|
There's some frankly outstanding indie game soundtracks out there. A lot of them come from surprising places, some that you wouldn't think would be good, or were far better than the game they were attached to deserved. With this thread I hope to bring recognition to the composers of some of the better indie soundtracks, with a method of purchasing their works if possible. This is not a thread for individual tracks, but rather soundtracks as a whole that stand above most others. Examples such as Super Meat Boy, Minecraft, and Bastion. You're welcome to post bigger games as well, but I'm mostly talking about stuff that's not on the level of a Final Fantasy or Call of Duty. For example, the layout for each recommendation should be a similar layout to my examples below, with a link to a Bandcamp page or other site to buy the soundtrack from somewhere therein, and a short blurb about what you think of it if you want, maybe link one or two examples from the soundtrack as a sampler. I'll start off with a bunch that really surprised me and I wound up keeping a large portion of their soundtracks in my playlists. Try to keep your lists down to 5 or less examples at a time, I'm just doing more since it's the OP and all. Put some effort into your recommendations.  Shatter Soundtrack by Module, also available on Steam If there is a single soundtrack you get on this list I've made, it absolutely should be Shatter's soundtrack. Not only is every single track a synth-rock tour de force, but barring two non-stage tracks, every track is minimum five minutes long, some bordering on nine minutes! It's one of my favorite game soundtracks ever in terms of the strength of every single track in the game, and I can't recommend it enough. Argon Refinery, Granular Extractor, Kinetic Harvest, Neon Mines, and more are all worthy examples of what it has to offer. For only three dollars, to boot, it's an absolute steal.  Escape Goat 2 by MagicalTimeBean This absolutely blew me away, I completely did not expect this game to not only be good, but also have an incredible soundtrack, and was proven soundly wrong on both counts. Just listen to Heavy Forest or The Finest Literature to see what I mean, EG2 has a powerful, 80s-esque synth-and-chiptune soundtrack that just works flawlessly most of the time. I still have almost the entire thing in my playlists months later, showing the strength of the individual tracks.  Crypt of the Necrodancer by Danny Baranowsky A game about rhythm and moving to the beat needs a good soundtrack to go with it or it has failed before it has begun. And when you need a guaranteed good soundtrack, you call DannyB, the creator of the nigh-flawless Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac soundtracks. His pulse-pounding tempo in CotND is often rapid, with some slow, thudding tracks mixed in. Straight in from the Title Screen Theme to the first stage, you're immediately bombarded with rapid-fire chiptunes of a staggering quality. There's even optional versions with shopkeeper vocals!  PPPPPP, the VVVVVV soundtrack by Souleye VVVVVV is a very simple-looking game, sporting Commodore 64-style graphics and a chiptune soundtrack. But that belies its simple-yet-intense gameplay that goes hand-in-hand with the outstanding music created by Souleye. VVVVVV honestly would not have been the same memorable experience without the soundtrack to go with it, I feel. Tracks like Pressure Cooker and Passion For Exploring really added a lot to the game.  Music To Cut Rocks By - Tiny & Big Soundtrack by various artists Tiny and Big, a fairly ridiculous game with an innovative physics object cutting system similar to Metal Gear Rising's Blade Mode(except using a laser gun instead), sports a swanky soundtrack that spans from smooth jazz to some real dirty guitar work. Probably my favorite track on the whole soundtrack is Little Pretty Thing which has outstanding vocals, even if the lyrics are basically nonsense. Runner-up would be Thoroughbred though, definitely.  SQUIDS OST by Romain Gauthier I've not really heard of or played this game, but I got it and its soundtrack in a Humble Bundle once. And the soundtrack was largely surprisingly good! Very peppy, carefree, and upbeat. Stuff like All Is Well and The Casual Adventure are good examples, though there's some more intense tracks included too.  Electronic Super Joy OST Part 1 Electronic Super Joy OST part 2 by enV I've also not really played Electronic Super Joy, but like SQUIDS, got it in a Humble Bundle along with the soundtrack. And BOY OH BOY, is the music just completely out there, I was expecting bleeps and bloops for a minimalist-graphics game, and NOPE, it's just wall-to-wall solid thudding techno and trance. Real good examples of them, too! Things like Flare, Firefrost, RPM, Vee are some good solid techno/trance. And for completion's sake, the three I listed above as examples of the best of indie soundtracks, Super Meat Boy, Bastion, and Minecraft.  Super Meat Boy by Danny Baranowsky The soundtrack that made DannyB famous among the gaming community, Super Meat Boy's soundtrack is bar none one of the greatest indie soundtracks out there. From stage one all the way to the end, you are assaulted by orchestral intensity, hard rock, synth and some chiptunes here and there(for the internet levels). Boss fights are fired up by the accompanying themes, with such amazing tracks like Battle of Lil' Slugger, C.H.A.D.'s Lullaby, and Carmeaty Burana. The stages themselves are no slouch either, with bangers like Forest Funk, Betus Blues(easily one of the best tracks in a soundtrack full of greats), It Ends, and even Danny's own tribute to the famous Megaman 2 Wily Castle Stage 1-2 theme; Dr. Fetus's Castle. Really, you could pick literally any piece in the entire lengthy soundtrack and it'll be an extremely polished track regardless of what part it was used for(or not used, in one case). Also a three dollar OST, so definitely a pro-buy.  Bastion Soundtrack by Darren Korb Bastion's soundtrack combined with its unique, highly detailed and colorful artstyle as well as a narrator who narrates everything you're doing to a pretty impressive degree, made it one of the first huge successes of the first big indie breakout in 2011 on XBOX Live Arcade, following Super Meat Boy's great year. The story was told at a deliberate pace by the gravelly-voiced narrator while the silent protagonist smashed his way through the game, and the powerful music lent a lot of emotion to it as you went. The OST is even more impressive when you consider the artist had never composed a video game soundtrack before, he really hit it out of the park with this one. You had strong, twangy themes such as A Proper Story and Terminal March, deeper, more potent tracks in things like Mine, Windbag, Mine and Bynn the Breaker, Western-style perfection in the likes of Spike In A Rail, and impeccable emotional vocal work in Build That Wall, Mother, I'm Here, culminating in the incredible finale song, Setting Sail, Coming Home. Bastion's soundtrack is one of the greatest there's ever been, by far.  Minecraft Volume Alpha by C418 Minecraft itself needs no introduction. It has become the third best-selling game of all time, outselling even Super Mario Bros by a full 14+ million, beaten only by Wii Sports and Tetris. But Minecraft, in my opinion at least, would not have been nearly the same without its haunting, serene, beautiful, alien soundtrack. Despite having a basic graphical style and rudimentary gameplay mechanics, the soundtrack made it feel like you were traversing an unknown world. Subwoofer Lullaby, Living Mice, Minecraft, Danny and Haggstrom gave the impression of a tranquil, vast wilderness. Other tracks like Moog City gave it some adventurous music. It even has some fairly dour, somewhat dramatic music in the forms of Clark and Excuse. And then there's the downright creepy stuff like Thirteen, or the upbeat music of Cat and Dog. Those are just a handful of the many great soundtracks out there. Share some good ones you know, I hope you enjoyed my examples! Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Oct 4, 2014 |
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 14:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 14:41 |
|
|
Those are a bunch of drat fine examples! I think Bastion's soundtrack is my favorite... Or at least I really loved it at the time. Does an "indie" soundtrack to a non indie game count? I've always loved the "Balance and Ruin" Final Fantasy VI project. ff6.ocremix.org Didn't get in on the kickstarter but really enjoyed the end product.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:12
|
|
|
That's a remix album, I'm more talking about indie game soundtracks rather than remixes of existing music.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:15
|
|
|
How could you not put Risk of Rain in? C'mon. Fantastic. Can't even post the best track because it's one that has to be experienced ingame- anyone who's made it to the last level knows the one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:17
|
|
|
Do you really have to be That Guy who makes the "HOW COULD YOU NOT MENTION" reply when I specifically said I was including a few in the OP and wanted people to post other examples? You didn't even post it properly with a place to buy it from directly in your post, great job! It's in the Youtube description but that can be easily missed. Risk of Rain is in my list of great soundtracks, no doubt. I was going down the list and didn't get to it because I decided 10 was enough for the OP. Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Oct 3, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:20
|
|
|
 Hero Core by Brother Android Daniel Remar's freeware metroidvania-meets-shmup is a fine game in its own right, but the electronica work by Brother Android makes each area of the game stand out on its own, ranging from a haunting introduction to the game's world, to devoid areas of another time, to the heart of a war machine. My favorite though is the  boss theme.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:26
|
|
|
Glad to see you put the best soundtrack on Steam first. It's kind of insane just how good the Shatter soundtrack is for what is essentially Breakout with a small twist. I'll put up  Frozen Synapse as some other quality, up-tempo synth and ambient rock. It's $10 on Bandcamp but $6 here on Steam. It has a great mix of harsher, more industrial Frank Klepacki Tiberian Sun era sound as well as some more floaty ambient bits. It's not great all the way through, but even where it falls short it's still quality. I don't compare stuff to Frank Klepacki easily, but it deserves it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:28
|
|
|
 Dustforce by Lifeformed Super chill and atmospheric. I don't think there is a bad track here, but check out Frozen Hot Sauce, Swimming While it Rains, or 9-bit Expedition.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:30
|
|
|
Lifeformed's works are really some of the best, yeah. Both the Dustforce soundtrack and Immerse, the Broken Age Soundtrack are just incredibly chill, blood pressure-loweringly relaxed. While I'm not a huge fan of the game even if I can appreciate its dedication to rewarding skilled play, Dustforce's soundtrack is another one of the greats. I think during the SGDQ run of it the runner even had "quiet time" so the soundtrack could be heard since it's so good, and pimped the soundtrack's store page.  My personal favorite is probably Sepia Tone Laboratory. It's good to dance to, as well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 16:38
|
|
|
Oh yes. So many times I've bought an indie bundle to get a soundtrack for a game I've already bought twice before. Shovel Knight Original Soundtrack by Jake Kaufman of Big Lion Music Features really awesome chipmusic that's as authentic as it is awesome. Kaufman has taken some artistic freedoms (a bit more bottom end than what the original NES could muster, that kind of little stuff) but like the rest of the game it's very, very NES. The boss battles especially are very, very good. I love Backed into a Corner, the Hall of Champions boss fight music. Even if you haven't checked the game out (which you absolutely should) if you like chip music at all check this soundtrack out!
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 17:18
|
|
|
 The Kentucky Route Zero Soundtrack by Ben Babbitt KRZ's soundtrack mainly consists of really good ambient tracks. But then there are the actual songs, which tend to be bluegrass due to the game taking place in the backroads of Kentucky. Not only are they real good too the devs implement them in the game so drat well that it elevates those scenes to be some of the best in the game, i.e. the ending of Act 2 and a certain scene in Act 3. You get the soundtrack for free if you buy the game so seriously, get Kentucky Route Zero, its one of the best games all time and its not even finished yet. If you love a video game that just can just immerse yourself in its narrative and atmosphere, KRZ is the game for you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 17:48
|
|
|
 The Yawhg EP Halina Heron on SoundCloud A simple but haunting little acoustic set that pefectly complements the game. Very listenable on its own too. The first track in particular is a mainstay of my "everything sucks and it's raining" playlist.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 20:46
|
|
|
Seems almost too obvious but the Hotline Miami Soundtrack is pretty incredible. Done by a few artists, it's pretty much perfect for the game. Silver Lights in particular is the audio equivalent of experiencing a hangover and used very appropriately in game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 20:57
|
|
|
Treasure Adventure Game is a pretty fun indie platformer/adventure game that is still in the works for an HD remake. It's nearly complete and it'll be available on steam once it's finished. The sountrack, available on the Robit Studios website is really good if you like 8-bit music. I personally recommend the song 8-bit Insomnia. As for the HD-Remake, it's name Treasure Adventure World and is coming along well. The 8-bit version is completely free to download and is really fun. If you end up liking the game enough then you can chip in some money that goes towards the HD remake right here.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2014 21:10
|
|
|
Action Doom 2's soundtrack is very good IMO. The game is essentially a first person Streets of Rage style brawling game made in the Doom engine, and is pretty astonishingly good considering its background. http://rakohus.bandcamp.com/album/action-doom-2-urban-brawl-soundtrack
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2014 04:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 14:41 |
|
|
GEARCRACK Arena is a mediocre game from what I understand (as I've personally never played it) but the soundtrack is pretty boss if you enjoy 90's industrial/metal/ebm. Over the course of 40 minutes you'll get vibes of Doom, Quake, Fight Club (Dust Brothers), Skinny Puppy, Ministry, White Zombie and Throbbing Gristle. It's not groundbreaking, but makes for some good background music. You can buy this for a mere $.25 off Steam right now. YES, A QUARTER, FOR THIS WEEK ONLY! Use twenty five cents from your card money to pick up the soundtrack edition of the game. And the kicker? You can in turn idle out cards from this game and make back approximately what you paid.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2014 22:08
|
|
