Andersen feels that in third person games - where the player must identify with a game character - players feel disconnected if the character starts to make noises. The end result is that footsteps are pretty much the only sounds the main character makes. That is, he put the kibosh on all the usual tropes videogame composers and sound designers rely on like a crutch. Andersen decreed that there was to be no ‘spooky’ stylised interactive orchestral score, no character emotes and no narrative dialogue to pollute the ‘nothingness’.
Martin Stig Andersen’s background in acousmatic music, sound installations, electro-acoustic performance and video art informed his brave holistic audio vision for Limbo. It’s a strikingly original take on game audio, especially for a 2D side-scrolling platformer a style of game that’s more synonymous with Super Mario’s 8-bit bleeps and light-hearted theme music.
They’re perfectly accompanied by Limbo’s bleak yet enigmatic, multi-award winning soundscape. The visuals are only one half of the story though. Playdead’s debut release rocked the games industry, heralded as a poster child for ‘videogames as art’ thanks to its mysterious and compelling monochromatic visuals. Game audio people are still talking about Limbo, and may be for some time yet.
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