Wandersong

Wandersong is a puzzle adventure video game developed by American-Canadian indie developer Greg Lobanov. A music-themed game, it follows The Bard, a wandering singer, as they go on a quest to gather pieces of a song that will save their world from destruction. In the game, the player uses The Bard's singing to affect the environment, solve puzzles, and defend against enemies. Developed in GameMaker Studio, the game was inspired by Lobanov's experiences on a cross-country bike trip across the United States and juxtaposes a positive atmosphere and protagonist with an apocalyptic setting. Games such as Kirby's Epic Yarn and animated cartoons such as Over the Garden Wall and Steven Universe informed the game's tone, pace, and art style. The game's audio was co-produced with A Shell in the Pit; Gordon McGladdery, who worked on Duelyst, Parkitect, and Rogue Legacy, composed the game's music and Em Halberstadt, who worked on Night in the Woods, directed the game's sound design. Wandersong was released on macOS, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch in September 2018, PlayStation 4 in January 2019, and Xbox One in December 2019.

For the genus of plants, see Wandersong (genus).

Wandersong
Storefront artwork, featuring the game's characters and art style
Developer(s)Greg Lobanov
Publisher(s)Humble Bundle
Composer(s)
  • Greg Lobanov
  • Gordon McGladdery
EngineGameMaker Studio
Platform(s)
ReleaseSeptember 27, 2018
Genre(s)
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

Wandersong is a side-scrolling puzzle and adventure game that uses music as a puzzle-solving mechanic.[1][2][3] The player character can sing to cause events to occur in the environment around them,[4] using a coloured "song wheel" with eight directions, each representing musical notes spanning an octave,[3] which is controlled by the mouse on a computer setup, or the right thumbstick on a controller.[5][6] Certain challenges in the game involve the player matching notes or tunes with a non-player character's song, similar to a typical rhythm game.[6] Functions that allow the player to perform dances also exist, but do not actually serve a purpose in gameplay.[6] Wandersong is set in a universe created by a goddess named Eya who "sang the universe into existence."[7] Every epoch, Eya sings a brand new song that destroys the universe and creates a new one. The player character, known as The Bard, makes an attempt to gather the pieces of the "Earthsong", a composition that, when sung, will allow the universe to be preserved.[8] The game is estimated to be 11 hours in length.[9]

Plot

The game is broken up into a prologue and then seven acts, each with a variety of "scenes" in them.

In the prologue, the main character, a bard is having a dream. He sees a sword and tried to pick it up to fight a monster, but ultimately fails. He sees the messenger of the god, Eya, and she tells him that the world is ending, and that he didn't pass the test and isn't "The Hero."

In Act One, the bard wakes up from his dream near the town of Langtree. when he arrives at Langtree, he finds many different ghosts are haunting it, but he can calm them down with his singing. From the oldest woman of the village, Ruby, he learns the Overseer Song which will enable him to visit the overseer, a minor god and protector of a certain area. He then tries to go meet with the Dream King, the overseer of Langtree, and while in the spirit world sees the messenger again, who tells him about the Earthsong, a legendary song which he can gather from different pieces given by all the Overseers of the world which might be able to save the world. The Dream King doesn't give him the part of the song he has, but does give the bard the ability to communicate with other Overseers and ghosts. He returns to Langtree and finishes saving them from the ghosts, now able to communicate with them. He finds they're all their dead relatives

In Act Two, the bard meets Miriam and her grandmother Sapphy, who are witches. Sapphy sends Miriam, a loner who is constantly frustrated by the bard's singing, to assist him in saving the world by collecting the pieces of the Earthsong. They go through a cave of trolls, and find that one of them had a curse cast upon them by an evil human. The bard tries to break the curse with singing but doesn't succeed. They then arrive at the neighboring town of Delphi. There the bard meets Manny, a drummer who's trying to put together a band, and gathers the band members of Ash and Viola. They all perform and are wildly successful. Ash then comes out and performs the Overseer song. The bard then goes through the spirit world and gets the Queen of Winds' part of the Earthsong. The bard then returns to the troll-cave and frees the cursed troll, before setting sail on the ocean.

In Act Three, the bard and Miriam are sailing on a ship of coffee-trading pirates. They meet Captain Lucas, who wants to try and find the mermaids who disappeared a long time ago. A fortune teller tells the bard that the mermaids know the Overseer song. One of the crew members, Markus, captures and imprisons the whole crew, but the bard manages to talk him out of it. The bard and Captain Lucas then find and meet the mermaids, who decide to return as long as Captain Lucas stays calm, and gives the bard the Overseer song. He visits the spirit world and sees the Queen Chaos, but before he can get the overseer song she is killed by Audrey Redheart, the Hero. Despite that, he obtains the Earthsong piece from her dead body, being able to talk to ghosts.

In the Intermission, the user briefly plays as The Hero who kills the Queen of Winds, another Overseer.

In Act Four, the bard is depressed and wakes up in his mothers house in the town of Chimest. Everyone in the town is sad because they're all forced to work in the factory or with an extension of the factory, run by The Baron, and what it produces, Happy Kid dolls. Miriam figured out the Overseer song and how to access the spirit world, but is unable to because of the pollutants from the factory. He teams up with the local astronomer and gathers a team of Winston and Peter, who has fallen in love with Miriam, though she does not reciprocate the love. Together the four of them take down the factory, and go see The Baron, who truly wanted to make everyone in the world happy by making the Happy Kid dolls, but didn't realize he was simply making everyone miserable. The factory shuts down and people are a lot happier. The bard then goes into the spirit world and finds that Queen Order isn't sitting on her throne, as the Dream King is on it, trying to avoid The Hero, who is killing Overseers. The Hero kills Queen Order, but the Dream King escapes. From communicating with Queen Order's spirit the bard learns the next part of the song.

In Act Five, there is a war between two neighboring kingdoms, Rulle and Chaandesh. The citizens of Rulle all have spirit pets, and the citizens of Chaandesh are all witches. Giant monsters are appearing and terrorizing the inhabitants of both nations. A ghost gives the bard a message to deliver to the King of Rulle, and as such the bard and Miriam head to Xiatian, the capitol city. Along the way they save a near-empty town called Lumber Town, inhabited only by the infirm and elderly who were unable to make the journey to the capitol, from a swarm of monsters. There they sing a song about a wayfarer who comes across a witch and they fall in love, but the witch curses the wayfarer and steals her soul, although they are in love, showing the distrust of witches by Rulle citizens, but also slightly reflecting the bard and Miriam's relationship, which causes Miriam to be sad. When they arrive at Xiatian, the find the hero has already arrived and is idolized by the town for defeating giant monsters and saving the city. They realize that in order to meet the King they have to go with the Hero, who lets them come along as long as they provide her with a potion of strength. Miriam cooks up a possibly faulty potion of strength, but gives it to her regardless as she dislikes the Hero. When they see the King, he reveals they're going to invade Chaandesh in three days. The ghost inside the bard sings a message imploring him to seek peace, before the bard passes out. When he wakes up Miriam is flying him across the border and reveals that they were thrown in prison there, and are now going to the nexus point in order to access the spirit world. Miriam plays the Overseer song on her piccolo, but the messenger reveals that there is a second part, held by the queen of Chaandesh. They then fly over the border, but are knocked down by magic from "the Spell Squad", a defense force against the monster consisting of two witches, Vivian and Sandra. The bard and Miriam team up with them to fight some monsters, and they then put them on a boat which will take them to the capital city, Mohabumi. On the boat the bard learns that the spirit inhabiting him is Hala, a deceased Chaandesh princess. He also puts on a performance with the musicians there. The capital city is inside a mountain, and on account that everyone inhabiting it is a witch, requires magic to get around. The bard learns that magic is just a form of singing, and uses that to be able to cast very primal spells to get around the city. There the bard sees the band from Delphi, who are ecstatic to see him, and are putting on a performance with a new singer. While at the concert Miriam reveals she always felt out of place and lonely being a witch, and expected to feel accepted here, but doesn't as much as she thought. She says that she's just going to dance and be herself for a bit. The bard goes to see the Queen and Hala makes an appeal to her to stop the fighting, as it's all a misunderstanding. The Queen rebuffs them, but Purnima, one of Hala's sisters, teaches them the Overseer song. The bard and Miriam enter the spirit world, but are separated, and find things are in disarray, and the spirit world is being pulled together and is collapsing. The Hero shows up and knocks out Miriam. The two Overseers then fight and destroy each other. In the aftermath of that the bard learns two parts of the song from their spirits, and following that the spirit world ends. Having carried Miriam out of the spirit world, the bard sings a song to both nations, bringing them together and making them understand one another, ending the war. Miriam was badly injured by the Hero and decides she is unable to go on, instead she will return to see her grandmother as the end of the world draws nearer. The bard continues on alone.

In Act Six, the bard climbs Ichor Mountain, at the top of which is the King of Hearts. Along the way he finds the Heart of Eya Temple, with some monks remaining in it, awaiting the world's end. With the help of bird, bugs, and flying seals the bard makes it up to the top of the mountain. At the top he finds the King of Hearts has been overtaken by darkness. The Hero shows up, attempting to kill it, but drinks the defective strength potion and is weakened. Both the Hero and the bard are knocked out back to a cave partway down the mountain, and the Hero loses her sword. There, with the help of the bugs the bard befriended earlier, they make it out of the cave, but the bard makes Audrey promise not to kill the King of Hearts. They find the King of Hearts again, and the Hero finds her sword and kills him, breaking her promise. The bard gets the Earthsong from his body before returning to Langtree.

In Act Seven, the bard returns to Langtree to find that it is unrecognizable, nearly completely destroyed with all the citizens awaiting the world's end. He reencounters Miriam, who says she feels bad for leaving him. Miriam now fully accepts and is happy with her friendship with the bard. The two reunite and set off for the Dream Castle, which is not completely in the real world after the spirit world collapsed. They reencounter the Dream King who reveals to them that the end isn't going to happen soon, but is happening, and that the end is the people moving apart from one another and everyone losing hope. He says that the Earthsong can't stop that, and only something that unites everyone in harmony can do that. He says their quest is hopeless. Suddenly, the Hero appears and tries to strike down the Dream King. The bard and Miriam work together to stop the Hero from killing her, with Miriam finally stealing her sword. The Hero tells them that she was chosen and she was the special one, and she has to do this because she is the Hero. The bard tries to convince her otherwise, saying she would be special no matter what. Regardless, the Hero uses her scarf to reclaim her sword and kills the Dream King. The world becomes entirely black and white, but a bell rings out in the darkness. The bard sings, reaching out with his voice to everyone across the world, and everyone responds in harmony. The world returns to color and is saved. The messenger tells them that the bard didn't sing the Earthsong, but sang something different yet also special, which united everyone in the world and harmonized with Eya's song, saving the world. Miriam then takes the bard all around the world to all different parts of his journey to reunite with his friends. Finally, he returns to Langtree where he has dinner with Sapphy and Miriam. The bard says to Miriam although it's goodbye for now, they still will be friends. They hug each other, and then the bard goes home.

Development

Wandersong was developed in GameMaker Studio by Greg Lobanov,[10] who had also built a custom level editor and audio editor to create the game.[11][12] It marks Lobanov's return to story-driven games, a milestone that had been a goal of his after years of learning game design skills developing games such as Perfection and Coin Crypt.[13][14] Development on the game started in October 2015,[11] and was inspired by a cross-country bike trip Lobanov took across the United States from October 2014 to March 2015.[11] Lobanov wanted to translate the "feel of that journey", where he had met various people and felt overwhelmed by their perceived kindness and generosity.[15][16] Lobanov originally went for a more literal interpretation of the cross-country bike trip that inspired him, developing games about biking.[17] He was ultimately dissatisfied with these early concepts, feeling that they were "missing the spirit of the trip", and opted to create a game with a "really hippy, dopey, joyful rainbow message" that resembled his experiences on the trip.[17] Lobanov's tenure in the "Indie House" in Vancouver, British Columbia early in development had an influence on the game's direction, as Lobanov shared his ideas with, and received feedback from, fellow game developers.[18] Wandersong was funded through a Kickstarter campaign that successfully raised US$21,936 from 989 contributors in February 2016.[19][20]

The "song wheel" is used to solve puzzles in Wandersong. Directional hints, rather than solely colour-based or musical hints, allow colourblind or deaf players to solve the game's puzzles.

Lobanov invented the game's "song wheel" mechanic as a way to encourage the player to experiment with the environment, as opposed to the specificity of other music-related mechanics in games such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.[21] The wheel was designed with accessibility in mind; Lobanov designed Wandersong so that the solutions to puzzles would always be hinted at through direction, rather than sound and colour alone, allowing players with color blindness or hearing loss to solve the game's puzzles.[22] The introduction of new uses of the song wheel in each of the game's puzzle areas complements the absence of a consistently rising difficulty curve, allowing the game to also be accessible to players with a lower skill set in puzzle solving.[23] Many puzzles in Wandersong were reworked from their initial, more complex iterations, after game testers and patrons at conventions, where the game was showcased during development, found them difficult or hard to understand.[24]

The game's "paper cutout" art style is primarily inspired by Kirby's Epic Yarn and its "physical feeling",[25][26] the simplicity of which was also easier for Lobanov to work with as the game's sole programmer and artist.[12] Characters flip over like paper when changing direction in the game's two-dimensional art style.[6] The game's visuals have drawn comparisons by observers to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and the Paper Mario series.[27] Its story, which Lobanov had planned the beginning and ending of from the start of development, is mostly constructed out of spontaneous ideas Lobanov had during development based on the game's core mechanic of singing, which were made easier to implement through the custom level editor and the minimalist art style.[28] The apocalyptic setting of Wandersong is juxtaposed with an optimistic and positive atmosphere.[29] Lobanov felt that a completely positive atmosphere would result in a "really empty experience", and decided to add tension through "really dark, scary, big things" to the game's story and opposing it with a "carefree, happy response" from The Bard.[30] The game's non-intimidating tone and pace was informed by animated cartoons that incorporated music, such as Over the Garden Wall and Steven Universe.[2][31] The cartoons also served as a reference for the game's animations.[32]

Audio

The game's soundtrack was created by Lobanov and Gordon McGladdery, who is the director of A Shell in the Pit, a video game sound design and music production company known for their work on indie games such as Duelyst, Parkitect, and Rogue Legacy.[33][34] Lobanov, who had not been traditionally trained in music, self-taught to compose and perform music for the game.[35] Lobanov enlisted the help of McGladdery early in development after talking with and considering various composers.[36] Lobanov's admiration of McGladdery's musical style and the convenience of both of them being located in Vancouver had attracted him to McGladdery.[37] Early in development, the composition of music for particular levels and scenes in the game would take place after the level or scene was completed, with changes to the level or scene also being implemented to better fit with the music composed.[38] An eight-track extended play featuring McGladdery's music for the game entitled Wandersong: Dreams & Wonder was released on November 8, 2017,[39] and a 7" single limited to 750 copies featuring the tracks "Sailing with the Coffee Pirates" and "Dreamscape" was released by Yetee Records on May 17, 2018.[40] The game's sound design was produced in REAPER by A Shell in the Pit's Em Halberstadt,[41] who previously worked on Night in the Woods as a sound designer.[34][42] The game was a departure from Halberstadt's ambient style and foley production for Night in the Woods and employed a more musical direction that also involved character voices.[43] For each sound effect in Wandersong, an entire scale of variations were created in Kontakt to fit the scale of the background music that it would appear with.[44]

Release
Wandersong was one of the first GameMaker Studio productions released on the Nintendo Switch.[45]

Wandersong was showcased at GDC 2016, PAX West 2016, PAX West 2017, Day of the Devs 2017, and PAX West 2018.[46][47][48][49] The game was published by Humble Bundle's publishing imprint "Presented by Humble Bundle",[50] and released on September 27, 2018, on macOS and Microsoft Windows through the Humble Bundle store and Steam, and on Nintendo Switch through the Nintendo eShop.[51][52] It was part of the first wave of games to be released with the GameMaker Studio 2 Nintendo Switch license, with Hyper Light Drifter and Undertale also being released for the Switch in September.[45] The game was later released on PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store on January 22, 2019,[53] Microsoft Windows via the Microsoft Store as a launch title for Xbox Game Pass for PC on June 9, 2019,[54] and Xbox One via the Microsoft Store on December 6, 2019.[55][56] On Xbox One, the game was also made available through Xbox Game Pass for Console.[56][57] Wandersong saw a troubled release on Steam, as the game was erroneously tagged for review under Valve's policies against games that intentionally inflated users' statistics, such as achievements and trading card progression.[58] Trading cards and achievements for Wandersong were inaccessible to players, who could not add the game to their "favorite games" lists as a result of the policy until January 9, 2019,[59][60] when Valve, the developers of Steam, contacted Lobanov via email, describing the error as a glitch in which Steam did not update the game's store page correctly.[59][61] Sales of the game on Steam were not impacted by the error.[62]

Reception

Accolades

Wandersong was named the 9th best Nintendo Switch game of 2018 and the 13th best PC game of 2018 by the magazine Paste.[63][64] At the 2019 Independent Games Festival, Wandersong was nominated for Excellence in Narrative,[65] and received honorable mentions for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Visual Art, and Excellence in Audio.[66][67] It was also nominated for the "Game, Original Family" award at the 2019 NAVGTR Awards,[68] and for Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game at the 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards.[69][70] At the 2019 G.A.N.G. Awards, Wandersong was nominated for Best Interactive Score and Best Sound Design for an Indie Game.[71]

See also

References

Sources

  1. Emory, Chris; Lobanov, Greg (September 21, 2016). "Wandersong - An Interview With Creator, Greg Lobanov". Unique Drops. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Chan, Stephanie; Lobanov, Greg (November 9, 2017). "Colorful musical platformer Wandersong is coming to the Switch in 2018". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  3. Pillon, Amanda; Halberstadt, Em (April 13, 2017). "This Sound Designer Behind Night in the Woods Reveals What Sound Design Is All About". Sweety High. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  4. Frank, Allegra; Lobanov, Greg (January 22, 2018). WANDERSONG: Allegra Goes On a Musical Journey. Polygon. Retrieved September 12, 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Frank, Allegra (January 9, 2019). "Valve slaps Wandersong, a very real game, with fake-game restrictions". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Citations

  1. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "Wandersong is a side scrolling adventure game where your ability is the wonder of music."
  2. Frank, Allegra (November 9, 2017). "Musical adventure Wandersong brings cuteness and quirk to Switch next year". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. A sidescroller with a combat system driven by music [...] To do this, he'll have to defeat enemies and solve puzzles using his singing voice alone. [...] Players spin around a colored wheel in specific orders to enter new areas and defeat bosses..
  3. Rochefort, Simone de (January 22, 2018). "Wandersong is a musical game inspired by cartoons like Steven Universe". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. Wandersong is a whimsical puzzle-adventure game. The player character can sing a full octave of notes to solve puzzles. [...] the development team looked to cartoons that incorporate music, such as Steven Universe and Over The Garden Wall, for both the aesthetic and the non-intimidating tone and pace.
  4. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "Most of the puzzles in Wandersong utilize music. [...] The Bard can sing whenever he wants to see how that interacts with the environment."
  5. Frank & Lobanov 2018, 1:55, "So, if you're playing on keyboard and mouse, it's the mouse, and if you're playing with a controller, its the right thumbstick."
  6. Macgregor, Jody (September 15, 2018). "Wandersong makes being a bard not suck for once". Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018. To sing you push the right-stick in one of eight directions that represent different notes which appear around you in a color-coded wheel (you can also use mouse and keys). Sometimes it's just the direction that's important [...] and sometimes it turns into a rhythm game where I have to match someone else's tune to impress them, or hit notes in time with sliding blocks of color to perform a specific song. [...] I've found no use for the dance button yet, but even if I never do, that's OK.
  7. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "A long time ago, a goddess sang the universe into existence. But now she figures that it’s had a good run and it’s time to erase everything and start again."
  8. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "You play as The Bard, a cheerful musician who’s decided that they want to try to save the world. They wander throughout the land and attempt to find little pieces of what’s called the Earth Song, which will allow existence to continue."
  9. "How long is Wandersong?". howlongtobeat.com. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  10. Chan, Stephanie (May 24, 2018). "YoYo Games will publish indie titles made with its GameMaker Studio engine". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018. Dumb and Fat Games used GameMaker Studio to develop its musical adventure Wandersong.
  11. Lobanov, Greg (2017). "Wandersong (press kit)". Dumb and Fat. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018. Wandersong was first made by Greg Lobanov, inspired by his 5,000 mile bike ride across the United States, and went into development in October 2015. [...] The game is made in Gamemaker: Studio [...] but expanded with a wide array of in-house dev tools including a shape-and-color based level editor and fairly advanced audio editor.
  12. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "...an important thing that I have to be mindful of is that I’m the only person doing art and animation and everything for the game, and so I need something that I could make a lot of easily. [...] So a lot of the style was a carefully managed design of something that looks really appealing but wasn’t super complicated to add more into, and there’s a level editor where I can draw the shapes that go into the game."
  13. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "He’s developed other games before, like the puzzler Perfection, but Wandersong is different from all his previous titles. It’s a culmination of all the skills he’s taught himself over the last few years as an indie dev."
  14. Kline, Nicole (December 17, 2013). "Coin Crypt: Interview with Local Indie Game Developer Greg Lobanov". Geekadelphia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  15. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "The inspiration for Wandersong came from Lobanov’s experiences on a cross-country bike trip. He wanted to capture the feel of that journey..."
  16. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "..it exposed me to a lot of people, and a lot of people's kindness and generosity. I just met lots of different people across the country and was really overcome with appreciation for how nice people tend to be when you get down to it."
  17. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "The first things I did were (games) about biking, and they were really literal, but they felt like they actually were kind of missing the spirit of the trip. [...] It's kind of a really hippy, dopey, joyful rainbow message - I just wanted to make a game about that and like that.
  18. Bowman, Mitch (January 16, 2017). "Closing Vancouver's Indie House". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  19. Usher, William (January 24, 2016). "A New RPG Has Players Saving The World By Singing". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  20. Hartling, Paul (February 8, 2017). "Wandersong Will Have You Singing to Interact With the World!". Bemanistyle. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2018. The Kickstarter was released for the game one year ago and was successfully funded with $21,936 pledged out of the $18,000 goal.
  21. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "As opposed to games like, say, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where you learn songs to use abilities, Wandersong takes a different tack. It encourages you to experiment..."
  22. Frank & Lobanov 2018, 12:31, "So, we never hint with just sound or just colour, and always with direction, usually. So, if you're colourblind or hard of hearing, you can still get everything."
  23. Frank & Lobanov 2018, 9:59, "Instead of going up in complexity, we'll just introduce something new..."
  24. Frank & Lobanov 2018, 8:45, "...there were earlier versions of all these screens where it was really more complicated and tricky, like 'you have to use this minor detail in the way that [the plant] grows' [...] no one ever got it..."
  25. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "...other than the happy paper cutout visuals..."
  26. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "Kirby’s Epic Yarn is probably the biggest visual inspiration. I just love the look of that game and I want more game that have that really physical feeling.
  27. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "It has the flat design of Paper Mario or Wind Waker..."
  28. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "I have an outline of how I want the game to go, and I’m filling in the outline on the fly, so the best things in the game are when I have an idea and I think "what if this happened." [...] I write this text and get the scene going and suddenly it’s in. This would not have been in the game, and suddenly it’s in the game just like that."
  29. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "...the result is a game that’s unabashedly about optimism and positivity. That doesn’t meant that it shies away from the negatives. The world is about to end, and many of the characters The Bard encounters are mired in their own problems."
  30. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "If everything was happy all the time, it would be a really empty experience, I think. [...] There’s a lot of tension in the story with really dark, scary, big things that are happening, and then this kind of carefree, happy response to that."
  31. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "I was 0/3 on guessing which inspirations Greg noted he may have taken from, instead citing Earthbound, Over the Garden Wall, and Totoro as spiritual influences."
  32. Frank & Lobanov 2018, 3:42, "I was definitely more inspired by comics animation than games when I was making this..."
  33. Davenport, James (December 28, 2016). "Listen to the best game music of the year". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018. A good selection of the best game music of the last few years has all come from A Shell in the Pit, serving up lovely soundtracks for the likes of Duelyst, Rogue Legacy, Parkitect, and more.
  34. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "[Lobanov] wrote a lot of the music and also had help from collaborators such A Shell in the Pit, who has worked on titles such as Night in the Woods and Rogue Legacy."
  35. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "Lobanov isn't a classically trained musician, so he had to teach himself."
  36. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "We had a lot of people coming in - we didn't even have open call for submissions because i had already 4 different musicians I was already talking to and looking at, but other people sent me stuff so I started considering more people..."
  37. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "A Shell in the Pit (Gordon) was someone I started talking to early on and I liked him a lot because he was local in Vancouver, and his music fit the game really really well. The sound, but also the way he makes music."
  38. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "For now, the way it works is we have all this game play done and he kind of comes in and I show him the game and give him an idea of the way I think things sound like, and we have a conversation. He makes the music, we adjust the game to make it fit with it..."
  39. Cunningham, James (November 9, 2017). "Wandersong to Sing its Heart Out on Nintendo Switch". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. Wandersong released an eight track Dreams & Wonder EP on Bandcamp yesterday
  40. rpbtz (May 17, 2018). "The Wandersong EP is now available to order from Yetee Records". Blip Blop. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  41. Pillon & Halberstadt 2017, "My most important tool is my DAW [Digital Audio Workstation] Reaper."
  42. New, Daniel (March 23, 2018). "GDC 18: The sound design of Night in the Woods". Thumbsticks. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  43. Pillon & Halberstadt 2017, "In Night in the Woods I focused heavily on the ambiances and foley because the world is based so much around the location. With Wandersong it's more about the music, and we'll also be doing character voices, which is a pretty big undertaking."
  44. Pillon & Halberstadt 2017, "For musical sound effects instead of just a few variations I'll have to create the entire scale the music is in. I'll usually do that through a program called Kontakt, on a keyboard."
  45. Manthorp, Ross (August 9, 2018). "Nintendo Switch Open Beta Now Available". YoYo Games. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. We’ve already seen the first wave of GameMaker Studio 2 titles announced for Nintendo Switch, including Hyper Light Drifter and Undertale...
  46. Andriessen, C.J. (September 9, 2018). "Wandersong is music to my ears". Destructoid. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. ...and with an estimated 14 hour play time [..] Wandersong wasn't even on my radar before PAX West...
  47. Emory & Lobanov 2016, "I first played Wandersong back at Game Developers Conference 2016, when it was part of The MIX, an annual celebration of indies."
  48. Green, Holly; Douglas, Dante (September 5, 2017). "The 10 Best Games at PAX West 2017". Paste. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  49. Chan & Lobanov 2017, "Lobanov has demoed Wandersong at a few gaming events such as PAX West, and it'll be at Double Fine’s upcoming Day of the Devs gaming festival."
  50. Hayes, Matthew (November 9, 2017). "Humble Bundle Reveals Wandersong, a Musical Adventure Coming to Nintendo Switch and PC". Comicbook.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  51. The Star staff (September 27, 2018). "Video game releases: FIFA 19, Wandersong, Life Is Strange 2, Dragalia Lost, Pathfinder: Kingmaker". The Star. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018. Wandersong For Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, MacOS from Sept 27
  52. Romano, Sal (September 6, 2018). "Wandersong launches September 27". Gematsu. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018. Musical side-scroller Wandersong will launch for Switch via the Nintendo eShop and PC via Steam and the Humble Store on September 27
  53. Romano, Sal (January 16, 2019). "Wandersong coming to PS4 on January 22". Gematsu. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. Wandersong is coming to PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store on January 22...
  54. Brown, Matt (June 9, 2019). "Xbox Game Pass PC Games List". Windows Central. Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2019. All the Xbox Game Pass PC titles available for Windows 10 [...] Wandersong
  55. New, Daniel (December 2, 2019). "This week's new Xbox One releases – December 2-6, 2019". Thumbsticks. Archived from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019. Friday, December 6, 2019 [...] Wandersong
  56. Moyse, Chris (December 4, 2019). "Wandersong brings its merry ballad to Xbox One and Game Pass this week". Destructoid. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019. Furthermore, it will be made available via subscription service Xbox Game Pass. [...] Wandersong launches on Xbox One December 6...
  57. Madan, Asher (December 4, 2019). "The Division, Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker, and more join Xbox Game Pass soon". Windows Central. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019. Wandersong should join Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One on December 6.
  58. Frank 2019, "It's the victim of a policy that launched last June, made to explicitly combat games that were intentionally “inflating achievement and game counts for users to display on their profiles."
  59. Tarason, Dominic (January 9, 2019). "Steam may have flagged Wandersong and others as 'fake' for months". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. ...it wouldn’t be eligible for full Steam store perks such as offering trading cards [...] Lobanov has since been contacted directly by Valve, who say that this was a bug...
  60. Frank 2019, "...leaving players unable to access regular Steam features for it, like trading cards and achievements. [...] The list includes limitations on achievements and items, as well as preventing players from adding it to their favorite games lists.
  61. Frank 2019, "In this case, we uncovered a bug for some games where the actual access to developers was updating correctly, but the store-page notice wasn’t — that is now fixed."
  62. Grayson, Nathan (January 10, 2019). "Steam Bug Keeps Popular Indie Game From Being Recognised As 'Real' For Five Months". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. ...he learned from Valve that his game’s visibility was not impacted by the bug...
  63. Martin, Garrett; Paste Games Writers (December 21, 2019). "The 15 Best Switch Games of 2018". Paste. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. 9. Wandersong
  64. Green, Holly; Paste Games Writers (December 9, 2019). "The 15 Best PC Games of 2018". Paste. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. 13. Wandersong
  65. Ramée, Jordan (January 4, 2019). "IGF Awards Finalists Revealed; Winners To Be Announced At GDC 2019". Gamespot. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. Excellence in Narrative
  66. Nunneley, Stephany (January 5, 2019). "Grand Prize finalists for 2019 IGF Awards include Return of the Obra Dinn, Minit". VG247. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize; Excellence in Visual Art; Excellence in Audio
  67. Fogel, Stefanie (January 3, 2019). "'Return of the Obra Dinn' Leads IGF Awards Nominees". Variety. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019. Seumas McNally Grand Prize; Excellence in Visual Art; Excellence in Audio
  68. Milligan, Mercedes (February 13, 2019). "'God of War' Leads NAVGTR Awards Nominees with Record 22 Nods". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019. Game, Original Family; Wandersong
  69. Singletary Jr, Charles (February 11, 2019). "2019 SXSW Gaming Awards nominees announced". Shacknews. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019. Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game; Wandersong - Greg Lobanov / Humble Bundle
  70. Scalzo, John (February 11, 2019). "Celeste, God of War, Spider-Man, Red Dead 2, Smash Ultimate will compete for "Video Game of the Year" at 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards". Warp Zoned. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019. Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game; Wandersong (Greg Lobanov / Humble Bundle)
  71. Lagumbay, Emmanuel (February 14, 2019). "2019 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalists". Game Audio Network Guild. Archived from the original on February 17, 2019. Retrieved February 17, 2019. Best Interactive Score; Wandersong - Greg Lobanov; Best Sound Design for an Indie Game; Wandersong - Greg Lobanov
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