COMPOSING MUSIC FOR VIDEO GAMES
Like many composers, I often pitch for new projects.
When requests come in from game developers, I carefully read the brief to get a sense of direction for the game music, and after a few days of pondering, a new piece of music finds its way into the world.
This post is for game developers interested in the writing process of music for games and musicians who have an interest in writing music for video games.
PITCHING FOR NEW PROJECTS
Composing music for a game pitch is always exciting, although it can also be daunting. And whilst dreaming up a game sound world from scratch is great fun, it’s never a given that what I’m writing will win the day. Colleges in the music world may also be pitching with a radically different approach. So I follow my instincts, listen to my gut and write what I believe is right!
I recently pitched a piece of game music for a Sci-Fi city builder featuring robot workers that harvest plants grown for humans on Mars.
I had a strong intuition that the music should be uplifting and fun. But without becoming overly childish or naive.
Let me show you how I approach that in a musical sense.
COMPOSITION BREAKDOWN
The cute design of the video game and its setting got me thinking about the celestial bodies of outer space, and in my mind, that screams Lydian! For non-composers, Lydian is a Major scale mode with an uplifting or otherworldly quality.
Harmony
The harmonic progression came to me first and developed the Lydian idea, starting with a C6#4 chord (C, E, F#, A) before moving to a Dadd2 (D, E, F#, A).
You can see the first two chords share three notes (E, F#, A), but by raising the bass note of the second chord from C to D, it’s possible to create a sense of lifting.
Continuing the theme of a rising bass note, I transposed the first chord up a minor 3rd to Eb6#4 (Eb, G, A, C) before resolving back to a D7sus4 (D, G, A, C) which again shares three of its notes with the preceding chord and creates a suitably satisfying symmetry — Ah, alliteration! Try saying that 3 times in a row quickly!
Arpeggiating the chords in an ascending direction accentuates the uplifting effect further and creates a rippling, rhythmic effect.
Melody
I think music for games should be striking, and the melody ought to be memorable but malleable enough to support contrasting aspects of gameplay.
With that in mind, and after noodling for a while, I settled on a simple melody of just five notes outlining the underlying harmony.
Transposing the melody up a minor 3rd to match the Eb6#4 sounds good, and rounding off with a little descending line as the harmony moves to the D7sus4 chord completes the phrase nicely.
Development
Music is, in many ways, the art of balance. Too much of one thing and not enough of another makes for poor composition.
For example, repetition creates familiarity. But too much repetition becomes annoying and predictable. The antidote? Development! Introduce new ideas to freshen things up and restore balance!
With this in mind, logic dictates there should be a balancing development after the first phrase. So, I wrote an additional 16-bar melody to extend the opening bars.
The developed melody follows the underlying harmony but introduces a new rhythm and melodic contour.
If you’d like to see the complete score, visit www.joffwinks.com, where you can also hear audio clips of the harmony and melody and listen to the entire track.