After sitting with Olly I’ve come up with a list of Music Cues that should work. I may need to revise this after I’ve had a chance to see this in-situ and may also need to extend some of the “blocks” to make it less repetitive. I have a feeling that the Maze Area Theme loop will be a bit too boring.
To make the Cue List I’ve copied the list template from “Composing Music for Games – The Art, Technology and Business of Video Game Scoring” (Thomas, 2016). Even though for this I’m the “client” so it’s not all needed, but it will be good practice to have the columns and to fill them out as needed.
Cue List
| Music Cue | Date WIP Sent | Client Feedback | Date Revisions Sent | Date Approved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Room Theme (30 sec loop) | ||||
| Room 2/3 Theme (30 sec loop) | ||||
| Ramp Loop (10 sec loop) | ||||
| Boss Theme (15 sec loop) | ||||
| Maze Area Theme (30 sec loop) | ||||
| Altar Loop (10 sec loop) | ||||
| Guitar One Shot (Triggered) | ||||
| Siren One Shot (Triggered) |
I’ll also go through the instructions to the developer (thanks Olly) for each of the cues and how I want them to trigger.
Instructions to the developer:
Starting Room: A loop of the Starting Room Theme (File name: StartRoom-v1.aif)
Rooms 2 and 3: A loop of the same Theme (File name: Room2_and_3.aif), if possible, overlay the Guitar (File name: GuitarOneShot-v1.aif) when first entering the room)
Ramp to Boss Level: Fade out the Room 2/3 music over 2 seconds and have the Ramp Loop run (File name: Ramp-v1.aif).
Boss Level: This needs to be spatial audio. The sphere needs to completely cover the boss room and half of the ramp. Have a linear fall off so that as you come up to the boss area you hear the music for the boss level fade in (File name: BossFight-v1.aif). As you go into the Boss Room you can stop the Ramp loop.
Maze Area: Loop the same theme (File name: MazeArea-v1.aif). Trigger the siren, if possible, on entry (File name: Siren-v1.aif).
Altar: This needs to be spatial audio. It should fade in over the top of the Maze Area Theme and not replace it. It should loop (File name: AltarLoop-v1.aif) and have a linear fall off that allows it to fade in as the users goes up the stairs.
Final thoughts after playing the game with sounds added:
I think that the music works, but I’ll want to swap the Rooms 2/3 and the Maze areas so that the build-up is better. I may also try to get a little more differentiation in the cues in terms of build-up, so they are more different from each other. I also think that the triggered one-shots will also help.
It was interesting playing the game. As a player, it’s difficult to listen to the music rather than hear the music. In a way I think that it heightens the experience of the music. You hear the music, and you respond to the emotional overtones. You don’t listen to it as you may if you were being passive while the music is being played. I think I may need to listen to rather than play a few of my games to better understand how they have impacted on the gaming experience.
References:
Thomas, C. (2016) Composing music for games: The Art, Technology and Business of video game scoring. London, UK: Taylor & Francis Group.