Into the Box Dimension

From Club Penguin Music

Into the Box Dimension is an original piece composed by Chris Hendricks as the theme for the Box Dimension. According to him, it was his hardest song to make for Club Penguin, as it was completely restarted 6 times before the final product[1].

Uses[edit]

Usage Date Info
Club Penguin
Box Dimension
April 1st, 2009[2] The song was the theme for the Box Dimension room since it's debut in the April Fools Party 2009, until the game's shutdown.
Club Penguin: Game Day! September 17th, 2010[3] The song was used for the console game, playing during the challenge of the Ski Village when playing with the yellow team.[4]
Club Penguin Island
"??? ??????????" zone
April 1st, 2018[5] The song was also used in the box dimension zone of Club Penguin Island, which was opened on April Fools Day 2018, staying until the game's closure.


Composing Process[edit]

Having little feedback from the team on what the Box Dimension should be, Chris had to try out and explore different ideas more than with any song he had previously made, resulting in six versions that he later disclosed on his Club Penguin Music YouTube series.

Version 1[edit]

Chris' initial idea was to represent the uniqueness of the Box Dimension, and for that, he followed the strategy of mixing two instruments that don't normally belong together in order to create a special sound; he used a tabla (Indian percussive instrument) paired with a dobro (American guitar).

In the end, Chris did not know where exactly to take the song, and the staff agreed to try a new one.

Version 2[edit]

Following his past attempt, Chris once again tried to mix different instruments from across the world in order to make an unique sound, but it was also scrapped due to him feeling as if it did not fit the proper tone for the place. He described it as being more like "when you meet a bizarre shopkeeper or eccentric inventor in a videogame".

Version 3[edit]

For the third attempt, Chris seeked out inspiration in the room art, finding the Penrose Stairs optical illusion; it represented an endless loop of stairs that would always go up or down, based upon the staircase present in the design for the room. With that in mind he started the song with an acoustic bassline, trying to make it sound like it goes down forever.

Despite the fact that he liked it more than his previous attempts, it was not used.

Version 4[edit]

The fourth iteration has been completely lost, with no audio nor any description of what it might have sounded like. He claims that he was so disappointed with how it was going that he opted not to render it.

Version 5[edit]

He decided that taking inspiration from the stairs would not work, so he based the fifth version on the ethereal purple sky and its atmosphere. The party team however decided that the music was a little too sleepy for what they wanted, and the song ended up scrapped.

Ironically, it would later be repurposed for the April Fools Party 2011, as the theme for the Stair Dimension.

Final Version[edit]

At the end of his rope, Chris went back for inspiration in video games with floating boxes and remembered about the flying crates from Mystic Cave Zone, the sixth stage of Sonic the Hedgehog 2; using its theme as an inspiration, he came up with the the final version of Into the Box Dimension.

The original song was in A minor, but in order to make it sound happier, he wrote it in a C major scale, more precisely in C overtone.

Trivia[edit]

  • The song features an agogô, as other songs from Chris.
  • According to Chris, the 2nd unused version reminds him more of "when you meet a bizarre shopkeeper or eccentric inventor in a video game".
  • Similarly to the 3rd unused version's attempt at approaching the Penrose Stairs optical illusion, the Shepard Tone is an audio illusion created by a song that is forever going down (or up). An example of a song that uses this is the "Endless Stairs" theme from Super Mario 64.
  • A SiIvaGunner rip from Mystic Cave Zone was created based in this song, to which Screenhog has reacted[6].

References[edit]