Anyone who’s played A Short Hike knows the soundtrack makes up a hefty percentage of the experience. Without it, your two-hour journey would be much more of a walk and much less of an experience. And as it turns out, that soundtrack would probably never have happened if composer Mark Sparling hadn’t played The Binding of Isaac in college.
Speaking to Polygon via email as part of our week-long look at the crossover of games and music, Polygon FM, Sparling — who also composed the soundtrack to Cursed to Golf, among others — talked about being inspired by Isaac, his process when working on A Short Hike, and the importance of pulling from game history when composing for games.
Polygon: Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to pursue creating game music? Can you set the scene of what that felt like for you, and why the music was so effective?
Mark Sparling: The soundtrack to the original Binding of Isaac by Danny Baranowsky was a big one for me.
I was in university for music at the time so I was playing very few games. I don’t know why I picked up Isaac — maybe it was a recommendation from a friend — but I remember being blown away. I just thought it was so cool how a small team could make such a great game. I couldn’t wait to get to the next area so I could hear its accompanying music. It is one of those soundtracks where, once you hear it, you could not imagine the game having any other music behind it. It does such a great job of combining orchestral instruments with all these squishy, glitchy, synthesized sounds. I probably put over 50 hours into that game and I never got tired of that soundtrack. I haven’t played the game in many years, but any time I put the soundtrack back on it brings me back to that world. I had never thought about composing for games up until that point, but after playing that game, I knew I wanted to give it a shot.
Can you break down one of your own songs and its influences? Was it inspired by game soundtracks, other music, or something else?
The instrumentation in [A Short Hike’s “Somewhere in the Woods”] is sort of a mix between Sufjan Stevens and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I wanted to layer the guitars (and other instruments) in a way that Sufjan does on a lot of his songs on Carrie & Lowell. The cute, minimal percussion was very much inspired by New Leaf.
The main theme of A Short Hike (“Beach Buds”) is very Ghibli-inspired, and while the string part in this song isn’t necessarily inspired by Joe Hisaishi, I did want there to be strings in this to have some sort of orchestral element. There is also a musical layer that comes in when you’re approaching the beach in the game that is very much inspired by afro-cuban jazz.
What are the main instruments used to record the soundtrack for A Short Hike? How did you choose those instruments?
In terms of live instruments, I recorded guitar, mandolin, and banjo. I also used sampled piano [and] drums. I felt like these were a great folk music-y place to start for a game set at a national park. As I mentioned above, I’ve always loved the instruments that Animal Crossing: New Leaf uses so I wanted to take some inspiration for that in my bass and percussion choice. Those instruments remind me of the old general midi sounds that I had on my first digital piano. I also had strings in there as I felt like they helped complement the flying aspects of the game. I also had some simple synthesizer patches in there as they felt right with the combination of instruments.
Is there anything else we should know about your approach to composing video game music?
I think video game music has a very rich history and I try my best to honor and take inspiration from that history whenever I get a chance to write for a game.
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