Thrive Soundtrack Completion Tracker

[Nein99]

I’ve identified a bunch of what I feel are important game contexts that are missing soundtracks.

Biomes are based on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12g1F514N68MfVU_JUdtS_af6t8UZ0DPr-z5XF_6wr4s/edit?usp=sharing

and all the Editors are ones referred to in the Thrive Wiki or in dev forum discussion.

All other gameplay contexts mentioned are ones I feel will be broad/relevant enough in gameplay and would benefit from soundtracks.

Here are all the contexts present and missing divided by stage (link to the spreadsheet is at the top of this thread):

This is my original purpose for creating both this spread sheet and the Thrive Biomes one (see this forum thread)

This should give myself and other sound team members good focus for years to come, at least when it comes to music. Sound effects are a whole other can of worms, which to be honest I’m not exprienced with, but I’d think those would be much harder to map out in advance before we need them.

Side note, you may notice there’s a lot of hyper-specific themes that have been made for Thrive over the years, and as a rule I’d like to avoid that to avoid bloat. Very specific gameplay contexts should be given character by using a mix of themes to create a picture with the combined feelings they evoke. I talked about this in my biomes thread:

@Nein99

@Rathalos

should a flat desert and a mountainous desert use all the same soundtracks?

In my opinion, yes. Or rather, there should be a desert theme which plays in deserts, and perhaps a mountains theme, and both can play in desert mountains. As the player becomes more familiar with the soundtrack, this should create a greater tonal variety while still fitting the gameplay environment, if that makes sense.

If you’re in the desert mountains and hear the desert theme, it may invoke memories of time you spent wandering the dunes, and when you then hear the mountains theme, it may invoke memories of time you spent scaling snowy mountain cliffs, both of which provide different and rich context to the current gameplay experience.

I think themes should strike a balance between specific and broadly applicable, while specific locations can be given a sonic identity using a combination of multiple themes and ambient tracks.

Here’s our Desert Theme and Mountains Theme by halfslashmoon as examples. Imagine both of these playing in a desert mountain area and contributing to its character.