Hyper Furball is the entry I did in collaboration with xellaya for round 27 of the game development challenge known as Ludum Dare. It's a side-scrolling RPG about a cute cat who gets HYPER when it finds milk!

The entire game, soundtrack, and art were all produced within the 72-hour timeframe. The soundtrack itself took about 7 hours in total to make.

Album includes track notes and seamless versions of looping tracks in case you want to loop them as they are during gameplay.

- Album notes -

Meow! (Title Theme)
Working time: 1 hour 12 minutes
I'm really proud of this one; I think it works really well as a title theme...high energy and with a catchy hook! The groovy solo section is kind of unnecessary considering how little there is to actually DO in the main menu here, but I had to at least give this song -some- length. Probably the only awkward part here is the ending, since I needed a good way to wrap it back to the beginning fill. This was actually one of the later songs I wrote, so the cat meow effect that you hear here is basically copy-pasted from the store theme.

Once Upon a Time (Intro Sequence)
Working time: 15 minutes
I just needed a lullaby-sounding thing for the storybook intro...something cute and peaceful. So, I started with a standard sequence, and it was just really simple from there. I considered adding more to this, but decided against it. It's simple and it works! Plus, how long are you going to be looking at the story, anyways? This one, like pretty much every other song, features the main Hyper Furball motif once the main lead comes in.

Whole New World (Level 1-4 Theme)
Working time: 1 hour 25 minutes
I wrote this one after writing "Hyper Furball". I really like it when game soundtracks feature repeated melodic motifs that show up in various tracks, so I tried to keep that in mind as I was composing for this soundtrack. In this case, the main chorus here uses the same melody as the beginning of "Hyper Furball", which also shows up throughout the rest of the soundtrack. This one is interesting because the soundscape really opens up after the chorus and the mood goes from light-hearted and chippy to being really vast and expansive. I wasn't planning on that...it just sort of happened. I actually don't like the opening intro for this song that much...I feel like it wastes too much time before getting into the main theme (this is the first level theme, and first impressions count!), but in the end I decided to keep it because it usually plays while you read the instructions anyways.

Search the Ruins (Level 5-9 Theme)
Working time: 47 minutes
I wrote this one after xellaya drew the backgrounds for the second level scene -- it has a sort of Asian garden look to it, so I tried to match that by starting things off with a pentatonic riff. I think this works well as the second stage theme, since it's a little darker, a little more groovy -- we're building up interest. I ended up having no bassline for the first half of the song, which has a nice effect. Then we go into this super dramatic section, which...again, just sort of happened. I really don't know if it matches a game about a hyper cat that destroys babies and mushrooms, but HEY I TRIED, OKAY? The main Hyper Furball theme shows up here at the very end of the song, briefly for 3 measures.

Starry Night (Level 10-14 Theme)
Working time: 49 minutes
The third set of background images were darker, with stars and a night background, so I started off with a bell sound that I think fits that well. I decided to go sort of trancey with this one and laid down a four-on-the-floor beat. I think it works, since this is the last stage theme, so it's good for there to be some forward driving motion. It has a very soaring and open sound.
Did you notice the Hyper Furball theme here?

Bad Baby (Boss Theme)
Working time: 35 minutes
At this point we were starting to run short on time...I was even debating whether to put the boss battle in at all, since we only had a few hours to really implement it. I started things off with a pretty classic "dun dun" motif, and then I just have a typical "evil" chord progression to set the tone here. I sort of cheated by using the Hyper Furball theme in pretty much the same way as I did in "Search the Ruins".

Cat Napping (Store Theme)
Working time: 39 minutes
Ahh, shop themes. They're always lots of fun. I find that this sort of chippy happy light feel works really well for shop themes. I decided that I wanted to make this one in swing rhythm, just because I was hearing the melody in my head that way. And yes...here's where I came up with the "meow~" sound effect. Yay~

Hyper Furball (Hyper Theme)
Working time: 1 hour 12 minutes
This was the very first song I wrote for the whole game -- I knew that this would be really important to the feel of the game, so I started here. At 200 beats per minute, 8 bars works out roughly to 10 seconds, if you add in the extra opening pewpew sound. I tried to cram AS MUCH HYPER ENERGY AS POSSIBLE into this thing, so it's really loud (i.e. overcompressed), has lots of fast runs and arpeggios, and a drilling kick fill at the end. Awesome.

Happy Cat (End Theme)
Working time: 9 minutes
Well, the ending scene is really short, so no time in making something long and drawn out, especially since we were really coming close to the deadline at this point.
This is just a simple 8 bar loop. Happy and simple. ^.^