How to create an interesting game setting? Level Three: music
Relatively recently, Bioshock appeared on my Steam account. Since it was released 6 years ago, there were some compatibility issues: the sound was present only during the splash screen, and the gameplay itself was held in complete silence. No background music, dialogue, screaming little sisters or the roar of shots. Subtitles were present, but it was impossible to play: the gameplay looked unnatural and created a feeling of strong discomfort.
Players and developers argue fiercely what is more important: a grafon, a plot, or an innovative mechanic, often forgetting that without which the gameplay of many games becomes real torture. In this article we will understand why the audio component is so important for the game, and how music can affect the process of immersion.
History reference
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In the early stages of the gaming industry, developers had big problems with sound reproduction. In order for the user to hear an elementary "pi", when the game character kicks the enemy, electrical impulses are converted from simple code to sound waves using a special card. The first problem was that memory was required for reproduction, and with it in the 70s it was tight. The second problem is technical limitation, for example, the popular Atari 2600 prefix (1977) could only output two notes at a time.
Music in the games of the 80s was created in the form of code, so the first composers were the programmers themselves. Many, realizing the futility of trying to write a quality melody, turned to classics and folk motifs that were recognizable, free and easily remembered.
By that time, when many games have become world famous thanks to consoles from SEGA and Nintendo, composers have already realized that you can make good money in the gaming industry. So there were great tracks from talented composers to Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and other high-profile projects.
With the development of technology, game developers have begun to pay more attention to music and sounds. In our article, we explore the effect of sound on immersion in the gameplay and find out why the sound in the game is just as important as the graphics.
Introductory melodies, music menus and captions
The music in the first games was intended to attract the attention of visitors to the bar or club where the arcade machine was located. The hardware memory at that time was barely enough to reproduce the short melody at the beginning and end of the game. But thanks to such tough restrictions, composers were forced to come up with really interesting and memorable melodies, many of which we still remember.
In modern video games, the music screensaver performs an introductory function: it sets up the user to the gameplay, can say a lot about the setting, or even the plot of the game.
For example, in the intro to the first part of the Mass Effect trilogy, we hear calm music with distinctive elements: it contains live instruments and synthesized sounds. Even without a visual row, you can safely say that this is a game in a space setting. The combination of synthesized and lively sounds can even tell the details of the plot: it is about the confrontation of people and machines. It is important to note that the screen saver music is also used in the menu (only in Mass Effect). This technique makes the music even more memorable: in the future it will be the theme of the trilogy.
The melody of the Mass Effect 2 screensaver is radically different: it is aggressive, fast and contains mostly the sounds of live instruments, and the disturbing synthesized fraction is present only in the first bars. In addition, the game's trailer is shown in the screensaver (the music is continued in it).
All this sets the player to the desired mode: the war is in full swing, and only aggressive actions can save humanity from death. In this case, in Mass Effect 2, the main character is one of the members of the organization “Cerberus”, which is known for its radical methods. Instead of background music in the menu, we hear only a low hum and some sounds peculiar to the spacecraft.
For the third part of the game, the composers created a calm, pacifying melody played by the orchestra, and the batch of wind instruments and violins is very expressive. It is easy to guess that this music is a kind of requiem for the heroes who died in the battle for humanity. The transition to the menu here is accompanied by an alarming melody at low frequencies, which causes the player to feel nervous, evoking thoughts of impending tragedy.
In this episode, the background music for the menu is worked out most interestingly. A low alarming buzz is positioned as the sound of the ship’s engines, while we catch a lot of additional noise: talks on the radio, sounds of opening space capsules, squeaking computers. All this is barely audible motif superimposed musical theme of the game.
The game menu is a functional, without which it is almost impossible to do. However, it is the menu and setting screens that return the player to reality and interrupt the flow condition. The main task of the music and sounds in the menu is not to allow the player to fall out of this state, to preserve the gaming atmosphere, regardless of the gameplay or location. The lack of music in the menu or screensaver can also be a well thought out technique. It is used to show features of the game or to highlight some sound and noise elements.
It is very important to correctly arrange the transition from the screen saver to the menu, from the menu to the gameplay itself and back. The quality of the "gluing" largely depends on whether the player stays in the flow of the game or drops out of it.
Music titles - this is a kind of outcome of the game. Most often, as in the cinema, eminent composers and musicians are invited to create musical titles. Quite often, caption music is used for marketing purposes: it’s a great reason to put a well-known song into the game, even if it doesn’t quite match the setting.
Gameplay music
In-game music can be divided into two types: diegetic and extradiegetic. Diegetic is music whose source is in the game itself. She is heard not only by the player, but also by the character. Diegetic music can be interactive (as a result of user actions, playing the guitar in Sims 3, switching radio stations in GTA IV) and non-dynamic (the player sees the source of the sound, but does not affect its playback).
Extradiegetic - music that only the player hears. In the game world there is no source of this music, the game character does not hear it. Almost any gameplay music belongs to this category: themes of locations, characters, background music of dialogues, battles. Music locations in rare cases can be diegetic, for example, the tavern melody in Neverwinter Nights II: the player may not see the musicians, but it is logical to assume that they are somewhere in the room, and the characters can hear the same melody.
At the same time, extradiegetic music is adaptive: its tempo, sound, or loudness changes depending on the player's actions.
Often, it is music that is the connecting thread between the user and the game: it tells how to react in certain cases, sets the rhythm and atmosphere. Accelerating tune drives the player, reminds you that time is running out. Muffled music makes you concentrate on finding a solution to a specific task. Increasing may signal that the character is attacked. The absence of music is usually perceived as something abnormal, alarming and makes you concentrate more on the game world. This technique is used in Limbo, where instead of music, the player hears only distant noise, which makes the diegetic sounds — the crunch of sand under the feet of the character, the tramp of the spider’s feet, the splashing of water — even more expressive and frightening.
Based on logic and previous gaming experience, the user determines whether the music is diegetic or added to the game for atmospheric purposes to highlight the setting.
In the game Silent Hill, which came out on the PlayStation back in 1999, the main character after the accident hits the streets of an abandoned city. Fog, white pixels fall from the sky (sorry, snow), while we hear the character's footsteps and background music, like the howling of the wind in the pipes. If the sounds of steps definitely belong to the game world (we see the hero), then only the player can hear the music. For the Silent Hill character, he is completely silent, and the sound of his own steps is the only thing he hears.
Due to the absolute irregularity of the gameplay, it is impossible to write a melody that could accompany the entire many hours of the game. Usually composers use the looping method: the melody is repeated in a circle, over and over. At the same time, it should be unobtrusive enough not to annoy players, as well as match the setting and mood of the location.
In social games, music plays a special role, since the gameplay here has no time limit and implies the daily activity of players. Therefore, it is especially important to create a melody that would facilitate immersion in the game universe and be combined with other game sounds. While working on the musical background of the Plarium strategies, we understand how important it is to choose the right melody - an unobtrusive and fully appropriate setting. After a long search, we invited the composer, who at that time already had tremendous experience in creating game music, to cooperate. Jesper Kidd is the author of the soundtracks for Borderlands, Hitman, Assassin's Creed, Unreal Tournament III and dozens of other amazing games. We were the first to attract a gaming composer of this level to create a soundtrack for social games. It was Jesper who wrote the music for most Plarium sineatikov strategies. More information about the collaboration with Jesper Kid and the features of creating music for gaming trailers can be found in the article “The history of creating the cinematic“ Enduring ””.
Composers often use unusual musical instruments to transmit a specific setting or mood. For example, Gergely Buttinger added cello and dulcimers to traditional instruments to create the lead theme in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, and Jesper Kid, creating the soundtrack to Sparta's strategy: War of Empires, used a guitar-viol.
Music is often one of the leading instruments that immerses the user in the game universe. It is no less important than the graphics or game mechanics. Professional game composers work on creating soundtracks, and melodies are recorded in the best studios with musicians or even orchestras. The developers are doing everything possible so that the user does not have the desire to muffle the sound and turn on the local radio as background music.
It is difficult to overestimate the role of thoughtful musical design of the game. Try Knock-knock to the songs of Zhanna Friske. Turn off background music in Neverwinter Nights. Music is the soul of the game, and it depends on it whether the user will be able to plunge into the game universe and reach the state of flow.
Players and developers argue fiercely what is more important: a grafon, a plot, or an innovative mechanic, often forgetting that without which the gameplay of many games becomes real torture. In this article we will understand why the audio component is so important for the game, and how music can affect the process of immersion.
History reference
')
In the early stages of the gaming industry, developers had big problems with sound reproduction. In order for the user to hear an elementary "pi", when the game character kicks the enemy, electrical impulses are converted from simple code to sound waves using a special card. The first problem was that memory was required for reproduction, and with it in the 70s it was tight. The second problem is technical limitation, for example, the popular Atari 2600 prefix (1977) could only output two notes at a time.
Music in the games of the 80s was created in the form of code, so the first composers were the programmers themselves. Many, realizing the futility of trying to write a quality melody, turned to classics and folk motifs that were recognizable, free and easily remembered.
By that time, when many games have become world famous thanks to consoles from SEGA and Nintendo, composers have already realized that you can make good money in the gaming industry. So there were great tracks from talented composers to Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and other high-profile projects.
With the development of technology, game developers have begun to pay more attention to music and sounds. In our article, we explore the effect of sound on immersion in the gameplay and find out why the sound in the game is just as important as the graphics.
Introductory melodies, music menus and captions
The music in the first games was intended to attract the attention of visitors to the bar or club where the arcade machine was located. The hardware memory at that time was barely enough to reproduce the short melody at the beginning and end of the game. But thanks to such tough restrictions, composers were forced to come up with really interesting and memorable melodies, many of which we still remember.
In modern video games, the music screensaver performs an introductory function: it sets up the user to the gameplay, can say a lot about the setting, or even the plot of the game.
For example, in the intro to the first part of the Mass Effect trilogy, we hear calm music with distinctive elements: it contains live instruments and synthesized sounds. Even without a visual row, you can safely say that this is a game in a space setting. The combination of synthesized and lively sounds can even tell the details of the plot: it is about the confrontation of people and machines. It is important to note that the screen saver music is also used in the menu (only in Mass Effect). This technique makes the music even more memorable: in the future it will be the theme of the trilogy.
The melody of the Mass Effect 2 screensaver is radically different: it is aggressive, fast and contains mostly the sounds of live instruments, and the disturbing synthesized fraction is present only in the first bars. In addition, the game's trailer is shown in the screensaver (the music is continued in it).
All this sets the player to the desired mode: the war is in full swing, and only aggressive actions can save humanity from death. In this case, in Mass Effect 2, the main character is one of the members of the organization “Cerberus”, which is known for its radical methods. Instead of background music in the menu, we hear only a low hum and some sounds peculiar to the spacecraft.
For the third part of the game, the composers created a calm, pacifying melody played by the orchestra, and the batch of wind instruments and violins is very expressive. It is easy to guess that this music is a kind of requiem for the heroes who died in the battle for humanity. The transition to the menu here is accompanied by an alarming melody at low frequencies, which causes the player to feel nervous, evoking thoughts of impending tragedy.
In this episode, the background music for the menu is worked out most interestingly. A low alarming buzz is positioned as the sound of the ship’s engines, while we catch a lot of additional noise: talks on the radio, sounds of opening space capsules, squeaking computers. All this is barely audible motif superimposed musical theme of the game.
The game menu is a functional, without which it is almost impossible to do. However, it is the menu and setting screens that return the player to reality and interrupt the flow condition. The main task of the music and sounds in the menu is not to allow the player to fall out of this state, to preserve the gaming atmosphere, regardless of the gameplay or location. The lack of music in the menu or screensaver can also be a well thought out technique. It is used to show features of the game or to highlight some sound and noise elements.
It is very important to correctly arrange the transition from the screen saver to the menu, from the menu to the gameplay itself and back. The quality of the "gluing" largely depends on whether the player stays in the flow of the game or drops out of it.
Music titles - this is a kind of outcome of the game. Most often, as in the cinema, eminent composers and musicians are invited to create musical titles. Quite often, caption music is used for marketing purposes: it’s a great reason to put a well-known song into the game, even if it doesn’t quite match the setting.
Gameplay music
In-game music can be divided into two types: diegetic and extradiegetic. Diegetic is music whose source is in the game itself. She is heard not only by the player, but also by the character. Diegetic music can be interactive (as a result of user actions, playing the guitar in Sims 3, switching radio stations in GTA IV) and non-dynamic (the player sees the source of the sound, but does not affect its playback).
Extradiegetic - music that only the player hears. In the game world there is no source of this music, the game character does not hear it. Almost any gameplay music belongs to this category: themes of locations, characters, background music of dialogues, battles. Music locations in rare cases can be diegetic, for example, the tavern melody in Neverwinter Nights II: the player may not see the musicians, but it is logical to assume that they are somewhere in the room, and the characters can hear the same melody.
At the same time, extradiegetic music is adaptive: its tempo, sound, or loudness changes depending on the player's actions.
Often, it is music that is the connecting thread between the user and the game: it tells how to react in certain cases, sets the rhythm and atmosphere. Accelerating tune drives the player, reminds you that time is running out. Muffled music makes you concentrate on finding a solution to a specific task. Increasing may signal that the character is attacked. The absence of music is usually perceived as something abnormal, alarming and makes you concentrate more on the game world. This technique is used in Limbo, where instead of music, the player hears only distant noise, which makes the diegetic sounds — the crunch of sand under the feet of the character, the tramp of the spider’s feet, the splashing of water — even more expressive and frightening.
Based on logic and previous gaming experience, the user determines whether the music is diegetic or added to the game for atmospheric purposes to highlight the setting.
In the game Silent Hill, which came out on the PlayStation back in 1999, the main character after the accident hits the streets of an abandoned city. Fog, white pixels fall from the sky (sorry, snow), while we hear the character's footsteps and background music, like the howling of the wind in the pipes. If the sounds of steps definitely belong to the game world (we see the hero), then only the player can hear the music. For the Silent Hill character, he is completely silent, and the sound of his own steps is the only thing he hears.
Due to the absolute irregularity of the gameplay, it is impossible to write a melody that could accompany the entire many hours of the game. Usually composers use the looping method: the melody is repeated in a circle, over and over. At the same time, it should be unobtrusive enough not to annoy players, as well as match the setting and mood of the location.
In social games, music plays a special role, since the gameplay here has no time limit and implies the daily activity of players. Therefore, it is especially important to create a melody that would facilitate immersion in the game universe and be combined with other game sounds. While working on the musical background of the Plarium strategies, we understand how important it is to choose the right melody - an unobtrusive and fully appropriate setting. After a long search, we invited the composer, who at that time already had tremendous experience in creating game music, to cooperate. Jesper Kidd is the author of the soundtracks for Borderlands, Hitman, Assassin's Creed, Unreal Tournament III and dozens of other amazing games. We were the first to attract a gaming composer of this level to create a soundtrack for social games. It was Jesper who wrote the music for most Plarium sineatikov strategies. More information about the collaboration with Jesper Kid and the features of creating music for gaming trailers can be found in the article “The history of creating the cinematic“ Enduring ””.
Composers often use unusual musical instruments to transmit a specific setting or mood. For example, Gergely Buttinger added cello and dulcimers to traditional instruments to create the lead theme in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, and Jesper Kid, creating the soundtrack to Sparta's strategy: War of Empires, used a guitar-viol.
Music is often one of the leading instruments that immerses the user in the game universe. It is no less important than the graphics or game mechanics. Professional game composers work on creating soundtracks, and melodies are recorded in the best studios with musicians or even orchestras. The developers are doing everything possible so that the user does not have the desire to muffle the sound and turn on the local radio as background music.
It is difficult to overestimate the role of thoughtful musical design of the game. Try Knock-knock to the songs of Zhanna Friske. Turn off background music in Neverwinter Nights. Music is the soul of the game, and it depends on it whether the user will be able to plunge into the game universe and reach the state of flow.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/238543/
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