Few phrases can do justice to Minecraft‘s rating. The soundtrack – an ambient digital cloud that is equal components huge, lonely, and melancholic – is deeply synonymous with the sport itself, in a lot the identical method you’ll be able to’t visualise Tetris or Mario with out listening to their very own themes.
Scoring Minecraft was the primary breakout venture of composer Daniel ‘C418’ Rosenfeld, and it stays his most iconic work. That is as a lot a blessing as a curse – chatting to Rosenfeld, I counsel attempting to work beneath Minecraft’s shadow should have been scary. He laughs. “My therapist might inform you a large number.”
Constructing blocks
Within the years since Minecraft, Rosenfeld has labored on only a few initiatives. By his personal admission, he is a choosy composer – one thing afforded to him by Minecraft. “It is positively a pickiness born out of privilege,” he says. “I am very fortunate on this business – I’ve to confess that day-after-day – that I am allowed to be choosy. I’ve a variety of buddies who need to take no matter lands of their mailbox, and it is usually grueling. So I am very fortunate that I get to decide on the initiatives I need to partake in, and might take my time [with them].”
By that perspective alone, his mere involvement in Wanderstop – a comfortable sim about working a fantasy tea store whereas therapeutic from burnout – is one thing of an endorsement. It is his most bold venture to this point, that includes a “stupidly advanced music system” that pairs a standard rating with in-world music and sound results. Apart from the rating, Rosenfeld is “principally the whole audio crew,” dealing with Wanderstop’s SFX alongside implementation of its sounds – a stage of involvement he did not plan for.
“I simply wished to do the music and stroll away,” he admits. “However after a lot of soul-searching, I made a decision to hitch Ivy Highway full-time. As a result of I selected that, it is really fairly humbling. It dragged me again all the way down to Earth. I really feel like a standard one who talks to my co-workers. Firstly, the primary yr or so, I wanted to remind myself that individuals know I am an individual of renown, and I am imagined to be the large good composer dude. That took a bit of little bit of an adjustment. Now I am only a dude – part of the crew – and it is really very stress-free.”
“If we really need to make a studio, we have to compromise on private concepts”
Daniel ‘C418’ Rosenfeld
All through our chat, Rosenfeld is fast to reward the remainder of Ivy Highway. His collaborators embrace The Stanley Parable creator Davey Wreden and Gone House co-creator Karla Zimonja, who all introduced their very own experiences to Wanderstop. The sport is a few once-unbeaten warrior who, after struggling a number of shock defeats, reluctantly helps to run a comfortable tea store whereas recuperating. The themes of burnout are apparent – although Rosenfeld’s personal contributions got here from “trauma greater than something” – and Wanderstop’s broader ideation has been closely collaborative between the trio.
“David proposes the concept, provides me the script, and I will put my persona on prime of it,” says Rosenfeld. “That may generally be a compromise, however I do suppose that if we really need to make a studio, we have to compromise on private concepts. Generally I put out one thing wildly totally different from what David anticipated, and David’s like ‘Why did you try this?’, and you’ve got a heart-to-heart as to what we’re attempting to realize right here. That is collaboration. David tries to be daring, I attempt to be daring, Karla tries to be daring, then we see how that really is smart.”
Shifting on
Having performed Wanderstop, Rosenfeld’s involvement is unmistakable. There’s a mixture of the acquainted – a signature twist of melancholy, of introspectiveness – and new, with snatches of near-cinematic music that sound nearly brazen given the composer’s dreamier previous work. Sometimes, Rosenfeld felt his work was “too Hollywood,” and compelled himself to tug again and consciously lean extra into his personal type. C418 is unmistakably part of Wanderstop, and even throughout the sport’s opening hour, followers will instantly really feel the Minecraft heritage.
“It is simply who I’m,” says Rosenfeld. “I will all the time gravitate towards piano, I will all the time be a bit of bit melancholic. It is in my DNA, on the finish of the day. By the top of it, I used to be identical to… let’s simply be who I’m.”
Although there is a clear throughline from Minecraft’s rating to Wanderstop’s, Rosenfeld has modified alongside the way in which. With Minecraft’s momentum, many creatives in his place would have leapt from one high-profile venture to the subsequent. As a substitute, Rosenfeld remained intentionally low-profile, however now appears extra comfy with the highlight on him.
“Truthfully, the Minecraft years for me have been blur, and secretly, I am form of comfortable that it has been chosen for me that it is finished in order that I can deal with a standard musician profession life,” he says. “It has been bizarre. It has been arduous. It took me a very long time to determine the place I need to be with this profession. It took a variety of experimentation, a variety of failed initiatives. I am glad that I’m at a spot now that appears fairly comfy.”
After I ask if he’d ever work on Minecraft once more, Rosenfeld appears comfy with the gap he now has from the venture. “It isn’t one thing I’ve talked about publicly, as a result of […] There’s all the time a variety of ruminations happening,” he explains. “I really feel like, doubtlessly, maybe it is OK for me to maneuver on. I believe I’ve finished my story, and if I am not a part of it, that is OK. I am OK with that.”
Rosenfeld is much less comfy with different features of the business. Whereas he is retained a uniquely great amount of management over his contributions to Minecraft, he is considered one of many musicians reckoning with AI. “Proper now, what we’re seeing is Silicon Valley ass hats making as a lot cash as they will by getting funding funds and losing cash on stealing everybody’s music – actually everybody’s – which clearly simply appears to be like actually unhealthy,” says Rosenfeld. “I do not know. There is perhaps advantage to AI in music, however what we’re doing proper now, is the worst model of it. It is horrible. It is fairly miserable. I do suppose AI has deserves. I do not know what they’re but, as a result of I have not seen good examples.”
Elsewhere, Rosenfeld has rather a lot to be optimistic about. Wanderstop launched earlier within the month, cementing itself as a essential darling – our personal Wanderstop assessment scored it 4 stars – and he is eager to proceed working with Ivy Highway. On what, Rosenfeld admits, he does not know – although after 5 years of engaged on the identical tea store, he is “itching” for one thing new – however the composer is reluctant to let go of his newfound camaraderie. “We have now absolute superstars at Ivy Highway. It is a crack crew, and I hope we get to make one thing new,” he says. “Collectively.”
In case you’ve already brewed your method via Wanderstop, listed below are the new video games of 2025 you must sit up for enjoying subsequent
