'TThe part where the mother and child get separated on the Red Mountain is a level fairly early in the game where you have to go back and find the mother. I was completing the sound design and music in the hospital. She was right next to my mother as she slept while she was recovering from open heart surgery. ”

Todd Baker pauses for a moment. He recalls the development process for Monument Valley 2, a 2017 indie puzzle game. Biggest success stories It will remain in the history of mobile games. The second game is more experimental than the first. The number of stories has increased and the atmosphere has changed. While the first title was all optical illusions and impossible objects, the sequel moves away from his MC Escher-inspired towers and spiers to non-Euclidean geometry and brutalism.

At the center of it all are a mother and daughter, wordlessly walking back and forth in each other's paths, desperately trying to stay together as the world heaves and undulates and does its best to tear them apart. It's about women's heritage and relationships, and for Todd there were parallels between fiction and reality. “The fact that this game is about a mother and a child, and the fact that I lost my mother at the end of the year when I was making this game, is very heartbreaking.”

Monument Valley 2's soundtrack is the kind of music you want to listen to when you're not playing. Even when separated from the parent game, it's still very enveloping, very rich and textured, and provides a comfortable background for whatever you're doing. Waves of warm, organic tones and ambient, soothing sounds wash over you. This was always Baker's intention. Even before the unfortunate coincidence of fictional and real losses, Monument Valley 2's soundtrack was designed to be soothing, familiar, and gorgeous.

“Basically, what I was trying to do was create the sound of a really warm hug,” Baker said with a laugh, referring to one of the early stages of the game, when the child first comes to his mother. He described the moment he was held in his mother's arms. “At that moment, the kid comes in and I hug him, and there’s a lot of bass going on…I needed a really warm, fuzzy feeling, like this is where I want to be right now. .”

This moment in the game is very important. It's all about setting what's at stake. Yes, this story is abstract and minimalistic, but this moment has such power. Baker creates an impromptu acoustic guitar melody that he layered on three tracks and played on an EBow for a slightly supernatural sound, all backed up by an intoxicating supporting bass note, but it's not unlike the visuals here. I am doing a very important job. Establish everything that's at risk, Apple/iOS friendly, “bright on white”. If you don't watch the game to the end, you'll never see these two reunite.

That resonated with the audience, Baker said. “What's amazing is that now I get messages from people saying, 'This was the soundtrack of my childhood,'” Baker laughs. “They talked to me as adults now who were playing this game when they were 11 or 12 years old and said this is nostalgic and it's a safe space for them. It touches people's hearts. , they have a lot of nostalgia for it now.”

Baker was responsible for not only the music for Monument Valley 2, but also the entire sound design. Things like how a chime sounds when you swipe or tap on certain interactive elements, or how a little music plays as you explore a curious geometric world. It gets sucked in. This was an opportunity for him to emulate the approach Martin Stig Andersen took with Limbo and Inside. Both games had a huge influence on Monument Valley 2's audio, even though they couldn't be more different in tone.

“From the beginning, I was confident that I could do this. We were able to do the whole project holistically, including discussions about whether to license the music or use other artists for the trailer.” But for this one…I had to bring it myself. I wanted the music to speak and tell the story, and I wanted the rest of the development team to be really excited about it.”

As Baker says this, he imitates a hug and brings it around himself, recreating the hug he tried to evoke in the hearts and ears of players in the game's early moments. A decade after the original game was released, Apple still promotes both Monument Valley and the sequel on the App Store, with the latter installed on at least 30 million of his devices. There's no doubt that millions of people heard echoes of that hug and Baker's relationship with his mother. If you've never played this game with the sound on, find your headphones, head over to the App Store, and give it a try. I promise you, it's worth the effort.