Well, not quite yet, but in my head the new Toki Tori soundtrack is already playing. My name is Tuur (right) and together with my three colleagues I run a company named SonicPicnic. We’re a team of four composers and sound designers, working on lots of different projects from films, commercials and tv shows to…. well, games!

As true fans, you must have heard our work before, as we also made all sound and music for the previous Toki Tori. At the time, Toki Tori (the Wii version that is) was quite a breakthrough project for our little company. Having done one game before with Two Tribes (Garfield DS - A Tale of Two Kitties) this was one of the first console games we worked on. 

My colleague Yorick (left) and I are going to compose and produce the major part of all the music you’ll be hearing in the game. Stefan and Robin are more on the soundeffects-side of things. Having said that, most of the projects we do are truly a team effort. So I might end up doing a whole bunch of soundeffects as well, and if Stefan (right) or Robin come up with a great tune, why not use it? And of course we are teaming up with Two Tribes during the project. For us it’s very important to be involved early in the developing process. It’s in this sketch phase there are still possibilities to discuss and decide how sound can add to the game experience as a whole. This is of course much more interesting than giving an already thought-out concept a little more colour in the form of nice music and sounds.

As the game concept of TT2 will be quite different and deeper compared to TT1, we’re looking for new ways to incorporate music and sound within the total gaming experience. Plans now are to implement a form of adaptation in the music, i.e. to have changing melodies, sounds, and rhythms as Toki makes his way through the levels. There are different possibilities to finish a level, and it could be interesting to have these possibilities reflect in sound as well. You could also think of changing music and sounds as a result of the interaction of Toki with the different characters in the game.

We’re aiming at a more atmospheric soundtrack, compared to the quirky, upbeat level tunes in the previous Toki Tori which could get a little annoying when you had to keep staring at that one seemingly impossible-to-solve level for hours. (Although I personally think that isn’t a particularly bad thing. There’s something encouraging in that pesky way the music keeps repeating, wanting you to solve that puzzle even more!). But don’t despair, there still will be enough moments in the game where we can show you our love for the cheerful and optimistic type of music that fits our hero Toki so well.

We are going to keep you informed on our musical adventure on this blog, and who knows maybe we are even going to post some sound and music previews now and then. Meanwhile we’d love to hear your opinions and ideas about what Toki Tori 2 should sound like!