The soundtrack and the art
Owlboy is a game people describe with the word "beautiful", and they usually mean two things: the pixel art and the music. Both are the work of a small team, and both are documented on the official site, which makes them easier to write about than the game's lore.
This page covers the soundtrack, the art, and where to get them legally.
The soundtrack
The official Owlboy site describes the soundtrack as follows:
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Composer | Jonathan Geer |
| Tracks | 67 |
| Runtime | 94 minutes |
| Instruments | Live instruments in many tracks |
| Format | Digital album and 2xLP vinyl |
Jonathan Geer is credited on the official team page as the composer and sound designer. The soundtrack is sold separately from the game, through the official store and on vinyl through iam8bit.
The score is the part of Owlboy that ages best. It is melodic, orchestral and recorded with live players on several tracks, which is unusual for an indie platformer of this size. If you only know the game from screenshots, the music is the reason to give it a listen.
The art
Owlboy's art direction is credited to Simon Stafsnes Andersen, the game's director and original creator. The official team page lists him as the person who created all the art, and the game's development history describes it as a project conceived to show what 2D could do that 3D could not.
The result is a pixel-art game with unusually fluid animation. Characters have expressive idle animations, the camera moves during cutscenes, and the backgrounds use layered parallax rather than a single tiled plane. The sky islands are the clearest example: each one has a distinct silhouette, and the cloud layers give the world depth without 3D.
That style is why the game still looks good on a modern display. Pixel art scales cleanly, and Owlboy's art was drawn at a resolution that holds up at 1080p and 4K.
The animation work
The game's animation is the detail most often mentioned in reviews. Otus's flight has a weight to it, the gunners have distinct idle poses, and the bosses move in a way that reads at a glance.
D-Pad Studio has spoken about the long development, and the animation is where the time went. The game was in development for roughly nine years, and the art was reworked repeatedly. The final build has a consistency that is hard to fake: every area uses the same palette logic, and the characters never look like they were drawn by different hands.
Where to buy the music
Two options:
- Digital soundtrack — sold through the official Owlboy store, linked from the game's site.
- Vinyl — a 2xLP release through iam8bit.
The soundtrack is not included with the Steam version. If you want both, budget for the album separately; the price page covers what the game itself costs.
The art book question
There is no official art book sold on the Owlboy site. The site offers a press kit for media use and a scenery gallery, but not a commercial art book. If you see one for sale, check whether it is a fan project before buying.
Why the presentation matters for the guide
This site's visual system is built from the game's palette: the sky blues, the cream UI, the gold accents. The design brief explains the mapping if you are curious. The short version is that a guide for a game this distinctive should not look like a generic blog, and the art is the reason.
How the score is used in the game
Owlboy's music is not ambient wallpaper. The score carries the emotional beats that the dialogue cannot, because Otus never speaks. When the game wants you to feel the scale of the sky islands, it opens the arrangement; when it wants you to feel small, it strips the music back to a single line.
The result is a soundtrack that works as an album, which is rare for game music. The 67 tracks are short enough to listen to out of context, and the live instruments give the melodies a warmth that sample libraries usually miss. If you have played the game, the opening theme will do most of the work of reminding you.
The art's limits
The pixel art is beautiful, but it is not technically ambitious in the way a modern 2D game is. There is no dynamic lighting, no physics-driven animation and no particle system doing the heavy lifting. The appeal is in the drawing: silhouettes, colour and timing.
That is also why the game runs on almost anything. The art is a fixed set of sprites, and the engine draws them. The 600 MB install is mostly art and audio, and the requirements are low because there is no rendering budget to spend.
Where to start with the music
If you want a sample before buying, the opening theme and the Vellie music are the two tracks that set the tone. The battle themes are faster and more percussive; the ending theme is the one people mention in reviews.
The album is 94 minutes, which is longer than the game's main story. That is unusual, and it is a sign of how much music was written for scenes that players may only see once.
The short version
If you only remember one thing: the soundtrack is 67 tracks and 94 minutes by Jonathan Geer, the art is by Simon Stafsnes Andersen, and both are sold or shown on the official site. The game's look and sound are the parts that have aged best, and they are the reason a 2016 platformer still gets recommended in 2026.
_Checked 2026-11-03 against the official Owlboy site (soundtrack and team pages), the Steam store page and the game's credits._