Elegantly criminal: the music of Pecaminosa

Welcome, detectives!

It’s been a while since the return of detective Souza was announced and we wanted to get back in touch with you. As Cereal Games faces the final stage of the game's relaunch, we feel like sharing more bits of Pecaminosa's development. Starting with this very entry, they’ll arrive on Steam as bimonthly updates.

We hope that these entries will have a more creative than technical approach. In order to lend credence to this declaration of will, today we will delve into music composition — a subject we tackled already long ago on YouTube. The role of a game soundtrack is none other than to add a layer of complexity to what the players see and do. That’s why their relationship must be intimate.

Ours was composed in keeping with the tension and unexpected twists and turns typical of noir fiction, so if we were asked to define it in just four adjectives, they would undoubtedly be elegant, mysterious, seductive and, sometimes, very tense. To put it poetically, we want players to feel it like a night stroll through the alleyways of a big city and taste of cigarettes, whiskey and furtive kisses.



The genre best suited to these characteristics is, as is well known, jazz. Classic noir movies like Les Liaison Dangereuses (Art Blakey), Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (Miles Davis) and Touch of Evil (Henry Mancini) inspired our artists to create an original soundtrack. As for video games, you may ask, they inspired other aspects of Pecaminosa — expect a new entry on this topic!

Part of the magic of jazz is improvisation, so it was important to look for a formula that respected the project deadlines and the creativity of the artists as well.

We were fortunate to be able to get the whole band together in the same studio and work side by side under the direction of Cristóvão Ferreira, a wonderful artist that understood what the game needed at once. He also helped us create a pleasant work atmosphere that was very conducive to creativity. Our founder, Lazaro Raposo, could experience it in first person since he’s a professional drummer.



Drums, bass, piano, sax and trumpet gave Pecaminosa its own voice. All instruments lead the way at some point of the soundtrack, as they’re important to create a “mood”.

We mean something in the melody that helps players read the situation beyond what they watch on screen. A proper choice will help them decipher what characters may feel and think, and even their hidden intentions. It might look as easy as having a trumpet solo in a ballad, or relying more on drums and percussion for a walk through the city. But there's much work behind all that.

The game required some technical shenanigans to produce the soundtrack, but nothing that could limit our creativity. It was a cool challenge to face, with the best result we could dream of.



That's all for the moment! We hope you stay with us until the release of Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand to tell us how the soundtrack makes you feel, and what’s your favorite track. If you have any questions regarding this topic, remember that we are available on social media and on our Discord server.





Last but not least, remember to wishlist Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand! It helps a lot.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366770/Pecaminosa__A_Pixel_Noir_Game/

See you in our next update,
Cereal Games