Little Monkeys

Introduction

Little Monkeys was a game developed as part of my academics at the University of Utah. As such, though I boast strong design skills, I wanted to branch out and try my hand at different disciplines inside of game development. As such, when development started on this title, I settled on mainly taking a backseat on level and puzzle design, and became the team’s designated audio engineer instead.

Composing like a Monkey

To spoil the level/story progression of Little Monkeys, Finley (the monkey) is under the hallucinogenic effects of rigorous lab testing. The forest as the player sees it is false; a daydream of Finley’s memories interjected by symbols of the occasional lab equipment and testing material. The forest itself is meant to be a reflection of Finley’s joy from a different time, and the music is composed to reflect that. It is also meant to come off fairly juvenile as well, given the connotations of wonder and innocence found within a child.

Of particular note on the orchestration, I intended to reflect Finley’s nostalgia for the forest by using the following composition elements:

• Percussion sets a slow, relaxed pace to convey ease, while the inclusion of a tambourine captures the spontaneous spurs of curiosity, like that of a child

• Woodwinds grant a sense of space and openness, reflecting the freedom of the forest—especially with an airy solo to brighten the mood

• The inclusion of a single brass in the form of a tuba rocking back and forth on a chord amplifies the playfulness of the percussion without contributing any intensity to the score

The second song I composed for the title was for the Ruins. The Ruins themselves are a dangerous place, and their puzzle-like construction is meant to reflect Finley’s internal comprehension of what the lab experiments he is forced through, are. The location is supposed to be the mean between Finley’s drug-drunken nostalgia for freedom, and the cruel reality he is suppressing.

From a gameplay perspective, the Ruins needed to sound different than the forest for the player. Unlike the Forest with no moving elements or hazards and where a player could move at their own pace, the Ruins introduced a variety of mechanics that forced a player to platform on a timing-based system. In order to encourage movement, I added a clock-like effect to the score, as well as inject it with a dose of funkiness. The following track is the end product:

A breakdown of the composition follows and the different elements’ meaning in the score:

• Woodblock and tick-heavy percussion replace the fullness of a normal drum in order to emphasize the mechanical nature of the Ruins. This juxtaposes the organic shapes and origins of the Forest

• A saxophone leads the music. Brass is not as free as a woodwind, and its inclusion, in conjunction with the discordant chords it plays, instills an air of intensity

• Piano is used for a tonal bridge marrying the rest of the instruments with the heavy artificial voice of the synthesizer providing bass

Going into the final level, I knew that the music for the Lab had to be something completely different from the tracks before it. Fortunately, I had the foresight to anticipate this, and I had already introduced motifs leading towards the Lab throughout the rest of the game.

Take for instance, the sound the crystals make. The crystal music designed to help the player locate the gems based on proximity, but an astute player may so catch the sinister melody of the Lab resonating at the tail end of the melody. I mean, placing gems like keys into arbitrary locks? That is an awfully suspicious puzzle-like element, like that of a lab experiment…

Anyways, the actual theme of the Lab was simple. It was pulled out into long drones, mimicking the buzz of machinery and vents in a cold and sterile environment:

• Only synthesizers are used, emphasizing the cold, artificial feel of the level in stark contrast to the warmer instrumentation before

• A shifting key signature keeps the melody unpredictable, contributing to the sense of unease

With each level having their own score, it was finally time to make the main title theme of the game. Combining elements from all 3 different levels, I was able to compose a title with motifs and instruments from each section. See if you can hear them yourself!