The music of Enlighten
One of my roles in this project was the composition and implementation of the music for our game, Enlighten. I'm writing this article to explain my creative process and the choices I made when creating the soundtrack.
Enlighten is a walking simulator where the player explores ancient ruins with a very particular visual style. These ancient ruins tell the story of an old civilisation and how they destroyed themselves. Our intention was to pass on a mood of fragility and solitude while still holding on to a certain amount of hope. I therefore chose to make the soundtrack only using a single piano with an added reverb. The lone instrument reflects the solitude of the avatar and the reverb reflects the cavernous environment. The key used is in a natural minor key, adding to the feeling of melancholy, but can also pass the feeling of hope.
Our game is separated in two parts: the intro (cave level) and the town. For this reason, I chose to compose two distinct pieces to truly cement the different zones of the level. For the transition between the pieces to work, I composed one piece for each zone that would be looped as the player explores. Once the player hits a certain zone the music will go to a bridge composed to transition between the two parts of the composition. The final part of the score starts once the player triggers the final cutscene, so as to flow with the animation and the credits once they appear.
