[Blue Magic]

I was kinda thinking about this the other day when I was playing some old SNES games, and comparing them to modern gaming.

Now-a-days, I find myself being more distracted by the eye candy, explosions, and in-your-effin'-face action to even pay attention to the music. By revving the visual processing power of modern day gaming systems, it seems to me like the emphasis is being shifted from making a great, memorable soundtrack, to creating a visually pleasing, "great looking" game. And all that is understandable, because its only good marketing to try to take full advantage of a gaming system's power. But that kinda puts the music on the back burner.

For instance, I can remember the music from the first stage of Contra vividly, even though I haven't played that game in well over 15 years, but I can't remember a single melody from MW3, and I just finished playing it yesterday. I remember FF7, and FF8's soundtrack pretty well, but I can't remember shit from FF13 except for Lightning's theme, and that's only because they played it several times throughout the game. With that said, I suppose repetition plays a huge role in making a song memorable.

IDK, maybe its just me getting old.

Finding a balance between music and gameplay is the key, IMO.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Blue Magic

I can't remember shit from FF13 except for Lightning's theme, and that's only because they played it several times throughout the game.

Not quite sure I would put ff13 on par with MW3 music-wise. MW3 - the music is pretty much just to fuel your adrenaline so it's pretty unmemorable - it does its job (similar to what Dannthr was saying about serving the game) but i'm not a fan of MW3 music. But FF13 is full of great music which I found pretty memorable, maybe you didn't. True that lightening's theme was put in a lot of the other tracks as well as it was kinda the main theme in a way - it was in the battle theme (if memory serves).

I don't think game companies are focusing less on music but perhaps more atmospheric/adrenaline-fueling music is possible now so it's less about lead, lead 2, chords, drums which is suited towards more melody-centric music and people can (and inspired by cinema) will produce a lot more atmospheric music. There's a big focus on game soundtracks now, i think... with like iOS games getting super popular and stuff selling on bandcamp and those who grew up with video games coming of age... perhaps i'm making big sweeping statements.

I am a little sick of forgettable movie-music in games and would trade it any day for a NES-type melody-centric soundtrack. But i think there's a lot of games which get production and new possibilities right along with great memorial soundtracks.

[PROTO·DOME]

I seriously haven't forgotten this.

Or this.

RECREATE, SELL TO GAME COMPANIES, $$PROFITS$$

Repeat for infinite money.

[dannthr]

The demands of sound and music have grown incredibly in the past 20 years while audio staff still fight tooth and nail to get an appropriate budget of system resources and money to make it happen.

We are not the same video game players we were 20 years ago.

We have greater expectations and demand higher production value.

At this stage, game composers are fighting a losing battle to keep users from turning the soundtrack off and listening to their own iTunes.

I guarantee that if you replaced the 200 something minute soundtrack for World of Warcraft with a 40 second looping 8-bit theme song, it would be replaced within minutes with an iTunes playlist playing Lord of the Rings or Nightwish or something similar.

There just isn't enough music to satisfy the demands of players these days--people play MMOs like it's a 40+ hour a week job.

One of the biggest soundtracks ever for any game: Star Wars: The Old Republic, shipped with 10+ hours of music (including 3+ hours of originally composed music just for the game). The original soundtrack is brilliantly executed in the highest honor of John Williams tributage, recorded at Skywalker Sound with members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Yet, people still complain and bitch and moan.

I would bet money that all of the audio content in Star Wars The Old Republic didn't cost EA more than 2% of their budget.

Forget trying to make it memorable, make it important to the game experience, make it so that no one wants to turn it off because it's vital to hear while playing.

That's good game music. It has to be a part of the game, not just something you listen to while you play it, but an integral component of the game design.

You guys forget that because you listen to game music out of context.

Who cares if it's great listening music, if you can put it on your ipod while you jog or do homework.

That goal needs to be ancillary to serving the game.

Making something memorable in the context of the game means making a motivic connection between moments or experiences.

Music can connect two completely disparate dots in the game play timeline by utilizing a memorable theme. The restatement of that theme will literally evoke a synaptic response in the players brain recalling the last time they heard that theme.

Good game music is effective with goals that serve the experience.

Everything else is ego.

[BrothaDom]

Thank you...that really sums it up in a concise way. I appreciate your help

[Neblix]

I guarantee a tradition 8-bit style NES melody-centric song for Silent Hill would utterly destroy the game's atmosphere.

[BrothaDom]

Right! I want to figure out the happy medium between good 8bit music and good modern music. They have different strengths, and I want to find the middle ground.

[lazygecko]

In typical Japanese 4-channel NES music, the first channel would almost always be playing some kind of melody while the second one was a sort of jack of all trades. Sometimes it would harmonize the lead melody, then it might switch to a more complex counter-melody, and sometimes it would be playing a fake echo/chorus variant of the lead melody to shift more attention towards it and giving the music some breathing room from the complexity. I think these are some of the key features that made the music so memorable.

[GSO]

If you can, get your hands on music from the VGM "pioneers" (uematsu, mitsuda, koji kondo, etc.) don't try to copy them necessarily. just listen to the music figure out what you like about it and incorporate those elements into your own music, at least that's what I did.