Ori and the Blind Forest is one of the most beautiful indie games to grace gaming platforms since its launch. Its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is more beautiful with heavily improved gameplay. Another part of the games that stands out a lot are the soundtracks. Composer Gareth Coker is responsible for those tracks and he recently talked to The Sixth Axis about the reason for joining the development team behind the beautiful franchise.
Ori and the Blind Forest gameplay had tight controls
Coker revealed that the first time he saw the first title it was a totally different game. The art style was not the same as the final version, and the protagonist moved and looked in a different way. What really made him appreciate the game was the gameplay. It had tight controls and fun gameplay. The second factor was the characters.
Everyone felt pressure for developing sequel
The soundtrack composer confessed that everyone from the studio felt the pressure of doing better with the sequel. They were determined to make the second one a lot better than the original. His first challenge was to define what better means in the sequel. How he could make it way better in the second game. However, he did not want to change a lot of the theme of the first tracks, but make it sound a lot better as well.
Coker said that he was proud of what they did when they developed the sequel. They took all of the feedback from the first game and combined it with their ideas of what they want to do with it. There were some risks involved, with some people who might have not expected the big changes in the sequel, but it did pay off. He is proud that Will of the Wisps is a superior game compared to the first game.
Ori and the Blind Forest is now available on Steam, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Ori and the Will of the Wisps launched on Xbox One and PC.
Interview source: The Sixth Axis