We’re happy to announce that, just beating the game itself out the door, the soundtrack to The Ice-Bound Concordance is now available!
It’s been over a year since we first met with N.J. Apostol, whose beautiful score for Ether One had been a favorite of ours. Since then, we’ve had countless conversations with N.J., who turned out to be more than just a bloke who writes incredible music but also a true collaborator. We didn’t just talk about the music itself: we had long discussions about the ideas behind the storyline, and explored different ways music might be combinatorial or changeable in a game centered around shifting stories. N.J. drew inspiration not just from the game itself and other music, but from artwork, conversations, even sounds he would happen to hear on his way to work. (He ended up creating all the game UI sounds too, so they would sound consistent with the music.)
It’s impossible for me to pick favorites, but check out the track “A Soldier Long Dead,” for one of the middle levels of the game, about a lone British solider posted at Carina Station during World War 2.
It’s not just the isolation and wistfulness that comes through here: the soundscape is shaped by the sounds of the distant war, by Ethan’s memories of home, by the harsh edges of the place he’s stranded in.
Or another example:
Here two interlocking stories are represented through melodic lines that sometimes sync up, and sometimes fall out of rhythm… just as the player on this level must experiment to find how they think the two stories should intersect, and what kind of harmony they might make together.
We couldn’t be more pleased with how the music turned out. It immeasurably improves the game, is delightful to listen to on its own, and it would not have been possible if our backers hadn’t helped us push to reach that stretch goal to add a soundtrack. So thanks to our backers, thanks to N.J., and you can sample or buy the soundtrack from Bandcamp now.
Other News
On Wednesday evening, we’re going to collect your shipping addresses and send them to our order fulfillment center, so this is your last chance to update your shipping address on BackerKit if you’ve moved since our Kickstarter in October 2014 (scroll down for instructions if you need to do this).
On Thursday, the iPad and PC versions of the game will go live. We’ll send links as soon as they’re up. The books will also go on sale on Amazon that day. We’re still waiting on shipments of books to Indie Press Revolution (our other distributor) and to ourselves, for the signed copies, but we’ll keep you posted on the status of these.
We got some great coverage of the game over the weekend from Rock Paper Shotgun, and are hoping to have a few more major game sites go live with their coverage this week. Stay tuned to the Twitter account at @IceBoundGame or our Facebook page for all the latest coverage.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR UPDATING SHIPPING INFO
If you’ve moved since October 2014 when our Kickstarter happened, you should verify your mailing address in the Ice-Bound BackerKit is still correct before Wednesday Jan. 20 at 6pm Pacific time, so your Compendium ends up at the right place. To do this:
- Go to http://ice-bound.backerkit.com. You can either click “Log In Here” if you remember your BackerKit login info, or put in your email to get a new link to your survey.
- Once you’ve got your survey pulled up, you can see your shipping address in the upper right. Click “Edit Shipping Info” if you need to update it.
If you have any trouble with this, email [email protected] ASAP and we’ll get it sorted out.