Steam Next Fest is arguably the best way to discover the hottest upcoming indie games, and Wax Heads should be at the top of your list if you’re a music fan. And who isn’t? Enjoying music is akin to staying hydrated or eating your vegetables, and communities focused on music — especially live music and/or record collecting — can be some of the friendliest, most welcoming spaces in social life.
Outside of playing video games, attending gigs and concerts is my biggest pastime. I also have a steadily growing record collection, and while I haven’t worked in a record store before, I do frequent my local ones. Wax Heads absolutely nails the vibe and culture around both live music and record stores.
The premise is simple: you’re the new kid working behind the counter at Repeater Records. There are a handful of colleagues to meet, including shop owner Morgan, the ex-front woman of “Becoming Violet,” a hugely popular band in the noughties. However, she fell out with her sister, Willow, and the two have had an ongoing feud for years… until she shows up again to stir the pot.
This plot is the framework behind Wax Heads’ puzzle-meets-visual novel gameplay, where each day, you must serve a vast array of customers, each looking for a specific record, and interact with various visitors and colleagues via dialogue choices. The problem is, no customer knows exactly what they want. They’ll describe the record to you, or tell you what sort of sound they want to hear, but the actual name of an artist or album? Hah, fat chance.
Throughout the game’s “seven to eight hour” runtime, according to the devs in an email interview with Polygon, you must navigate the winding aisles of Repeater Records to find a suitable vinyl for whichever eccentric character has shown up. There will be clues both in what they say and in the records themselves to find the best choice. The game stresses one thing at the very start, though: the customer is not always right. So if you think you know better than them and want to sell them a different record, go ahead! You’re the musical expert, after all… or at least, you’re supposed to be.
Patattie Games is the two-person team behind Wax Heads, and Murray Somerwolff, creative director, explained that the game was born from his “love for music and obsessive interest in trying to express that love through games.” On the other hand, Rocío “Rothio” Tomé, creative technical director, never had much time for music because she had a hearing condition as a child that meant she “couldn’t hear properly” until she had surgery, which then made loud music too sensitive. However, she comes with the experience of public-facing jobs, which helped with the “absurd situations and eccentric customers that came out of Murray’s head.”
Since music is such a pivotal part of the game, it has a terrific original soundtrack, composed by Gina Loughlin (The Pirate Queen, Towertale, Mail Time). It spans multiple genres with plenty of diversity, and there are some guest tracks to boot, including one from video game writer Xalavier Nelson Jr. Not to mention a few Spanish guest tracks, and even songs from Murray’s old band, who also have a video Easter egg to find in the demo.
Wax Heads is meant to “celebrate the way music makes us feel,” according to Murray, and musical inspirations include, but are not limited to, Mannequin Pussy, Fred Again, Bjork, Fugazi (Repeater Records is named after their debut album), and The Replacements. It’s an eccentric mix, not to mention other media that inspired the devs, such as the Scott Pilgrim comics, the Girl In A Band book, and American Movie.
All of this is channeled into the game’s characters, from Winston, the old man whose husband passed away and is looking for a record they used to listen to together (and is one of Rothio’s favorites), to Ali, the alt-styled 20-something who needs you to find the perfect record so she can catch the attention of the “really cute girl” behind her. And while you won’t meet most of the artists featured in the game, they almost feel like characters themselves, from Mimi with her Taylor Swift-esque avid superfans to Brick Dog, a punky group embroiled in member drama.
It culminates in this lovely, endearing virtual environment, where even the rude or abrasive customers are still a joy to interact with. Losing yourself in the various rooms and aisles of Repeater Records is delightful, and I can’t wait to clock back in for my next shift when Wax Heads is released on Tuesday, May 5.
