There are a lot of similarities between film music and video game soundtracks. In both genres music plays a similar role: ● creates a mood or emotion ● creates a sense of time or place ● represents a character ● pre-empts what’s about to happen
The unique problem faced by video game music composers
There are also a couple of subtle but important differences. In a video game soundtrack, music can directly affect how a player emotionally reacts in a gaming scenario. Think of that time you played a game in which the music grew in intensity: your heart started to beat faster, your palms became sweaty and suddenly your game character died because you couldn’t stay calm enough to succeed. I know more than one person that has turned off the sound on a game in order to help them achieve a difficult level!
This is connected to the most important difference between film scoring and video game scoring: the way in which a player reacts in a game has a direct effect on the soundtrack itself. The player’s actions determine how long a scene will last, how abruptly a level ends and when the battle will begin. Chance Thomas - composer of a number of video game soundtracks including DOTA 2 - describes the player as the “director and producer” of the soundtrack.
It was this last aspect that I found most interesting. Film composers compose their soundtrack to the “locked picture” - the final, edited version of the film. They know exactly how long each musical cue needs to be, when the hit points occur and when the action will take place. But in a video game the length of each scene (or level) can vary greatly. One player may move through a section quickly and another may take a long time and changes in gameplay within a level are triggered by the actions of the player. So how does the video game music composer logistically work with this in mind?
Connectable musical “blocks”
Chance Thomas, author of Composing Music for Games described the approach that many game composers take: they compose a series small “blocks” of music which can vary in length and be connected in any order.
Each musical block has a different function: ● Intro - sets the mood for the gameplay that’s about to occur. Also sets the musical palette for the game soundtrack ● Loop - “the workhorse of the gaming industry”. A short, repeatable section of music which can be played over and over until the gameplay changes or the character dies (!) ● Transition - connecting music (ie. music that accompanies a cut scene that aims to maintain the player’s interest) ● Stinger - music that represents an important event in the game ● Tag - a short ending which signals the conclusion of a level or section
This made a lot of sense to it's easy for students to take this approach when composing their own video game soundtracks. Let's use the musical loop “connectable block” concept and settled on two projects to start with: ● Compose a Super Mario-style theme using the free online tool Beepbox - covered in the next lesson.
Try the quiz below to see how well you understood how Composers write Video Game Music