High Rise

Ballard’s provides a socio-political commentary on society during the 70s. He manages to do so by using a luxurious apartment building as a metaphor for the class struggle (McGrath, 2004). Things quickly turn sour as the building itself, become a microcosm of a collapsing society in a retro-futuristic depiction of the 70s. The objective of the player is to ascend to the top of the tower alive and face a boss battle on the roof. In its ascent, it will be attacked by hordes of enemies at a time. It is a 3rd person action/adventure game. The brief required the composition of a music system that implements both vertical and horizontal approaches. Taking into account the aesthetics of the game, described as 'retro with futuristic vibes' and looking a 'whimsical tone juxtaposed with a macabre tone' I used the cover image (that is a screengrab from the video game Evil Genious 2) as an inspiration and decided to write a Jazz soundtrack, mixed with some elements from Rock and Metal music. Below you can hear the complete soundtrack implemented in FMOD Studio whilst visualising how it adapts to in-game parameters such as the level the player is in, if the player is in exploration or combat state, and the Boss' Health, to name a few.