Paralives Music Demos Showcase (Patreon)

Hey everybody! Andrei here, ready to talk music with you!

You’ve probably noticed that for the past few weeks, the team has been focusing a lot on making the foundation of the live mode, polishing the PAM and making various new features, but you might have been wondering what’s going on lately with the music in this game. What has Andrei been up to this whole time? Are there any new tracks that we'll get to hear other than Intertwined? The answer is yes!

In the above video, you’ve now just listened to 3 of the 39 music demos that I’ve done so far for the game. The point of making these short demos is really to explore all the musical possibilities that could fit the mood and gameplay of Paralives as well as its specific game modes: the build mode, the Paramaker and the live mode. By studying the game itself, other references (basically any kind of music) and brainstorming all sorts of crazy ideas, I get to try out all kinds of stuff and have fun! So without further ado, let's talk music!!!

Demo 10 - “Outside the box” 📦

Testing solo piano tracks

So the first demo you gave a listen to is a simple solo piano track that is very Sims 1 inspired and was made specifically for the Paramaker. “Fun” fact: out of the 39 demos, about half of them are all piano demos (from which this was my personal favorite)! The point of making simple piano tracks like this one was to be able to come up with musical ideas, riffs and explore a certain harmony and mood without it being too time-consuming to produce. I made this demo trying to think “outside of the box” and making something that would make the player feel inspired, and creative while keeping that cozy element that we all love from Paralives. I always thought it would sound so good if it were to be orchestrated or arranged into a bigger production, so who knows… 👀

Demo 13 - “Inseparable” 👥

Inspiring ourselves from other games

The second demo you heard is a bit more elaborate and features a more cozy electronic element to it. This one specifically was inspired by the music of two beautiful games called TOEM and Dorf Romantik (I really felt like their soundtracks had something in their cozy but explorative energy that we could inspire ourselves from in Paralives). I wanted this demo to fit in the background while also having energy so I on purpose didn't put a main melody, no drum snare and instead made a very rhythmic guitar and synth riff with all sorts of percussion around them. It is specifically made for the Paramaker and can be divided into interactive layers of instruments that stack depending on the player’s actions inside the game like the camera position. For example, zooming in the face of the Para while in the Paramaker could be accompanied with just two of the instruments, while zooming out would be accompanied with the full instrumentation for this track. It could be that or your progress making a Para, how big your household is, the possibilities are endless! These are just ideas for now though.

Demo 16 - “Violet” 💜

Combining genres into something new!

Last but not least, the 3rd demo you heard took much more brainstorming than the others since it's actually the combination of the 2 demos that preceded it (demo 14 and 15). The goal here was very simple: explore an all acoustic folk approach to the music (demo 14) then a full-on lofi cliché approach (demo 15) then combine both of them into something I call Acoustic Lofi 😱 (which, as a genre and name already exists but is completely different from what I had in mind for the instrumentation and overall production approach of this demo). I really wanted to make something unique for this demo so instead of doing the same thing as usual and plan out a structure and idea in advance, I sat down with my guitar and tried to improvise a song on the spot. Once I got something good, I added layers on top of it and tried to make sense out of the chaos I did. It turned out pretty good but I’m pretty sure there is still much more to explore in this fresh approach we just discovered.

Note that these are only 3 non-definitive demos from the bunch and there’s still much left to show you all but most importantly there’s still much left to explore in the next few weeks. It’s been super fun to be able to try out different things for the game and at this rate I’m pretty confident on where things are heading with the general musical style of Paralives. I’m really curious to know what you thought about these demos! Did you like one specifically? What style do you think fits best the mood of Paralives? Thanks so much for your love and support everybody, it means tons!

Have an awesome weekend,

Andrei 🎹🎵