Game Music Benefits From Interactivity, Budgets

Thanks to the New York Times for their article discussing the rising reputation of game music in the mainstream media (free reg. req.) Bigger budgets are discussed ("the game industry's success has made developers willing to pay for live orchestra recordings"), as well as interactive music ("...akin to writing music for a Broadway show in which audience members could determine the order of the scenes... Game-music composers don't know which path a player will choose or when, so they must be prepared for unpredictability.") Elsewhere, veteran former LucasArts composer Clint Bajakian tries to describe steps to interactive musical bridging: "You conceive of the elbow joints you're going to need", but Richard Kessler of the American Music Center is still skeptical of game soundtracks in general, saying: "On an artistic level, it's not in the film music league."

Comments

Artistic Quality

[Terminal Saint]

"On an artistic level, it's not in the film music league."? I think it's safe to say that Richard Kessler has never played Final Fantasy VI