Death's Door is yet another great indie title from publisher Devolver Digital. A top-down adventure, you play as a little crow reaper assigned by Death to collect souls. Besides the beautiful world and tight souls-like gameplay, Death's Door also features a soundtrack that is beyond anything you'd expect from an indie title.
David Fenn, sound designer at Acid Nerve and Death’s Door’s music composer, recently posted a video online about just how the game’s soundtrack was created. The game features a bunch of boss fights with some incredible transitions, and it turns out those slick tunes required a ton of work.
The Frog King boss fight is one such example. Initially featuring an electronic jungle drum beat, the fight also involves several transitions from bubbling murk to giant frog combat. To start, Fenn created the Phase 1 drum loop along with an orchestral drum loop for an immediate "vertical" transition--this makes the combat suddenly feel more intense as the synthetic sounds get combined with something that sounds more "real." Fenn goes on to explain that each segment of the song has a similar segment with a gradual crescendo for that feeling of increasing intensity.
You can hear the whole thing come together after completing Phase 1 of the Frog King boss fight. When the water starts bubbling for the Frog King to make his jump into Phase 2, the song’s intensity gradually increases until Mr. King makes the leap onto the floating platforms.
Other sound effects, like the “HUH!” shout and the bubbling water is synced up perfectly in-tune with the music so it all comes together in a seamless transition.
Death's Door has a 94% positive review status on Steam and recently crossed the 100,000 player mark. If you're into isometric action, some RPG elements, and of course, a kicking soundtrack, then you definitely need to walk through Death's Door. Oh, and don’t forget the very unique humor, too.