Steve Pardo - DOS (2024)

The music is instrumental and cinematic in nature, rooted in the jazz tradition, and consisting of influences spanning indie rock, electronic music, ambient, and classical musics. It is patient, evolving, melodic, and curious.

It consists of seven songs written by game composer Steve Pardo during a season of his and his family’s move from Boston to Nashville in late 2018, being a season of change and with a spirit of adventure and hope. It was ultimately finished years later, being recorded, produced, and completed in 2022 with the help of engineer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Estes. Steve Pardo performs on woodwinds, guitars, keys, synths, and FX, as well as Mike Baggetta on electric guitar and FX, Jon Estes on guitars and bass, and Brian Fitch on drums. Special guests include Liz Estes on violin, and Amy Pardo on flute.

The game was an idea Steve had when considering how best to release and present the music to a wider audience. It is a short, single-player, beat-based platformer with a bit of puzzle solving, adventure game mechanics, and subtle narrative. Every song on the album is presented as a level of the game, and a play-through of the game is just as long as the seven-song album (if played through quickly). It is simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, with just a touch of reactive challenges along the way.

It is the first game to be released by the indie game development studio The Pardo Brothers, which was co-founded by Steve and Jonathan Pardo in 2019. The game was developed entirely by Steve Pardo, who is primarily a composer and audio designer for video games, while enlisting the support of friends and family along the way for testing, QA, and technical support.