Hi, Rio here.
Since this is a special moment, I’ll share not only the links but also the story of how it all began.
Where to listen
On Steam the soundtrack is available as a separate app (MP3):
Spotify — though in two parts.
Why? Because the album includes a large number of tracks tied to in-game states. Each loop is arranged separately, and streaming platforms simply don’t allow packing all of that into one release:For those who want maximum quality — the FLAC version is available free to download:
👉 FLAC on r10.wtf
And a small rule from me: always enable repeat one track.
How the music in Full Effect came to be
It all started the day Stolaire sent me the first playable build. I asked him: “Okay, and what about the music?”. The answer was simple: no ideas, just one track-loop per level.
At that moment Stolaire already had a draft of the Lanius battle theme. I listened to it, tore it apart, fed it into Loudly via API, mixed, balanced, and brought it back as something more complete. I convinced him to use it in the game — and from that point I officially joined the project as SFX designer and AI-assisted composer.
Fun fact: you can still hear the “DNA” of Stolaire’s original draft in the Lanius theme. So credit was preserved and even amplified.
Why a dynamic soundtrack
Around the same time, together with Bronev (he’s credited), I pushed Stolaire that the game needed a dynamic soundtrack. Even if it was something simple:
a calm loop,
a combat loop,
a boss theme.
Stolaire threw in another idea — a separate loop for “low HP”. It seemed like a simple task… but in practice, even working with AI-music (in the professional sense — via API, with manual polishing and mixing) together with platform limitations sometimes turned my brain into mush and ate up hours.
And the clock was ticking: Stolaire set a real challenge with the deadlines, and I had to juggle it with a bunch of other things. But strangely enough, it was insanely fun.
So for me this release is not just “here’s an album”, but also a small story about experiments, deadlines, and a bit of stubbornness. Thanks for listening and reading — and yes, now I’ll have to push Stolaire again to improve the dynamic music code part…
...because the infamous Part 3.
— Rio