Discussion concerning background music

[Fred]

My impression so far is that you are looking for a theme song for the game. I have a few questions in this relation.

Are you picturing a music/melodic theme, that runs through all, or the majority, of the game's background music, so that nearly all the different songs includes, or can be traced back to, this theme somehow? It is a bit difficult to describe this one, but my best example would be Heroes of Might and Magic V Tribes of the East.

Or do you, by theme song, refer to an opening sequence or main menu music?

Or are you simply referring to the in-game music as a whole, regardless of any main melodic theme to bind it all together?

Fred

[Jochen Stier]

I haven't thought much about this. What do you think? To me, the first version seems the most appealing: A similar theme that runs throughout most of the background music. Wasn't that what they did in the starwars movies and startrek. There will be lots of times where there will be hardly any noise in the environment; especially in space. I think a subtle background noise most of the time would be good. As I am writing this, it just occurred to me how important sound will be to create an exciting experience.

[zachzab]

I do like #1 idea, but I find that we would need a main menu song that be different that the one we hear in game, like something to get you ready to enter the game. Like it continues to build up in intensity or volume until you click "play" then it drops while the game loads.

[Fred]

There is ofcourse lots of different ways music can be applied to a game. Myself, I kind of pictured different themes for different planets/factions. I.E. There could be a main Pangea-theme, which again could be done in different variations for different locations on Pangea. In addition there would have to be loads of less prominent background music and sounds, even times with no music at all, to avoid making the main themes a repetitive annoyance. Here you're certainly onto something with your space-example, Jochen!

I agree with zachzab's view on menu music. I think, however, variations of the menu music could be implemented in-game as well.

[Jochen Stier]

I just had a look at some of the current sound technologies in games. It looks like OpenAL is going to be the choice for Geist3D. They seem to have excellent support for 3D sound. With the latest special effects lib you can add all kinds of special effects, such as echo etc. It shouldn’t be too difficult to integrate it … I have already downloaded the sdk.

[Fred]

I'm going to import a section from the VISION thread, that I think belongs in here as well. Feel free to add your own musical visions in here as well

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Music:

I have a lot of ideas that I hope to try out. Obviously, ambient music and sound would work well in a space setting. I would also like to try some orchestral bits. In fact, the lovely thing about a project like this, is that it gives a vast amount of freedom to the creators' creativity. Just like the narrators and programmers can develop pretty much whatever planets and worlds they'll like, the composer(s) can do the same with their music.

One idea that I think would work well, is to create different themes/atmospheres for different worlds/planets.

I've also been playing with the idea of creating some experimental/new music (of whatever kind). I.e to be performed from a stage in a tavern, or on the radio, or to be played in space stations (like CDs in malls), or whatever the game may support that can implement such an idea. It could in fact serve as a normal background track as well.
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[Jochen Stier]

I really like the idea of some orchestral bits, especially as you are ascending into space. There are some really nice views at the edge of the atmosphere, which would be even more so impressive with a humbling soundtrack.

I haven't done anymore work with the sound yet, but I will get on it as soon as I have some sounds to play with. Right now I am quite busy with getting the APP to run on Vista....

[Fred]

By the way,

will you ever be able to go underwater in this game?

[Jochen Stier]

I don't see a reason why not. It is possible to tesselate and render the planet below the water level, so it should be possible. I think it would a add quite a bit to the game if you could hide inside the water... I still need to write some shaders for underwater lighting.