Hey, everyone! VS Dave here.
Late last year, The Hand of Merlin team started looking into having some music made specifically for the game. After a bit of research, they discovered a music genre known as Dungeon Synth. In particular, an artist by the name of Old Sorcery caught their ears.
The team reached out to Old Sorcery to ask if they might be interested in composing music for The Hand of Merlin, and they agreed! So, now everyone will get to hear this really cool music when they play the game next month.
For more on this exciting collaboration, we went straight to the source to ask a few questions.
The Hand of Merlin: Dev Blog
Behind the Music: An Interview with Old Sorcery
Hi, could you introduce yourself?
Hello!. I am a musician from Lahti, Finland. I dabble in various genres.
When did you start composing dungeon synth, and what got you into it?
Hmm, it was in 2015-2016 when I thought that I can do this kind of stuff by myself. I have always listened to Mortiis and Burzum and the pioneers of electronic music, like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Goblin. I thought that the world lacked a symbiosis of medieval soundscapes and analog synthesizers.
What was your impression of The Hand of Merlin?
I am a lifelong fan of isometric RPGs. Baldur’s Gate I and II still are easily the best games in the whole universe. I was positively surprised by all the aspects of The Hand of Merlin: the amount of reading one has to do, the difficulty of the battles, the general lore of the game. Not only that, but it mixes the Arthurian times with this alien stuff, which gave it this Lovecraftian element that really got me interested.
How do you make music that fits a particular theme or scene?
I don’t really know how to answer this. I spend hours thinking about what I shall do next, and my whole life is centered around music. After a few days of pondering this story, this Realm, I really got into the proper mindset and started dabbling with some actual musical themes.
Do you find any challenges composing music for a game?
I have worked on these types of projects before, but all of those former games never got published. With this project, EVERYTHING is a challenge for me. Honestly, I have never done anything this satisfactory. And I do love every minute of it. I feel like I have found my true calling. Not only that I was chosen to do this game, but that I was chosen to do an RPG involving magic and medieval battles. What could be more exciting? Old Sorcery is based on this kind of world.
What things do you do when not composing music?
Watch movies, play video games, read books. Not much else, really.
As always, if you have any content to share or questions for the team, please feel free to reach out via our socials. You can stay in touch with me and the rest of the Versus Evil team by joining our Discord and following us on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook.
~ VS Dave