What are the principles to Apply in Using Music in Your Game?

[GrandmaDeb]

Yes, I searched, lol, but I can't find a unified topic or discussion on this. Link me if I missed it, plz.


This after HOURS of reviewing all of my DL content and stuff from (yeah you guessed it) lists and searches.


I have few random thoughts, but I was hoping for tomes of brilliance. =]


Like:


don't change the music in every room in your dungeon


...and...


adjust the volume so people are not deaf or sick of the volume control after fifteen minutes of game play


...and...


crummy looping is really distracting. figure something out.


But I was interested in your thoughts on things like>>>>>>>>


>>>>>> When should the music drive emotional tension ans when should it fade to the background in the player's mind?


>>>>>> Is "battle music" style intesity bearable on regular maps?


>>>>>> Is "healing" music like you see posted on Japanese sites just too sappy for today's game players?


>>>>>> Can orchestral pieces work with other styles?


>>>>>> How much techno/buzzy stuff can non-techno game accomodate without breaking character?


>>>>>> What kind of musical deviations can flow in a game without breaking the setting and mood of the game?


Theory type stuff like this. =] thoughts? Come on, all you magician/musicians. Get in here.

 

[Warpmind]

Don't give the dark, brooding loner with a big katana and a black cloak a preppy, upbeat theme.

But srsly, whether the music is emotionally driving or subtle in the background is one thing. Just make sure the feel of the music fits the character/scenario. You don't want something which sounds like wedding music in a funeral...

 

[Kes]

While I agree that you shouldn't have different music in every room of a dungeon, I do think it is is nice to have different music for each dungeon, and for each town.  On the other hand, you can use repeat music to help provide a constant thread e.g. in my present project I have 5 Shrines.  They all have the same 'Shrine' music.  I also have a 'Farm' track for the 3 little farms you can visit.

In towns, when you go inside a house/shop/inn, the town theme drops to 50% volume.  It keeps the sense that you are in the same location, but now that you are indoors, the sound levels of the town naturally are more muted.

I personally do not use a victory theme.  Even in a moderately short game this is something that the player is going to hear time after time after time.  Maybe other people don't really mind, but for me it gets threadbare after a while, and then starts moving into the irritating zone.  I have never had a player complain about its absence, so I suspect players are not as wedded to it as is assumed they are.

Some games I've played the dungeons themes are great, and a good general battle theme is chosen and both are great to listen to - as long as they are not together.  It is necessary, imo, to pay quite a lot of attention to whether or not the dungeon theme clashes with the battle theme.  Again, the battle theme is something that the player is going to hear a lot, and while people usually have something different for a boss battle, I think that with anything except a short game, something else is needed as well.   What I tend to do is have a 'normal' battle theme for about the first half of the game, and after that the battle theme will vary with the dungeon.

Chosen well, I think that it is possible to have both orchestral and other music styles in the same game.  For example, I have a couple of dungeons that are distinctly 'weird', and I use music which is in quite a different style to anything else.  It doesn't stand out as odd/wrong because it clearly goes with that type of dungeon.

Please, people, use ogg, not mp3.  mp3 tracks don't loop properly and the file size is much bigger.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Good post.


Good points about repeated themes in similar settings (shops, farms) and the importance of volume adjustments.

I personally do not use a victory theme.  Even in a moderately short game this is something that the player is going to hear time after time after time.  Maybe other people don't really mind, but for me it gets threadbare after a while, and then starts moving into the irritating zone.  I have never had a player complain about its absence, so I suspect players are not as wedded to it as is assumed they are.

lol You mean you have heard enough of "Dah, da-dat-de-dah! Dah! DAH!"


Yeah, kill that thing.


I'd love to hear others chime in.

 

[Seriel]

Oh god... the Final Fantasy victory theme. I have heard that too many times.

It starts out fun then eventually you're going "Please! make it stop!".

Yeah. Don't have a victory theme... ever

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

Ahh...musical questions like these always stir interesting opinions in everyone. =)

The themes that players will be hearing often (battle themes, victory themes, etc.) had better sound good and appropriate for all battles they're heard in. I recall the Super Mario RPG standard battle theme sounding GREAT for the beginning and even mid stages of the game, but towards the end, when enemies started appearing like real threats, I always found the super-happy battle theme to be a little off. Crap just got real, and here I am fighting these things with poppy, non-threatening music. Still love the game, but that always kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

Generally speaking, battle music style intensity CAN work on dungeon maps when the dungeons are meant to set about tense moments or moods. This applies to everything in regards to music, though: Music is a UNIVERSAL language that needs no words to establish any particular mood at any given time. Examples of what-sounds-good-where can be found in the near infinite amount of games whose composers are skilled at setting such moods just from their music alone.

Techno music (or any genre, in general) can fit in any game, given what's happening in the game calls for it. Mother 3's music has a certain style about it, but when the player goes against a particular boss (look up "Porky's Porkies" on YouTube), the music TOTALLY changes styles to accommodate the boss and the feeling the composer wanted players to feel when fighting it. It works wonderfully. Similarly enough, a game that uses mostly techno/electronic music can benefit greatly from using classical music for any character themes or scenarios where great royalty, nobility, or the otherwise regal are involved. Mixing the two genres goes a looooong way.

Certainly more to say, but this seems like a long enough post as it is. I'll keep my eyes on this topic! XD

Also, I love victory themes (as long as they're good) and can't imagine games without them. Yes, I love the standard FF victory theme. =P

 

[Ms Littlefish]

 

Everything falls under the wonderful category of "it depends." Which, is always fantastic. But we always have to keep that in mind. There are so many possible reasons why a song works in a particular game but not another.

 

Is "battle music" style intensity bearable on regular maps?

 

Depends on where the intensity is coming from and of course what the song is and what it's for, but that's a given. If we're talking about the tempo, then there are plenty of times where fast songs work outside of battle. 

 

But a lot of the intensity in battle music comes from its pulse and rhythm. Not to get too theoretical, but the pulse is how the beat in a song is punctuated against its meter. Don't worry about it too much. The take home message is that things like lots of kick drums, cymbal crashes, and large orchestral punches are going to make the song sound even more intense beyond its tempo. In fact, a strong pulse can make a fast tempo sound even faster because we feel the music moving more. It could easily work for a number of scenes, but In a lot cases it would become too much for towns and dungeons and take too much focus away from the map. But as goes the overall answer for probably all of these questions. It depends. 

 

When should the music drive emotional tension and when should it fade to the background in the player's mind?

 

I answered this one second just because I think it ties into things I mentioned in the first answer. The level of punctuation happening in the pulse is going to determine if something is more of a foreground music or a background music. Among other things, but that's a bit too complicated to get into without really getting theoretical.

 

I think cut scenes and character themes are good times to really let the music loose. These are usually going to be the songs that people associate with the story of the game. Also, overworld and battle musics are a good time. Players are going to be spending a lot of time battling and a lot of time walking, so those are really good times to entertain them with music. 

 

I love game music, so for me, a song is to never "fade" in the background but times where the music probably should pack less frontal assault is during towns and dungeons. You'll want the player to focus a little more on the map. But all that means is I tend to make these songs less erratic. Less boom and snap and no three minute guitar solos.

 

Can orchestral pieces work with other styles? 

 

Maybe it's because I'm a total orchestra girl, but I think orchestral instrumentation can go with anything. Not only game genre. But, I also think it blends well with just about any genre of music. Orchestra and metal? Yep. Orchestra and techno? Absolutely. I think the orchestra is the perfect accessory to any song style. 

 

If you're going for a sci-fi game, true, you might want some synthesizers and boom-y kick drums in there too. But, it comes down to execution and aesthetics of the game. 

 

How much techno/buzzy stuff can non-techno game accommodate without breaking character?

 

Same as the above. A lot that depends on what the actual character and aesthetic of your game is. But, I think some safe bets are battle themes, mini game themes, and ambient pieces.  While you may not want your towns to sound like you fell into a nightclub, battle music just really lends well into synth and I think it's a safe time to immerse in a different music style and have that contrast. I almost always use strong synth elements in my battle music.

 

I've also used plenty of pads, synths, and effects in the backgrounds of largely orchestral town, dungeon, and character music for fantasy games. Sometimes you can't just get the sparkle, mystery, or scariness out of natural instruments that you can a synth. So, I think the key word here is effect. I think it's pretty easy to trust your gut whether a synthesizer song sounds like a space station or a mysterious, otherworldly forest.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

dear Ms. L,


Your recent explanation distinguishing pulse from tempo has greatly improved my ability to quantify my response to various musical compositions, and determine their possible role(s) in my upcoming project. I would like to express my gratitude.


yours truly,

grandmadeb


p.s. what am I going to do about it??? it depends....

 

[Mushinronja]

Don't think I have much to say on the questions asked, but I will say that occasionally making the battle theme the same as the background music is great.

Learned that from this one fight in Chrono Cross. Smooth transition from a somber theme and it felt more impactful.

 

[dungeon diver]

Variations on themes tend to work pretty well. I like how in Digital Devil Saga, for example, dungeon themes would become more intense as either events happened or you just reached checkpoints closer to the end.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Variation on a theme is my absolute favorite thing, probably in all of music. But, unfortunately unless you can make your own music or can afford to have it made for you, people are left with what variation is available in stock music or store packs. Which, sadly doesn't happen that often. When I make my free musics I actually do make it a point for certain songs to be variations or to go together. Because I love it that much and I know others do.

 

[Matseb2611]

Oh yeah, add me to the list of people who are not fond of having victory music after each battle. I don't mind too much if an actual victory screen comes up with stats and all (a music there is better than total silence), but that music should be an actual BGM, I think, rather than a 5 second long ME.

In regard to battle intensity music on maps, I'd say it depends on what's happening. In a regular dungeon with nothing of importance going on I'd expect a regular, slow to medium speed track. The only times I find battle-esque tracks fit in dungeons is when you want to give a sense of rush and urgency for whatever reason (escaping the building, rushing to disarm the bomb, chasing someone, etc). In these cases I'd even say keep the same track playing on map and in battles, so that it's continuous. It keeps the scene whole without detaching battles from what's going on.

Music can say a lot about the scene. For example, by merely playing the game's main theme tune in a scene automatically tells the player this scene is important in some way.

Edit: I also agree that changing battle theme every now and again is a good idea, because the same one the entire game can get too repetitive. I think it's nice to either change it between acts or perhaps to assign different battle themes to different location types. For example outside locations could have their own battle theme and inside ones can have a different one.

I also like to give bosses different themes to one another. It might be hard to find or pay for enough tracks so that each boss has a unique one, but if you can have at least a few different tracks, it can do wonders. Each boss in the game represents something. They might have different personalities, looks, or combat strategies, and it's nice when the music fits to that.