Sonic Brotherhood
by Brendan Hamley.
Chasing Static is a short psychological horror story inviting players to investigate the wilderness of rural Wales, uncovering mysterious facilities and what happened to a spooky abandoned village. Inspired by ‘80s sci-fi horror, low-poly gaming and contemporary surrealist films, it delivers a uniquely crunchy, cinematic take on open world exploration. Aside from striking visuals, it’s an audio-driven experience with AAA sound design, quality voice acting and a delightfully ominous soundtrack.
Okay, full disclaimer — I’m biased here. I’m super proud to have composed and produced the soundtrack for Chasing Static. But I’m prouder still to have done so with the developer behind the game, who just happens to be my genius younger brother Nathan. So here’s our story, as two brothers exploring independent game and soundtrack development together.
Reconnecting during strange times
“It's really close to the vibe I’m aiming for with a new game I’m starting, would be interested in hearing anything else you make in this style…”
That’s all I needed to hear after sending some random tracks over to him. I subsequently began to overload his inbox with dark, imagined soundscapes and warped compositions.
He didn’t seem to mind.
We started outlining the soundtrack back in early 2020 and felt immediately comfortable working together. It was awesome reconnecting as brothers, made easier because we’ve always had similar tastes in films, games, and the unexplained. Nathan wanted some extra audio experience to help Chasing Static reach its potential and there I was, more than happy to oblige.
I’m a bit older than Nathan, with fond memories of introducing his wide-eyed younger self to a shiny new PS1 console, giving him a first taste of what the ‘big boys’ were playing. He had a Sega Game Gear (which went everywhere with him), but the leap to playing these new PS1/2 titles must have felt like jumping into another dimension. We’d pass the controller back and forth whenever things got tough, gush over console and game advancements, discuss visuals, interfaces, and music and creative treatments.
So our gaming (and music) views seemed aligned right off the bat, and it was inspiring that, decades later, we’d still be talking about similar things. This time though, it was for a game Nathan himself was creating, and now, he was the one holding the controller.
Brother to brother
With our shared pandemic anxieties stretching far, it isn’t surprising perhaps that the tracks I’d sent through represented the post-apocalyptic, dystopian atmospheres Nathan was also imagining for his game. Wondering how to glue his visuals, gameplay and story together, he’d been mapping out soundscape ideas for the game’s reveal trailer. On hearing the moody sounds I’d provided, he wanted more of the same to match the dark themes and vibes he was contemplating for the full game.
Like many indie game studios, Nathan’s Headware Games operation was (and is) a busy one, run entirely by himself, tackling development, design, writing, talent management, planning, negotiations, test teams, social marketing, sound design, sandwich making … the list goes on. Meanwhile, I was trying to earn a crust as a professional musician, but at a loose end after the cancellation of live shows. Never far from some headphones and a synth or two, I’d turned to releasing ambient and experimental music on Bandcamp.
Nathan describes his development process as organic and freeform. When creating projects like Chasing Static, he likes to: “plant small ideas and see how they grow.” This allows him to decide on key thematic pillars or visual elements to accompany a story, then work from there, crafting ideas, sounds and visuals as a project progresses. My own approach to music making is very similar — trying ideas out, experimenting, identifying themes then developing them further.
We quickly began sharing influences, audio clips, tones, sounds, sonic sketches and the like, fashioning a musical mood board from which the final soundtrack might be drawn. I then had free reign to develop these ideas into a draft collection of sonic examples and emotional pieces. This offered Nathan a range of material to try out during early development. He remained the final arbiter of what was working best and directed proceedings with impressive clarity. Prior to moving into game development, he’d studied digital media and film at university then worked as a camera operator and video editor for the British Military. This experience served him well, and I got to see a side of him I hadn’t before.
Strength in compromise
Aside from retro gaming influences and Nathan’s background in film, the lovingly pixelated art style and lighting of Chasing Static is a side effect of practical need. Due to this being a solo production (apart from the soundtrack), he was forced to consider what could impress whilst keeping in mind what he as a lone developer could realistically achieve.
Chasing Static’s gameplay is linked to stylings found in fifth-generation (aka 32-bit era) games and consoles. Nathan admires the initiative shown by developers back then. Despite gaining consoles offering impressive new ‘3D graphics’, they were still restricted by the hardware of the time. There was a limit to how much detail could be packed into games, but this, at times, resulted in some inspired creative problem solving and a tight focus on gameplay priorities.
In targeting this era’s level of fidelity with modern advancements in development and sound design, Nathan hoped to streamline tasks that would have previously needed multiple developers to complete. Ultimately Chasing Static’s styling is partly practical and partly fuelled by affection for the development era it represents. It aims to feel like it’s of the era, but with a sugarcoated fusion of nostalgia and today’s technology.
Setting priorities
It was clear that despite the game’s affectionate nods to classic console gaming, there were to be no compromises about the quality of the audio or music on offer. We were 100% aiming for modern AAA sound and music standards. Chasing Static was, after all, to be a game featuring audio as a leading player.
A priority for soundtrack design was also set whilst looking outwards to indie shorts and feature films for inspiration, especially those that achieved strong themes despite limited budgets. We were talking about this and Nath concluded that there were two core elements that elevated such films above others: quality soundtrack and acting performances. He wanted these ideas to underpin the approach to the game.
For my part, I’d need to create engaging, sonically rich soundscapes and music offering cinematic sensitivity, with a high budget feel.
Agreeing on a brief
After our conversations and early sonic experimentation, it was almost time to start work on the soundtrack. Before that though, we needed to agree on some global principles to set a solid direction.
Chasing Static needed:
Music loosely based on mid-1990s game and film soundtracks.
Use of ‘ghostly’ radiophonic frequencies
A sense of growing tension and atmosphere
Spatial and acoustically diverse sound treatments
Emotional music of melancholy but hope too
Subtle, distinctive and understated ambiences
Emotional punch only where needed
Cinematic quality audio, but on a budget
Another factor pivotal to the soundtrack’s direction was the influence of the game Silent Hill.
“That game manages to convey a mood that very few even now can match,” Nathan told me in reverent tones. I agreed. Thanks in no small part to its amazing soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka, the game is soaked in atmosphere, with eerie, unsettling undertones seeping through every pixel. We’d both experienced the game close to release and it had made a lasting impression. He wasn’t expecting a facsimile of Silent Hill’s soundtrack(s), but did want a similarly ominous and charged atmosphere for Chasing Static.
Listening not hearing
Composing for emotional atmospheres became one of the project’s mainstays. Subtly placed dark ambiences and enveloping sound design played a crucial part in this, much based on what players aren’t actually hearing, but feeling and perceiving.
Like many, I’d been secretly enjoying the quietness of Covid lockdowns. I’d also started noticing all sorts of previously unheard sounds (like urban air conditioning or the wind playing through empty streets) that normally would have been filtered out. Listening more actively and recording what I was finding revealed all sorts of subtle sonic weirdness going on in the environment that normally passes us by. I decided I had to include some of this in the soundtrack.
I started pulling together a variety of abstract compositions based on early game concepts and scenes I’d seen. From these emerged common tones, spatial characteristics, and now (almost imperceptible) audio textures. To add further character to the otherworldly vibes that were emerging, I used unusual audio plug-ins such as Audiothing’s Wires (adding an eerie secret broadcast feel to anything it touched). The compositions were starting to feel convincingly evolving and real, albeit from an altered and strange perspective. All was then mixed, borrowing tricks from psychoacoustic modelling.
To help players orientate themselves, I’d try to imagine what they would be expecting to hear from a scene. I also explored how sonics could be warped subliminally to affect player emotions. Nathan was into this idea too. I’m not saying we wanted to brainwash people, but we certainly wanted them to feel differently during gameplay.
The forest scenes in the game, for example, used an ambient drone overlayed with barely audible granulated reverb that creates what we christened ‘treeverb’. I wove in field recordings, ambient tones and electromagnetic sounds to add a barely perceptible character reflecting the sonic refractions of thousands of leaves at night.
The results of these acoustic and ambient treatments offered Nathan extended soundscapes with the emotional engagement needed to fit every conceivable environment or situation.
When it rains it pours
3D spatial audio was used extensively for the game’s sound design. For example, Chasing Static takes place across a single night with rain encapsulating the player whenever they step outside. The sound of rain can be comforting with its melancholic warmth when observed from somewhere sheltered. Nathan wanted to convey this and leaned into it heavily when designing the soundstages for the game.
The rain actually became one of the stars of Chasing Static, enjoying particular success with ASMR inclined players. It uses multiple layered recordings, seamlessly blended and depending on where the player is situated. Things like awnings emit the sounds of rain splashing on tarp, windows ping with persistent raindrops, and cold winds boss the night-time woodlands.
Detailed sound design like this can clash with a game’s soundtrack if not handled carefully. It was important to craft accompanying soundscapes and music with the frequential headroom and stereo staging to sit well alongside it. In the case of the rain, the complexity of its sonic signature led me to mixing tracks alongside loops of rainfall recordings (in all shapes and sizes), so music and sound design could hold their own without stealing frequencies or positioning from each other.
Composing for impact
The soundtrack wasn’t all ambient, freeform and fluid though. There were key moments needing a defined musical approach. We needed some sections to have a more recognisable cinematic quality. Although Chasing Static is a short, intimate experience that doesn’t overly rely on large set pieces (due to the small team size), Nathan wanted his game and its soundtrack to reach higher standards than perhaps an indie studio of this size would normally achieve.
For set-piece compositions (like the evocative loading screen or heart-tugging finale theme), I was given minimal but clear guidance and possibly the best game music brief ever: “Blade Runner meets Radiohead with hints of Yamaoka …please.”
This was all I needed for further inspiration.
Fine-tuning the sound
As we progressed, it was clear that achieving the appropriate future-retro feel needed music linked to a bygone era but with an emotional element for modern ears. It shouldn’t distract from the amazing sound design and voice acting Nath himself was producing either.
I turned to my trusty vintage analogue gear and in digital mixing added spatialised reverb, whilst dialling down the high frequencies. This created warm and blanketing tones that were not too overbearing, encouraging players to ‘lean in’ to the music if they wanted to.
I was seeking the sweet spot between retro and modern HD sonics. Setting production audio quality to the highest possible standards allowed for a saturated retro EQ whilst keeping fidelity to a maximum, allowing for pinpoint frequency adjustments. This ensured music didn’t crowd the environmental sound design or voice acting, which are massive parts of the game.
Fine-tuning the compositions
After composing some promising melodies utilising the sonic palette developed earlier, I started to broaden the styles used beneath these. One particular example came after researching ‘doom chords’ from the black metal music scene. Knowing Nathan has a soft spot for this, I converted some chord progressions to synth-based sequences and scored the results as if being played like a band in a David Lynch movie. This resulted in the speaker-pumping end-credits theme.
Once compositions were nearing completion, we returned to the iterative process that had been serving us well. I’d pass variations and options to Nathan to overlay against ongoing development and he’d feedback on what might be improved or changed. I was happy to iterate and fine-tune these pieces as much as required. It was all for the good of the game after all.
This open iteration approach was critical to knowing if my compositions were hitting the mark or not. As brothers, we were very honest with each other, intuitively recognising when things were going awry, probably in ways that a normal developer/composer relationship would not. Accepting iteration and feedback played a big part in this too.
Final delivery
The sonic experiences and evocative music we settled on are the combination of our shared influences, musicality, an interest in spatial ambiences, evocative sound design and the power of narrative. These ingredients are some of the standout features of the game that make it worthy of a ‘headphones recommended’ sticker (if it came in a box).
In the end, I delivered 23 HD pieces ranging from distinct musical compositions, evolving ambient pieces to drone type atmospheres. The soundtrack turned out to be a fabulous listen in its own right but placed within the game, takes off in directions I could never have imagined. This was a very cool and creative project to work on, challenging me to stretch beyond the norms of music composition. It also showed me a creative and professional side to my brother that I was previously unaware of. He seemed equally delighted with the collaboration, tweeting “Got the first mastered tracks back for the soundtrack today and OH BOY they are sounding amazing - couldn't have picked a better composer. ”
That made this particular composer feel rather proud...