FLOWREST
2023
Acoustic/Orchestral
6 Tracks
The music of Flowrest, an Indie puzzle game from a team at POLE 3D. Petri, a giant alien Cosmith has the unique ability to create planets. The galaxy is filled with clients looking for their own place to call home, and Petri is tasked with constructing each one.
Embody Petri, an intern whose goal is to be employed in his dream job in the biggest planet-making company in the universe! Terraform environments to fulfill unusual client's orders in this out of this world puzzle game!
Every single choice will influence your working space and your orders; be thoughtful to anticipate the consequences of your choices around you.
Don't hesitate any longer and join the EKorp and its underpaid interns!
The Making of FLOWREST
I took on the project around April of 2023, FLOWREST was looking for a composer. I offered this website as a portfolio and eventually they reached out to me to compose the score.
When I started on the project it was essentially rudimentary tiles on a board, the concept art was beautiful, and the narrative world building was super intriguing.
I struggled for a long time to find the tone of the game. I didn’t have immediate access to playtests and I had never composed orchestral folk music like this. If it can even be considered folk. In the end I spent lots of money on new instruments, programs, and effects to achieve more clarity and sharpness than any of my previous work. I aimed to match tone in other soundtracks I admired. A big reference being the score to “Ghost Giant.”
The original references they asked for were Kena: Bridge of spirits, specifically the track Befriending Spirits, and Terra Nil, Stage 3.
I exchanged references back and eventually the team and I came to the conclusion of folk/acoustic natural sounds. The biggest rule being no synthesized sounds.
I got to sketching, and this was the first thing I made for FLOWREST. The Team seemed to really like it.
The whole team was really drawn to the initial guitar riff, but the consensus was that the piano needed work. This song would go through many versions, which would eventually become the unofficial title theme of the game: Stage 1.
Eventually the horns were added in, and cello, the piano riff, and finally a saxophone I was quick to cut out.
The Last big thing:
The album release of FLOWREST is not completely representative of the work in the game. The five stage tracks are all there, however each one is quite different from the game version for listening sake. Here is where I will post them for future reference. Maybe you’ll prefer these over the album.
Each song would go through many variations, some completely changing, some staying the same since the first time I showed them to the team. In the end I make 5 total tracks for FLOWREST. The order they were made goes like this.
To Create Life- Stage 1
The Perfect Planet - Stage 4
Petri, Puzzle Solver - Stage 3
Cosmith Lullaby - Stage 2
Making Paradise - Stage 5
Lastly I made “Ouverture” for the album release, I always intended to include some type of opener, and for a while flowrest was going to have an opening cinematic.