Some sounds to avoid in your game…
How many times have you been driving down the road while listening to the radio and then heard a police siren suddenly come out of nowhere or a car start honking its horn at you? But then you realize it wasn’t coming from a real police car or angry fellow motorist, but rather from your own car speakers. Isn’t that aggravating? And it’s equally as aggravating to be instantly yanked out of a video game by similar types of real-world sounds coming from your game.
Of course, you can use any sound you want in a game but they have to be expected and unique. Most of the transgressions mentioned in this post involve sounds that are supposed to be ambient. If your game takes place in an office, then there will be phone rings and computer bleeps and bloops. These sounds are expected. But instead of using the most realistic phone ring sound you can find, you should craft a recognizable – but unique – phone ring sound. That way, the player will never be jerked out of the game and wonder who’s calling in real life. Similarly, don’t use computer sounds in your game that sound even vaguely close to Windows or Mac sounds. If a Windows “email received” or error sound is heard, the player will be tempted to alt-tab right out of your game.
You have to be very careful with traffic and neighborhood sounds as well. It’s not as disruptive an issue as the sounds coming from your car stereo but since everyone lives in some sort of neighborhood with its own real sounds, the ambient game sounds can possibly take a player out of your game. If your game takes place out in the country and you decide to have chainsaw or lawn mower sounds going on in the background, you run the risk of taking your player out of the game as they go to the window and prepare to curse at their neighbor who they think is mowing their lawn at 2:30am. If you do have these loud, disruptive types of sounds in your game at least make them unrealistic enough to not confuse your players.
We should always be striving to further immerse players into our games. Usually that means creating realistic and compelling sounds. But sometimes, especially with sounds that are common in our day to day lives, a little less realism is what’s called for.
Daily burnout.
I’ve been experiencing something fairly frequently this month which I thought would be an interesting topic for me to write about on the blog (poor, neglected blog!). 2009 is off to a great start for The Game Composer and I currently have three projects going on at the same time, with a fourth and fifth soon to start. I love writing music and there’s nothing I would rather do.
But.
Kind of like being granted a wish, then asking for immortal life, but then having that wish turn into a curse by being transformed into a living block of immortal stone… be careful what you wish for. (Bonus points for those who know which classic Doctor Who episode this example came from.)
Actually, it’s not even close to being a “curse” and this blog is going to be full of hyperbole with just a grain of truth found within. I love every minute of my job and it would take a nervous breakdown to keep me from accepting new work. There’s always time to make music. It’s just that after creating brand new music every day, I feel like a vegetable every night. Sometimes at an orchestra rehearsal after a full day of work (I play tuba in a couple groups here in Seattle) I probably come off as the dullest person ever because I’m still decompressing from work. I don’t know how other composers out there do it, but when I’m composing, I pour every ounce of mental energy right into the music. I try to see every possibility flowing from every note. I am constantly accepting and rejecting the biggest and smallest ideas in a non-stop flood of creation. It’s quite taxing.
Luckily, the payoff for creating music is huge and it’s all worth it. Even when I’m drained at the end of the day, I feel satisfied, even when all I’ve gotten out of a session is a nugget of an idea to go with the next day. Sometimes that’s all you need. And with a good night of sleep I’m rarin’ to go the next day. It never fails.
Not sure what the point of this blog is. I guess I just wanted to share how a busy composer feels at the end of the day. I bet it’s not that different from anyone else who pours themselves into their work. I wonder how many other vegetables there are at the end of a long day out there. Maybe that’s why Americans watch an average of 32 hours of TV a day.
Or maybe this is all a roundabout way of explaining why this blog hasn’t been updated lately. I’ll see if I can change that…
Anyway, here are some tips I’ve found to help stave off that daily burnout, in no particular order:
- Don’t listen to music in the car. Music is sometimes there only as background noise. Driving is a perfect time to give yourself a break from music, all music. I’ve been listening to Podcasts and loving it (TWiT and Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, whoo!). Maybe start listening to books.
- Take breaks during the day and give yourself at least one day completely off a week. It’s easy to try to do too much. That usually ends up being counter-productive. It’s amazing how much more quickly good ideas come to well-rested brains. This does mean, of course, that you must also give yourself a good night’s sleep every night.
- Get some exercise. Yes, it will make you more tired in the short-term but in the long-term, your body is going to have a higher capacity for storing energy, creative and otherwise. And don’t ever discount the power of endorphins.
- Just play music. Someone’s already done all the hard work of composing. Enjoy the fruits of their labor. This will remind you that music is still your friend, even if you had a slow day of composing.
- If you have several projects going on at once, try to make sure they require different genres of music. This will keep you on your toes and happy. If you have a hard time coming up with one Baroque harpsichord piece, how re you going to do four? Oh, you trendy harpsichord game soundtracks… how I loathe thee.
Hope these tips help. Anyway, way past time for bed. Already broke one of my own rules…
Soundtrack of the Month #6: Guitar Hero World Tour review
Guitar Hero 3 was a smash hit for us and our friends last year. Not a party went by without someone turning on their Wii and handing out the guitars. It was a great game. The difficulty may have been out of whack a little bit but overall it was an excellent party and solo game.
Than came Rock Band and the whole experience got turned up a notch. The first time I played, being a rock drummer and all, I took the drums and said to put it on Hard difficulty. Shouldn’t be a problem for a real drummer. Oops… failed out in the first quarter of the song. Real drums have about as much in common with the game as real guitars do. But I digress. No longer could music games be limited to one instrument. The social aspect of Rock Band was incredible. Teamwork, planning, and the ecstasy of shared victories and shame of shared defeats propelled Rock Band to one of the best multiplayer games of all time. Guitar Hero was history. But not for long.
Now we have Guitar Hero World Tour (reviewed here on the Wii). The full package includes a guitar, a mic, and a drumset. Up to four players can play at a time in the main game with vocal, guitar, bass, and drum parts. Since Rock Band set the bar so high and did so many things right, it’s useful to make comparisons between the two games. How does this game fare in light of what Rock Band did so well?
First off, the gripes.
1) It’s very difficult to see how the other players are doing. The a small, undecipherable mater system on screen that you can refer to, but in the heat of music making it’s very hard to get a good grasp of how everyone is doing. Rock Band’s meter got it exactly right and Neversoft (the GH developers) need to just swallow that fact and implement a similar system. Far too often, things start flashing red and it’s all over.
2) And it only takes one person to fail to make everyone fail the song. There are no “saves”. Once one person drops out, everyone is dead. It’s pretty harsh and, really, not any more realistic than saving people. A rock band can actually still go on even if the bass player’s jack comes out of his bass or the singer suffers a cocaine and Jolt-induced heart attack on stage. Why they chose to make this so harsh is a mystery… though it does stay consistent with the previous games of the series. I was quite disappointed about this one because one of the great social aspects of Rock Band is the instant team building feeling you get when bringing someone back to life. Then again, you do get a greater sense of accomplishment when everyone makes it through a tough song in one piece. To make up for the lack of saving, you can have anyone use Star Power to help everyone through tough sections.
3) Ah, but activating Star Power on drums is something of a black art. You’re supposed to hit both cymbals at the same time. Sometimes this breaks your streak and sometimes it doesn’t. But I feel it’s almost not worth it sometimes if it’s going to break your streak. They need to find a better method of activating Star Power on the drums in the next game. Rock Band’s system isn’t perfect either, but at least you know exactly when you’ll activate it and aren’t in danger of breaking one of your crucial streaks.
4) The lyrics are hard to read on the Wii version! Whatever font that is, it’s ugly and usually illegible. We play on a 42″ HDTV and use component cables so that’s about as good as it’s going to get. Luckily, the words you sing don’t really matter, but I don’t always want to be freestylin’, yo.
5) Song library. Wayyyyy smaller than Rock Band 1 and 2′s. Way smaller. But this will grow over time.
6) The music creator system is a joke. The creation system is unintuitive and extremely difficult to figure out. Even if you do figure it out, the instrument samples they use are horrible and your song will sound like bad MIDI (is there any other kind?). Rock Band doesn’t have a creation system and Guitar Hero should have just left it out and concentrated more on the main gameplay.
So, those are the main gripes. It fumbles the ball in many ways, though none of them are deal breakers by any means. What are the bright spots?
1) Better note charts. All the instruments feel just a little bit more like you’re playing the real music. The open note idea on the bass lines is pretty cool.
2) The drum set is much better. I love having the cymbals raised. It’s slightly more like playing a real drumset. Unfortunately, the bass drum pedal only has about a centimeter of give so that doesn’t feel quite as good, but overall I have much more fun playing these drums than Rock Band’s.
3) Better guitar… the feel of Guitar Hero’s guitar is better than Rock Band’s, especially the strum bar. We prefer the clickier feel of GH’s bar. The raised color buttons makes it easier to find your way around than RB’s sytem as well. The Star Power button is a new addition and works well once you get used to it.
4) The character creator/editor is much more fun and interesting than the Rock Band system’s. The variety of stuff to outfit your rocker with is staggering and there is some outrageous stuff to buy.
5) Overall feel is more rockin’. They nail the rock and roll atmosphere. The character creator helps, but the graphics and menus just drip rock. From the time you first boot the game up, you just want to rock. Rock Band is just a little more sterile than Guitar Hero in this regard.
So, there’s my little pseudo-review/comparison of Guitar Hero World Tour. It’s definitely the better game on the Wii, but if I had to choose between GH:WT on the Wii or Rock Band 2 on the PS3 or 360, I’d give a slight edge to Rock Band 2. The mutliplayer aspect is just a bit better done on RB2 because of the save system and ease of seeing how everyone is doing. Luckily, the Wii instrument peripherals should work on RB2 when it comes out on the Wii so we can get the best of both worlds.
I love that there is healthy competition between these two games. That means they will both be constantly striving to improve their games. They’re both already excellent games and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either one to people. But we’re in for at least a good few years of excellent music gaming.
Verdict: Required Listening
Best Buy’s new music instrument store.
Have you been in a Best Buy lately? I don’t know about the one(s) in your city, but the one here in North Seattle has a brand new corner which sells guitars, drum kits, keyboards, and various other musical instruments and accessories. As I was perusing the DVD section last month (looking for the new Doctor Who Season 4 set – whoo!) I was surprised when I saw the giant wall of guitars hanging in the new corner room of the store. I walked into the new section and quickly wanted to run back out. There’s something about those mega-chain instrument stores that make me very uncomfortable. It’s probably that horrible Guitar Center customer service experience I had a few years ago which forced me to try and dissuade everyone I know from ever shopping there, but that’s a story for another time (maybe those failed rockers, who look down their noses at up-and-coming kids who may have more talent in their kneecap than they have in their entire body, shouldn’t be dealing with the public).
But I digress. A couple weeks later, I did walk back into that corner of the store and I saw a decent selection of stuff and a worker who was more than happy to let me check out the place on my own. I don’t know if their prices are any good or if they had the latest versions of all the Gibson guitars, but I couldn’t help but think there is one and only one reason for that part of the store to now be there:
Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
The kids today all want to rock! And that’s a great thing. The more kids out there are rocking and learning about the great hits of yesterday and today – how they’re constructed, how they’re performed, what they’re saying – the less they will be inclined to accept inferior music. It can only help raise the quality of popular music. And, perhaps, put an end to the reign of the record companies. With the internet, those record companies are now dinosaurs, chewing on whatever they can to stay alive… even the hand that is currently feeding them!
“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small.” – Edgar Bronfman Jr., head of Warner Music (Aug 7, 2008)
They still don’t get it! These games are responsible for reviving interest in so many of the artists on all these record labels. I have younger friends who have now bought Boston albums thanks entirely to Rock Band. It warms my heart to see them appreciate the genius of the band who gave the world Foreplay/Long Time. Sure, I was initiated long ago but these poor youngins grew up musically crippled by the likes of Hansen and Vanilla Ice.
“I think the industry as a whole needs to take a very different look at this business and participate more fully. If that does not become the case, as far as Warner Music is concerned, we will not license to those games.” same dude, same day
Argh! Music is no longer a commodity. There’s something to be said for musical education, performance and otherwise, and the latest generations are growing up more musically literate and won’t be as easily manipulated by the evildoers of the RIAA. Quality has a way of killing mass production.
Long live rock. Long live video games. And go ahead and keep selling those instruments, Best Buy. You have my blessing. Every guitar sold is a nail in the coffin of the senile old record companies.
Winter Wonderland – Harry Connick, Jr. sheet music
I spent last week doing something that I’d always wanted to do: transcribing the Harry Connick, Jr. solo piano version of “Winter Wonderland” that he played on the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack. I spent years looking for the sheet music to the piece and finally just decided to do it myself. I finished it today and am happy with the results… seems to be a pretty accurate rendition of his performance.
And now I’m happy to make the sheet music available for everyone. And in the spirit of the season, you can pay what you want! If this is just a passing interest, pay nothing. But if it means a little more, you can pay a little more and I would truly appreciate it. All purchases are quick, safe, and secure via PayPal.
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To hear what my transcribed version sounds like (a quick MIDI realization):
Enjoy!
Thou Shalt Not waste your time. (#8)
waste your time.
Time is a precious commodity when it comes to the music you create for your game, especially your downloadable games. It’s not uncommon for your title track to be one minute long and the in-game tracks could be even shorter. So it baffles my mind when I hear a composer waste what little time he or she has.
What does it mean to waste time? Basically, repeating things. Unfortunately, many composers still think dance music is appropriate for game music. Dance music repeats. A lot. They can spend 8 bars right at the beginning of a piece just doing the one-measure drum rhythm over and over. Then the next 8 bars adds the one-measure bass line. Then the next 8, keyboards, then voice…
Well, we don’t have time like that to waste in games. Repetition is inevitable. Every minute, your entire piece will repeat so don’t make the mistake of repeating music within your piece. We need a quick intro that leads right into the meat of your piece: the memorable and catchy theme. Then, maybe a B section that leads into a key change or another new idea.
Let’s look at it structurally. The most common musical structures can be boiled down to ABA and AB. Both of these work for your musical loops, but with ABA make sure the second A section is short or in a different key or has some other discerning feature and then has a transition back to the beginning. When you guide your piece to new territory through the entire piece, you create the illusion of a longer piece. Going the dance music route, the player will get tired of your piece much earlier because your piece actually seems shorter than one minute.
As the bad guy in Star Trek: Generations said, “Time is the fire in which we burn.” Make your fire a little more bearable by keeping things moving along in your piece.
Soundtrack of the Month #5: Wii Music review
(the box art is more exciting than the game…)
It was just a week ago that I declared I was not too keen on getting a copy of Wii Music. Initial reviews scared me away from buying the game, at least at full price. Well, I caved and got a copy. Since this game is all about music, I’ll make this SoTM a review of the entire game rather than just its soundtrack.
Short three word review: A Major Disappointment
Longer review: I was looking forward to this game since the day I first heard about it, which I believe was around the time the Wii itself was released. Back then I heard it had conducting and that was enough to get me excited. What a perfect use of the Wiimote that would be! I was looking forward to conducting song after song of my own virtual orchestra. Since that was going to be the highlight of my experience, I’ll start there.
Conducting is indeed pretty cool. The orchestra will follow your tempo and adjust their volume according to how vigorously you conduct. If you stop conducting, they’ll hold their note and all look at you which is pretty hilarious. It’s a good time for at least a little while. But there are some issues. One problem I have with the conducting is that if you do a regular conducting pattern, it doesn’t always register your beat. It seems as though it was designed for a one beat pattern. Also, if you beat too delicately to try and get the orchestra to play pianissimo, it sometimes won’t register the beat. Anyone who’s had difficulties hitting delicate shots in Wii Golf can understand that problem.
The main problem with the conducting minigame is that you only have a whopping five songs to choose from. Sure, Zelda is fun but that’s by far the most interesting of the lot. Even if all five tunes were killer, they’d get old in no time. You’d think Twinkle Twinkle would be the worst, but it’s actually a pretty good rendition with fun harmonies. The limited song list pretty much kills this mode after the first hour. You can extend the life of the mode a little by having four people at a time conduct. Everyone has to agree on the tempo and when to hit the cymbals but that’s pretty much a novelty. Even the high score system was mediocre. You don’t get the top ten scores for each song, just the very top score.
Turns out the minigame that is the most fun is the handbell game. Up to four people can control two handbells each and play in their own handbell choir. You can adjust difficulty and tempo if it’s too easy. Ironically, this game is the most like music games that are already wildly popular, Guitar Hero and Rock Band. You ring your bell when your color hits the “bell hit” line. Sadly, this mode is also hampered by a limited track list, another whopping five songs.
The other decent minigame is an ear training test of sorts, where you identify pitches, order pitches, and do other assorted musical quizzes. There are 8 levels of difficulty, but we couldn’t for the life of us tell the difference in difficulty between the first and eighth levels. With the less-than-stellar musical samples they use for the instruments, it’s also difficult to identify which instrument is playing a wrong note in some of the tests, too. Nintendo missed a chance here to implement a deeper ear training mode which could help budding Mozarts really develop.
Speaking of kids, that does seem to be the demographic this game is aiming at. I can see them having some fun with the Jam mode and the minigames. The songs are also geared toward younger humans. I would, however, rather spend my time introducing any 5 or 6 year olds to a real instrument. They can handle piano or violin. Giving them their first taste of making music through the warped Wii Music music making just seems odd, maybe even detrimental to their development as a musician.
I haven’t mentioned the jamming mode much in this review because it seems like a waste of time. It’s hard to tell what you’re supposed to do, if anything. But if you just randomly play with your Wiimote you’ll make sound and maybe contribute to the song you’re playing, but often it just sounds wrong. And ultimately it’s just not a satisfying way to make music.
The Mii’s inhabiting your Wii are implemented very well. I give them a big thumbs-up for that. From your orchestra to the handbell ringers to the crowds, you’ll see your Mii’s everywhere. I love Wii games that use Mii’s so effectively like that. We spend a lot of time making our Mii’s so it’s nice to see them in our games!
It’s quite a shame that the best mode in Wii Music (handbells) is based on a proven game mechanic. A big opportunity to use the Wii controls innovatively has been wasted. It seems Nintendo just couldn’t come up with a fun way to make music using their spiffy controller, which is quite surprising considering how long the game was in development. Of course, Nintendo probably looked at the Wii Play sales figures and decided they could shove another cutesy mediocre game out the door and sell a zillion copies too. And… they’re probably right. But if you read this review, please don’t make the mistake I did. The game is worth a try, but not at full price. Whenever it hits $30 or less, then give it a try. It’ll be a good for an hour or three.
Verdict: Not Too Shabby (but not at full price)
My Wii Music conundrum.
Wii Music has been released today. Months ago when I first heard about the game, I was pretty excited about it. But after learning more about the game, I’m not that keen on getting a copy. Maybe it’s the limited song list (Twinkle Twinkle?). Maybe it’s the lack of challenge of playing the instruments. Maybe it’s the poor MIDI-like sound quality of the instruments. But mostly I think it’s the fact that almost any time I want I can sit down with my wife and friends and play music as much as we want.
I don’t think I’m the target audience for this game. And I’m kind of disappointed that they couldn’t have expanded the track list or made more challenging modes for people who have a little more experience with making real music. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were able to bridge that gap as even people who play guitar could enjoy those games. I don’t think it’s that hard to do.
So it looks like I’ll be waiting for the price to drop to $30 or so before I play with the Wii Music toy. I do think there’s some fun to be had. I’m still looking forward to trying out the conducting minigame and I’m sure jamming will be fun for awhile, but I can’t get too excited beyond that.
All that being said, Nintendo needn’t worry about my business. They’re going to sell millions of copies of this game. And I’m happy about that. It’s going to get lots of kids excited about music and maybe our nation’s orchestras will thank Nintendo years on down the road.
The perils of going cheap with music.
Your game’s budget is going to be a major factor in determining the quality of your game. With more money, you can hire more talented programmers, artists, and audio personnel. With less money, the talent level is going to drop unless you are very lucky. All of that is pretty obvious. What’s less obvious is how dangerous cutting corners with your game audio can be. One of the first areas to be cut when trimming a game’s development budget is audio, unfortunately. Here is a list of some of the common ways developers try to cut corners with audio and how they can jeopardize the overall quality of your game.
- Licensed music
Pros
- Save money
- Often very well produced and professional sounding
Cons
- Extremely difficult to fit the character of your game
- Can be used in other places beyond your control
- Difficult to maintain consistent soundscape
Licensed music can add some good production values to your game, but it does so at a cost. The music will often not fit the character of your game and sort of sit on top of your game rather than be an integral part of it. It is this sort of superficiality that often forces players to turn the music off in a game and does nothing to help immerse players in the world you’ve created. This goes for the latest pop tune by Snoop Dogg (which wouldn’t save you money to license anyway) or the generic circus piece off that music licensing site you found on some game dev forum.
Also, you have no control where that music might be found outside of your game. If the piece is used in a toilet brush ad and becomes that annoying toilet brush song that everyone knows and comes to hate, well, you’re stuck with it in your game.
- Go in-house
Pros
- Save money
- Communicate easily
Cons
- Speed of turn-around
- Lower quality production
- Quality of music itself
I’m all for people creating their own music. It can be immensely satisfying for hobbyist composers to write their own music. It exercises the mind and is a great way to pass time. The problem comes when some of them try and turn that into a professional gig. I’ve seen it time and again, hobbyist composers who bite off more than they can chew. That scripter or producer on your team may fancy themselves a composer, but actually creating effective game music requires skills that are, frankly, pretty rare. Keeping up to date on the latest sample libraries and improving compositional techniques requires time and resources that are already being taken up with their day-to-day duties of their job.
Composing music is going to take time away from their primary duties on your team. They will also take more time to actually compose the music, as their undeveloped compositional skills will probably necessitate lots of trial-and-error and guesswork. They will also probably not, as hobbyists, have dedicated a large budget to their sound libraries and their music’s production quality will suffer for it. At best, it will sound a few years old. At worst, it will be a joke.
- Super cheap composers
Pros
- Super cheap
- Maybe local, easier communication
Cons
- Very inexperienced
- Lower production quality
- Poor quality of music itself
- Legal issues with pirated samples
I don’t want to sound curmudgeonly here, but there’s probably a reason why the $50-$100/minute composers are only charging that much. Sure, give them a fair shake. Maybe they’re just coming out of college or otherwise just starting their career, but even then they should be charging more than that if they think they have the chops to create top quality music. Much of what I’ve heard from this particular group of composers is the flavor of the month: their own pale imitations of The Lord of the Rings or the latest Michael Bay movie or Final Fantasy. Giving you music which feeds off of and adds to your game is probably not going to be their forte.
There is also the real danger of the use of pirated samples in their music. It’s just not likely that they can feed themselves, pay the rent, and buy professional samples if they’re charging so little for their music. That hurts the industry as a whole and can come back to bite you if the sample developers find out about those pirated samples in your game.
- Super cheap foreign composers
Pros
- Super cheap
- Possibly high talent level and production quality
- Good experience level
Cons
- Language barrier
- Equally possible to find low talent level
- Lack of transparency
- Legal issues with pirated samples
Many foreign (non-U.S.) composers are very well trained composers coming from excellent universities. The biggest two problems with this group could be communication and issues with piracy. Communication between developer and composer is extremely important when adding music to a game. If the composer does not speak English well, much of the nuance you are trying to communicate about your music direction is going to be lost. This could lead to frustration and sub-par results.
The other problem could be issues with piracy, even more so than the “super cheap” US composers. Piracy rates around the world (especially in Eastern Europe and China) can be extremely high and, while the cost of living may be lower, the price of samples is at least as much as in the US. I don’t want to paint all non-US composers as despicable pirates. I’m simply going on the possible pitfalls and unfortunate instances that I’ve observed. Don’t let difficulties in communication prevent you from assuring that the foreign composer you picked is on the up and up.
- Lowballing established composers
Pros
- It may work
Cons
- Lose future dealings with that composer
- Lose future work with that composer’s associates
- Composer’s effort is commensurate with pay
“What? $1000 a minute? That’s ridiculous. How about $200 a minute?” Besides outright insulting that composer, you are essentially giving yourself away as someone who does not understand the value of good music in a game. You may like that composer’s music and really want to work with him or her, but you’ve just kissed away any chance of working with them, at least for this game and maybe more games in the future. That composer is likely to tell this ridiculous story to their composer friends and they’ll all have a good laugh about you and they’ll all steer well clear.
Of course negotiations are important and composers are happy to find a way to get their music into your game at a fair price. Just remember lowballing is extremely risky when negotiating with anyone who brings unique talents to the table.
- Cut minutes of music from the game
Pros
- Save some money
- Afford established talent
Cons
- Players may get sick of music
- Less immersive game experience
It’s painful to cut tracks from a game, but sometimes it’s the only way to bring on board that talented composer. Instead of cutting whole tracks, maybe you can shave 15 seconds here and there. A good composer will make shorter loops more tolerable. Or, since you have shown your regard for having good music in a game by hiring an established composer, the composer will be more amenable to throwing in a little extra for the game. The better the game does, the better the composer does. A hit is good for everyone.
Just make sure you have “critical mass” for music in a game. One play loop is not sufficient for an entire game. For instance, if there are 4 general locales get 4 different play loops. If you do not have enough music in your game, it doesn’t matter how great the composer you have is. The music will get old fast.
So, there you have it… some things to watch for when trying to bring down your game’s budget. These are not hard and fast rules, of course. You can find a diamond in the rough in any of these groups. But the time you take sifting through the dirt while looking for those diamonds is time that you will lose on the actual development of your game and game soundtrack. When time is money, you actually may not be saving a dime. Bring in the best music you can and that will help you reap the rewards from an all-around excellent game.
NPR reads (and steals from) my blog!
… or they might, anyway. I was folding some laundry this afternoon listening to the local NPR station, KUOW, and I heard something awfully familar on their “The World” show.
(Oct. 15, 2008) “The second a caveman heard another caveman hitting a log with a stick in a compelling way, he copied it and added his own style. And so it has gone throughout history.” (from their “Pistolera” story)
Hey! (speaking of copying…) That’s really close to something I wrote a couple weeks ago on a blog post entitled “Cliches through the ages”:
(Sep. 30, 2008) “213,000 BC – Branch hit against tree: This brilliant invention of Kurpnar, a struggling composer of the era, was used at first only in the performance of Kurpnar’s unforgettable opera “Me Eat Bird I Hope”. It was received so well in that opera that he used it in the rest of his compositions until his death at the late age of 20. Other composers of the time of course saw the possibilities in using branch hit against tree and used it in their music as well. There were many years where you couldn’t walk by a forest without hearing improvisers banging away at their favorite trees. Needless to say, the trend didn’t last more than 15 years or so, after people got tired of listening to the same general sound again and again. All sorts of experimentation with branch and tree sizes yielded results that couldn’t save this particular cliché.”
Now, I’m not saying NPR is definitely made up of a bunch of dishonorable plagiarizing thieves but I’m struck by the similarities. And flattered that they’d steal from my blog. If they did.
Ok, it’s probably just a coincidence.
About This Blog
This blog is dedicated to topics concerning the creation of music and sound for games. It will deal with issues that come up in the day to day work of The Game Composer as well as thoughts on the industry as a whole. I hope it will be useful for developers and other game audio professionals. Feel free to contact me: thegamecomposer@gmail.com
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