How Dicey Dungeons’ soundtrack found the sweet spot between Earthbound and disco funk

polygon.com:

Dicey Dungeons’ soundtrack can really crank up the pressure. When I was playing the game the most in 2020, its bumping rhythms amped up every match’s stakes. Even though I’ve moved on to other titles, the soundtrack is still in heavy rotation when I’m on deadline, thanks to its upbeat and funky tracks. When brainstorming for our Polygon FM, our theme week celebrating the intersection of music and games, I knew its composer Chipzel was someone we wanted to talk to as part of this Q&A series.

[This interview was conducted via email and edited for format and clarity.]

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?

Chipzel: My entry into games music was a little unconventional. I entered the chiptune scene at 16 and began writing music on a Nintendo Game Boy. I released music online — all made from scratch using LSDJ. LSDJ is something like a DAW for Game Boy where every sound is crafted with the Game Boy soundchip.

This lead to a lot of traveling, playing shows all over the world. In 2012, Terry Cavanagh commissioned me for Super Hexagon, which had insane success, and this lead me into a career in video games.

So although video games hold a lot of core memories of my childhood, they weren’t particularly formative to my entry into music or the style I would write. It was the aesthetic of the 8-bit sound that resonated a lot with me to begin with. What resonated most was the DIY punk culture of chiptune as a whole.

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

Dicey Dungeons is hands down my favourite game soundtrack I’ve composed. “Swing Me Another Six” is my favourite piece from it. We were a very small team, and we created something we’re all so proud of within just one year of development.

My initial mood board for this soundtrack was Earthbound