You don’t need to have left Saint-Cyr to know that music has an important place in the latest project overseen by Annapurna, Mixtape. After all, even if you haven’t played the game and even if you haven’t seen anything about it – despite the big noise it’s made recently – it’s all in the title. The idea is to relive the adolescence of three friends, all set to the music they listened to at the time. These musics are by Iggy Pop, The Smashing Pumpkins, Joy Division, The Cure or even Devo – non-exhaustive list. But inevitably, the players, naturally suspicious, began to worry about a legitimate question: if Mixtape uses licensed songs, isn’t there a risk of disappearing from stores once the rights to use them expire?
This is the problem that arose with games like Guitar Hero for example. After several years, a choice is offered to the studio of this type of game: renew the license which allows the use of the music concerned – and release a small ticket as a result – or drop the title which contained it. And it is often the second option that is chosen. With the recent success of Mixtapemany players wondered if he would suffer the same fate. This concern caused so much noise on the Internet that the publisher felt obliged to respond and appease it. On social networks, Annapurna indeed stated: “We have heard that Mixtape will be removed from sale due to expired music licenses. This is false.” This post also supports what was said in an interview with My city. Interview which, a few days ago, already allowed creative director Johnny Galvatro to talk about this subject. He indeed indicated that the studio Beethoven and Dinosaur had lined up a few additional tickets to ensure unrestricted use over time of the music in his game.
Give it
It must be said that music has a primordial place in Mixtapebut also in the construction of its world. The creative director explains in particular that the visuals and decorative elements were designed based on the music and not the other way around. “We entrust you with songs that are so precious to you, you have an interest in respecting them,… explains this big fan of the group Devo, “When we ask ourselves: “What are we going to build from this?†, we always start from the song. We think about our position in the story and the meaning of this song for the characters. Game mechanics are used to inform the player of the protagonist’s mental state, and I think there are many fun and creative ways to use the game to connect the feelings of the characters with those of the music and convey them to the player.†And obviously, this way of proceeding worked, as the feedback on the game is so glowing – at least for the vast majority, Mixtape also having its detractors.
