，Doremi，端着一杯黑咖啡，从可以带回到自己创作中的角度，将它拆解开来。
Mini Metro 的原声 — 线路图奏响的和弦
线路图解谜 Mini Metro 的音乐，被做成了每引一条线、和弦本身便被改写的生成式系统。作曲者 Disasterpeace（Rich Vreeland）把制作时间的九成花在写代码上，甚至为每座城市仕込了不同的和声性格。在拥挤与余裕之间持续鸣响的声音，由 Doremi 以制作的目光加以读解。
Soundtrack: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter — chords with the third removed, built to make you walk
For a mystery you wander with no map and no HUD, Mikolai Stroinski wrote a score of fourths and fifths that never commit to major or minor, seeding a solo-piano theme, Ethan's Theme, through the rest of the album in disguise. Doremi, coffee in hand, takes apart the hidden link between a game built from scattered memories you must reorder and a score built from a single theme's fragments you can't quite name.
Soundtrack: Firmament — the memory of one synth, filling a rusted planet
Maclaine Diemer chose the same synthesizer Myst's composer Robyn Miller once played, and carried that sonic memory forward into a new generation. Including the story of how he first met Firmament as a single Kickstarter backer and later became its composer, I, Doremi, take apart the 'almost entirely synth, with two or three exceptions' score of this single-tool first-person puzzler — with a black coffee in hand, through a lens you can carry home to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Return to Monkey Island — the notes a skull sings open the map
Ron Gilbert's pirate comedy came full circle after thirty years, and the composers who invented iMuse itself — Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian — came back with it. From the specific notes hidden inside a skull-striking map puzzle to the way melodies change their breathing every time you walk through a door, I, Doremi, trace the design through verified interviews and credits, black coffee in hand.
Soundtrack: Dorfromantik — a breath of sound that never keeps score
For Dorfromantik, a game about nothing more than laying hexagonal tiles, Laryssa Okada and Pygoscelis (with Only Sound) laid down a carpet of sound that never announces a win or a loss. No fanfare rings out for points, no tension spikes at a perfect fit. Roughly counting the BPM, black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, trace this design of 'never sounding off' back through the label credits and developer background.
Soundtrack: Kine — engineering a jazz you cannot play wrong
For Kine, where three instrument-robots roll through a theatrical city dreaming of making it as a band, Chel Wong wrote show-tune-flavored jazz. But it is not music that follows a score. Every roll the player makes on the board sounds a note, and so that this improvisation can never go wrong, a safety net is stretched underneath - a key, a constant bassline, banks of recorded sound. Verifying the design of this 'jazz you cannot play wrong' against the composer's own Q&A and developer interviews, black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart.
Soundtrack: Monument Valley — An accompaniment, not a guide
The music Stafford Bawler, Obfusc and Grigori wrote for ustwo games' optical-illusion puzzle Monument Valley never pushes to the front with melody. What accompanies the short journey of rotating isometric monuments into paths is soft-edged ambient and a single chord that rings each time you turn a column. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart through one lens: how does music that stays pure accompaniment become something you can touch?
Soundtrack: Grim Fandango Remastered — the first big-band beat in the land of the dead
Peter McConnell's score paints the dead's four-year journey in film-noir big-band jazz, Mexican folk music, and orchestra. How does iMUSE, its dynamic music system, mesh with the time of an adventure where you get stuck and return to the same room? I write it in my own words, as a piece about design you can carry home.
Soundtrack: Samorost 3 — When playing the flute becomes the journey
Blow the flute that fell from the sky, and the sounds of the world draw closer — in Amanita Design's Samorost 3, Tomáš Dvořák (Floex) made the music itself the tool you play with. Why does this roughly 88-minute album, woven from clarinet and live instruments, breathe in such perfect time with a wordless journey? Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart through the lens of 'the verb of making a sound.'
Thimbleweed Park 的原声带 — 决定绝不奏出提示的音乐
Steve Kirk 为 Thimbleweed Park 写的音乐，不会帮你解谜。无论踩下还是推动什么，答案所在之处都不会响起提示音。在混合了特雷门琴、酒廊爵士与前卫摇滚的 palette 里，他所奏响的，只是「正在运转的小镇」的空气。端着一杯黑咖啡，我 Doremi 来拆解这段音乐为何拒绝给出提示，以及每个 location 准备的「Pool」机制里，有什么值得偷师的地方。
Soundtrack: Ghost Trick — the swing of possession, rewinding the four minutes before death
A gunshot, and the hero is already dead. As a ghost he possesses objects, chains the single action each one can perform, and re-edits the four minutes before someone's death — and the music for Shu Takumi's Ghost Trick was written by Masakazu Sugimori, composer of the very first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. A swing a touch faster than a walk, and short loops that never grate no matter how many times you rewind. The 2023 HD remaster re-recorded them under Takumi's supervision. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart through a lens a composer can carry home.
Telling Lies 原声带 —— 顺序随意播放，却只有一侧的音乐
Sam Barlow的Telling Lies，是一款检索他人影像记录、并将其拼接起来的推理解谜游戏。Nainita Desai的配乐，与影像本身一样，采用了"无论以何种顺序播放都能成立"的模块化结构。伦敦当代乐团的现场演奏、把琴弓摩擦在琴弦琴码上的"频谱擦弦"奏法、以7/4拍开场的主题曲。玩家拖拽影像时间轴的动作，为何也悄悄藏在音乐之中？我，Doremi，手持一杯黑咖啡，来将它拆解。
Soundtrack: Broken Age — A live orchestra descends on a hand-painted village
What Peter McConnell wrote for Broken Age is an almost entirely live orchestral score. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and a small ensemble breathe in a way no sample can. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart how a co-inventor of iMUSE fitted his music to the wandering hands of point-and-click — through a lens you can take home to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Botany Manor — Music that keeps no clock
In Botany Manor you coax long-forgotten plants back into bloom inside a retired botanist's estate. Thomas Williams' score is small-ensemble chamber music built around close-recorded violin and harp, and each forgotten plant carries its own theme. Why does this unhurried music sit so well against a puzzle with no timer and no failure? Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart through a lens you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Into the Breach — the music that waits for the last mech to land
Ben Prunty's score for Into the Breach paints the apocalypse without ever getting damp — muted guitar and strings colliding, music with a high body temperature. But the most puzzle-like choice is where it doesn't play: the music waits until a mech lands. Over black coffee, I, Doremi, take apart that design of silence.
Soundtrack: Myst — the presence that flowed into an island that had decided against music
Cyan's Robyn Miller first intended to put no music in Myst at all, believing it would get in the way of the puzzles. But a few tests showed that sound did help 'the mood of the places' — and so roughly forty minutes of music, written on a single synth across two weeks of evenings, later flowed into the island. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart a score that began from the side of subtraction, and the Selenitic mechanism where sound itself becomes the key.
Portal 原声带——沉默过后，机器开始歌唱
Portal 的测试室，几乎不发出声响。Kelly Bailey 与 Mike Morasky 所写的环境音乐，像空调一样沉入背景之中，直到数小时的沉默过后，GLaDOS 才终于开口歌唱——那就是 Jonathan Coulton 写的《Still Alive》。我，Doremi，手握一杯黑咖啡，拆解「无声的设计」与「由敌人作词的一曲」，捡拾出可以带回自己创作中的要点。
Soundtrack: Genesis Noir — a universe built from improvisation, sounding when you touch it
In the black-and-white adventure Genesis Noir, a watch salesman named No Man tries to save his lover from the Big Bang — a gunshot fired by a jealous god. There is no dialogue; the story runs almost entirely on sound. Skillbard's Tom Carrell and Vincent Oliver spent four years scoring the cosmos by 'bolting live jazz improvisations together like puzzle pieces.' Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart why a touch-and-try puzzle and an improvised score fit each other so well.
Soundtrack: Timelie — Rewindable music, built for scrubbing time
A girl and a black cat escape by scrubbing time itself back and forth like a media player. Under that board you hear piano, a music box, and — sounds sampled from an array of clocks. Pongsathorn Posayanonth and Aun Jessada wove 'the sound of time' into the score. Black coffee in hand, I take apart music written on the assumption that the player will constantly rewind, in a form you can carry home to your own work.
Soundtrack: Murder by Numbers — the sound of filling one cell at a time in a neon-lit L.A. detective show
Los Angeles, 1996: fired TV actress Honor and a robot named SCOUT she fished out of a trash heap chase murderers while solving nonogram (Picross) puzzles — and the music for Mediatonic's Murder by Numbers was written by Masakazu Sugimori, composer of the very first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Jazzy lounge cues, plus five loops written specifically for puzzle-solving. Including the Honor's Theme that disguises itself as a TV show's theme song, I, Doremi, take it apart, black coffee in hand, through a lens a composer can carry home.
Creaks 的原声带——一次次重新诞生的“活”音乐
Amanita Design 的《Creaks》中，Joe Acheson 写下的是一部由100余首曲目生成式分岔演奏的“活的原声带”。哪怕回到同一个房间，音乐也不会再次以同样的方式响起；当快要解开谜题的瞬间，乐器会悄悄增加，轻推你一把。在没有台词、没有界面文字的宅邸中，音乐成了唯一的伙伴——我 Doremi 端着一杯黑咖啡，从谱曲的角度来拆解这套机制。
Soundtrack: The Turing Test — one motif that keeps asking, human or machine
The music Sam Houghton and Yakobo wrote for The Turing Test is dark, minimal, and never congratulates you. Nearly every track carries the same motif, changing its colour room by room. Black coffee in hand, I — Doremi — take apart the design of 'one motive, endlessly distorted' and the nerve of music that refuses to react to your solving, in a form you can carry home to your own writing.
Soundtrack: Vessel — Water music that assembles itself as you solve
The music of Strange Loop Games' liquid puzzler Vessel is ten tracks Jon Hopkins had already released, taken apart and reassembled in real time by Leonard J. Paul's engine. The further you push into a puzzle, the more the smouldering background gathers drums and bass, until the full track plays the instant you solve it. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart why the reward can be the completion of a piece rather than a victory jingle - from the angle of someone who writes music.
Soundtrack: Gunpoint — silence by default, and the circuitry sings only while you plan
The three composers Tom Francis picked through an open call — Ryan Ike, John Robert Matz, and Francisco Cerda — gave Gunpoint a sound drifting between jazz noir and electronics. Like the stealth puzzle it scores, it stays silent most of the time. But the instant you enter Crosslink mode to rewire the circuitry, the same cue slides into an electronic variation. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart this design that switches thought and action through sound, in a form you can carry back to your own writing.
Heaven's Vault 原声带 — 为每一个发现的瞬间,备好一个小和弦
考古学家阿莉娅与搭档机器人 Six 一起,在星云之河上划船,寻找失踪的学者——这是 inkle 的叙事冒险游戏。核心是解读古代文字的谜题。作曲是 Laurence Chapman。在弦乐四重奏亲密的声响之下,他悄悄准备了约20首只为“发现的瞬间”而写的短曲。解读这个谜题,与那些小小的和弦究竟如何咬合——我 Doremi 端着一杯黑咖啡,来把它拆开看看。
Taiji 的原声带 — 在沉默的系谱里，偏偏选择继续鸣响
Taiji 是《The Witness》的直系后代。但本家舍弃音乐、把赌注押在环境音上，这座岛却选择了持续铺陈永不停歇的氛围音。作曲是开发者本人 Matthew VanDevander，再由 Grzegorz Bednorz 重新编织成一张有限的专辑。端着一杯黑咖啡，我 Doremi 来拆解“继续鸣响”这个选择为何与观察类解谜如此契合——拆到可以带回自己的作曲里的程度。
Psychonauts 原声带——每次潜入他人脑海，曲风都会改变
每次潜入他人的脑海，音乐的曲风便会整个替换。Peter McConnell 为《Psychonauts》所写的二十首曲子，听起来仿佛各自来自不同的唱片架：弗拉门戈、《阴阳魔界》式的诡异、夏令营风的民谣。为什么如此不加节制却不显得杂乱？我，Doremi，端着一杯黑咖啡，用可以带回自己创作中的视角，来拆解这一切。
Soundtrack: Etherborn — gravity changes direction, but the music never falls over
Walk onto a curved surface and only your own gravity flips — Etherborn's puzzles are quiet and never rush you. As a voiceless, translucent being you gather orbs of light and climb Escher-like abstract architecture. Inside that inorganic geometry, the one thing that sounds with body heat is Gabriel Garrido García's music: a string quartet, clarinet, bassoon, and soprano recorded live in Barcelona. Exactly seven years after its release today, I, Doremi, take apart the sound of this small gem over a black coffee.
Soundtrack: The Sexy Brutale — a masquerade that tells time by ear
The music Matt Bonham and Tim Cotterell wrote for The Sexy Brutale is electro-swing that conjures a 1920s masquerade — but underneath, it is the most precise clock in the mansion. It differs from wing to wing, tightens toward each scheduled murder, and resets with the loop at midnight. How a time-loop mystery and its music mesh, and how to steal the 'let the sound measure the hour' idea for your own writing. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart.
Soundtrack: Riven — On an island where you stand still, the music refuses to conclude
Cyan's Robyn Miller returned after 27 years to re-voice, for the 2024 remake, the music he first wrote for Riven. On an island you can wander freely, the score is not allowed to swell — and in a puzzle-adventure of observation and note-taking, water and machinery, not melody, take the lead. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart.
Soundtrack: Contrast — live jazz lit inside a city solved by shadows
Move a light, reshape the shadow on the wall, and slip into it as a 2D silhouette — Contrast's puzzles are quiet and ask you to observe. Yet this 1920s-styled city glows with live jazz: songs the cabaret singer Kat actually performs inside the story. Smoky ballads written by Nicolas Marquis and sung by Laura Ellis. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart a design where the music becomes a character.
Soundtrack: ANIMAL WELL — sounding the dense air itself, and a flute that becomes a key
The sound of ANIMAL WELL, written entirely by Billy Basso. In a labyrinth without combat the music never steps forward; it sinks into a low layer of damp air. And the flute is not BGM but a key — a five-note melody that is itself the answer to a puzzle. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, break down this design — a limited-palette aesthetic moved into sound — in a form you can take back to your own composing.
Human Resource Machine 原声带——用一台合成器搭建出的、安静上班族之声
Kyle Gabler为《Human Resource Machine》创作的音乐，几乎全部由一款免费软件合成器Synth1完成。办公室里飘着的慵懒爵士、游戏内十几秒就循环一次的小小回路、专辑里被拉长的同一主题——我Doremi端着一杯黑咖啡，从可以带回自己创作中的视角，拆解这套由制约催生的设计。
Soundtrack: SHENZHEN I/O — music that names your concentration in its titles
SHENZHEN I/O is a programming puzzle where you write terse assembly for a fictional Shenzhen manufacturer. Matthew S Burns, who wrote its story and art, wrote the music too. The nine track titles — 'Enthusiasm,' 'Concentration,' 'Patience' — name not the scenery but the stations of the solver's mind. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart this 'music for thinking' through a lens you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: FRACT OSC — solve the puzzle and the music grows back
The music Alex Taam (Mogi Grumbles) wrote for FRACT OSC is not playing as a finished piece from the start. Each puzzle you solve in its ruined synthesizer world switches on one more layer - a bass, a pad, an arpeggio - until the player's own hands have assembled the score. Using the composer's own statement that he kept every piece in C pentatonic minor as a thread, black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart through a lens you can bring back to your own composing.
Poly Bridge 的原声音乐——即便桥塌了，也不苛责你的音乐
崩塌的桥梁、重新来过的手指，以及不苛责这一切的原声吉他。以可供作曲借鉴的视角，解读Adrian Talens用一把吉他写就的『旅途音乐』。
Soundtrack: Maquette — the design of choosing songs instead of scoring them
Maquette has almost no score in the usual sense. What plays instead are real songs by San Francisco indie musicians — the kind a now-parted couple might actually have listened to. While you solve the recursive diorama, why is there lyric-heavy pop in your ears? Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart what it means to choose songs rather than write them, in a form you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Paradise Killer — I decide the running order
What Barry "Epoch" Topping wrote for Paradise Killer is 24 tracks where city pop melts into vaporwave. The developers call it not music pinned to specific scenes but a single album. An order-free investigation, paired with an order-free playlist. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart why this music lands through 'happy coincidence,' in a form you can carry home to your own writing.
Soundtrack: Q.U.B.E. 2 — Sound that is almost real, and not
The music David Housden wrote for Q.U.B.E. 2 is a calm, beautiful layer of piano, strings and synths. But the beauty has a trick in it. To match a premise in which an alien structure imitates Earth, he ran real sounds through synthesizers to make tones that are almost real, and not. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart the distance between first-person puzzle thinking and this sound, through a lens you can take home to your own composing.
The Gardens Between 的原声音乐——即便倒流时间，声音也绝不倒退
Tim Shiel 为 The Gardens Between 所写的音乐，尽管这是一款可以把时间前后倒流的游戏，音乐本身却绝不会被逆向播放。我 Doremi 端着一杯黑咖啡，从可以带回自己创作中的视角出发，拆解为什么“即便倒流也不会倒退的声音”对这款记忆解谜游戏如此奏效。
Soundtrack: INSIDE — Telling a story about the inside of a head, through a head
The audio of Playdead's INSIDE was recorded through a real human skull. Martin Stig Andersen and SØS Gunver Ryberg pushed synth tones through bone to give them a brittle, hollow quality. Why does 'sound heard from inside a head' work so well for a puzzle about hijacking other bodies through mind control? Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take it apart.
Soundtrack: IMMORTALITY — recording a theme together with its dark underside
You chase a vanished actor through her unreleased films by scrubbing footage — and for Sam Barlow / Half Mermaid's live-action mystery IMMORTALITY, Nainita Desai wrote three orchestral themes, one for each of the three films. What is really interesting is that each theme carries shadows: a 'subverted' version and a 'supernatural' version, and which one sounds is switched by the metadata of the footage you are on. I, Doremi, black coffee in hand, take apart this design of building a theme together with its twin underside, in a form you can carry home to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Viewfinder — music that breathes with the hand that places a photo
Take a photograph, paste it into the world, and the two-dimensional image becomes solid — the music Aether (Jason Taylor) wrote for Sad Owl Studios' Viewfinder is downtempo that keeps company with this strange act without ever rushing it. The track names split into Lounge and Domain, mapping the very skeleton of the game. Including the fact that the composer is legally blind and builds by ear, I, Doremi, take it apart, black coffee in hand, through a lens you can carry home to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Carto — Rearrange the map, and the music rearranges too
The 31 pieces Eddie Yu wrote for Carto are all short, round-cornered, and faintly acoustic. In this game the player rearranges map tiles to reassemble the world itself. What is lovely is that the music, too, is keyed to place and gets rearranged with it. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart why this music can keep playing over long deliberation without ever tiring you out, through a lens you can carry home to your own composing.
The Pedestrian的原声带 —— 行走于标识街道，爵士乐的步伐
Logan Hayes为The Pedestrian谱写的音乐，以钢琴和管弦乐为骨架，融合了爵士、环境音乐与东欧旋律。在玩家重新排列标识面板、连接扇门与梯子的谜题背后，音乐借由FMOD持续变换形态，不曾中断。我Doremi，手握一杯黑咖啡，以「永不停歇的伴奏者」视角，从自身创作的角度剖析这部音乐。
Soundtrack: Call of the Sea — Flip the love song over and you get a second theme
What Eduardo de la Iglesia wrote for Call of the Sea is neither minimal nor silent: it is a love story for string orchestra. Centered on the 'negative melody' trick of building the husband's theme by inverting the wife's note for note, I, Doremi, black coffee in hand, take apart how the tempo of an observe-and-combine exploration puzzle pairs with a melody that keeps pulling you forward.
Soundtrack: The Case of the Golden Idol — grey music for frozen time
The OST Kyle Misko wrote in wartime Lviv for The Case of the Golden Idol: cold 18th-century England fused with new-age ambient, looping beside a frozen crime scene and never rushing your deduction. On the design of music that refuses to react — and what a composer can steal from it.
Superliminal原声带——让人安心的声音最可疑
醒来发现自己在梦境疗愈项目的候诊室里。Matt Christensen为Superliminal创作的是钢琴家John Reeves演奏的休息区爵士乐，宛如酒店大厅里飘荡的旋律。舒适感既是武器，也是最大的misdirection——就像这款视角改变物体大小的第一人称解谜游戏本身一样。手握黑咖啡，我Doremi从作曲可以借鉴的角度，将这张专辑拆解分析。
Soundtrack: TUNIC — Music that turns like the pages of a manual
The 60 tracks Terence Lee (Lifeformed) and Janice Kwan wrote for TUNIC lean on the memory of retro game music without hiding inside the quotation. Built from samples of stray cats and summer wind recorded in the alleys of Taipei, it lives between the artificial and the organic. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart how this game of gathering fragments to read a world meshes with its music, through a lens you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Opus Magnum — A loop that never insists, beside an optimization that never ends
For Zachtronics' alchemy puzzle Opus Magnum, Matthew S Burns wrote both the story and the music. Seamlessly looping machines, and a lounge-style loop that hides its own seams. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, take apart how this music turns an optimization that never ends into a place you want to stay — through a lens you can carry back to your own composing.
Soundtrack: Obduction — Music that changes its timbre from world to world
Robyn Miller, who wrote the music for Myst and Riven, came back to Cyan's worlds after twenty years. The music of Obduction changes its very timbre each time a world changes. Including how he made it — looping footage of someone walking on his iPad and finding the themes on his piano — I, Doremi, take it apart with a black coffee in hand, through a lens you can carry home to your own composing.
Void Stranger 原声带——在单色迷宫中回响的、贫乏音源的交响
单色 Sokoban 迷宫 Void Stranger 的音乐，仅凭普通 MIDI 音源与芯片波形，使庄严与不安共存。作曲者 Eero Lahtinen 将「解不开时反复听同一首曲子也不会厌倦」作为设计的主轴。Doremi 从创作视角解读在反复中不磨损的音效制作，以及贴合思考节奏的持续音。
The Swapper 原声带——从冰箱和录像带中诞生的宇宙
废弃的宇宙飞船。通过复制自身并交换操控权前进的 The Swapper，其音效由 Carlo Castellano 一人独力完成——音乐与音效概莫能外。飞船的轰鸣声来自插进冰箱里的麦克风，脚步声来自压碎旧 VHS 录像带的声音。将手工制作的世界与手工打造的音效叠加意味着什么？每间房间手续性响起的独特环境音设计，以及即兴诞生的《Recreation》。手捧黑咖啡，我 Doremi 来拆解这些无法捕捉拍点的声音。
Braid, Anniversary Edition 原声带——只选择能承受逆向播放的声音
Braid 的音乐并非「作曲」完成的。Jonathan Blow 没有委托专属作曲家，而是从 Magnatune 中挑选了大提琴、竖琴等既有曲目。条件只有一个——倒放也依然美丽。将不因时间逆流而崩溃的声音，配上以时间倒转为核心的谜题。Anniversary Edition 中，LIMBO 的 Martin Stig Andersen 为7首曲目制作了电子声学混音。手捧黑咖啡，我 Doremi 来拆解这些「可逆的音乐」。
The Talos Principle 2 原声带——以合唱回应巨大
走出机器人建造的都市 New Jerusalem，向地平线上耸立的巨型建造物（超级结构）踏步前进的第一人称谜题游戏。Damjan Mravunac 的音乐以管弦、电子和合唱写就，将解谜的细小时间与凝视世界之大的时间，用不同的节奏分开鸣奏。端一杯黑咖啡，我 Doremi 来拆解为何最大的声音被留给了「行走的场景」。
Manifold Garden 原声带——落下再返回的音
选择重力，落到底部，从天花板重新出现的无限建筑。Laryssa Okada 为此写就的音乐，由没有终止的弦乐与合成垫音构成，与循环的空间有着相似的构造。我 Doremi 手捧黑咖啡，从可以带回自己作曲的视角，分解这明明在循环却听不出「重复感」的音。
FEZ 的原声音乐 — 将8比特带到现代的声音
Rich Vreeland（Disasterpeace）为 FEZ 创作的音乐，拥有芯片音乐的词汇，却以混响和比特破碎磨去棱角，将其带往新时代音乐的广阔空间。随高度和时间段变换形态的动态音效设计，以及在频谱图中隐藏图像的「音乐本身即是谜题」的机关。我 Doremi 手持黑咖啡，从可以带回曲子创作的视角来拆解它。
Chants of Sennaar 的原声带 — 在学会语言之前，先学会那个民族的声音
Thomas Brunet 为 Chants of Sennaar 写就的音乐，是一首由真实乐器编织而成的小型室内乐。塔中各层居住的民族语言不通，但声音可以相通。我 Doremi 手捧黑咖啡，以曲子创作的视角，分析为何这款解读语言之游戏的音乐，能在解码之前便告诉你「那个民族是何许人」。
Antichamber 的原声 — 越往深处走，层数越多的声音
Siddhartha Barnhoorn 为 Antichamber 写的音乐既不是循环，也不是沉默。一层层单薄的音色交叉淡入、彼此叠加，从不重复同一种组合，越往深处走就越厚重，是一床活着的环境音乐。我 Doremi 端着黑咖啡，从你能带回自己创作的角度，拆解为什么这片声音能跟着你穿过不可能的空间却始终不散。
Papers, Please 的原声带——在每天开头响起，之后交给印章接管
在入境审查的小隔间里，寻找文件的矛盾之处。Lucas Pope 自己创作的音乐，只有短短约30秒的国歌。在每天开头大张旗鼓地响起，审查一旦开始便悄然退场。接手的是印章落纸的声音、翻阅文件的声音——玩家自己敲打出的节拍。手握一杯黑咖啡，将这种「开头鸣响、之后沉默」的设计，拆解成可以带回自己创作的形式。
A Monster's Expedition 的原声 — 节奏不在曲子里,在你的指尖上
在这部推倒树木、滚动圆木、从岛到岛跨行的开放世界仓库番里,Eli Rainsberry 写下的音乐把节奏从脊柱里抽掉了。那么拍子去了哪里——搬进了 UI,也就是你的操作音里。十五首吉他与钢琴的曲子像思考的海一样漂浮,节奏由你的手敲出。黑咖啡在手,我把这套分工设计拆成你能带回自己创作的样子。
Blue Prince 的原声音乐 — 连音乐都被抽取的宅邸
Blue Prince 的音乐是荷兰二人组 Trigg & Gusset 的 dark jazz。几乎没有打击乐,探索大半无声,音乐只在特定房间立起。作曲家写草稿,开发者把它们『抽取』进宅邸。我 Doremi 端着黑咖啡,找找这套不响的设计里能偷走什么。
World of Goo 原声带 — 风暴前鸣响的、稍显古旧的华尔兹
Kyle Gabler 为 World of Goo 写下的音乐，将蒂姆·伯顿式的哥特嘉年华气息与埃尼奥·莫里科内的西部片风格置于同一空间。为何这首华尔兹如此温柔地依偎着堆叠粘球的颤抖双手？黑咖啡在手，我，Doremi，以能带回自己作曲中的视角来拆解它。
Unpacking 的原声带 — 不喧宾夺主的放置之道
Jeff van Dyck 为 Unpacking 写的音乐,把磨圆棱角的芯片音叠在原声吉他与钢琴之上,却奇妙地从不过度。在一款没有失败、没有计时的解谜里,音乐做了什么、又拒绝做什么?本文由我 Doremi 黑咖啡在手,从作曲可带回的视角拆解。
Gorogoa 的原声 — 拼贴每一次叠合,声音也叠合
Joel Corelitz 为 Gorogoa 写的音乐几乎不立旋律与和弦,只用织体放下「那个场所的情绪」。而且每一块拼贴各自绑着一小段曲子,带着叠加的规则相互组合——重排画面的谜题本身,也在声音里发生。黑咖啡在手,我 Doremi 把它的设计拆成你能带回自己创作的样子。
The Talos Principle 的原声 — 用一条持续音造出来的乐园
为 Serious Sam 写了十六年轰鸣音乐的 Croteam 作曲家 Damjan Mravunac,在这部哲学谜题里刻意放弃了节奏与旋律,铺下一条漫长的持续音。在圣歌飘荡的假乐园里,这音乐为何听十四小时也不腻?我 Doremi 端着黑咖啡,读一读这张双层结构的设计图。
Portal 2 的原声 — 越解越响,机器写的音乐
Mike Morasky 为 Portal 2 写的音乐,不是拿来播放聆听的,而是在你解谜的过程中一层层搭建起来的。踩上 Aerial Faith Plate、乘上 Excursion Funnel,音乐就多叠一层。黑咖啡在手,我 Doremi 来拆解:为什么这套配乐听起来像电脑作的曲,以及你能从中偷走什么。
LIMBO 原声音乐 — 只剩下被抹去身份的声音
独自包揽 LIMBO 音频的 Martin Stig Andersen 出身于幻声音乐(acousmatic)。他扭曲声音的『身份』、拒绝操纵情绪的配乐,为剪影世界叠上了声音的影子。不打扰『死亡重试』式解谜的『耐重试音乐』究竟是什么?我 Doremi 端着黑咖啡,逐层拆解。
Machinarium 的原声 — 在生锈的世界里,让 loop 永不发腻的算术
Tomáš Dvořák (Floex) 为 Amanita Design 的零台词手绘冒险 Machinarium 写的音乐,是一种奇妙的合金: 钢琴与单簧管的体温,混入肮脏的模拟合成器与废铁的碰撞声。在一款要盯着同一画面好几分钟的游戏里,这些 loop 为什么一直留在耳朵里?我 Doremi 端着黑咖啡,用「抽象与旋律的配比」这个角度来拆解。
Patrick's Parabox 的原声带 — 每多一个箱子,音就解开一些
Priscilla Snow 为递归仓库番 Patrick's Parabox 写的音乐,稳坐在电子音与氛围之间——既温和又带提问感的伴奏。每出现一种新机构,音色就更新一次,曲名几乎就是机制的名字。本文以可带回作曲的视角,拆解为什么这种音不会妨碍长考。
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes 的原声带 — 落在酒店黑暗里的钢琴
Simogo 那部难解的观察谜题《Lorelei and the Laser Eyes》。Daniel Olsén 等人写的音乐,以德彪西与萨蒂为底色,把钢琴放在中心,数字与原声彼此交融。本文以作曲视角,读它对长考有效的「音的摆位」与画面之间的隐性一致。
Baba Is You 的原声带 — 错多少次都不会骂人的小 loop
Baba Is You 的音乐,是把整部游戏一个人做下来的 Arvi 'Hempuli' Teikari 用 tracker(OpenMPT)写的 chiptune。这是一款会重试几百次的游戏,而音乐既不告知胜利、也不告知失败,只是回着一段明朗的小 loop。本文(我 Doremi 黑咖啡在手)从作曲可带回的角度,拆解为何这种「不骂人的音」让试错保持轻盈。
Return of the Obra Dinn 的原声带 — 响起,然后退去的音乐
把怀表对准尸体,黑屏几秒后,落入凝固的死亡场景。Lucas Pope 一个人写的伪・19 世纪管弦乐,会在那一刻大响,随后悄悄退去。响与不响之间,推理的时间被摆好。
COCOON 的原声带 — 一直响着却不变成壁纸的音
Jakob Schmid 为 COCOON 写的音乐几乎全部是合成音,且大半在游戏运行时实时生成。这是「既不放循环、也不一直无声」的第三条路。本文由我 Doremi 黑咖啡在手,从作曲可带回的视角拆解: 为什么这种「一直响着」的音不会变成「壁纸」。
Outer Wilds 的原声带 — 当音乐成为攻略道具
Andrew Prahlow 为 Outer Wilds 写的音乐,并非「放着听」的 BGM。它大半时间不响,响起时是发现的信号,有时乐器本身就是探索的道具。本文(由我 Doremi 黑咖啡在手)从可带回到作曲与设计上的视角,拆解这部音乐的机理。
