The Playlist the Characters Would Actually Listen To

Dating sims are genuinely one of my favorite things to score and also one of the trickiest. The music has to carry a lot of emotion without ever pulling the player out of the moment. Too dramatic and it feels like a movie. Too sparse and the scene just floats there with no feeling.

Most of my tracks for these projects pull from my R&B background. Soft chords, intimate arrangements, maybe a vocal chop sitting low in the mix just to add warmth without demanding attention. I lean on Future Bass textures a lot too, those wide lush pads that feel emotional without being cinematic. The goal is music that sounds like a late-night playlist, something the character would actually have on, not a score playing over them.

Looping is where it gets annoying. Dating sim tracks can play for a very long time while someone reads through dialogue and a loop that draws attention to itself will break the whole vibe. I spend more time on loop points than most people probably think is reasonable. It matters though.

The R&B and Indie Pop influences actually work really well in this genre. Intimate, modern, emotional without being overdramatic. Turns out years of making beats for fun were research.