Don’t Look Back Soundtrack

Posted in don't look back
By Terry Mar 8, 2009

So…

Don’t Look Back has been online for just less than four days now. It’s been played 280,716 times on Kongregate so far.

That’s incredible! Kinda scary, even. (Even taking into account that 200,000 of those plays are probably me refreshing the page to check the stats.) It’s more than everything else I’ve ever made put together… hell, it’s probably 10 times more than everything else I’ve made put together.

If you’ve got in touch with me recently and I haven’t replied yet it’s because I’m just a little overwhelmed at the moment, I’m getting around to it, I promise! And I’ve got a couple of new things in the works that I’ll post about next week.

Anyway! A few people were asking for the soundtrack, so I thought I’d post it here:

[1] The Descent:
[2] Assonance:
[3] Cornered:
[4] The Ascent (Main Theme):

You can download all four songs in a zip here (1.9Mb)!

33 thoughts on “Don’t Look Back Soundtrack”

  1. Oh, wonderful! 🙂 The whole soundtrack is great, really, but ‘The Descent’ is easily my favorite. It reminds me very strongly of the Myst soundtrack, which is easily some of my favorite game music. First time I played DLB I was shocked by how well you’d captured that same emotion.

    ~Josiah

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  2. It really is part of the magic of Flash development that you reach an ENORMOUS audience. One of my games should reach a million plays sometime in March or April.

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  3. The music is fantastic, must get round to downloading it. And well done on your success! I notice on your kongregate profile maybe 1 in 8 people said they didn’t like their game. After checking their profiles I came to realise that I didn’t like them. Considering its widely known 1 in 4 people are retards, having only 1 in 8 come out against you ain’t too bad! Well done again!

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  5. One thing to know: everybody who finish Don’t look back one time were obliged to finish it one more time because of the badges which appeared some days later.

    That’s what happened to me. But I enjoyed playing it again. 😀

    So there may be a lot of 2nd playthrough buffing the audience.

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  6. Seems like it didnt work.
    Well I was telling you that i run a french flash games review website, and that I wrote something about Don’t Look Back today. Sorry it’s in French, but the review is enthusiastic.
    The site is there :

    https://www.thepixelhunt.com

    And I copied/pasted the music player code for the Ascent, in order to give my readers a quick taste of what awaits them ingame.

    But if that is a problem to you, just email me ( poulet_fr (at) yahoo.fr ) and i’ll take it down.

    Regards, and congrats for the game !
    Poulet.

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  8. @Gregory : The sheer contrast is unbelievable… I think I may a lot of my games in flash from here on out…

    @Denis : Actually I was kinda expecting it to be a lot more divisive than it’s been 🙂 Can’t make everyone happy…

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  9. Hi,
    I just finished your game and I enjoyed it a lot. The minimalist graphics and the music create a very interesting atmosphere. The old atari type of graphics made me remember the first games I played. Pixel games always have a magic feeling of yearning

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  10. Fucking hell I loved your game. I really really really did.
    The first thing I liked was the first impression (obviously). Very cool graphics with very moody music with a very good setup (someone dying is always a good setup). The second thing I noticed was that I enjoyed killing the enemies in this game. If they weren’t dead 30 seconds after entering a new frame, then I was dead. I had to react fast and make up strategies. And I love that stuff, especially when it feels rewarding (and it really did). The platforming was okay, not really hard, not really easy, not really rememorable.
    But finding the girl. And then accidentally turning around. That feeling should be fucking mandatory in games it’s so good it’s ridiculous. Suddenly it all made sense. Who I was. Who the dog and big boss-looking guy was. Why I came down here. And why I could never look back.
    With new determination I forced myself back through the cave, trying my best to never look back. If I got too far and HAD to go backwards then I’d rather kill MYSELF than damning the poor girl again.

    And then I get up. And I know the next frame will be the grave of her. And I see me.

    And right when everything hits me I hear the sound of me and the girl dying.

    FUCKING AWESOME GAME I AM SO SHAKEN UP IT’S RIDICULOUS.

    Are your other games this well thought-out?

    Reply

  12. Nice soundtracks, It’s cool when you play more than one at a time splicing them together to get a different feel. I’ll add you link to my site so people can see your makings, since they are awesome.

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  13. I heard those songs in Requiem for a Dream, a movie I saw not long ago. I knew it sounded familiar. This music definitely created a serious mood that was enjoyable. great job.

    [edit by Terry] No you didn’t! Sheesh…

    The music from Requiem for a Dream is called Lux Aeterna, and it’s by Clint Mansell.

    Reply

  18. I almost cried

    I agree entirely with Hugo

    I’m kinda euphoric now, I never thought such a game could impact me so thoroughly.

    Congratulations

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  21. Terry! I love that music. So I was wondering, I’d like to play them myself and add them to my albums (I’m not famous hehe) and of course, I’ll give you credits…in fact “Dead and Gone” (my latest album, still on construction) is based in “Don’t look back” story, so why not add a song from the game? Anywho, just saying.

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  23. I havent beaten it yet, probably because I am not that good at games, but I do really like the beyond retro feel it gives. Same with all of your games of course. So what program do you use? Is it in Macomedia Flash or is it an older one?

    Reply

  24. I didn’t realise you made your own soundtrack, too!

    What a talented fellow you are :]

    Are the instruments that appear in the soundtrack native to FLStudio? Or did you use some other/external VSTs?

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  25. I play too much video games, but yours gave me that need to make one bymyself. Perfect work, perfect soundtrack.

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  27. It’s odd how easily an 8bit game can move you. This game was on the side of adultswim.com under “games we like” and I thought it looked silly so I clicked it. I had no idea how dramatic it would be, how touching, and how emotional. The fact that not only did you create the game but you composed the music aswell is incredible. In this case I think the music made the game. Definately downloading the soundtrack. I might replay it now that I know what’s all going on. Great idea for a game. Genius.

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  28. This game was really incredible – so emotive for such a simple sort of game. I loved the graphics and colour choices – so many games lack a complete ‘atmosphere’ and you have made something here that feels totally complete. The soundtrack was a huge part of this too, thanks for including it (I would have emailed about it :P)
    -Oliver

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  29. This game was amazing. I’m 20 years old in the military and this soundtrack actually brought me to tears while playing. It frightening the emotions it brings out, especially for those of us who’ve actually lost someone close to us.

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  30. The composer are nearly godlike 🙂 all 4 tracks are amazing. It’s so… i don’t know, it reminds me Max Payne, Myst, Requiem for a dream, and last Alone in the dark ost, all at once 🙂 I wold worship you, if tracks were full-lenght! Anyway, i’ll take this .zip

    Reply

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