FEATURE simple example is that at the end of a game’s section composers will usually get a chance to actually a player may have won or lost, so the music will be play the game during its formative stages, giving either triumphant or mournful, before segueing into them a feel for the music that’s required. Freelance an introduction of whatever level awaits them. It composers aren’t so lucky. Th ey get their fi rst taste becomes a complex task then to compose multiple of the action much later in the game’s build versions cues of various lengths and themes that must also and it’s sometimes just videos of gameplay provided match more than one possible visual transition. for inspiration. Which isn’t to say that freelancers are an untrustworthy mob of scoundrels. Beta versions Th en it gets harder. Games soft ware is one of very of games in their early stages of development can few formats that require simultaneously playing back involve a massive amount of data and coding. GAME ON multiple fi les without being able to employ some Th ey’re not something that can be zipped onto a kind of mixdown. A scene might need the sound fl ash drive and popped in a postbag. Mind you, of footsteps, gunshots, explosions, a voice-over and in this multi-million dollar industry security is a the music in the background – and all of these may Whether you’re wrestling a three-eyed serious issue and new soft ware is fi ercely guarded. or may not require playback depending on what’s spectre inside the missile tube of an occurring in the game. It’s a completely interactive Interestingly, the job of a video game composer does environment and a far cry from Donkey Kong. closely share one thing in common with fi lm and alien spacecraft or leaping from log to television soundtrack scoring. Providing any ‘temp’ ASSET MANAGEMENT or ‘placeholder’ music to produce a demo always log as if your life depends on it, chances Th e composers fi nd themselves working very closely opens a can of worms. Th e developers invariably get with the developers once the music is recorded to are your predicament is supported by a attached to the temporary music and it’s a nightmare ensure that each scenario interacts smoothly not just weaning them off it again! musical accompaniment. So who makes it with the vision, but also without interference from and how? sound eff ects. For the record, cues are generally In an ideal world composers are given decent called ‘assets’ and categorised by their situation: win budgets that allow them a wide, creative palette music, lose music, battle music, scoreboard music, including studio time with skilled musicians. Text: Graeme Hague and so on. However, that’s rare. Th e foibles of writing computer code makes the progress of a game’s development Another tricky X-factor that composers try to allow about as predictable as the game itself, and mostly for is the wide range of skill that players have. Some it’s too hard to reliably book studio session times, games are very puzzle-based meaning that someone even if the money is there. Th is is the main reason might spend fi ve or 10 minutes (or, like me, half the game scores rely so heavily on synthesized and damned day!) fi guring out the solution or it could sequenced music. A computer game’s content and take them 30 seconds (‘think’ music?). Creating a “A best-selling continuity can be utterly and radically changed Don’t mess with me. I’m a pretty good shot expected to leave the cinemas whistling the cheerful 10-minute opus for this part might be fun, but not at any time rendering recordings almost useless. game can require with a Mark IV sniper rifl e. I can show Biggles little melody James Horner put together for when practical – not for everyone’s skill level anyway. At MIDI and sequencing can save the day. Th e only a thing or two in a Sopwith Camel, too. Now, if only the ship gurgled down under the Atlantic Ocean the same time the mood needs to be established maybe 40 full other solution is for the composer to be a multi- I can stop a nasty sod called Bloodmarine from killing everyone. Who’s going to hum the ripping, reasonably quickly. Nothing is straightforward. blowing me to pieces every few minutes… power-chords that announce the start of the Wake instrumentalist, like Frank Klepacki (more on Frank tracks, plus dozens Island map in Battlefi eld 2142? You’d be surprised. KICK OF DOOM shortly)… or married to one. Okay, I admit that I play computer games, but I’m of cinematic and Th e fl ipside is that in the same way fi lm soundtracks Th e genre and style of the music can be a foregone not alone. Th eir popularity today is voraciously Ultimately, the nuts-and-bolts result for all the are successfully sold on CD, so are the music scores conclusion if the game’s subject has a blatant incidental cues.” swallowing the disposable income of ‘gamers’ of game’s assets are MP3 fi les (and sometimes OGG) of best-selling video games. Th ere are even singles historical or geographical theme. Also, some games all ages. It’s big business – big business. In July this at the highest sample and bit rate allowable. A released on iTunes and the like that are made are a franchised progression, such as Call of Duty 4 year a game called Battlefi eld 1943 was released in best-selling game can require maybe 40 full tracks, popular by games. Th ere’s that iPod again. or Duke Nukem 3 and the previous incarnations set a downloadable version for Xbox and PlayStation plus dozens of cinematic and incidental cues as well. a precedent. On occasions when a game is a whole only (a PC version is coming), and within a week When I began digging deeper into this industry I Every game is diff erent, but how much data space is new project things can get interesting. In-house it notched up 600,000 downloads and achieved fi gured I’d fi nd that the musicians would be some allocated to music is a contentious subject. In the the one million mark by August. Th at’s just one kind of nerdy, bespectacled teenagers who were franchise game among hundreds that enjoy banished to a basement in Silicon Valley with an similar success and they all bow in reverence to M-box and a Casio keyboard. I couldn’t have been the Godfather of games, World of Warcraft which further off target if I’d been blindfolded. requires a monthly subscription to play online and Contemporary game composers have a list of credits at last count had 11.5 million players. to their names that include cinema box offi ce smash Should we care? Yes, because it’s an enormous hits, top-rating television shows and more than audience for the musical scores that are created for a few charting bands. Not surprisingly (when I these cyberspace adventures. From heavy metal bothered to think about it) the skills and experience to sweeping orchestral arrangements, all genres of required for scoring successful fi lms and television music contribute to the playing experience, and at are much sought-aft er by the gaming industry with a the cutting edge of game development the emphasis bit of vice-versa poaching going on, too. is on music produced to demanding standards. CHANGING THE MIX Th at’s what we do, right? Th is is music that’s clever, At fi rst glance it appears that scoring music for complex and entertaining. And for once it’s not games must be like working to fi lm and TV. It’s supposed to be mashed into an iPod – not at just a process of creating musical cues that are fi rst, anyway. synchronised to vision, albeit CGI (computer TRY WHISTLING THIS generated imagery). Th at’s about where the It’s arguable just how much of an impact game music similarities end. Th e big diff erence is that games delivers. Some claim that game scores are supposed aren’t linear and at any moment a player can to be subliminal and not actually listened to, like fi lm make choices, fail or win, and trigger events that soundtracks perhaps. Now before you choke on your drastically aff ect what happens next – results that Bonox, let me clarify that last statement by way of might require one of several musical themes. Th ere example. Aft er seeing the movie, Titanic, no-one was is no conventional timeline or plot progression. A AT 32 AT 33 LOVE YOUR WORK music on my terms I’ve come to dislike the make a good living at it, Frank Klepacki is in a without being force-fed red tape of the business do what fits an experience unique position to see the the same rotation of side, too. I have seen many that people will enjoy music industry from many crappy songs every hour, friends’ bands get as far as a whole, and they will different angles. I told him or having to wait weeks as to be signed only to be identify with your personal AT readers love opinions or months before a friend shelved, or get signed and contribution if they enjoy and asked if he had any.