Race hoverbikes to a lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack in sci-fi RPG Desert Child, out on PS4 next month

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Race hoverbikes to a lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack in sci-fi RPG Desert Child, out on PS4 next month

Earn money chasing bounties or delivering pizza in Oscar Brittain's eccentric adventure

In Desert Child, you play a young hoverbike rider scraping together cash through a mix of odd-jobs: chasing down bounties, racing other bikers, delivering pizza. Your ultimate goal is to save enough to buy a one-way ticket to Mars and enter the biggest event in the universe: the Grand Prix.

In between these missions, you’ll explore colourful cities where you can repair and upgrade your bike, dine on the local cuisine, take on even more side jobs and encounter all sorts of interesting characters, all to an original, lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack.

Music is integral to Desert Child’s aesthetic. The game’s creator, Oscar Brittain, set out to give his sci-fi racing RPG a unique feel.

But before we continue, you must be asking yourself, who is Oscar Brittain?

He’s a one-man indie game developer from Fremantle, Australia, and is the sole creator of Desert Child. Game design, art, animation, programming and music: everything was created by him. Everything carefully shaped and curated to fit his vision.

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How music shapes the game

Music is intrinsically linked with the side-scrolling races that are at the heart of Desert Child. Race length is dictated by its backing track. As you become familiar with the game’s superb playlist, you’ll know when a race is reaching its climax by its music accompaniment.

Soundtrack influences

The soundtrack to Desert Child mostly consists of lo-fi and 90’s influenced hip-hop, with most of the music having been created by Oscar himself.

His musical influences, which range from Tokimonsta, Eevee, Central Parks, A L E X, anything from Inner Ocean Records, and the Wu-Tang Clan, are reflected in the tracks created for the game.

You can check out his eclectic Spotify playlist of the various tracks he listened to that inspired the creation of Desert Child here.

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Soundtrack creation

As Oscar created most of the music, a lot of time and effort was put into each song.  Below is a list of equipment and software that was used during production:

Desert ChildDesert Child

 

  •     Ableton Live 9 (plugins iZotope Vinyl and Glitch 2 by Illformed)
  •     EDIROL Sound Input
  •     AKG Perception 420 Condenser Microphone
  •     Micro Korg XL Keyboard
  •     Fender Stratocaster
  •     Custom Teabox Guitar
  •     Roland Cube Amplifier

Here is a sampling of some of his music that can be found in the game:

Enlisting other artists

As there is a burgeoning artist scene in Fremantle, Oscar had to look no further than his own neighbourhood to recruit artists for the soundtrack.

Several local indie artists, such as Puncture Repair Kit and Girlfriend Material, have all contributed to the soundtrack, with most notably Girlfriend Material’s “Spatula” being used for the promotional E3 2018 PlayStation Trailer Mega Ran, who we’d worked with previously, features: we pitched him Desert Child between his DJ sets at a E3 Mixer this year and walked away with permission to use two of his tracks.

Desert Child will be available for digital download on 11th December on PlayStation Store.

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