Very few people are lucky enough to make money off their art. But there are many musicians who are doing just that by adapting their skills for the games industry. tn2 caught up with some of them to find out more.
WORDS Paul Casey
As video games have evolved as a medium, creators have embraced divergent philosophies. It is difficult to avoid the seemingly endless debate over choice versus the storytelling possibilities of a linear experience. “I want to play a game!” is uttered by folks who are enraged by the cut-scenes in Metal Gear Solid. “Is it art?” by the other lot, who won’t stop recommending Shadow of the Colossus to Roger Ebert. Music in video games, more than motion capture acting or a robust online multiplayer, provides an answer as to how best to engage the player. It is also, for now, one of the few remaining places where a musician can make a living.
Rich Vreeland is the composer for such games as the brilliant Fez, franchise entries like Bomberman Live: Battlefest, as well as his own music creation mood piece January. January is a simple, wonderful experience. It involves the player going for a walk in the snow. To create music, the player catches snowflakes on their tongue. The more snowflakes caught on the tongue, the more music the player creates. “I think some of the design process came as I was working on it, in terms of making it an inviting experience, without hand holding. I wanted to give the player freedom to make creative contributions to the music, but still within a curated framework.”
While Guitar Hero and Rock Band draw lazy criticism from the pub cover band crowd, they remain good examples of games that draw the player into a creative process. It is not about cultivating applicable musical talent, but allowing those who search for it and fail, to feel that release. I Got a Feeling alongside McCartney and Lennon is serious catharsis. Playing Knocking On Heaven’s Door, sloppy, at a three chord party cannot compare.
The much overlooked Donkey Kong Jungle Beat developed by Nintendo was in many ways the precursor to the successes of the Wii. Following on from the musical rhythm game Donkey Konga, Jungle Beat is a vibrant, extremely physical platformer. In a similar way to more experimental ideas, like Vreeland’s January, Jungle Beat involves the player as a creator. It is music in movement. Choice has nothing to do with it.
For Fez, a platformer operating around the simple, elegant concept of a character realising that his two-dimensional world has a hidden third dimension, Vreeland composed music which he felt suited the experience. “There was very little if any musical direction, I simply directed myself. I was playing the game all the time, and I started planning out where music was needed based on the scope and flow of the game, and how to approach it.” Vreeland’s work on Fez resulted in a collection of superior ambient as well as more anxious electronic tracks.
Fez does not have the same level of musical interactivity as Vreeland’s January, but composing for it still demanded attention to how the player interacted with the world created by Polytron. Even though Vreeland decided that the music should depend on location, there were times when he had to directly address the narrative. “An example of this is Reflection, which happens right after Gomez leaves his village for the first time. It’s an extended, ambient take on the village theme, and you only hear it the first time you leave. It’s supposed to capture the emotion of leaving the place [where] you’ve always been.”
One of the challenges of composing music for video games is accounting for the interactive nature of the medium. Even when the player feels that they are simply “watching a movie”, the composer has to judge the way in which the environment reveals itself to the player. “Sometimes, an interactive idea is complex enough that it totally informs your writing. Fear, for instance, involves the mimicry of thunder and rain, which involved a system that triggers the next chord at a random time. This had to be carefully thought out. How long should the tail of rain after each chord be? What is the sequence of chords, or should they play randomly?”
In some games, like Sega’s hypnotic shooter Rez, the music is linked directly with the gameplay. Even at its most linear though, video game music informs an involvement beyond the other passive mediums. Consider the impact of Manami Matsumae’s work on Capcom’s Mega Man. There is one goal, true. There is one right way to do things, and yet when that drum machine and synth kicks with Guts Man or Fire Man, you know that this is your sound, not the character’s. You may be locked into a story, but that story is yours, every time. More traditional modern soundtracks, like Andrew and Simon Hale’s work on L.A. Noire, are integral to the authenticity of the story, even more than the appearance of Charlie Parker’s horn.
As it becomes increasingly difficult for musicians to dedicate themselves purely to creating, Rich Vreeland stands as an example of the potential of the medium to provide a living. “I am indeed able to devote myself to my music full time. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to do so. Breaking in was not too hard for me, but it definitely didn’t happen on its own, and I think everyone will have a different experience. I was already writing chiptune music for a couple of years before I started doing game music. I also took two game audio internships in college which proved to be very beneficial, and used college loan money to go to GDC, which is how I got one of my first contract gigs.”
As the recording industry fails to counter the impact of free music for all, and those musicians who are not U2 or Bruce Springsteen try to work a razor-thin profit margin on live performance, it seems that video games may provide a future. The more musicians pursue a career in video games, the more we will see the medium’s interactivity affect the music we listen to.
“Games really unlock the potential for music to carry on new responsibilities. It’s a natural fit for exploring non-linear forms of music, and music that evolves logically and organically based on variable conditions. I think these are exciting things to be involved with, though I also think that when it’s done really well, the average person is not even going to notice that anything special is happening.”
