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A game soundtrack has an unusual job. It plays for hours while the player is busy with something else: solving a puzzle, building a house, finding the way. It has to set a mood without asking for attention.
That is close to what many of us want from music at work. Most game soundtracks have no lyrics, few sudden changes, and long tracks that loop smoothly. The ones below are a starting point, grouped roughly from the calmest to the most energetic.
Calm Soundtracks for Reading and Writing
These soundtracks are quiet and slow. They work well for tasks with a lot of words, such as reading, writing, and editing.
Minecraft — C418 (2011). Daniel Rosenfeld's piano and ambient pieces from Volume Alpha are among the best-known game soundtracks. Short, gentle tracks with long silences between them.
Stardew Valley — ConcernedApe (2016). Eric Barone made the game and wrote its music himself. The soundtrack follows the seasons of a farming year and stays warm and unhurried.
The Sims — Jerry Martin (2000). The build mode music is light jazz written to accompany planning and arranging. It suits tasks that also involve planning and arranging.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Nintendo (2020). The game has a different track for every hour of the day. A playlist of the hourly music can follow your working day from morning to evening.
Calm music sits furthest in the background. If you notice you are listening instead of working, it has done its job and you can lower the volume.
Focused Soundtracks for Deep Work
These soundtracks have more movement but still no lyrics. They suit long tasks that need sustained attention, such as design, coding, or analysis.
Journey — Austin Wintory (2012). An orchestral score built around a solo cello. It was nominated for a Grammy, one of the first video game scores to be.
Fez — Disasterpeace (2012). Rich Vreeland's electronic soundtrack is calm and slightly mysterious, with soft synthesizers and long, even pieces.
Outer Wilds — Andrew Prahlow (2019). Acoustic guitar, banjo, and quiet orchestral themes. It works well for long sessions because it changes slowly.
These soundtracks have a clear shape, which helps when you want a work session to feel like one continuous piece. An album often lasts about as long as a deep work block. Coming back to the same album helps too: a familiar album pulls less attention than a new one.
Energetic Soundtracks for Routine Tasks
Faster music works for tasks that are repetitive rather than difficult: sorting email, cleaning up files, filling in spreadsheets.
Celeste — Lena Raine (2018). Electronic and piano music with a steady pulse. It keeps a quick pace without becoming distracting.
Hollow Knight — Christopher Larkin (2017). Strings and piano with a darker mood. Some tracks are calm, others build up, so it suits work that moves in stages.
Tetris Effect — Hydelic (2018). Electronic music with a steady rhythm, written for a game about doing one small thing quickly and many times in a row.
Energetic soundtracks are better for tasks you already know how to do. For new or difficult work, a calmer album from the first group is usually a better match.
