Boyfriend Dungeon quickly got players to third base when the game launched last month. The dating simulator-come-dungeon crawler sees your love interests turn into weapons so you can slay and smooch all at the same time. While the dungeons were fairly simple - especially when compared to Hades - the mature story and vibrant, deeply compelling characters made it an indie hit. What has been overlooked by many players though is the soundtrack. It pulses with a pop-infused energy that offers the promise of love, adventure, and self-discovery. I spoke with the composer, Marskye (real name Ramsey Kharroubi), about what goes into making a soundtrack for a game with such a unique premise.
“The stuff I did before Boyfriend Dungeon is so ‘out there’ sounding. When I [was] first offered the gig I was like, ‘I don't know where I'm going to even begin.’”
The sound of Boyfriend Dungeon had to fit developer Kitfox Games’ vision, and fortunately, creative director and Kitfox co-founder, Tanya Short, had themes and ideas ready for Marskye as soon as he agreed to the project. She wanted the music to focus on polyamory, dating, and cram in as many weapon puns as possible.
“From the beginning, she wanted vocals - a human element to ground the game,” Marskye says. “It was very intuitive and clever on her part. I told her I'd never worked with vocals in my life, it’s my first time having that privilege. She was like, ‘Here's your budget, find somebody that you vibe with, and if it works out let's try a couple tracks.’ The first song I had written for the game was Twisted Up With Me and then I found Madeline [McQueen, the vocalist used throughout Boyfriend Dungeon]. I showed [Tanya] that, and she was like, ‘This is the sound of the game.’”
Marskye is quick to point out the collaborative nature of working on games and refuses sole credit for the brilliance of the soundtrack. Game development is a team effort, and he knows when to let go of the reins for the sake of the game as a whole.
“I would write the songs, throw them in Slack, and hope for the best,” he says. “I was very far removed from the game. I had written the soundtrack way before most of the mechanics were even in place, so I wasn't able to test it out. I can't begin to tell you how terrified I was up to the release of the game, because I didn’t know where my songs [were]. I was never able to really place my songs in the scenes, I left that in the hands of Tanya and Omar [Dabbous, the audio director at KO_OP mode who worked on the audio for Boyfriend Dungeon]. They did an amazing job because people are hearing the songs at the right moments.”
It’s not all upbeat melodies and lyrical puns however. There’s darkness and tension present too. Open Arms, for example, begins with a foreboding dubstep rhythm that builds until McQueen’s vocals cut through.
“I’ve always written my stuff with a darker edge,” Marskye says. “If you listen to my previous work - [in] Gnog, it's a playful toy game, but if you really listen to the soundtrack, there's eerie moments, there's something haunting about it. For Boyfriend Dungeon, at first, I wanted it to be very uplifting, but the more dark tracks I wrote, Tanya and the team were really liking it. They enjoyed it and wanted more on that level.
“I wanted the soundtrack to have a dangerous sound. There's a tenseness to it, an element of danger. The vocals and lyrics reinforce that tenfold, with the uncertainty and the playfulness. You're with Valeria and you're on this fun date but there's danger around, you know? If you listen to the lyrics themselves they have a real vibe of uncertainty to them. They're like, ‘Oh maybe I like you, maybe I don't’ you know? It’s got that playfulness to it to match the vibe of the game.”
If it weren’t for all the weapon puns, it would be hard to guess the soundtrack was tied to a game. It sounds like it could be a standalone album. “I want something that's going to be on its own,” Marskye says. “Whether you play Boyfriend Dungeon or not, you're going to like what you hear - that was the main goal to hit. I also didn't want it to sound like a dating simulator at all - from the start I wanted it to be different. When I first got offered the gig I went and listened to some other dating sim soundtracks because I'd never played a dating sim in my life. The music I was hearing just sounds a certain way. I wanted to veer completely off that [and] maximise the dark themes in Boyfriend Dungeon. I mean, you have people turning to weapons so you can't just slap on a normal cutie, pop soundtrack.”
When it launched, Boyfriend Dungeon was mired in controversy due to its darker themes. The game features a stalker antagonist, and many felt that the content warning at the start of the game didn’t adequately convey how much this would be a central pillar of the narrative. Some even demanded the removal of the character. Marskye weighed in on the controversy.
“He crosses boundaries because he's a villain,” Marskye says. “That's the whole point. He stalks you because he has no concept of what's right or wrong and [Kitfox] use the game to tell that [story]. I understand that stalking can be triggering for people even if you have the warning there. I am sensitive to people who were triggered by the stalking, I don't dismiss that, I don't think they're stupid. [But], death threats? Obviously don't threaten people over your feelings.”
The voice actor for the villainous stalker received threats on Twitter from people who believed that his playing a character meant he was endorsing the character’s behaviour, which is absurd. Marskye believes that it was important for Kitfox to tell the story it did.
“Tell me one dating simulator that has those kinds of boundaries laid out for you, or has any kind of concept of consent, or any kind of philosophy of consent in the game,” he says. “[Dating], specifically dating for women, it's nightmarish. The kinds of texts they get like the [villain sends]. A lot of women on Tinder will get all sorts of terrible, tasteless, inappropriate, all sorts of harassment. I think it's important that a dating game decided to make that almost the forefront. The game's core themes [are] of boundaries [and] consent. I think that's really interesting because I don't know a lot of other games that tackle those themes in the dating context.”
Boyfriend Dungeon understands the highs and lows of dating, and the soundtrack compliments those themes beautifully. It’s a game about exploring sexuality, dungeons, fears, insecurities, possibilities, and, ultimately, yourself.
“People go for people that they would have not gone for in real life - even the straightest of guys can't resist Sunder.”