The concept of the visual album has existed for a while now, from Beyoncé’s self-titled album in 2013 to Daft Punk’s Discovery album in 2003 having its own feature-length anime movie in Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. However, the interactive visual album is not something we see as frequently.
Of course, they definitely exist. Some great examples include Sayonara: Wild Hearts, Superbrothers EP: Sword & Sworcery, and Tetris Effect. These games take the concept of ‘video game music’ and put them at the forefront, with the tracks behind the interactivity guiding where the gameplay and narrative will go. At PAX Australia this year, there was one studio that not only did this but has been doing this with all of their games prior.
Things For Humans is a Melbourne-based studio led by musician Jacob Leaney, who performs under the moniker Monster Mansion. They are best known for their 2021 title Video World, a ‘synth-pop Halloween musical about working at a video store’, which also acts as an interactive companion for the 3-track EP of the same name. The title won the Excellence in Emerging Games award at 2021’s AGDAs, as well as The Guest Plate at 2021’s NZ Game Awards. Their upcoming title, A Halloween Valentine, was featured on the PAX Rising floor this year.
Me? I love video games. Me, but a second time? I also love music. In fact, I got absolutely dog-rotten for some good freakin’ tunes. I got the chance to have a chat with Jacob at PAX Australia about his past work, his upcoming game A Halloween Valentine, and how music and game development for him go hand in hand.
Ruby
How’re you going?
Jacob
Yeah, really good. It’s so nice to be at PAX and around so many people, have the game in the wild, and just be reminded of how much gamers actually really love gaming and love indie games. Yeah, it’s just a very, very good vibe. Yeah.
Ruby
Yeah, your booth has been packed! All the booths are just filled with people. This is going to sound really cheesy, but does it give you hope for the industry?
Jacob
Yeah, I think so. I feel like over the pandemic, we were already kind of on a trajectory for games to become more mainstream than they already were. But in the last few years, I think that’s widened out even more.
And there’s more awareness about indie games as well. I had a really lovely conversation with someone yesterday and they were speaking about their 16-year-old and how the way that they perceive and play and interact with games is really different from previous generations. And so having kids going into teenagers, maybe having their own money, being able to buy the games that they want to buy, I think that’s really exciting actually. It’s really cool.
Ruby
Yeah, absolutely. Now, okay, I assume that you started making music, or were at least musically inclined before you started making games.
Jacob
Yes.
Ruby
So what sparked your interest in marrying the two?
Jacob
Well, yeah. So I was in pop-punk bands for a long time in music. It was Panic! At The Disco, Paramore-type stuff. But that had been a childhood dream, and as people often do in the creative arts, I got very burnt out from it. So I took a break. I thought, “Hey, maybe I’ll compose music for video games.”
So I started getting into that world but fell in love with game development, still loved music, and had a bit more energy for that again. And I was like, “I can’t do two separate careers in the creative arts because that’s crazy. How can I do them as one?”
And that’s where the idea sparks to try and create games based on the songs that I’ve written. And I started getting a bit of support from VicScreen, for example, and just experimenting bit by bit until I kind of found a bit of a niche that people really responded to.
Ruby
We’ve seen plenty of cases of visual albums in music, like Daft Punk’s Interstella 5555. However, with most video games, I guess the creation of the soundtrack is very much a separate development process. So in saying that, how do you think your creative process in music and game development differs from the creation of visual albums?
Jacob
So in that kind of example that you gave, as you said, they’re kind of more interactive things. They can be a little bit gimmicky sometimes, but really it’s, “Hey, this is a music album, we’re a music artist, here’s some interactive stuff to support that.” And in video games, it’s, “Hey, here’s a video game. Here’s some music to support that.”
What I’m creating are two separate things that really stand on their own. So the album that I’m working on at the moment, I’m writing it as pop songs. It’s about my life, relationships, friendships, and stuff that’s going on. And that stands on its own.
It’s able to be listened to on Spotify, put in your playlists, jam out to it, and come see a live gig. And then the game that ties in with that, the album features throughout the entire game, stands on its own as its own game. So that will be actually marketed as a game with a soundtrack, and the soundtrack is marketed as an album with a game that it ties into.
So they both really stand on their own as pieces of art and for people to sink their teeth into both of them as a product, as something to be excited about.
Ruby
Going back a bit, your first game under the Things for Humans handle, Human Rights, worked as an interactive toy for the single of the same name, and was also a title influenced by the 2017 Marriage Equality vote. How important is identity as a factor in development for you?
Jacob
I would say that when I’m creating art, whether it’s music or video games, putting my personality, personal experiences and personal identity into it is really important to me as a creator because that’s how I express myself. It’s how I tell my story. It’s how I convey who I am and how I feel about the world. So it’s not something that I necessarily think about a lot. It’s a little bit more inherent in what I create, and I just allow my personality and my values to bleed into the design of the games that I create.
That being said, identity is important. And I see people around me also struggling to express themself or going through challenging times. So to have a game or music that allows them to find their voice as well is something that I didn’t expect to happen, but it’s become important to me being able to be a voice, not only for myself, but to other people around me that maybe aren’t artists or don’t have a way to express themselves in the same way that I do.
Ruby
And so you went from a single song game in Human Rights to an EP game in Video World, to now an album game in A Halloween Valentine. Do you think that the progression of your musical capability has kind of grown hand in hand with your game development capability? Or maybe one even complimenting the other?
Jacob
Yeah, I would say that in the last few years, really since I’ve started Things for Humans and these video game projects, my music writing and production skills have escalated a lot, but I actually put that down to how much collaborating I’ve been doing.
Prior to this, I was writing a lot of music by myself, and then I’d bring it to a band and they would improve it. Whereas these days, I will start a song from scratch, maybe just with a drum beat or something, in a room with a songwriter, and that pushes me. I get so much from that, and having that responsibility to them and also to the audience of the video games has made me really push myself in terms of music production as well. So they’ve definitely grown together.
Ruby
Lovely. And so this is a really short one, but still important. How does A Halloween Valentine differ in gameplay mechanics and tone compared to your past work?
Jacob
It’s very much a spiritual successor to Video World. So as much as I love Video World, I was still very much in the exploration phase in terms of my creativity with this crossover. So I’ve taken the things that I loved about Video World, for example, the Halloween setting, the very punny, silly characters and the cozy world, and translated that into a newer, larger game.
But it still differentiates itself by focusing a little bit more on the puzzles. I kind of use the term it’s a bit more ‘gamey’, and the music and rhythm interactions sit at a bit of a higher level. It’s not about rhythm challenges, that’s just the way that you kind of connect with the music in the game world.
Ruby
Now finally, you were one of the many talented composers included in a feature I did about what makes a great OST. And you had a really great quote in there where you said, “You want someone to hear any part of a soundtrack and know it’s from a particular composer or from a particular game,” and that “having a memorable style of the soundtrack is hugely important.” So in saying that, how do you go about creating music in your games to achieve that effect?
Jacob
I think, again, at least for me, it really comes down to expressing my personality, my taste, and what I like. And it’s taken a long time to evolve and create that particular sound. So I would describe my sound as synth-pop with a little glitter of emo sprinkled in there. And that’s taken a lot of the types of music that I love over a long period of time. But once I found that sound, there’s a little bit of retro-ness in there as well. I really loved it, but I found that people responded to it really, really well. And I thought, “Okay, I think this is the sound, and I want to just keep exploring this for quite a while before I move onto any other sounds.”
So yeah, there’s actually no simple answer to that. It’s about just letting yourself explore and going, “Okay, what’s the weird thing about me? What are my unique things?” And my unique things were, I love K-pop music, but I also love emo, early 2000s emo rock. That’s fine. I’m allowed to love those two contrasting things. And that’s my special thing: the middle ground of them.
And similarly, my middle ground is video games and music. I’m allowed to bring those together rather than being kind of scared and going, “Oh, I’m different. I shouldn’t be different.” Yeah. So finding that niche is, yeah, just taking the time to accept that who you are and what you love is actually really valuable, and what makes you special.
I also got the chance to give the A Halloween Valentine demo a try, and it was definitely one of the highlights of the PAX Rising floor. While there’s no current release date as of yet, you can wishlist A Halloween Valentine on Steam right now!
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