The modern day game industry is rising tremendously, with giants competing against giants and small scale companies fighting with each other for higher market share. There is a lot of potential for both types of game development companies. So if you are a small scale game development company and you need music for better engagement and user experiences, then utilizing free game engines can solve your problem and keep you a competing force in the game industry market.
Music in Games Industry
We have come a long way from handheld games and Nintendo. The technology has changed with the advent of PS4, Xbox One, and Wii-U. The games have transformed accordingly as well. We have BattleField 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin Creed, all of which have budgets that rival Hollywood movies and have fantastic musical scores which set the mood of the environments they create.
Games these days are all about realism and dramatic value. Sound effects play a huge role in adding that element of drama to the scenarios. In Call of Duty, the whizzing bullets, shrapnel, debris and blood stains would give you the feeling you get when watching the movie “Black Hawk Down”. To fully immerse gamers into the world and captivate their imagination, games have now turned to creating music scores that are similar in quality to those found in Hollywood movies. In order to connect with their users at an emotional level, the game developers and companies created stories which are complemented by soundtracks that excite, scare and delight you. Tell me truly, how many of you rued and grieved for Simon “Ghost” Riley and Gary “Roach” Sanderson when “General Shepherd” shot them in COD Modern Warfare 2?
Modern Developments in Game Music
Modern day games involve great story-lines, music and themes for engaging and involving gamers. The big game houses are hiring famous Hollywood musicians for producing music for the games. Hans Zimmer the famous music producer for the movies like “The Last Samurai” and “Inception” Clint Mansell from “Requiem for a Dream” and “The Fountain” are the prime examples of this trend. Hans Zimmer composed music for Call of Duty franchise while Clint Mansell gave music for Mass Effect 3. The adaptation to the environment is brilliant by these two composers. It is tremendous to observe how Hans Zimmer transformed from “The Red Warrior” and “Time” to COD’s music and Clint Mansell changed his approach from “Lux Aeterna” and “Death is the road to awe” to Mass Effect 3.
These changes are vivid and clear which gives us the impression how seriously game industry giants are taking game music. The modern day game industry is thriving and reaching new heights with every new game, therefore the importance of developing engaging music is paramount.
Sadly, Mozart and Beethoven are dead, as are Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, so hiring them for game music is impossible. Even if they would have been alive, the price tag would have made it an extremely difficult choice anyway. However, imagine all the possibilities of mixing their western classical, psychedelic, and rock capabilities in your gaming experience.
So if small scale game developing companies and indie developers can’t hire the big composers, how can they still achieve a good quality soundtrack and sound for their games? There are several resources for small scale developers to get a proper music for the story-line as per the requirements. Different game engines and websites provide solutions for most of the music/sound problems for the small scale companies and indie developers.
For example Indie developers and small scale game companies can use tools like “Unity Audio”, which is a prime utility tool for creating effective and sensational game music for different themes and story-line. As per the description “Unity provides powerful tools for resonant scenes. In-game audio is powered by FMOD, one of the world’s most widely used libraries and tool-kits for the creation and playback of interactive audio”.
On the other hand, UDK is another game engine which developers and small scale companies should look up to. UDK is unique as it gives small scale game companies an opportunity to develop games with a minimal charge of USD $99 and 0% royalty for first USD $50,000. So if you are an indie game developer or a small scale game company selling games to end users directly you can utilize UDK for creating your games and it will also solve sound/music problems for the game.
For different royalty free stock audio, there are several websites offering voices, sounds and music for the games. This includes, but not limited to, arteriamusic.com, audiojungle.com, beatsuite.com, and ibaudio.com.
Conclusion
Music evokes many emotions such as pleasure, happiness and excitement. Musicians from the past and present have gifted us with symphonies for our soul. We have witnessed and enjoyed the magic of great musicians like Beethoven, Mozart, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain.
Today, music is involved in almost everything related to the entertainment industry. Music is used in movies, documentaries, radio programs, TV shows and even during coverage of live sports transmissions. We also have school programs and gospel music which help instill music into the lives of children from an early age. We can understand the importance of music for reaching and influencing people in daily lives.
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