Music

Most of the music heard in Nitrome games falls under the genre of chiptune or electronic music.

Composer history

The first composer for an official game released on the Nitrome.com website was Lee Nicklen for Hot Air. Nicklen was originally commissioned to create four tracks for the game, but only two were in the initial release to maintain a lower file size.^[1] Lee Nicklen served as the main composer from 2006 to 2008, of which Dave Cowen started composing tracks for certain Nitrome games for the later half of 2008 beginning with Snot Put. Cowen and Nicklen continued to compose for all of Nitrome's releases up until 2010, where Nicklen stopped creating new music for Nitrome, his last work of that time being Worm Food.

Since 2010, Dave Cowen has composed the majority of music for all Nitrome games. Lee Nicklen stopped creating new music for Nitrome after 2010, though his previously composed works were reused in followups to certain games such as Skywire's original tracks in the Skywire V.I.P. games and both Cheese Dreams tracks showing up in Cheese Dreams: New Moon. He set up a Facebook page called "NitromeMusic" on September 22, 2011 to promote the Nitrome section of his Kayotix website. Nicklen began posting remasters, along with unused tracks, of previously released Nitrome games, including the two tracks composed for Fluffball (a game that was unreleased at the time).

Nitrome announced in January 2014 that Lee Nicklen would make music for their upcoming swapping game changeType(). This would be the last time Lee Nicklen would produce work for a Nitrome game. On March 5, 2015, Nitrome released a remastered version of Fluffball, an older Nitrome game that was once only accessible on Miniclip that Nicklen composed for back in 2007.

Other composers

Although Lee Nicklen and Dave Cowen have created the soundtracks for the majority of Nitrome games, a few other composers have also contributed tracks for some releases:

• Gift Wrapped, released in 2006, is credited to "Q Music".
• Music from Shockwave-Sound.com has been used in the Magic Touch series as well as Go Go UFO.
• William Bard took up a public offer to create music for Mat Annal and Arthur Guibert's team during the Nitrome Jam. The game, 8bit Doves, was later expanded into a post-jam mobile game that included two additional tracks. The endless spin-off, Endless Doves, also features the track originally composed for the Jam.
• Eirik Suhrke first announced on his Twitter that he was wrapping up the music for an upcoming project by Nitrome in 2014.^[2] The project was Gunbrick (mobile), which was not released until the end of 2015. Suhrke also composed music for Platform Panic (released before Gunbrick (mobile)) and Gopogo, which was released at the end of 2015.
• Roberto Bazzoni composed most of the music for Super Leap Day.

Track types

Most Nitrome games have two background tracks each: one for the menu (also known as "title") screens, and one that plays throughout the game itself. Some games, such as Hot Air 2 and Skywire 2, introduced an additional track that would play whenever a boss was fought. This was not consistent, particularly with many of their early releases, where boss areas could still retain the in-game theme, for instance, Aquanaut and Frost Bite 2. For smaller scale and icon games, one track was typically used for both the menu and game. All background tracks loop.

Pest Control was the earliest Nitrome game to use fanfares for completing or losing a level. A short clip of music would play in such instances, often interrupting the background music. Fanfares are also used in most Nitrome Enjoyment System games along with the Trap series and Bad Ice-Cream series. Typically, they are used in games with longer scale levels.

The title track can also serve as the in-game music in a game with selectable levels. The levels, in such cases, will have a level with an exclusively in-game track, followed by a level with the same music as heard in the title screen. Examples of this include Fat Cat, Canary and Droplets. A similar instance of this also occurs in Chisel 2, where an additional in-game track alternates with the in-game track heard in the first game.

Large scale releases, especially in mobile games, may include multiple tracks for different areas. Along with cutscene, menu and boss themes, Gunbrick (mobile) has three tracks per pack, with each track alternating in an ordered sequence within their pack until a boss is encountered. Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage has separate tracks for the titlescreen and the map screen and also uses tracks specific to each of its packs that are then dispersed in levels found in later packs.

FX

Effects, also known as FX, is not a type of music, but the sound played when certain things are done. The most recurring effect is the Nitrome Jingle, played at the end of a startup, both appearing in every single Nitrome game.

There have been several FX's made for Nitrome games. The second most used effect was a sped up version of the Nitrome Jingle, which was first used when point related objects were picked up. It was first used for the sound made when the yellow stars from the Hot Air series was picked up. The sound was later replaced with a different effect.

While some FX's are reused throughout other games, others are used only once. Typically, an option to toggle the sound effects is placed next to the "music off" button.

Cover art

Tracks available to purchase on the Nitrome shop have cover art to accompany the music. It is a screenshot from the specific game with an overlay of the game's name and composer on the top of the cover art. Below is a gallery of these music covers, in order of release date.

Gallery

Twin Shot 2 music cover

Rustyard music cover

Toxic 2 music cover

Space Hopper music cover

Mutiny music cover

Onekey music cover

Magneboy music cover

In the Dog House music cover

Bomba music cover

Castle Corp music cover

Skywire 2 music cover

Twang music cover

Tiny Castle music cover

Small Fry music cover

Final Ninja Zero music cover

Knuckleheads music cover

Double Edged music cover

Cave Chaos music cover

Blast RPG music cover

Avalanche music cover

Tanked Up music cover

Snow Drift music cover

Flipside music cover

Flash Cat music cover

Ice Breaker music cover

Hot Air music cover

Parasite music cover

Fault Line music cover

Droplets music cover

Bullethead music cover

Twin Shot music cover

Skywire music cover

Rubble Trouble New York music cover

Toxic music cover

Pixel Pop music cover

Final Ninja music cover

Fat Cat music cover

Feed Me music cover

Chisel music cover

Cheese Dreams music cover

List of Nitrome music available

If the "Music Available" field says "NO", the music cannot be purchased even though the other fields are filled in. Time for the tracks are provided from websites the song is purchasable on. Some tracks are only available in certain countries, while others cannot be found on the shop, but can still be purchased directly from the music store.

Trivia

• The longest track in a Nitrome game is the titlescreen music to Feed Me, which, according to iTunes, is 3 minutes and 54 seconds long.
• The shortest track of music in a Nitrome game is the start screen music for Leap Day, lasting for a duration of twenty-three seconds (0:23).
• In Pixel Pop, all 3 tracks are exactly one minute and twenty-nine seconds (1:29).
• The music for Hot Air 2: All Blown Up on Nitrome.com was completely different then the music on Miniclip. 3 tracks completely different than the Nitrome.com music for Hot Air 2 were made and released only in the Miniclip version of the game for unknown reasons.
• Orange nose enemy from Jack Frost has hands in the ad for music section of the shop.

References

External links

• Kayotix--Lee Nicklen's website
• Stereoplayground--Dave Cowen's website