That game was my childhood! Oh how listening to the music brings back memories… 
This was tricky for me too. But it isn’t so much a question of instruments, it’s a question of what you want to convey. Instruments are just colours on a paintbrush.
Picture what you want people to feel. Spring to me is a time of rebuilding and thawing, kind of like the beginning of the day. Bright and plucky. Summer is warm and relaxed and active. Autumn is reflective. Winter is… well answer that for yourself 
Once you know the feel you want, then find the instruments it takes to get there. It’s all in the approach. The same note on a violin could be played to sound so sorrowful, or violent, or romantic, or kind… The note or the instrument don’t matter, almost. It’s what you want winter to feel like.
So what do you think of winter? Cozy fireplaces? Sharp winds? Perseverance? Christmas? What do you want to convey??
Secondly: I see you mentioned making the music sound cute and cuddly like the game which it absolutely is. My approach is to not write music for us, watching these little guys. Instead, write the music for THEM, as strange as it sounds. They aren’t cute to each other! Their adventures and events might seem cute to us but to those little blocky people, their adventures are epic adventures and their events are filled with romance and excitement! You know what I mean? Write the music from the perspective of the characters in the game and that way, we start to see them as people too. It’s all about emersion! It draws us in and makes us feel for them. Or atleast that’s what I hope will happen 
I hope you don’t mind my epic speeches I reply to you with! I love your attitude and i think you have lots of potential! You’re like a fire just starting up and I want to toss as much wood and fuel…on you…
…ok what am I talking about now? 
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Not at all! The more thoroughly my questions are answered, the better… 
I guess I’m not really sure what I want to portray through winter, it’s a question I guess I’m going to need to have a good think about.
As for your second point, I get what you mean. Frankly I’m not particularly sure how I would even go about writing cutesy music anyway, so it is in all senses the best way to go with it.
This made me think about the Stonehearth people in a whole different way. You’re a real philosopher, Raj!
Sadly, this also might increase the guilt level whenever a settlement of mine falls. 
What music might you write for a defeated town?
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Guilty music. Music that says ‘I trusted you and you let me down’ 
Just kidding 
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I really like the samples. 
Lots of good ideas from this thread 
For winter I’d rather have [quote=“SteveAdamo, post:60, topic:5842”]
a “charming” winter song… sleigh bells and shakers will certainly give it the wintery feel, without having to be oppressive or somber
[/quote]
Even if winter uses to be the less resources season, I’d prefer a Christmas approach, like this one, rather than a somber one (this one gets on my nerves). Though maybe later it would be difficult to distinguish when there’s a winter festival… perhaps another stinger when the day begins to announce that day is going to be a festival?
Mm… the festival music should be enough.
Of course, when there’s a storm there could be windy sounds, thunders,etc. And subtle seasonal sound effects depending on the zoom level.
I also like the style of Animal Crossing music, so many cute sounds 
and I love the tracks from the dev blog, especially the Summer Day Theme.
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Quick question: how will the 3 races be handled, musically?
I’m imagining a start menu where you could scroll through 3 pages for the Ascendancy, the Northmen’s Aliiance, and Raya’s Children, with each page having different music…
Any ideas?
I personally got to disagree with you a little there. To me I love the kind of somber (even slightly dangerous tone) of winter music reflects the danger winter can bring (hunger, blizzards, lack of many resources). With a game based heavily on those I think it’d fit more, though there is a little room to add some cheer into it.
Christmas music is usually a turn off for me until like the week of Christmas. (I hate snow the rest of winter lol)
However this did bring up an interesting idea. Citizen/village “happiness” will have a small effect on game-play from what I remember. What if you had more cheery music play during the winter if your town is going nice and well. But lets say lack of resources/natural disasters/attacks begin to happen and your town begins to suffer from it then the music can reflect the struggle of staying alive.
What you think about that? Best of both worlds
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Great idea, Avairian! It’s perfect.
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I really like how (if we follow all the ideas) the music is going to variate depending on:
- City size
- Civilization
- Time of year
- How happy people are
- War and how it is going
- Biome
- Seasons
- …
The list just keep expanding. @Raj and @Doug are going to work for years if they are going to make so much music 
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Not a bad idea Swift!
Great idea Avairian. We have definitely been discussing the idea of mood music and it’s good to hear it being reinforced here.
Haha, I have a feeling you’re right. This is the fine line that we are going to have to walk. We want to do everything, but will have to figure out what is realistic based on time and funding. Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out a way to do all of it!
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@Raj Awesome work! Super professional sound, keep it up! Us Canadians gotta stick together… EH?!
…See what I did there?
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look what i found just now:
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