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The Blending of Music and Games
Gamasutra has an opinion piece by the 'father of music games,' Masaya Matsuura, who questions the evolution of video game music (or the lack thereof) as the industry's technological advancements give rise to the capability for greater complexity. "Most games these days seem to use gorgeous orchestral soundtracks. While these large-scale soundtracks may generally be lovely to listen to, if we really think about it, isn't it all a bit lacking in imagination? Thinking about it from a simplistic visual perspective, while films are basically just watched, games are interactive." He also discusses the predilection for games to encourage "competitive fun," as opposed to "cooperative fun." GameSetWatch has a related article which talks about how excellent musical scores can help to create an emotionally charged experience, rather than simply occupying one's mind for a time.
Having the sprawling orchestral arrangements is nice, but as a video game music fetishist since the NES days I know that the songs big and small rely on catchy motifs to motivate the gamer and stick inside their head. You think the Minibosses gathered crowds by playing orchestra?
Many classic NES games have captivating, moody music - Wizards and Warriors' soundtrack is +1 underrated. Long-running series such as Final Fantasy and Castlevania have used some of the same titles and motifs throughout their entire series.
Well, it is not often that "gorgeous orchestral soundtracks" are thought of as a problem. Imagine how difficult some of the legal battles could be if one used popular music in a game -- unless it is a band like Radiohead
Hmm... the Gamasutra article struck me as a little pretentious, but maybe that's just because I actually like big orchestral scores for games. Some of my favorites include:
Wing Commander: Yeah, it was low quality midis, but at the time, it was jaw-dropping. It felt like you were playing a Star Wars movie on your PC and the soundtrack was a huge part of that. From the intro sequence, with the theme that was more than a little reminiscent of the ST:TNG theme, through to the battle music and the Kilrathi theme (also used for fun in Ultima 7), the music in the first 2 games was awesome. Who can forget the cheesy-but-classic "scramble" music that played before every mission?
Star Control 2: Each of the many alien races in the game had its own music and this played a huge part in setting the atmosphere for every encounter. The Ur-Quan and Yehat music, in particular, have stayed in my mind to this day as examples of great videogame music.
X-Wing: The Lucasarts I-Muse system which changed the soundtrack to reflect the progress of the battle was revolutionary. The audio cues from the music would directly influence your battle tactics. You knew that a few bars of the Imperial March meant that trouble was headed your way.
Pretty much anything Final Fantasy: Ok, perhaps the soundtracks haven't been universally stellar, but pretty much every Final Fantasy game has had a few tracks worthy of real notice. FF6's Overworld theme, FF7's Cosmo Canyon theme (and, of course, One Winged Angel), FF10's "To Zanarkand" and FF11's Memoria de la Stono all stand out as some of the best pieces of video game music ever.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl: The fantastic main theme, which is used appropriately throughout the story-campaign, does a great job in adding a touch of gravitas to what could otherwise be a rather lightweight story.
I haven't read the article yet, however I agree that video game music could be more interesting. A classic example is Super Mario 64, where the music changed dynamically with one's environment.
Redbook audio is nice, but some of my all-time favorite video game music came from cartridge-based games: ... Just a thought.
Mega Man 2, Super Castlevania IV, Crystalis, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Chicks always get bored when I score high on expert at Guitar Heroes III and leave before I finish a song.
But whenever I clumsily play what looks like a love ballad dedicated to them while being drunk on my cheap guitar with rusty chords, they always stay for the end :)
The Warcraft II (Tides of Darkness) music from 1995 was the best music ever written for any video game. When the new Warcraft versions came out, I was really disappointed that the music did not have the depth and melody and uplifting of that version.
I looked at Youtube a few months ago, and there are A LOT of people who have the exact same opinion as well. I really wish someone could license that music and create a proper classical album out of it (the original was lower-quality electronically-created audio you see).
Check here for more info on how to download the music http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/05/17/warcraft-ii-music-part-2/ (from what I can gather, Blizzard released the music free of charge, legally).
I always thought Bill Brown and his work on the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series was excellent. It seems he's also worked on Quake, C&C Generals, and RTCW. http://billbrownmusic.com/
There has always been good and bad music in games. I grew up with the Commodore 64 -it has writers who heavily influenced the way I play keyboards and write music today. People like Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Chris Abbot...great stuff. Ed Bogas' Psi 5 Trading Company music which changed according to the game's events has also stuck in my mind.
However, it had utter dross too. Complete, total and redemptionless trash. Then, of course, was the stuff in-between - the average, take it or leave stuff which was neither genius nor risible. I suspect most tracks fall into this category. I suspect they still do on modern systems. I suspect they will do on systems in the future - the reason most stuff is just average these days is because that's pretty much what average means.
Orchestral scores - nothing wrong with them per se. Take a look at Super Mario Galaxy for a game where the music really does add to the experience, and that's pretty much all orchestral. Then again, I was always a fan of Rez (original, not had the chances to play Rez HD) and that took a very different approach to music - the blurb made clear that the Trance-style music was an integral part of the game's experience, and that if you played as if it were a straight shooter-on-rails then you were missing the point.
At some point, Wii Music or whatever it's going to be callde will come out. That's the preview they showed on first unveiling the Wii, where Miyamoto conducted a virtual orchestra using the Wiimote. Surely that is an innovative use of music in a game?
I've rambled a bit but the overall point I was making is this: all systems of all eras had stand-out music (yes, even the one-beep Spectrum. Manic Miner anyone?). All systems also had junk. And all systems primarily had tracks that were, well, rather average. The rule holds true today and I fully expect it to hold true tomorrow.
Cheers,
Ian
Braid: Simple, pleasant music-box style music, which would change in tempo and direction as you move back and forth in time. Really awesome.
Super Mario RPG: Huge variety, I liked how some characters tend to have their own theme. Some music related puzzles, and they do a good job of pronouncing perfect silence during some of the more intensive puzzles (omitting music is sometimes the best way to use it).
Music Catch: A great game with a nice melody, the gameplay forces you to actively listen to the music, in anticipation. Really a great example of how games could better use music. Really check it out.
Wario Ware: This pretty much goes for any version of Wario Ware, especially where music-related puzzles are concerned.
What's the value of information that you don't know?
http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=gta4
it's an old game from around 2000. the score was excellent, music mood and game setting were complementary. but most memorably, whenever you encountered an enemy or engaged in combat, the score would effortlessly change theme to something more edgy and dramatic, and then effortlessly change theme back again when aggressions subsided. it was as if you were scoring the music for an action movie in real time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape:_Torment
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Perhaps i'm just showing my age, but i think the older and simpler music had a much bigger impact than the music from newer games, even leaving aside the cases where they're not using licensed music.
The music needs to fit the scene for which it is being played, and outside of games specifically designed as "music games" i think that's all the interaction that's necessary. The music needs to be relatively simple and somewhat repetitive. Once you've gone beyond a certain level of complexity either you're not noticing the added complexity anymore, or you're paying more attention to the music than you are to the game.
Of course a certain level of complexity is good. I don't really look back on the "music" from the Atari 2600 with great fondness. However as the ability to play more complex music in games has increased there was a point where my interest peaked and then began a general decline. I think the peak for me was around the days of Final Fantasy 6. After that the music of games in general made less and less of an impression on me. I very much enjoyed Final Fantasy 10, and the music for it was well done and pleasant to listen to, but very rarely do i get a desire to go back and listen to it again, and in fact unlike a lot of previous games i have difficulty "replaying" most of the music in my head. On the other hand more recent music from the Advance Wars music has stuck with me much more because it was constrained by the format to be simpler and more repetitive.
Of course one could argue that being complex and varied enough that the songs don't etch themselves into your brain is a good thing, but from my perspective i'm going to get more enjoyment out of the music if i remember it fondly later, especially if it's paired with memories of a particularly fun game.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
My best in-game music experience that had a significant emotional impact was from Resident Evil 2, which changed the intensity of the music based on what was happening. Things pop out and the music gets really intense... just like a good suspense flick. That is, to me, one of the best examples of how game music can be interactive.
Consider WoW on the other hand... the only thing that happens to the music is a track change when you enter different zones. After 100 hours, you want to tear your ears off.
That had a decent sound-track that could exploit devices like the Roland LAPC-1. X-Wing could use the LAPC-1 for the music and a Soundblaster for the sound effects, which was even more impressive. But, yes, those did use sound in a very basic way.
Frontier: First Encounters was a bit more sophisticated - the music was selected by type of scenario (so if you suddenly got into a fight, the music would change accordingly, likewise with docking at a space-station, and so on). In fact, First Encounters (although buggy) was one of the best games I've ever encountered (pardon the pun) when it comes to the use of incidental music, because it was genuinely incidental music in the way a TV program was, not chamber music/muzak. (Even Elite, the game that spawned Frontier and First Encounters, had a limited concept of incidental music, playing The Blue Danube when you had an active docking computer provided you were not attacking or being attacked at the time.)
I think that it is to games like First Encounters that game writers should look - genuine incidental music that fits the scene, rather than a one-type-fits-all. This would meet the objection as described. Music that, although not interactive, fitted the interaction. (Though god only knows what you'd use as music for MMORG cybering.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The Advantage => http://theadvantageband.com/
Blending music and games depends on the eye and ear of the beholder. Developers will choose what they think blends best for their game. Gamers will, obviously, enjoy games they believe have been blended well.
Some Non-Orchestra game music I really like are from the classics such as Mega Man, Castlevania, and *gasp* that one song in Bubble Bobble that repeats continuously.
Some Orchestra game music I really like are from Final Fantasy 6 & 7.
And possibly my favorite at the moment is old 50's music, such as "How much is that doggy in the window" in Bioshock; it just makes the atmosphere 3 times as creepy, and i love it.
Bah. The Ultima series had excellent music (And Ultima 9, while the game could have been better, the music was incredible) and StarCraft was among my favorite music of any games.
This article is about music games, not music IN games, however. Meaning - the game is about the music (eg. Guitar Hero.)
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
The sound the shotgun and the monsters make is more important. What is it that makes me find Doom I, Doom II, and many simple Flash Games, better than many modern games? Not the music in any case.
I think there is room for some exploration into games where the music more directly reflects how you are playing and what your situation is. There has already been some clever arcade games where music is developed as you play and they use that as a main aspect of the game, though i'm too lazy to make an account here, let alone figure out what the names of those games are.
I have this idea where a game would change into specific chord progressions and tempos, with an underlying motif depending on how you play (like if it were an rpg like game where you had choice between different character paths)
If someone were dying, it would have a somber type tone and slow tempo, but if you in the middle of action, it would speed up and get intense like, and if you were on the verge of dying, it would speed up even more so and develope a twisted, distonal melody.
In a way, the music could vary in so many ways for player, providing a unique experience. ....now, It all sounds neat to me, but don't ask me how to make it all actually work out good, that's for the pro's to do.
The first xwing game had music fiotting to the situation.
That was 15 years ago.
Not much has changed since then.
The first thing I thought of was:
Frank Klepacki
Westwood Studios
My everday playlist still includes the Dune 2 soundtrack
I've gone from watching games evolve from now recognised as awful but revolutionary at the time synthesized junk on tiny laughable speakers to incredibly epic wonderful scene setting thematic music that adds to the atmosphere of the game. I like to imagine what Captain Goodnight and the Islands of Fear or Karateka would sound like if the score was created with today's equipment.
I remember marvelling at my first sound blaster (plus 1 speed CD-ROM which I got criticized for buying by a friend because it was extravagant). I remember trying it out against an AWE32 years later and thinking "How could I have liked that". I remember trying my SBLive with surround sound speakers for the first time and loving it because it left the AWE32 in the dust. I remember my first taste of my latest sound card and Logitech X-530 speakers for $68 and thinking "sure I could do better than this, but why would I spend thousands for such a small game when this is so awesome". If one thing has gotten better in computing, it's music. Whining about it is about the silliest thing I can think of.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
For me, the Castlevania games (especially Symphony of the Night) are excellent at combining background art, character design and background music.
Example: SOTN library stage. Here's a fan playing "Dance of Pales" on his synth.
What can I say? With Castlevania, the music becomes part of the game and contributes to the suspension of disbelief.
Is the problem that the music sounds like a film score? I don't see the point of complaining about this, if you prefer beeps and boops instead of violins and pianos, that's legitimate, but it seems to have little to do with the fact that it's a game... those beeps and boops weren't about it being a game, they were about the limitations in the hardware. Different games have different music, just as different films have different music.
Is the problem that the music doesn't react to the actions in the game? But it does! Characters have themes, and the background music tends to reflect the most important character, it changes as you progress in the game, it changes as you enter different modes and areas.
Is the problem that the music isn't controlled somehow by the player? OK, I can see things that could be done. you select a theme for your character, and have the game generate some kind of algorithmic background music depending on the characters themes. You could have the player use musical cues to make actions happen (I had hoped that Ocarina of Time would do this, rather than have the music simply be a gimmick that you didn't actually have to learn). But you can do all these things without losing the lush orchestral scores.
So what exactly is the complaint?
Who needs Rock Band when can have Orchestra Hero. And if you thought the price of collecting all the band instruments before was high, it's going to take on a whole new level of expense with this one.
I'm excited, how about you?
I saw this game at PAX this year. It makes a game out of an audio visualization of any song in your collection.
It's a Steam game and it works (mostly) in Wine, too.
Forget music for games, get a game for your music!
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
See OCReMix.org for what can be done with old game tunes. The results are effing fabulous. Some of the contributors are having their works put into the new street fighter game. Great stuff.
When I read this interview last month, I put it down and said to myself, "Wow, I think I just experienced a cultural/translation divide with the Japanese. That was really incoherent."
The whole critique of "competitive fun as opposed to cooperative fun", etc., seemed really unproductive. There's a bunch of new made-up words in the article -- that's always a red flag for me.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
As a working video game composer, I can say that this recent talk of "unimaginative" soundtracks often times has to do with the developers asking for very specific things of composers.
Here's how the process doesn't work: developer hires composer, composer says "here are some ideas I have in mind for your game." Developer says "great, let's hear it!" That's just not reality. Developers already have an idea of what they want, and if they want more of the same canned Hollywood action cue sound, that's what they'll get, because they're handing over the dough.
The solution to this problem? Developers need to become a little more intrepid and be willing to take risks on soundtracks, and trust the composer's intuition. If they keep playing it safe as they have been, then of course, these criticisms of soundtracks will continue.
Rez
All of us have cherished memories of games that have as much to do with the music as they have with the mechanics.
This isn't different now and it'll always be the same, some games have music absolutely intended for incidental ambience. Others have true "song" structure and often have legions of fans reminiscing, hearing them.
All of us feel emotionally hooked to this enough to be rabidly typing away our favourites in comments right now.
There were a lot of great games for music (faxanadu etc) in the NES era but Donkey Kong Country (1-2) really did it for me..
I record my sleeptalking
In movies music changes and reacts to whats actually happening. Often games do similar things, changing with scripted events, instead of mindlessly looping the same 5 minute MP3.... However, one thing that I think games can really progress is the music changing to reflect how your playing. For instance, I'm currently play through de Blob on the Wii, and it's got really cool feature where as you earn points, random samples play, adding to the background music. Subsequent points scoring is like a band member performing a solo. At the start of each level you choose the 'music mood' e.g. funky, laid back etc. I think it works exceptionally well, adding that extra layer of interactivity within the game, but not being the focus of the game like say guitar heroes etc.
In case you forgot...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a57MAZhUp0
Ha ha ha.
For more on this and Game Music's role and development you could have a look at this essay...
http://www.cianfurlongmusic.net/_mgxroot/page_literature.html
There's 2 Audio playlists there too.
If you have a spare 20 minutes or so.
Thanks :)
The recent success of music games in the West has been based mostly on licensed music.
I disagree. That may be true for Guitar Hero and similar games, but I think the majority of games feature original music. Exceptions include games adapted from movies, which mostly feature the OST of the movie and karaoke type games.
On the Amiga (dodges a toaster) there was a game called Mind Walker in which the soundtrack was never exactly the same and had everything to do with the game's intensity. They got away with it using tempo, pitch and timbre variations of the sample loops being used in the sequence.
I think it was an awesome achievement.
I discovered Overclock Remix, the site for people doing modern interpretations of older tunes. It's my number one source for work music.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
He's talking so much about how music is about creative expression and games should be less about competition and more about cooperation, I wonder what he thinks about Wii Music? That game removes all competition, removes even the idea of winning or losing, it's practically a computer assisted instrument where the computer takes care of all the mechanical things like playing the right notes and finding harmonies and the player adds his personal touch, changing the style of the music and such without worrying about which keys to hit on the instrument or which notes would cause a dissonance. There's no obstacles to overcome, no computer to judge you by rigid standards.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
...Rocks :-)
The sound track is just awesome... if you like Metal, and you should if you like blowing sh!t up :-D
The World Ends With You
Of course, the music needs to match the game. Otherwise, it may as well just be white noise.
There's an indie band in the UK called Tin Man (tinmankind.co.uk) who have started writing games instead of music promos for their songs, because they're geeks and that's the cheapest option. Could this be the future?
Zork 2
...a game prototyped and given some limited press in the UK in the 1980s, but to return in full to a device near you in 2009 - hopefully. A true blend of music and gaming.
I have to point out the Splinter cell score from Pandoras Tomorow, made by Amon Tobin, who was/is one of the best game scores ever made, in my opinion, it was moody and tense, but also as a standalone peace of art, undisputed
at the other hand, in fact i think that for most people 8bit sound from Atari and Nes was the cause for the rise of the electronic music in the 90's so i think that computer game music had a major impact on the world of music as wen know it
But will it blend? Sure it does!
Lucas Arts had a great system for making up music on the fly. As the situation changed in X-wing and TIE Fighter, the music would as well. It worked well enough, and it's been over ten years. What happened? Why couldn't this be implemented more often?
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The music for Doom 2 was and is my favorite gaming music. It fits the tortured sound effects of the monsters and weapons and hero's panting/screaming perfectly.
I think the key with this article is the interactivity rather than static music. One of the things that has always amazed me about various Nintendo Wii games is that the music is in fact interactive. Take any of the games in Wii Play. When I play laser hockey and the game gets to a more critical part, the music changes. When I score, the music changes. As I play pool, the nice shuffle changes when I hit the ball. It's basic, but it's fantastic and really makes the experience.
I think you're maybe missing the point of the Gamasutra article.
Video games are a unique medium since they can operate on a spectrum, running between cinema (think mgs4) and toys/tools (think sims or rpg maker or the mtv music tracker). Operating inside of this space, I think what Matsuura is getting at, video games can live as interactive art, and what better way to do that than with music?
Parappa at the time was revolutionary because it was one of the first music games allowing you to not only play in time with music, but to add your own elements of creation with the freestyle mode. Which was pretty sweet, but most music games since then have been just derivatives - press the button at the right time and score points.
This is what makes guitar hero rather boring.
Playing a piece of music is exciting not only because of the skill involved, but what kind of feeling the musician puts into playing the piece. It's a very personal thing. Not to mention how fun jamming with friends is. I think Matsuura wants video games to connect with music on a more deeper level. The latest marching band game lets you direct a band, which is another aspect of music, the concept of tempo. This is something that a lot of people are familiar with, but it will be exciting to have a game where it is immediately accessible to anyone that can hold a wiimote.
I'd love to hear what Matsuura thinks of Elektroplankton. I know there's a big divide in people who play it, since most people don't consider it a game. But if you sit down with it with a pair of headphones and actually think for a moment about what is happening, there's a lot of fun there. At least, I think, for people who like making noises.
I think there's a lot of fun to be had in games that bring music to people in unexpected ways. Games that allow people who don't consider themselves musical or have the time to invest into instruments to be able to enjoy an experience closer to what some musicians enjoy. And in that respect, a game like guitar hero is very primitive since it just records hits and misses and gives you a score - the reward for memorizing a song.
Hey, not to say that orchestral soundtracks and catchy hooks don't have their place. They're fitting and moving in the more traditional game experience. I think just that there's a lot of untapped potential in games that you don't see since everyone is so focused on rehashing tired but marketable concepts.
Hey, it's my OPINION that dogs have eight legs and make a sound like a car horn every time they take a piss.