This article was originally published on May 15, 2025 - read the full issue

By Marie Dealessandri

Beethoven & Dinosaur's Mixtape has been a hot topic this week, with talking points encompassing how it plays, its publisher Annapurna Interactive, and its specific approach to nostalgia. (Kahlief Adams gives a good overview of the discourse in his Spawn On Me podcast, summing it up: "The internet's ability to find conspiracy where there literally is none is astounding. [...] We used to measure things at the speed of sound; now we measure things at the speed of stupid.") 

Talking to creative director Johnny Galvatron on launch day, we get the feeling he isn't fazed by any of the noise. Galvatron has an infectious exuberance, a cheery, unbothered attitude that may stem from his background in music as lead singer and guitarist of Australian band The Galvatrons. When we ask what success looks like for him, he simply says: "I want to go to the YouTube channel of 'That's Good' by Devo, and I want the top comment to say: 'Mixtape sent me here'." Mission accomplished.

The game follows teenager Stacy Rockford and her friends on her last day in the small town they grew up in. It's a coming-of-age story firmly rooted in US culture, inspired by the films of John Hughes and set to a lovingly curated soundtrack including Iggy Pop, Joy Division, The Cure and The Smashing Pumpkins. 

Set during the 1990s and foregrounding music so prominently, nostalgia is a core component of the game's narrative. Centring on a specific point in time presents a challenge: how do you evoke feelings of nostalgia that are relatable even to players who might not have experienced the era? 

"There is a nostalgia that is universal," Galvatron argues. "Which is: remember when you were a lost teen? Do you remember when you defined yourself by what you liked and you found your friends and community through the art you dug? That's good nostalgia. Going, 'Remember Tamagotchi?' That's bad nostalgia. There are maybe two or three jokes in the whole game that relate to being a different time. It's very minimal. 

"It's about what the music invokes and those feelings of teenage freedom and betrayal – those things are universal. That's the nostalgia you aim for: the nostalgia of the heart, not of the era." 

Music is very much the true protagonist of Mixtape and where it shines. The whole project was built around the soundtrack. Music was the starting point for the gameplay and story, not the other way around. 

"The Artful Escape [Beethoven & Dinosaur's previous release] was very much about being a creator and a musician, and the satellite aspects that revolve around your core medium. Mixtape is more about being a music fan, how music affects you on a day-to-day basis, and how these songs can become a huge part of your life. 

"The first thing we did was come at it from a listener's approach. I made a playlist with all my favourite songs throughout different eras, ending at around 1996. We started laying them out, of course, like a mixtape. It's an art of arrangement. Meaning changes depending on how you arrange it. You can have all these different [artists] from different eras and you can find this emotional throughline that connects them all together. We would rearrange it and it would tell us one thing, and then do a different arrangement and it would have a different narrative… 

"Pacing was such a big part of The Artful Escape – because you run across left or right for five hours, so you have to pace it correctly. We learned everything about pacing from The Artful Escape, and then took it into how we did Mixtape. We made what we called a 'horizontal slice', which is a real shitty version of the entire game instead of a good version of a very small part of the game. We pitched that to Annapurna, and they were into it."

Building from there, every song needed something different: the game isn't just a mixtape of music, Galvatron says, but also a mixtape of mechanics and story moments.  

"Having an unhealthy love for the songs is what drives you," he says about the challenges of the approach. "Devo gives you 'That's Good', or Roxy Music gives you 'More Than This'; what a privilege to get handed this Fabergé egg. Then [you have to] add on top of the Fabergé… The pressure is there."

The music being the centerpiece of the project made it easier to actually secure song licences, Galvatron says. He doesn't share specific figures, but says the tracks were made available to the studio "very fairly." 

"That's the only reason we got away with having 28 licensed songs on the game: all the bands and artists wanted to be part of it. That's the only way. We are privileged to get these religious objects handed down to us." 

When a story relies so heavily on its soundtrack, though, how do you address the challenge of keeping an audience engaged that might not already have a relationship with the music? 

"We have this theory that the game will tell you what it means," he says. "If you have a team that can all hear the same thing coming from the game, you will know where things like pacing or mechanics are wrong. What you want is to convey the emotional state of the character into the medium, into the mechanics. 

"There are so many fabulous games about overcoming hardship, but for us, it's: how do you show betrayal? How do you show teenage freedom? How do you convey the mental state of the protagonist into the medium of videogames? That's what's fun for us." 

We loop back to Galvatron's vision for the studio, his definition of success. The Artful Escape was Beethoven & Dinosaur's first game; Galvatron says that maintaining institutional knowledge from project to project is crucial to how he envisions the studio. It grew to 12 people for Mixtape, and he sees it remaining at around that level. 

"Every time I talk to people who are industry veterans, everyone always says 15 is the best amount of people. I've heard that from far and wide, and I think that's where I would like to stay – getting to, every three or four years, make a medium-sized game that can push the envelope in some way, and be interesting. Our goal would be for people to be: 'This feels like a Beethoven & Dinosaur game,' and just have a catalogue that, even though it is varied, has a voice… just like a mixtape. 

"All I want is to be able to make another one and keep the band together. That's my goal. No one here cares about money. We just make games and make art. If we can have people give us enough money to do one more, I'll say that each time."

This article was originally published on May 15, 2025 - read the full issue