The developer of Wildfire, Salvador Palma, put out a call for a composer on Reddit’s /gamedevclassifieds channel. I played the demo version up on itch.io and loved it! It’s a cute game where you play as a campfire fending off swarming critters. The critters get more intense and plentiful as you play, but your powers of defense grow alongside their devious developments!

Fortuately, Salvador, chose me to create the music for his game. I think it had a lot to do with my jazz experience (I am a professional jazz pianist and piano tuner). When I began work, we started with the shop theme “Pleasant Exchanges” and the main gameplay loop theme “The Encroaching”. He gave me some examples of music a streamer friend of his improvised and some general thoughts and I was off.

I struck gold on “Pleasant Exchanges” but the first iterations of “The Encroaching” left something to be desired, although it was not a bad start, it would better fit the “Casino” theme needed later. My second idea got closer to the mark, but was too fast. I slowed it down and reworked the instrumentation to fit the pace of play and the darker vibe better. The third idea was much better received. After getting the core idea down, I took a few more small iterations to get the flow just right and fix a few issues (an annoying not and an unsatisfactory transition), but the track ended up being to everyone’s liking.

I always feel that the most difficult track to get right is the first one. It takes time to get to know the other person and for me to make sure that what you get it just right for you game, but I believe we always get there in the end.

Salvador had this to say: