Metanet is developing N Plus Infinity Times Two, the sequel to the platformer N++, featuring a new soundtrack inspired mainly by UK Garage and its subgenres rather than the Berlin techno style of the previous game [1, 2].
The soundtrack curation process took almost 1,500 hours over about two years. Lead developer Raigan Burns said the team spent "basically two hours every evening for two entire years, listening to a few seconds each of almost half a million different songs," mostly from Bandcamp, to discover the perfect tracks [1].
Unlike N++, where they relied on recommendation algorithms on SoundCloud and YouTube, this time Metanet chose a fully manual, organic approach. Burns explained, "After 10 years of living in an increasingly algorithmically driven society, we can't stand it anymore. So for this game we kind of went full organic, free range, and just kind of brute forced it by hand" [1].
The final soundtrack will include approximately 60 songs spanning about six distinct modern electronic music styles, all from the 2020s [1, 2]. The music aims to be more sonically diverse than N++’s Berlin techno focus, featuring melodic, colorful, mostly broken beat tracks [1, 2].
UK Garage is described as a precursor to British dubstep, spawning genres such as grime, bassline house, and future garage, influencing artists like Burial and Kode9 [1, 2]. Burns said, "Instead of Berlin techno, this time our main reference was UK Garage, and all the sub genres that it birthed, which [are] generally melodic, colorful, and mostly broken beat, rather than the claustrophobic, tension-laden 4/4 techno of N++" [1].
Last week, Raigan Burns publicly presented these soundtrack details and the extensive curation process to fans and media [1, 2].
