A Short Hike’s composer might never have gotten into games if not for The Binding of Isaac

polygon.com:

Anyone who’s played A Short Hike knows the soundtrack makes up a hefty percentage of the experience. Without it, your two-hour journey would be much more of a walk and much less of an experience. And as it turns out, that soundtrack would probably never have happened if composer Mark Sparling hadn’t played The Binding of Isaac in college.

Speaking to Polygon via email as part of our week-long look at the crossover of games and music, Polygon FM, Sparling — who also composed the soundtrack to Cursed to Golf, among others — talked about being inspired by Isaac, his process when working on A Short Hike, and the importance of pulling from game history when composing for games.

Polygon: Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to pursue creating game music? Can you set the scene of what that felt like for you, and why the music was so effective?

Mark Sparling: The soundtrack to the original Binding of Isaac by Danny Baranowsky was a big one for me.

I was in university for music at the time so I was playing very few games. I don’t know why I picked up Isaac — maybe it was a recommendation from a friend — but I remember being blown away. I just thought it was so cool how a small team could make such a great game. I couldn’t wait to get to the next area so I could hear its accompanying music. It is one of those soundtracks where, once you hear it, you could not imagine the game having any other music behind it. It does such a great job of combining orchestral instruments with all these squishy, glitchy, synthesized sounds. I probably put over 50 hours into that game and I never got tired of that soundtrack. I haven’t played the game in many years, but any time I put the soundtrack back on it brings me back to that world. I had never thought about composing for games up until that point, but after playing that game, I knew I wanted to give it a shot.

Can you break down one of your own songs and its influences? Was it inspired by game soundtracks, other music,