As much as I love the music from SimplePlanes 1, it quickly got pretty repetitive in-game as there were only five songs and they played all the time, ultimately leading to many people just muting the music and listening to something else while they play.
So for SimplePlanes 2, we have a brand new in-game soundtrack comprising of fifteen songs, composed by a lovely duo called Fat Bard (who we worked with previously to make the music of Juno: New Origins). They’ve made music for tons of games over the years, and we’re really happy with what they made for SP2.
To give you a taste of what you can expect, here’s a full song, titled “Speed for Speed”:
And while you listen, here’s an interview with Fat Bard!
How long have you been composing, and what other game soundtracks have you worked on?
We've been composing for about 14 years now in games, but we also wrote music well before that as songwriters for various bands we were in during childhood. We've worked on a huge variety of game soundtracks and it's hard to list them off. For more well known live service games, we've done various music packs for Smite, the hit 3rd person MOBA. Then in the AA space we've recently done work on Deadzone Rogue, a lovely looking sci-fi FPS. The indie space is where we do most of our soundtracks; such as Jet Lancer, Demon Turf/Demon Tides, Crashlands 1/2, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland, of course SimpleRockets 2, and the upcoming Bubsy 4d.
What inspired the music for SimplePlanes 2?
Our inspiration for this soundtrack was in huge part 80's rock and electronic music. We wanted to create something that spanned the era, from ballads to electronic to hard hitting rockers. Having separate music for design and flight mode helped in molding this as well.
What tools, instruments, or techniques did you use to create the soundtrack?
We used our guitars of course, but primarily a lot of the sounds heard are from our computers. We have plenty of great drum and keyboard libraries to work from. A lot of our keyboard sounds come from the Korg M1.
Were there any unique challenges when composing for SimplePlanes 2 compared to past projects?
I think one main challenge was really honing in on that 80's sound, particularly in the guitar and drums. We're always striving for a high quality production sound, and when you're harkening to an older era you have to forgo that in order to get something that sounds authentic.
Which track is your favorite, and why?
Hard to pick! "Endless Journey" is probably a favorite, because it's a breezy rocker that feels great no matter what you're doing in game.
Aside from SimplePlanes 2 😆, which soundtrack has been your favorite to work on?
HMMMM now that is an even harder question! I think in the last few months our favorite has been Bubsy 4d. We rarely get to explore serious jazz/funk music, so it was a real treat to re-brand Bubsy with some slick music. His history is full of pretty lackluster music, so we really wanted to make some bangers on the new game.
Where can people find more of your work?
Folks can find our work on Spotify/Apple Music/iTunes/Bandcamp under "Fat Bard", and if you want to follow us we're "@fatbard.com" on BlueSky and "@fat_bard" on X.
Rather than playing every song no matter what you’re doing like in SimplePlanes 1, parts of SimplePlanes 2’s music are dynamic and change depending on whether you’re chilling in the designer or blowing people up in flight.
Some of the songs are layered, so they’ll seamlessly transition from calmer to more intense when moving from the designer to flight, or vice-versa, which when combined with there being many more songs than before helps keep the music feel less static.
Describing this with words hardly does it any justice, so we’ve made a music video to show off how one of our songs adapts to your gameplay, titled Guided by Starlight:
The SP2 soundtrack will be available to purchase on Steam once the game comes out, so you’ll be able to listen to it all on your own time while supporting Fat Bard and the developers!
If you like what you're seeing (or listening to, in this case), please consider wishlisting SimplePlanes 2 on Steam. If you'd like to see bits of these blogs early, consider joining our Discord Server!