How Fire Tonight took a decades-old synth-pop song and turned it into a game: article
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You might think that there would be more song-based video games and yet there really aren’t. At least I can’t think of any, but again, I’m writing this at 10am on a rainy Friday morning, so my brain isn’t exactly at its peak.
But Fire Tonight, named after the 1990 Information Society synthetic single, is exactly that: a story pulled directly from someone else’s lyrics.
As lead vocalist and co-founder of the band Kurt Harland Larson sings in the chorus, “there’s a fire on your side of town tonight,” and what a setting for a puzzle game. Maya and Devin, lovers separated by a fire throughout the city, will have to overcome the flames, the police and many closed doors to get back together.
We had the opportunity to speak with the developers of Fire Tonight and with Kurt Harland Larson himself about how the game was formed and what it’s like to have a game based on a song you wrote decades ago.
How did the Information Society get involved in the game?
Simon Paquette (Reptoid Games, Fire Tonight developer): We knew from the beginning that we wanted to make a game about a love story, something that felt a bit introspective and thoughtful. I found that the lyrics to Fire Tonight really painted a vivid picture of this couple trying to reconnect and the uncertainty of what was happening with the other person, which felt like a really natural place to start designing the game.
Rajen Savjani (Way Deep Games, Fire Tonight editor): Back in 2018, when Simon and I were discussing what kind of game to make together, I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to make a game based on Fire Tonight, by my favorite band Information Society. Simon and his team came up with some game ideas and we decided it was a game we wanted to make. After that, I reached out to Paul Robb from the band to see if they were okay with me making a game based on one of their songs.
Kurt Harland Larson (lead voice, Information Society): To be clear, our participation was casual. One of our fans, Rajen Savjani, who has been in contact since IRC in the 1990s, approached me to tell me about the game that he and his partners were playing; I wanted a single track from our song ‘Fire Tonight’ from the ‘HACK’ album. Of course I told him it was fine …
I think there was originally a hope that they could license the song itself, but when I explained what that would entail, he wisely decided that it was probably not the best use of his working hours and funds. But after that, he kept me posted on the project’s progress, and earlier this year I did a beta test and gave a friendly hello to the InSoc-related Easter eggs it contains.
Can you tell us about some of the music references from the 90s and 80s in the game?
Rajen: In addition to the general technology of the era that we wanted to refer to (pay phones, VHS, cassettes, CDs, 16-bit games, etc.), I wanted to emphasize the references of the information society era. So there are some good references on the information society that your followers may recognize.
I also wanted to expand the references to include some other synth-pop and electronic music bands that I was listening to at the time. My favorite reference from the game is still the CD + G reference on the gaming system at Devin’s apartment. InSoc fans who owned their first album on CD can get that dark reference.
How has music (and especially game soundtracks!) Changed in the years since the Information Society was founded?
Kurt: My God, how has he NOT done it? Still, I think there has been less change between, say, 1941 and 1981 than in the 40 years since. I say this because, looking back, in 1981 I was listening to DEVO and Gary Numan and Fad Gadget and Kraftwerk etc. … And 40 years earlier, the music was mainly crooners, blues and big-band. I can’t imagine any of my peers at the time listening to Mitch Miller or Bing Crosby, for example. But it’s not unlikely that today’s kids will listen to the first Gary Numans, or the first OMDs, or whatever. It is not so much an abyss to bridge between 2021 and 1981 as it was between 1981 and 1941.
It is not unlikely that today’s children will listen to the first Gary Numans, or the first OMDs. It is not so much an abyss to bridge between 2021 and 1981 as it was between 1981 and 1941.
Big changes in any art form are generally due to changes in technology. Between 41 and 81 came the advent of electrical amplification and synthesizers. Between ’81 and ’21 there was the near disappearance of physical media and the rise of the Internet. Big changes in both cases, of course.
So what effect has all that had on music? Between ’41 and ’81 we saw increasing freedom to explore the dark and wild sides of the musician’s creative power. We also saw a destigmatization of music coming from the African diaspora in the US (meaning it became good for whites to listen to (and imitate) blues, jazz, funk, and related genres) and a huge increase in commercialization. . of music as a product. Between ’81 and ’21, I think the most significant change was the near elimination of barriers to entry.
It cost us all the money we could borrow, borrow, or steal in 1983 to make a 5-song EP, and over $ 200,000 (not counting the marketing) to make our first Warner-Brothers album. Now, anyone with a laptop, a decent microphone, and some decent software can make an entire album for essentially free, and can post it without a tag. That creates, of course, good and bad results, but I totally agree. There’s definitely more shitty music flying around now, but a lot more interesting, creative, and individually tailored music for specific listeners. It’s great!
The levels are named after the lyrics of Fire Tonight. That was easy? Did it help make the game?
Rajen: That was a brilliant idea from Simon. The lyrics on the cassettes don’t exactly match the levels, but they are there for progression and poetry. As for helping to make the game, the letter was the model on which the game was designed. The progression of the levels, the details in the levels, the dialogues, etc. they were inspired by the lyrics.
Simon: Throughout development, we’ve always been looking for places to sneak into references and Easter eggs like this, so when we were designing the level selection screen it seemed a bit more fun than just calling them Level 1, Level 2, etc.
Did you have to get the whole team to join in on the music, or was everyone already into synth-pop?
Simon: In fact, I had never heard of InSoc before starting this project, but we all got hooked as soon as we started listening. I grew up in the 90s and this felt like a hit of nostalgia, but at the same time something new and fresh that I hadn’t heard before.
Why did you choose “Fire Tonight” specifically as your inspiration for making a game?
Rajen: I’ve always liked narrative songs, songs that tell a complete story. Knowing that the lyrics to Fire Tonight told a good story, we had a roadmap of the game’s progression and the little details we could include. Since the song is from 1990, it meant we could set the game back to 1990 and have references to 80s and 90s stuff that we loved back then. Also, who makes games based on song lyrics? It would be great to do this.
Is there a story behind the song “Fire Tonight”?
Kurt: It’s not a real life story, no, but … This is one of the songs that Paul [Robb, co-founder] I wrote and recorded the music tracks, and then he gave them to me for the lyrics and the melody. The lyrics are a portrait of the history of that vehicle that is repeated often for love stories: the separation due to events beyond one’s control. War and disaster are the usual themes; this is civil unrest.
Similar to the game, the idea is for someone to express their anxiety and longing upon discovering that they are unable to communicate or reach their loved one due to the fires and general upheaval in a city. In the game, the protagonist decides to try to do something about it; to see if they can take the risk and reach the other person.
What was it like discovering that your music from decades ago had inspired a game?
Kurt: It was fun! I work in the games industry myself, making music and sound effects for games, beginning in 1994. However, that closeness to the game development process may have dampened my enthusiasm, to some extent. When Rajen wrote to me about his project, I felt like it was another game design prototype meeting, heh …
But yeah, it was cool and a lot of fun to see other people doing their own creative work and repeating some of the things we’ve done. I love that. I made the theme song for Soul Reaver 1, a song that was also on our album ‘Don’t Be Afraid’, and now there are tons of YouTube videos of people playing their own versions of the song; that’s really Really nice. I love.
Would you like to make more song-based games? Which ones inspire you?
Rajen: I would love to! I’ve been thinking a lot about Gary Numan’s early work and using some of his song themes as inspiration for gaming experiences. For example, your song “Are ‘friends’ electric?“It seems like it could be a good loose base for a game that is about restoring energy, if you wanted to create an eco-conscious game about green energy or our dependence on technology.
Of course, these first few ideas are not really related to the actual meaning of the song, but it’s fun to think about the lyrics of the songs that you love and how it could take shape in some kind of playable experience. Also, I’m not sure many people know this, but the name of the game Some Distant Memory from Way Down Deep a song by the band Electronic. The game doesn’t really have anything to do with the lyrics to that song, but it’s my favorite Electronic song and the name seems to fit well. I often try to name Way Down Deep games after songs that I like.
Simon: Definitely! I haven’t heard of many music-based games like this, but a song offers a lot of inspiration for rhythm, style, and story. Game development can get very complex with a lot of moving parts, so it’s really helpful to be able to refer to one piece of music as an anchor for all the other elements.
Many thanks to the Information Society for speaking with us. Fire Tonight is now available on the Switch eShop; you can check our game review, and bBe sure to peruse the other Nintendo Life VGM Fest articles in our music-focused interview and feature season.
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