Dynamic music in games

[Smygskytt]

Hi Esacapees.

I've been fascinated by one aspect of the music in some video games, namely dynamic scores. the first time I heard about it was concerning Red Dead Redemption. This trailer to that game explains the concept of dyamic music in a very straightforward manner (for a marketing video):

I have to say that I had problems with the score in RDR, because the game reacted to the environment and the music became a lot more intense when enemies appeared. The issue is that it's a Rockstar sandbox game, and you usually manage to kill all enemies within seconds of spotting them. That means that the score is in effect wasted during the sandbox play.

A game that I consider using Dynamic music well is Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece It is a slow paced strategy game, and that means the game provides lots of opportunities for a buildup before you and the enemy clash. The composer for that game explains the whole process of how the score works here: http://ci-studios.com/hegemony.html

Now that we are all on the same page, do you know any more games that utilizes a dynamic score well? And what do you think of dynamic music?

 

[StatusNil]

I believe the most famous example is the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory soundtrack by Amon Tobin, which is already over a decade old.


It's a stealth game, and the soundtrack gets more intense by adding layers when the enemies get more alerted to your presence, so that when you're running around firing unsilenced weapons at exploding barrels, you get something like the part around the 3 minute mark on this track.

I really like the IDEA of dynamic soundtracks, but as you said, there's always the issue of them lagging behind the action. The shift from one state of gameplay to another is often much more sudden than a dynamic soundtrack can accommodate, as the whole idea is to manage intensity in increments through organic-sounding transitions. For this to work seamlessly, the game would have to correctly anticipate the timing of heightened action. Which is really a problem, considering the player controls the moment-to-moment actions in anything but the most linear, on-rail games conceivable.

In other words, cool concept, but very hard to pull off without distracting lack of synchronicity.

 

[Smygskytt]

I believe the most famous example is the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory soundtrack by Amon Tobin, which is already over a decade old.


I really like the IDEA of dynamic soundtracks, but as you said, there's always the issue of them lagging behind the action.... For this to work seamlessly, the game would have to correctly anticipate the timing of heightened action. Which is really a problem, considering the player controls the moment-to-moment actions in anything but the most linear, on-rail games conceivable.

So it's a no-go for both stealth and sandbox games then. That leaves the RTS and strategy genre, and this is where I wish more games would use dynamic scores. Hegemony uses it's dynamic soundtrack so well by not having it react to combat, it reacts to the spotting of enemies. The visuals of combat is not that interesting (or "cinematic" like CAn'ts would put it) in and of itself, and it is the pre-battle phase of concentrating and deploying units that then decides the fights. That makes the soundtrack a perfect fit, since the shift in the music itself will alert you to that an enemy trireme is approaching. You will then have minutes to prepare and then defeat the enemy. The score then returns to a softer tone, and you are free to focus on planning your next move.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Portal 2 adds extra layers to the music as you perform certain feats, such as bouncing on the repulsion gel. It's really cool.