This post is Part 3 in a 3 part series. Part 1 looks at the game's inspirations and gives a day-by-day jam log. Part 2 explores the intention behind post-jam updates and cut features. Part 3 dives into the music contributed by various talented musicians.

Contents

This post is very long! Feel free to skim/jump to the bits you're interested in.

1. Making space for airwaves
2. Drew Van Camp (Alien Shores, Cosmic Railway, Nav Elation)
3. Abstraction (Inter-nebula Transit Authority, The Long Haul)
4. Attitude (Beacon 1, Beacon 2)
5. apicici (Space Age)
6. Quenched Disorder (A Foolish Wish, Deep Space Dreamer, Wavering Truth)
7. Motley Pixels (Space Winking)
8. Hodge (An Omelet To Remember)
9. Arroz (Newer Beginning)
10. Jepp (Semicolon Right Parenthesis)
11. Peter Silk (Cassette Loader, Remember Rain)
12. Archmage Band (Celestial Quest, Light Speed)
13. Additional (Lightspeed Cruise by Rylie James Thomas)

Making space for airwaves

As mentioned in Part 1, part of triaging my todo list (as it often does) involved deciding to not do music myself. Often what happens is that I hold out hope that I'll find time, and end up scrambling last minute to curate some fitting pieces of Creative Commons licenced music (which is very valid and cool thing to do, but perhaps less interesting as an afterthought).

This time however, I decided to accept that my time would be otherwise allocated, and instead put out an open call to musicians that I knew/had social context for to contribute something to the game. I'd had the idea of an in-game radio that could play any number of tracks across any number of stations, which would comfortably scale up or down depending on how many or how few contributions the game received.

I tried to name most of the radio stations to reflect the tone or style of tracks as they arrived, giving musicians the opportunity to have input (eg: Cameron FM is a reference to one of Arroz' previous games). Star 33 FM, Subspace, Galactic Rim, and Ice Comet were placeholder station to pop new tracks into before assigning them homes. Of those, only Star 33 FM remains, with Subspace being removed and returning later as Subspace Groove.

With the context of radio stations, I felt that any diversity in musical style would imply a diversity of in-fiction culture, so I purposefully avoided giving any music direction, instead allowing everybody to bring their own interpretation of the game (which was a couple of sentences and an untextured floating head at the time I put the call out).

On top of that, I like to make sure that the people I collaborate with feel like they have space to explore and express their own creativity - to speak with their own voice as it were. With that in mind, I've invited each of them to share their thoughts and reflections on their in-game music and on Wink Commander itself.

You can read those below, ordered by their first contribution, along with the radio station that each artist's tracks can be heard on in-game. I hope you enjoy this post and Wink Commander's music as much as I do!

- Cheese

Drew Van Camp (Alien Shores, Cosmic Railway, Nav Elation)

My weapon of choice for music production over the past decade has been Ableton Live Intro 9. Last year I moved from Windows 7 to Windows 10, for those curious. I use Audacity, as well, mainly to convert from WAV down to OGG or other compressed formats. Mp3tag helps me manage the metadata on song files.

As a stay-at-home dad with little kids, basically running full-time child care and dog care for our household, the perfect creative environment doesn't really exist, but I work with what I can get. I often find a way to steal some time when they are occupied, and sometimes I have to just do a tiny bit now and a tiny bit later to get anything done. It's a challenge but I'm very motivated.

When I work on most types of creative projects, I prefer to have instrumental music on as a combination of white noise, inspiration, and mood booster, however, when working on music, I am actively creating the soundscape. Glass of water or a hot drink at the ready, I like to just dive in. I'm always excited to work on music, especially when it's an unexpected new thing.

My music is very synth driven and I'm always looking for a distinct sound that acts as a cornerstone to the audio palette, so I typically start by finding a synth instrument from my collection that can provide a good melody, arpeggiation, bass, or pad. That sound can inspire me to write a particular part for it, such as a melody or chord progression.

From there, I just follow my nose further to figure out what kind of song that musical part brings to mind and I seek out the next instrument and part that might go with it. I repeat this process several times, adding more layers of instrumentation until a song emerges. Often I get lost altering a sound's characteristics and going back and forth rewriting earlier parts based on the newest ideas that spring to mind.

So you might say that my methodology is to experiment and tinker. I often go into a song with one idea and come out with something totally unexpected. This is the main reason I created a chill reggae inspired track, Alien Shores. At some point, a bass line sounded like a classic dancehall style, so I decided to lean into that with the other parts. I'm a big fan of mixing island culture with space culture. It feels both out of place and right at home to me.

I often envision my music as already being set in space, typically on ships or stations, serving as the soundtrack to deep space exploration, lonely listening outposts, and the wonder of nebulous formations. Save for the reggae bit, the rest of the music felt like typical me.

My love for science fiction movies, particularly from around the 1980's, always seems to trickle into everything I work on. I have a life long appreciation for the unknown within that great outer expanse. Perhaps my work aims to ask all the existential questions that fill my subconscious or even to answer some of them, although this is done without words, so it's largely still a mystery to me.

Lofty philosophies aside, sometimes my aim with music like this is just to produce an atmosphere and find some sympathetic frequency with the vibe of whatever setting we find ourselves in. In other words, if it feels good, it is good, and I just let the music whimsically crawl its way through the environment. Sometimes this leads to energetic dance parties, sometimes to haunting darkness, and other times to an optimistic retrofuture. We landed in that last category this time.

When you consider all three tracks I produced, from Nav Elation to Cosmic Railway to Alien Shores, as a concept album, there is a three-part story arc of sorts. I like to think of each as their own leg of a journey.

The first is that pre-flight check where excitement for our trip builds within us as we run down our list to prepare. It seems to capture anticipation. For the very last few seconds of the song, I work in a tempo slow down, which is not a typical thing for me. I feel like it represents a deep breath before we engage that hyperspace engine.

The second track nicely fits the blast through space with a sense of floating and flying, where our speed is so great that it almost feels like we're moving in slow motion. In fact, the tempo for this track has a much faster underlying pulse than I typically use, yet the musical parts really take their time and keep things spread out, as if we're taking huge leaps with ease.

Finally, the third track paints a picture of arriving at our destination and just soaking in the moment. I do imagine laying on an exotic beach at sunset. Maybe once we finish our transport job, we take a little time for ourselves before we hit the trail and jump back into a new journey all over again.

On a deep, personal level, I hope that these tracks stir up a joy within the player. I think that's a good response to space travel and just the idea of having a place in the cosmos. There are many mysterious things we could ponder while we stroll about the stars and that seems like a privilege any one of us should appreciate. I think my songs capture a little bit of that idea but also a subtle sense of mundanity because it's quite possible to just enjoy the music with a quiet mind. So perhaps, another result will be simply restfulness.

I'm a big fan of the variety of music that went into this game. Since I work mostly with synthetic voices, I like hearing something of an acoustic nature in there. And it's just great in general to hear so many musical personalities present. It feels less lonely and more like you're bringing a big group of friends with you on your journey.

Such a simple action of greeting a fellow space pilot, which I imagine crosses some sort of cultural barrier, has been elegantly executed with a nice touch of personality. I like the relatively simple visual style and colors and I love how much freedom I feel like I have to walk about the ship and redecorate on a whim. Pilot interactions can be a challenge to keep up with, but it's fun to try and you truly feel like you've improved someone else's day.

One surprise is how well the music fades to the background without going unappreciated. In fact, it's the delightfulness of the soundtrack and its variety of styles and moods that makes it quite believable and immersive. You really feel like you're on a lonely ship yet buzzing to and fro within a colorful community.

I'm very proud to have contributed to this project and glad it turned out so well.

Drew Van Camp
Alien Shores (Star 33 FM)
Cosmic Railway (Star 33 FM)
Nav Elation (Star 33 FM)

Abstraction (Inter-nebula Transit Authority, The Long Haul)

It was unfortunate that I didn't have proper time to contribute original music to this game, but I'm so happy to have been asked and included! Thankfully, I spent a lot of time in 2024 building a repository of music for game developers to pull from, and was able to find two songs that suited what I felt "the vibe" of the game is.

Naming a song imbues it with a lot of meaning. Originally, these songs are just named after the day they were written, which isn't very fun.

Inter-Nebula Transit Authority gives the song a colorful lofi hip hop style vibe to the track, and it also hints at a whole universe of transportation. Cheese mentioned that it was never explained what you are transporting. Are you a space bus driver?

Or maybe you are transporting something more dangerous. The Long Haul has a more tense and tired feeling to me, another lonely day at the mobile office.

Much like how the name gives the song meaning, the song helps give the game some level of meaning. The radio station the player chooses contributes to the energy and internal narrative to the gameplay.

A lot of the time video game music is considered "wallpaper"; something necessary that kind of sits in the background and fills a void that would otherwise be noticed. Music is a part of the gestalt experience of the game and it's great to see Cheese putting so much time and effort for it to really fit into a project like this.

Plus, that dynamic credits thing is really cool. I'm definitely going to steal that idea :)

Abstraction
Inter-nebula Transit Authority (Subspace Groove)
The Long Haul (Subspace Groove)

Attitude (Beacon 1, Beacon 2)

Seven Day First Person Shooter (7DFPS) was the first game jam that I participated in.  That's now going back a few years.  That first jam, and all of the ones that I have done since, have been really enjoyable experiences.  This is not just because of the creativity of making a game, but of some of the really valuable things that I have learned while doing the jams.  Possibly one of the most valuable lessons is that of completion.  Most jams have a short time frame, and as such it is critical to focus on what can be done within the time frame.  I feel that is is very important for anyone that has a desire to make a game.  It is very easy to start making a game, but really hard to finish a game.

Each jam has presented many and varied opportunities.  Working on my own, with different groups of people with different skill levels, teams of different sizes, jam durations, themes, and various roles within a jam are just a few of the different things that have had me diving head long into new challenges.  Maybe it's just me, but it is this constant pushing me out of my comfort zone that I find compelling.  That is not to say that there is no value in honing a limited amount of skills across a number of jams.

In the lead up to 7DFPS 2024, I had reached out to a couple of other people that I had joined with at the last minute to do a jam earlier in the year.  One person was a programmer, and the other was a 2D artist.  It became obvious what the other two did in the jam, and I said that I would take on a role doing sound and music.  After the announcement of 7DFPS, I reached out again, and didn't get much of a response.  A couple of days out, they did get back to me and both said that they were not available at that point in time.  I decided then not to participate in the jam.  There were a number of other factors that didn't give me a lot of head space to either do the jam on my own, or try and organise a team with short notice.

A day or two after the start of 7DFPS 2024, Cheeseness reached out to me saying that he was doing the jam solo, but within his game he was going to include a radio, and that he wanted to get people that he knew to contribute music that could be played on the in game radio, and he asked me to contribute.  We have done a number of jams together, including my first 7DFPS.  Now it is very interesting the way that we view ourselves compared to the way others view us.  I have played guitar, and did play in a band for a while only doing covers.  Composing was not something that we did.  Since getting my first computer, I have dabbled with doing lots of things, programming, graphics, game development and even playing around a little with audio.  However, I would not have considered myself as a music composer.  So here was an opportunity to try something a bit out of the ordinary and a great mental challenge.  Within the time frame, I made two 3 minute + compositions.  Are they great pieces of music?  Not in my opinion, but I felt like that the did fit reasonably well within the game, (at least not out of place).

Sometimes things just seem to align. Another project that I am working on is a making a short (10 minute) animated video. It is set in space. So the thought came to me of working on some music that came be used in both projects. I used Wink Commander as a way of trying out different ideas on the same theme. When it comes time to putting the music into the video, I now have a couple of options that will give me a better chance of picking a better fit.

After the end of 7DFPS, one of the other composer that Cheeseness invited to create some music for his in game radio, reach out and invited me to participate in an event they are calling "Jamuary".  A month long music composing event.  At the time of writing, I have submitted two pieces and I'm planning on doing at least another two.  While these pieces are short (under 1 minute), that is part of my plan.  What I thought of doing for this event is to create a number of sketches (well that is what I'm calling them for want of a better name).  During the last week of the event, I will review all of the sketches and then choose the one that sounds the best to me and then further develop it into a more complete composition.  At the beginning of last year I would have predicted a lot of the things that I will be doing in 2025, but I would never have predicted that I would be doing music composition.  However now I'm looking forward to seeing where things are going to lead me during the year.  So a big thanks to Cheeseness for inviting me to contribute to his game Wink Commander and the other jams that I have participated in with him over the years.

Attitude
Beacon 1 (Radio Pulsar)
Beacon 2 (Radio Pulsar)

apicici (Space Age)

When Cheseness asked for volunteers to provide music for Wink Commander I was very happy to help. I found the idea very interesting, and it was the perfect excuse for me to do some composing and recording.

The inspiration

Before starting composing I played an early build of the game to get an idea of the feel, and decided I should make something that sounded "sparse" and gave the idea of being in space. The intro section came to me as I was playing around on my acoustic guitar. I found it rhythmically interesting, played around with it a bit more and decided it would be good for the piece.

The intro part is kind of tight, so to retain the idea of sparseness I made that lead into an open sounding middle section, with improvised guitar and bass, and sporadic drums.

I originally planned for the piece to be longer, but I thought the end of the B section was leading nicely into the intro section again and I had a good way of ending from there. I really liked the way it sounded and felt adding more would make it worse, so I kept it at less than three minutes.

I called the piece Space Age. There wasn't a lot of thought behind that, it just popped into my head and I felt it was fitting.

Production environment

Space Age was produced entirely on Linux! I used REAPER as the DAW and a Roland Rubix24 as the audio interface. I used Guitar Rig 6 and Kontakt as VST3 plugins, through the wonderful yabridge that makes running Windows audio plugins on Linux a breeze. I use PipeWire as the audio server—it was a game changer, as I was never able to make JACK work properly, while PipeWire just works out of the box.

The recording process

For this specific piece I recorded guitar and bass by plugging them into the Rubix24 (which has instrument preamps) and added amp simulation and effects through Guitar Rig. I originally meant to use this approach just to make a demo and to re-record the instrument through actual amps; however, due to a combination of being busy and being quite happy with what I recorded, I ended up keeping the recordings as is in the final version.

The drums are (sadly) sample-based (Abbey Road Moder Drummer). I do have an actual acoustic drumkit, but I'm in no way equipped to record it. I made the drums track twice. The first time around I used a tiny DIY electronic drumkit that I made (using and arduino for the "brain") to trigger the samples, in an attempt to make it sound natural. This is the version that I sent to Cheeseness and was included in the game's first release.

While I was reasonably happy with the original drums, I still felt they didn't sound very natural, so a week or so later I decided to give it another go. This time I used a different approach, which I think worked very well: I recorded myself playing the acoustic drums with a portable microphone (with a terrible quality, as expected) and then used the recorded track as a guide to place the MIDI notes. This makes the timing sound quite natural, and I think I will be using the approach again in the future.

apicici
Space Age (Rocky Body)

Quenched Disorder (A Foolish Wish, Deep Space Dreamer, Wavering Truth)

I've had a few musical ideas I wanted to play around with but didn't really have the motivation to work on/other tracks had priority because they weren't going to be used for something. When Cheese brought up the opportunity to add music to something that was actually going to be released it gave me an excuse to work on them! The idea of a radio station was interesting, I thought it was neat that a bunch of composers making music of different styles would be part of this.

I wanted to make tracks that had a contemplative mood with some aspects of the work of Debussy (I was really interested in impressionism then but none of the projects I was working on had room for that kind of music). The tracks I heard from the other composers so far were more similar to other video game music so it was a great opportunity to make a couple of ambient tracks.

I tried making pieces that conveyed isolation, though not necessarily in a wholly negative way. The kind of peaceful isolation I imagined the pilot in the game might experience as they travel alone through space. It reminded me a lot of other similar games I enjoyed where the player explores a sparse world where every social interaction mattered.

Quenched Disorder
A Foolish Wish (Accretion Drive)
Deep Space Dreamer (Accretion Drive)
Wavering Truth (Accretion Drive)

Motley Pixels (Space Winking)

Space Winking is very obviously a rock-style track with some sci-fi elements. It’s very inspired by music from and the games “Cargo Commander” (2012) and “Rochard” (2012).

Both games feature a character who is basically a “tradie” (in Australian lingo).

It was made with Music Maker Jam, an app for iOS and Android, which is easy but not too trivially easy to make music, where you can purchase instrument/loop packs to sequence. It’s complex enough to make music that fits themes. It does not use any generative AI.

The making of the track was very rushed as I was quite busy at the time, and I am in general. But I am not too unhappy with it. I am now noticing that there are multiple melodies going on in the track, which isn’t ideal but it’s a lesson for next time.

I like the spacey rock theme, it feels like you’re a casual worker (tradie) as opposed to scientist, engineer, etc. Just chilling and having fun in space (sometimes with friends as seen in Rochard). I thought I would use this theme to ensure there was an upbeat track in the game, to give the player a sense of fun and amusement while being isolated in space. Much like the themes in the games above. I like that even though you are in a spaceship, you can have a sense of colour and joy and playfulness. In Rochard, the character is guided verbally by friends in a very action oriented game. In Cargo Commander it’s a bit more isolated, but the home base you travel in feels like a home with plants and furniture, and even Christmas decorations.

I am still using Music Maker Jam and Garageband for making music, as opposed to more technical tools (perhaps LMMS for Linux) until I have a lot more time to develop my skills with them. I am learning guitar again (slowly) which should improve my musicality somewhat.

It is very satisfying to be able to make your own music for games, as a solo developer, as learning music theory or DAWs in deeper detail is very time consuming. Having musician friends is nice, I might take advantage of them more, but in addition to improving my music skills.

Motley Pixels
Space Winking (Rocky Body)

Hodge (An Omelet To Remember)

First of all, a big thanks to Cheese for inviting me to submit music for Wink Commander. The game is great and I'm proud to be even a small part of it. I won't talk about how my music fits into the game, as a) that's better left for others to decide; and b) I don't really know anyway :). Instead I'll talk about how the music came together.

I didn't want to do typical 'sci-fi' music (synthy, electronic, ambient etc.). I figured some of the other contributors would cover that area, and do it better than I ever could. Also, I love it when sci-fi soundtracks subvert expectations and use country/blues guitar or similar, like Increased Chances' in Full Throttle, 'Benson, Arizona' in Dark Star and the surf-rock soundtrack in Atom Zombie Smasher. And the idea of someone having a radio in a sci-fi setting is kind of anachronistic anyway, so something old-timey seemed a good fit. By chance I'd recently bought a (relatively) cheap lap steel guitar and I decided to make the music using only that.

I also thought of community radio stations and the niche stuff they play. I remember one near me years ago had a show that just played 1950s-1960s teen idol love songs... immediately followed by contemporary punk/hardcore. More recently on another station I heard one that showcased Asian jazz. I like the idea of the player shuffling through the stations and stumbling on something completely out-of-context and unexpected.

For the composition I wanted to do something silly. I was going for something with the same cheesy energy as the old Nintendo Wii channel music, or maybe an old 80s (bad) sitcom theme. I hadn't figured out how to play minor chords on the lap steel (still haven't!) so I stuck to basic I - IV - V chords for the progression, which meant I could get away with all the chords being major. For the melody I figured out the major scale on just the top two strings and played everything on those, which saved me having to learn the scale proper.

I submitted the music under the name 'The Port-a-loos'. In my head they're a bunch of middle-aged office workers in the Wink Commander universe, goofing off in their spare time. I like works of fiction having their own in-universe brands, celebrities etc. - even if they're not related to the narrative they still make the world feel more real.

The title 'An Omelet To Remember' doesn't mean anything, it's the first thing that entered my head when I had to think of a filename.

Hodge
An Omelet To Remember (Cosmic Waves)

Arroz (Newer Beginning)

"Newer Beginning" was not the song I originally wanted to submit to Wink Commander. Being a fan of space and sci-fi, I wanted to submit a track I originally made back in 2016 called "Apollo."

Apollo was made when I was heavily into electronic dance music in 2016, thus it was a standard four on the floor rhythm song made with LMMS's stock electronic drums, synths and pads. The music itself was not bad for a background track in a video game, but the mix was terrible. The drums were too loud and the elevated high end made the track too bright during certain sections. This made me reconsider and choose another track to submit.

I decided to go with the second track I had in mind, a remake of another track I made in 2016. Originally released as "New Beginning," this remake ended up being called "Newer Beginning." The original version used orchestral soundfont libraries to make a virtual orchestral piece using only MIDI input. You can still find the song on my Bandcamp page, along with Apollo in the same album release. Which consists of songs I made during my first year of learning music and audio production.

The remake was made because I wanted to do a new mix of "New Beginning", but I had lost the original plugins from the Ardour session. So all I had left from the original session folder was a bounced track and a MIDI.

I remade the track in Ardour with a completely different collection of digital instruments. The orchestral strings and horns came from the General MIDI Synth that the Ardour binaries come with preinstalled. Before, they were from a different third-party soundfont library. The drums were not a part of the original track, but I decided to include them to add more energy to the second half of the song. The drum samples came from the AV Linux drum plugin and I programmed them using MIDI in Ardour. The track became it's own ship of Theseus, where the notes were the original frame and the materials were the new instrumentation. I then arranged and mixed it the song to try an emulate how a live band would play and record the same song in a futuristic setting. The mix was done using faders to level the tracks, with the master bus using a compressor, EQ and a limiter for the final delivery.

This is the song I decided to submit, because I thought the tone of the new instrumentation made it sound like a part of a space or sci-fi adventure. From my perspective, Wink Commander is it's own space adventure. So far, you can only listen to "Newer Beginning" if you play Wink Commander. So I highly recommend playing it so you can listen to it and other tracks from other talented musicians on the in-game space radio.

Arroz
Newer Beginning (Cameron FM)

Jepp (Semicolon Right Parenthesis)

Coincidentally, I had been trying to write music fairly recently with little to no luck, partly due to lack of drive to actually record something. I thought Cheeseness' call for musical artists was a really cool concept and it also felt like a good opportunity to lock myself in to finally recording something. It took me about a day to convince myself to volunteer, then another five before I submitted anything.

Knowing the game was set in space, I very quickly listened to some space-based inspiration I found online. I don't remember it being super useful in the moment, but I'm sure it influenced me in some way.

I grabbed my acoustic guitar and messed around playing some chords I thought sounded good together and fit a general mood I was going for, being "not super upbeat". Once I found some I liked, I recorded playing them in a loop and started improvising over the top. With my very limited knowledge of music theory, this usually ends up being a lot of trial and error until I am able to figure out a "pattern" of notes I can play that fit the backing.

Before I started recording, I'd found a pattern that I liked which was a bit lower down the fretboard. I ended up repeating this with a few small variations at the beginning before playing higher up for the remainder of the song, which stayed entirely improvised rather than figuring out any specific pattern.

Having access to a build of the game that allowed me to drop my music in and listen right away was super helpful. Despite trying to not to be too critical of my own work, I wasn't particularly happy initially with what I had made. It's difficult to explain, but after trying it inside the game I immediately felt better about it overall.

After submitting it, I was very humbled by the opportunity to have my music be the song on the main menu! It was a bit of a lesson about putting a little more faith in my own work and not throwing something away if I don't consider it 100% perfect.

Regarding the title of the song, I'd initially attempted to actually name it just ";)", but from memory it caused some issues while attempting to import it into the game in the early build (fair enough!). Ultimately, I spelled each character out to get "Semicolon Right Parenthesis" and I think I ended up preferring that, even if it is still a little ridiculous.

Jepp
Semicolon Right Parenthesis (Cosmic Waves)

Peter Silk (Cassette Loader, Remember Rain)

We've worked together several times, and after hearing the concept and name it was a no-brainer that I wanted to contribute something to this.

I've been a lifelong fan of both Wing Commander, and momentary social interactions that don't require conversation or long term commitment. This is a great project, and I think there's a lot of interesting play to be mined from thinking about things that you see a lot of in games (like being a space trader) and then focusing on an aspect of it that usually isn't focused on.

My schedule wouldn't allow me to make something specific for the radio, so when I was thinking of what to contribute I considered tunes that would be contrasting, like I'd want to hear from different radio stations, and also things I'd made purely for pleasure, rather than with the idea of some sort of project in mind.

Hearing them in context, I think I've achieved that. But if I actually were a space trucker, I think I'd probably be more of a Remember Rain type person. If I'm on a long haul I want to zone out, rather than get hyped up. But your mileage may vary - hence my decision to go with contrasts.

Peter Silk
Cassette Loader (Rocky Body)
Remember Rain (Subspace Groove)

Archmage Band (Celestial Quest, Light Speed)

We started making music in 2013 after receiving a Roland Gaia SH-01 synthesizer as a gift from Masha's dad. Our first inspiration for the chiptunes genre were artists Michael Land who made the Lucasfilm soundtracks and the iMuse software engine for adventure games, Chiptunes artists who blended genres with other electronica such as J Arthur Keenes Band, Musho who made music using gameboys, and Jim Guthrie who wrote the soundtrack for Sword and Sworcery. We were also inspired by artists such as Depeche Mode and the Aussie acts Midnight Juggernauts and The Presets. We first ventured into composition for games when a friend needed background music for a mobile game, but although that development didn't go ahead, it made us form our band and spark the beginnings of our style. Our first published music online was in 2016 with 'The Bonfire Party Demos' and got a lot more active in 2020 and onward after releasing the single 'July'.

We think Wink Commander is a charming and unique game that has great potential. We're happy and honored that we were invited to make some music for it. For our first two tracks we wanted a sense of adventure and retro chip sounds. Light Speed was written in half a day all in one jam session, and for that one we wanted to give a sense of very fast space travel and a playful mood. 'Celestial Quest' was written over the course of 3 jam sessions, and it was meant to feel like a hero's journey beginning.

Archmage Band
Celestial Quest (Dark Electron)
Light Speed (Dark Electron)

Rylie James Thomas (Lightspeed Cruise)

A goal of mine for 2024 was to finish at least one album. I've been switching from making games to making music for a while, but have mostly been learning stuff and messing about so far—nowhere near having a collection of completed songs. I saw Cheeseness's post requesting for music for their jam game and thought it would be a good chance to just finish something, treat it kinda like a Glorious Trainwrecks event and not dwell or get stuck on anything too much.

I wanted to make something spacey, but with a lot of movement and progression like a driving song, but a bit laconic and low-gravity. I'd been playing a lot with using a Yamaha TX81Z (an FM synth) and a Roland JV-880 (kinda lush, kinda gritty, early 90s sounds) and really liked how they worked together, so knew I wanted to use those as the starting point.

I thought it'd be fun to run with the radio theme a bit and do a short radio edit. I'm hoping to to a longer version when my computer is working again.

For those interested in the practical side: I used a Roland TR-8 for drums, the Roland JV-880 and Yamaha TX81Z for the two main parts, and a Korg EA-1 for the solo that comes in half-way. Effects are all from a DigiTech TSR-12. Reaper (on Linux) is used to sequence everything, and a JLCooper MSB+ and Roland UM-ONE handle the MIDI communication.

Rylie James Thomas
Lightspeed Cruise (radio edit) (Dark Electron)