Piotr Musiał: Composing music for „This War of Mine” was an unusual pleasure. Not everyday you get to score a game project, that gives you as much opportunity for artistic expression as this one.

I was tracking the development of the console expansion, and when I was asked to score the gameplay trailer for „TWoM: The Little Ones”, I knew what to do.

On September 2014 we’ve become parents of Filip. It was a huge change in our lifes, ask any parent about it. Working at home studio with this little, 15-months old guy is a challenge sometimes. Unstoppably curious dude running around the studio desk, interrupting workflow, pointing at screens, speakers, keyboards and especialy interested in the electric guitar standing here. Everything is interesting!

Some „TWoM” developers are also parents and their kids played a huge role in „The Little Ones” as actual in-game characters, motion capture actors and voices. And so when I started working on the trailer score, I knew there was place for our son to contribute.

I made preparations before recording Filip. It wouldn’t work without a good plan. The musical arrangement of the intro and outro was fit for single guitar notes and simple chords to be processed and used as ambient sounds. We’ve arranged a recording session with the little guy playing the guitar, specially tuned for the purpose. Stroking the strings, however he found fit, but still in a way, that was possible for me to use. To make sure, I would pick the right notes, that he actually played (among other that I played to show him), I recorded video material from the session. A plan doesn’t always work with collaborators like this. Later on, what appeared to be 20 minutes of recording, I could only pick something like 10 usable sounds, but they were perfect for the purpose.

The edited recordings, which I’ve arranged to make the sparse intro, I later processed with guitar effects, reverb and delay to form a perfect ambient for the picture. Only a few other instruments were placed on top here and there to accompany it.

The second part of the trailer score is the father’s part. I’m no guitarist, but I can play a thing or two, when I need it. The theme that appears in one of the layers at 0:54 is a modified version of „TWoM” main motive, which you may recognize from the OST.

You may also recognize it in the outro of this score. This very same theme closes the trailer. This time blurred and obscured, but harmonious with familiar ambience. Father’s sounds accompanied by the little one.

Here’s the entire trailer where you can see how the music worked finally:

*Piotr Musiał (composer of the original soundtrack to This War of Mine and to The Little Ones)