ragnar

What differs games from other medias is their interactivity. Games has taken very little to no advantage of this to make the music in the games also more interactive. There has been a few smaller examples of a little interactivity in music, such as the Pirate Ship Song in Curse of Monkey Island, the spells in Loom. Otherwise music is just a constant background sound that more often than not is irritating and you just turn it off. In later days it has become slightly more interactive by changing music for combat mode, but it has been very little explored.

What I would like is that the music should be an element that isn't just background, but play it's own role in the game. This would make for a much richer game experience and also for more interesting music.

Ultimately, the music should be generated from a clever script, there should of course be a composer behind it all, but he instead writes the script that the computer generetes. This could be used to greater or lesser extent. The simplest form is just a script that chooses which music file to play, the more advanced should be able actually vary the music play depending on the actions taken by the player in the game in sublime ways.

On a side note it is quite boring to always have a constant repeating background music, game designers should learn to use silence a lot more. It isn't necessary to have music on all the time in the game.

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Phantom

Most modern games feature context-sensitive music... More often than not the music changes with the action on screen, for example. Music-oriented puzzles are most of the time annoying so I don't want to see more of them in games.

I do think however that most developers seriously underestimate the importance of good music in their games (as do most movie directors, for that matter). Music is one of the most important elements in games and movies and should receive MUCH more attention. Good music can elevate a game to new heights. A perfect example is American McGee's Alice, which features one of the best soundtracks ever made for computer games. Alice wouldn't have been a good game without it.

Henke

I don't know either if I want to see "music puzzles" or anything like that. But music is extremely important in both movies and games. The experience is much stronger with the right music.

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Swordmaster

I'm still looking forward to that all-singin', all-dancin' LucasArts musical adventure.

Ninja Dodo

Outcast did a good job of varying the music depending on the context. Each world had it's own theme, but if you were threatened a different song would set in, and then a different one to that if you engaged in combat.

Garyos

Right on.

Henke

Now I'm going to have nightmares. :eek:

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insane_cobra

well yes, most games today do have context sensitive music and no, i don't think music puzzles are a good idea, if that's the sort of interactivity you had in mind.

on a side note, i would love to see a lord of the rings musical.


the fellowship: "we're the jolly fellowship of the ring!"
gimli: "we can fight!"
legolas: "we can dance!"
pippin (in a high-pitched voice): "we can sing!"

nah, just ignore me..

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nordic_guy

I like musical puzzles, especially in a game like COMI that doesn't take itself too serious and alow itself to play with the music.
But most musical puzzles in adventure games seem to center around the 'get the tunes right' variation, like the spitting tunes puzzle in The Neverhood, which I don't really like.

Zygomaticus

The moment I read that, I was reminded of this.

The only music puzzle perse I ever came across was in Where in Time is Carmen San Diego, where you had to arrange Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphpony (divided into 4-5 pages) in the right order. It was pretty neat, but more than a puzzling mind, it required a musical mind

Tanukitsune

I HATE musical puzzles since I am tone deaf...
I LOVE it when the music changes depending on your actions or if you are in danger, safe, etc...

I think most of games today do that, right?

But silence, hmm, maybe in some scenes when you don't need to be distracted? That would be nice...

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Erkki

Come on now, you don't need to swear. If you don't know what I'm talking about do a google image search on 'perse' and look at the second picture that comes up

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Bastich

Personally, I find almost all game music to be annoying. And I don't mean that as adjudication against the composers, but as a criticism of its usage. Music more often than not, destroys the immersion factor and is horribly repetitive. It usually only works the first couple times and then I hate it. I would much rather choose ambience over music if given the choice. It just seems rather silly and out of place for a full scale orchestra to start playing a song when I am in the middle of the wilderness fighting a battle. Save it for the taverns or street musicians where it makes sense.

And in many cases, complete silence is the most immersive of all...

Bastich

Oh, the battle music in Silent Hill 3 is the perfect example.

It is very cacophonic in nature and is cool about the first 2-3 times. By the end of the game, it nearly pushed me to the point of insanity and real world spree killing. Of course, if we believe people like Sen. Lieberman, that was Konami's very goal.

Kolzig

heh, those finnish and their crazy words

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Zygomaticus

LOL, but you know what I meant. I guess it's "per sé"?

Henke

Well if you play 100% action shooting games like Quake or Half-life I can understand if music is just in the way. But I think such games are boring even with music anyway.

I like games that makes me step into the gaming world by having graphics, music and gameplay work together like a clockwork.

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mag

I know you say that in jest, but I actually wouldn't mind playing an adventure like that. I've been learning a whole new appreciation for musicals with great works like Jesus Christ Superstar and the Trans Siberian Orchestra's Beethovan's Last Night. Music seems to evoke a level of emotion that wouldn't be possible with spoken dialogue. So if there's a designer out there who can figure out a way to make a game out of that, I'd love to try it. And I'm sure that if anybody does figure it out, it will indeed be a LucasArts adventure.


Creating the proper atmosphere isn't about realism. It's about mood. That's why having a full scale orchestra playing in the wilderness makes sense for battle music. It doesn't matter that there are no orchestras out in the middle of the forest. It creates the right mood for the situation. There comes a point where realism detracts from entertainment. And entertainment should always take precedence.

I actually like a lot game music. A good portion of my music collection is game soundtracks. And I can't stand it when a scene doesn't have any music. For some reason I just find the silence frustrating. I would agree that no music is better than bad music. But that doesn't seem to be as much of a problem these days. Most of the game music now seems to be good enough that it doesn't really sound repetitive any more.

mag

Garyos

Jest? We're deadly serious my friend.

The Seed

The musical numbers in Lucasarts adventures are some of the most memorable ever, I hope we see plenty more in Sam & Max 2.