Of all the unique and exciting features that The Pathless developed and implemented, the interactive music design stands out as a major accomplishment. Giant Squid worked with the game's composer, Austin Wintory, known for (among other titles) scoring the indie darling Journey, to develop a system that would expand the musical ideas in tandem with the player's progression. While this system took years to refine and successfully implement, understanding how it works is relatively simple.
To start, it's crucial to understand the representation of the system that is pictured above. The score is split into three acts that are separated by a biome's boss and feature a specific instrument to represent each biome. While working through each act, the team included various ways to add variety and avoid repetition with its minimal use of music. Some examples of this are the "Bounding" layer which adds percussion and other instrumentation when a player maintains a certain velocity for a certain amount of time, as well as the Stalk Events (red storm) having their own musical identity.
During Act 1 of The Pathless, each biome (and its boss) is represented with its own instrument. The Forest Plateau is represented with the oboe, the Redwood Steppe with the double bass, the Great Plains with the bamboo flute, and the Mountain Tundra by the bass clarinet. Each combat encounter implements more dynamic music by taking those instruments and expanding their orchestration to better follow the tension of the battle. In his YouTube video explaining this system, Wintory makes a point to note that the game tracks the player's location alongside the score which allows for seamless musical transitions, as the new biome's instrument picks up right where the previous left off. However, things get really interesting once the player defeats their first boss and enters Act 2.
How The Pathless' Interactive Music Design Progresses With The Story
Upon defeating the first boss of The Pathless the player chooses to engage with, Cernos from the Forest Plataeu in this case, the music enters Act 2 and does something unexpected. The instrument and musical idea associated with it is removed from the score entirely, meaning that the oboe and its melody can never be heard again for the rest of the game, and is replaced with the sounds of nature. This idea is repeated for the rest of the game until one instrument is left to dominate the soundscape and creates incredibly memorable musical moments as the game goes on.
Doing this allows the score of The Pathless to follow the narrative journey of the Hunter. As each biome's spirit is cleansed, so too is the music associated with the corruption it spread across its land. In a backwards way, the goal of the score is to be removed from the game altogether entirely and leave only the sounds of nature and serenity to fill the once corrupted land. Unlike most games, turning the music off improves the ending experience and leaves players with a sense of accomplishment.
It took two years for Giant Squid and Austin Wintory to develop this system, and it was time well spent. The music in The Pathless operates in a unique way that not only accompanies the player directly, but reflects their accomplishments along the way. Wintory describes the philosophy and execution of this system best at the end of his breakdown, where he stated that "We try to be subtle, and yet we also do wanna be felt."
Source: Austin Wintory/YouTube
