Valley of the spinned
Us Two applies its aptitude for angles to Monument Valley’s gatefold vinyl OST
UsTwo creates new angles for
Monument Valley’s gatefold OST T
The dizzying image on these pages is taken from the inside of the Monument Valley soundtrack’s elaborate gatefold packaging. The design encloses a 31-track album split across blue and white 180g vinyl and features the music of Stafford Bawler, OBFUSC and Grigori. Developer UsTwo’s effort joins the increasing ranks of vinyl videogame OST releases, which include Fez, Journey and Super Hexagon, and represents the self-proclaimed digital-product studio’s desire to give its game a tangible presence beyond iTunes.
“Unfortunately, being an App Store game, Monument Valley has no way of existing in a physical form,” notes UsTwo lead designer Ken Wong. “There are a lot of fans of Monument Valley – ourselves included – who want to have an artefact or a memento of the experience, something we can have in our homes and be part of our
collections. And, of course, the music of Monument Valley is an incredibly important part of the experience, and is worth listening to in the highest possible quality. A vinyl set just seemed to make total sense.”
The beautiful package features original art and includes a story booklet. But the task of depicting the game in a suitable manner proved more difficult than you might expect.
“Monument Valley images are incredibly hard to make, even when they’re not functional levels,” Wong says. “They require a very tight combination of illustration and graphic design. But we knew we wanted to go above and beyond for this double-vinyl package and create something really special, and the wide format of the gatefold interior was a chance to do something different. We traded the game’s isometric view for a one-point perspective that breaks with [our] tradition, but has led to an image that’s unique and yet still recognisably Monument
Valley.” The soundtrack album is available to preorder from Iam8bit for $40 (£28). Visit www.bit.ly/monumentvalleyOST for more details.