It’s just…a very odd piece" - CEO Andy Schatz discussing Archimedes' Tango "…this very weird mishmash of religion and cannibalism and sexuality.
And for Hopper, the proletariat class leader who gave her own arm to feed the hungry, you’ll come charging onto the scene with a rousing bar chant and sway. For Bellafide, who represents the capitalist class, you’ll hear the structured whimsy of a tarantella dance while you play. Their dance? It’s a strict and orderly waltz. First, there’s the police, known here as the KSR, and the only place in the game where you can find march-like arrangements that evoke the more popular USSR, modern-like vibe. Let’s look at those factions and their dances. To fully capture that vibe, Pocketwatch, in conjunction with Wintory and Power Up Audio, wrote almost exclusively with instruments that are era-specific: fiddles, violins, and “an old, crummy organ, like the kind you’d find in a Russian Orthodox church in the countryside.” With that pallette as their base, every arrangement was then tailor fitted to the four factions you can pick to battle with in the game. And yes, you can basically hear the rodents rising up against acts of clergy conspiracy and the government sending off soldiers to fight in foreign wars. Schatz explains the game is inspired by Russian revolution, but starring tiny animals. Let’s analyze this by starting with the themes of the soundtrack, all of which hit you over the head right from bootup: chanting, rising up, and total conflict. We tried to make the music interact with those two angles of the game." Themes
“We approached the soundtrack from two angles: one was the theme of the game, and the other was the mechanics of the game.
Tooth and tail player count full#
Yet as that 1995 soundtrack is literally just an album of full length songs, how could a free flowing, frantically paced (and short) game effectively use that as its starting point? Its popular sequel, “Command & Conquer: Red Alert”, perhaps also exerts some influence here, with its heavy use of Russian, militaristic overtones. Some background on that influence: Command & Conquer is a RTS game from 1995 whose clout runs deep, among its many contributions to the genre including full-motion cutscenes, real-world themes, and yes, a bizarre and bombastic suite of music that runs the gamut between raucous rock and heavily sampled trip-hop.
“And for me, the (RTS) soundtrack that stands out is the original ‘Command & Conquer’ soundtrack…we started there.” “When we started working on it, we started with the idea that (the Tooth and Tail soundtrack) was supposed to evoke the golden age of real time strategy”, says Schatz. It’s about dance and the tension of ballroom dancing.” “That’s really how the whole soundtrack came to be. A game of Tooth and Tail should only be about 10-15 minutes, with people chanting, “Go mice!” all throughout. If you’re wondering what a popcorn RTS is, it’s the result of Pocketwatch’s hard work to make RTS games - a genre known for its complexity and long gameplay lengths, akin to a game of Risk - into a more streamlined, quickly paced and captivating spectacle. It arrives hot off of Pocketwatch’s brand new video game titled “Tooth and Tail”, a game readily described by their team as a “popcorn RTS”. The above composition, arranged and written by the Grammy nominated composer Austin Wintory, scorer of such games as Journey and The Banner Saga, is titled “Archimedes’ Tango”. Okay, for everyone’s sake, let’s back up a bit here. When you think of real-time strategy (RTS) games, you probably don’t think of increasing sexual tension ending in a metaphorical climax, but that’s because you aren’t Andy Schatz, CEO and Lead Designer of Pocketwatch Games.
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