Hunt: Showdown & The Port Sulphur Band - In-game music killing it out of game
Hunt: Showdown & The Port Sulphur Band - In-game music killing it out of game
Something about Hunt: Showdown's music brings me back everytime...Happy Halloween!
We’re deep in the throws of spooky season and I couldn’t not lean into something that has a zombie, or a skeleton, or something like that. I’m currently fighting the urge to bump a load of Luigi’s Mansion remixes, but I have instead opted for a game that uses music to prepare you for its scary ambience.
Before the seance that will defrost Mariah Carey & Michael Buble on the 31st October, let’s enjoy something not-so-sickly as the contents of that plastic pumpkin you’ve taken door to door and find something both haunting and committed. I therefore summon Hunt: Showdown.
(Also this reads quite game-focused, but it makes sense when you get to part 4. Skip there if you want to skip my contextual pre-amble!)
What is Hunt: Showdown?
Art Style & Ambience
In-game: Weaponised Silence
The Port Sulphur Band
Learnings
1. What is Hunt: Showdown?
Hunt: Showdown is a multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Crytek. Released back in 2018, it sold approximately 6.1 million units, with approximately $145m in gross revenue since launch. Crytek, the developers, also made Crysis - which was reknown for its fancy graphics. Hunt: Showdown had a huge overhaul of the game earlier this year and renamed itself to Hunt: Showdown 1896 - you can see them showing off the graphics here.
This game is set in a dark, atmospheric world inspired by 19th-century Louisiana. Players, in teams of up to 3, take on the role of bounty hunters who track and kill monstruous creatures. You kill a big monster, collect their bountry, and leave the map...if you can. The game blends PvP (Player vs. Player) and PvE (Player vs. Environment) elements, meaning that other players, as well as the game itself, are all out to get you.
Last week I actually booted up this game with my OGs (Shout out B20) to give it a shot and the professionals reminded us how not to play the game. Still had fun though.
Hunt: Showdown also has a huge amount of lore, which they storytell using art & music.
2. Art Style & Atmosphere
The art style of Hunt: Showdown is gritty, atmospheric and deeply rooted in Southern Gothic aesthetics. The game's visual design captures the decaying beauty of 19th-century Louisiana, with dense, overgrown swamps, crumbling buildings, and eerie, fog-filled landscapes. Every piece of the design emphasizes both the ‘harrowing’ and ‘grotesque’, making the game feel both hauntingly real and otherworldly.
Following on from Crytek’s reputation, the atmosphere of this game is visually beautiful. Even down to the symbolic illustrations in the menu, with in game perks drawn similar to tarot cards as mentioned in their concept art.
These are important elements to consider my point I’m making. Creating this aesthetic based purely on visuals is the highest priority and there’s no room for sway.
3. In-game: Weaponised silence
One of the most effective tools in Hunt: Showdown is actually the use of silence. Let’s take a look at an excerpt from the website about atmosphere and sound design:
“Hear footsteps squelch in the mud as you wait with bated breath to strike. The world speaks. Every gunshot is a message; every howling dog a klaxon. Gramophones murmur with the haunting melodies of Port Sulphur Band. Listen, and you might live to die another day.”
This game’s biggest strategy is to stay hidden. In order to be the last one seen, you have to be the last one heard. In-game, there’s an absence of a constant soundtrack, but instead you are submerged in the noises of the environment. Dogs, horses and crows will all make noise if you go near them and give away your position. To track down other teams, you sneak in and out of position, through swamps, bushes and loose floor boards, and let sound cues tell the story of where creatures and players may be.
What’s particularly harrowing is that any (unsilenced) gunshot can be heard by anyone on the entire map. You take one shot, you give away your position to everyone.
This hauntingly beautiful world communicates with you as you play. Each mechanic is tied to an artistic piece of the strong aesthetic of the game. So, how can silence encourage strategy and immersion at the same time?
There are some instances in-game where you come across gramophones and pianos that play music. This music can be used strategically to make noise, where you trade hiding your approximate location with making it difficult to track your sounds. The music that plays on this, as with the rest of this music, was written by a fictional band…
4. The Port Sulphur Band
But it was the opening music that really got me, and it gets me every time.
Tell me an opening track that is more 19th-Century-Louisiana-Bounty-Hunter-Surrounded-By-Zombies than ‘Rise Up Dead Man’?
This opening track has over 10 million Spotify streams, with a majority of their catalogue sitting around 2 million plays each.
The opening track ‘Rise Up Dead Man’ prepares the player for what to expect. Getting this right makes game basics, like booting up the game or going back to the menu, a pleasure.
So who are the Port Sulphur Band? Here’s an exerpt from the game’s wiki:
Port Sulphur Band is the fictional band which writes and performs the music of Hunt: Showdown, including Event and trailer themes, main menu music, and the pieces which play on the in-game Pianos and Gramophones. The band is made up of several Crytek employees, and their music is available on Spotify, Deezer, iTunes, Amazon Music and Youtube, with a vinyl release also available for purchase (The Devil's Fee, Shadows Calling).
Port Sulphur Band is portrayed as an in-universe troupe, whose songs are a mix of Americana, Blues, Soul, and Gospel. Their music usually describes short stories which are related to the events unfolding in the Bayou. The lyrics give insights into the world's Lore, being just one of the many avenues and unreliable narrators which paint a picture of the Louisiana Event.
So yes you read that correctly, the developers are also the band. And they have nailed it. We’ve seen composers work closely with devs before, but this is the next level. They have also been invited to play at gaming events such as TwitchCon and operating independently as their own thematic band.
5. Learnings
A few important points to make:
The vocal version isn’t prominently featured in-game (except on the gramophones) but it still has twice the number of plays as the instrumental version. This is a clear translation that an artist performing music from a game, with a strict aesthetic like this, translates to fandom.
The first Hunt: Showdown EP is registered as being owned by The Port Sulphur Band, but the other EP’s afterwards are all owned by Crytek GmbH. Crytek clearly see the value of music as a emination of the game and have invested in its ownership. Therefore, Crytek are likely financing the independent music creation and performances as if Crytek are Port Sulphur Band’s record label.
This combination has found independent success, as documented by Light In The Attic:
“Since their first album released in 2019, PORT SULPHUR BAND have become a cult phenomenon, with over 34 million streams across three albums. Their first vinyl collection – “The Devil’s Fee” – sold out in four hours and hit #62 on the German charts.”
According to Music Gateway’s Spotify Royalty Calculator, 34 million streams equals £116,960 revenue. Having over 210,000+ monthly listeners, this is a great and welcome addition that is capturing a financial and artistic utilisation of music with gaming. This doesn’t include physical sales figures through Black Screen Records.
Now that the latest 1896 update has been released, and new music is coming out owned by their developer, The Port Sulphur Band have been recognised as a separate but parallel artistic expression of this game.
I’d love to see this strategic use of artist expression in other worlds. Question is, how talented do we expect game devs beyond 2024 to be? Surely, this should be recognised as exceptional in its own right, but an excellent example nonetheless.
TLDR
Hunt: Showdown is a scary FPS game based in 1986 Louisana. The music, art and gameplay combine to let even the silence of the game be suspenseful.
The music is made by the Port Sulphur Band, made up of Crytek developers, who have their own music strategy and rights structure owned by Crytek. Given not-prominently-featured game tracks are popular, Hunt: Showdown’s audience have found fandom beyond the game, extended by the music. Fans are not just players, but lovers of the music and aesthetic. Just like all games, really (HINT).
