Music in games....

[Shevek]

First off, I appologise for my absence. Personal family matters have intervened in the past few months leaving me with little or no time to address any other matters. Regardless of this, it is nice to be back and posting again (though only intermittently, my internet access is limited these days).

Moving on, I thought it interesting to raise the following question.

Music, as a medium, is particularly structured and grammatically complex. Yet it has managed to rise to the challenge of scoring itself to film. Something that requires pin-point expression as well as adhering to hundreds of years worth of musical form.

Gaming is very different from film in that the player can control the experience and thus the score for such a medium must be equally dynamic.

Therefore my question runs thus; how do you think game music will evolve in the coming years and, most important of all, why?

[IcePak]

I'd like to hope that more and more game music will adapt to the player's performance, or situation. Kinda like Panzer Dragoon Zwei, NiGHTS, or Banjo Kazooie. This is better than having the same tune loop over and over again in my opinion.

[Ady]

That's the ideal. I predict the emergence of technology that allows this sort of thing to be done effortlessly within hardware.

A bit like AI alogrithms, but with the dynamism of music in mind (if that makes any sense...).

[Flabio]

I'd like to hope that more and more game music will adapt to the player's performance, or situation. Kinda like Panzer Dragoon Zwei, NiGHTS, or Banjo Kazooie.

The barrier to this isn't a technical one, as you say, there are games already doing it. It's more an artistic barrier.

Composers I know tell me it's very restrictive and that they don't like to make music this way. I suspect it's because it requires a different approach to that with which they're most familiar,

I guess its going to take the evolution of a new 'grammar' of composition before this becomes more widespread than it is.

[Wild_Cat]

Besides, the music in games that do this often sounds kind of... Bland, if not boring. Sometimes it fits the ambience, true, but I prefer games with a strong musical identity. Games like Turrican 2, Secret of Mana, Command & Conquer, Unreal Tournament...
I remember my first play through Deus Ex, when I first got the the Hong-Kong market. For more than 15 minutes, I just stayed there, doing nothing, watching people pass by, just so that I could enjoy the music. It was pure bliss.

[jezzace]

Yeah the hong kong music was brilliant I went round reading all the newspapers, leaflets etc just so I could keep listening to the music.

I always thought the zelda games were the best at doing the whole interactive music thing. A lot of games have a slow music and a fast remix of that music (like every goldeneye level) and to me thats not good enough, geez they had that in SF2. It need to be a lot more intelligent e.g. when you're near an enemy the music turns tense and as you get closer and closer it gets tenser and tenser until the fight breaks out.

[Darwock]

MGS2 is the best example of this kind of thing I reckon.

[112]

well about the sf2 music. Didnt it change dramatically when your health dropped to a critical point? Actually on SF3 third stike each bout on each level was different. Which added to the experience, as you got deeper and deeper into the games overall tension

I guess its only a matter of time b4 someone mentions Rez. Although i really luved the soundtrack to castlevania on the saturn, Each section was different and appropriate.

Actually the original tomb raider was mostly played in silence with the odd instrumental kickin in when you did somthing or discovered somthing. These may be pre scripted, but i guess what is needed is an engine that monitors each an every action, and as a result it would deliver a musical score according to every small varible. Complex i know but interesting!

112

[Kaladron]

Transformers does a really good job of increasing the intensity of the music the closer you get to danger. The tune changes very subtlely and does create a tense feeling in the player.

The only problem I have with this is that it gives away the location of enemies. Even if you cannot see or hear that an enemy is near to you, you will know it is their because of the music and then you can just run off.

[goldbricker]

I wonder if it would be feasible to eventually stream music for a game from a server so that the music could be constantly updated (not necessarily as you play) giving a new musical experience every so often.

[Moodmon]

I don't understand why more games aren't adapting to events and the performance of the player. The X-Wing series has done this for donkey's years, maybe the majority just can't work out a good way of implementing it yet.