How to soundtrack your game.

[jister]

I'm writing a small piece about what different ways music and sound can be handled in a game.
doing it in a doc to edit this post later.
meanwhile i would like to get a discussion going in general...
I mean i would like to hear you, mappers and modders, and what you think an action scene needs, or how you build tension into a map or a scene... what is really scary and whats really crappy...
so spit your guts ... please

[BubbleQ]

I like when the music rise up, it starts with low tempo or just one tone then it rise up and BOOM the enemies break in.

And I think music is very important beacuse for me it rise the game expirience alot when it is an action scene or ju when you are entering a new space or room.

[Phott]

It's really hard to combine music and replayability. One of them has to suffer to the other. If the music is extremely well fitted to the things happening around you like in a battle, it would have to be made through good timing with triggers, so the first time you play it, it's really cool. Then, you decide to play again and realise the exact same thing happens again.. Therefor, replayability looses. But I prefer having well timed triggers with some cool music actually because I never really replay any FPS games.

[ghost12332]

Most people never replay SP games. As a composer myself maybe I'll write up the process I go through writing a piece.

[jister]

would you replay a SP if you could choose a different soundtrack you think?
what would be a good trick is to somehow connect the soundtrack to a action meter. you know the harder you get into action the more the soundtrack becomes intense.
so if you go rambo style you get a heavy soundtrack if you go snake style the soundtrack stay more spooky.
dunno much about coding but my wild guess is that something similar is possible.

anyway that could be one way to expand free roaming gameplay into a soundtrack. because SP games like crysis or similar are kinda replayable

[ghost12332]

The way that l4d does it, everything you do changes the soundtrack. Provides a more suitable experience

[Phott]

The way that l4d does it, everything you do changes the soundtrack. Provides a more suitable experience

It's all awesome, but when music changes like that, I think it needs more variation. I'm so sick of all those sounds now.

[ghost12332]

Pro soundtracks aren't cheap. A literally out-of-college-not-famous composer works on a payscale of $2000 per minute of music.

[jister]

anyone knows if there is a sound mod for hl2 or an other source game? i mean like you have the high res texture and skin mod...

[ghost12332]

No Jist, most people consider sound an un-needed aspect of games and mods.

[jister]

document is going very slow not much time to work on it... butt it will come eventually
well people how consider it like that should play a game with the volume muted, see how much fun that is.

[snotball]

The graphics is the painting,
the gameplay is how you experience it,
the sound is how you feel it!

That's my take! It's all very important!

[AlexCrafter]

I have to get around to making/finding some music for my mod, problem is I've never had to worry about this before so I don't know how to deal with it yet.

[ghost12332]

PM me or add me to steam friends at ghost12332. I specalize in orchestral synth hybrids, but I can also do guitar, drums, bass, organ, and piano.. I don't like to do techno though.

[Armageddon]

You wanna know whats really scary? Left turns it's a known fact, left turns are scarier than right turns