ADAPTIVE MUSIC
Like I was saying in the other post, need for speed were trying to nail the different environmental sounds going on around, another important way sound is used in games is to hint the character or your self-playing the game that something is going to happen, it may be that they are in danger, preparing for a fight. This is a common feature of stealth games like Metal Gear Solid, where a shift in tempo indicates a change in the pace of the game – you were creeping carefully around, but now it’s time to run and hide in a box!
Adaptive music is also used to great effect in action role-playing games like Morrowind and Skyrim, informing the player that their peaceful exploration of the landscape is about to be rudely interrupted by a troll or a cliff racer.
As well as serving a useful purpose, these musical shifts add to the immersiveness of the overall experience, ensuring the sound always corresponds with what’s going on on-screen.
LOOPED COMPOSITION
A looped composition is a repeated sound within a game, therefore the sound will be the same for the entire game, it may even just be a small piece of sound, but because it is repeated continuously, the gamer will not realize and it will sound like a lengthy piece of music. Also by producing this music loop, the audience has no idea when the sound starts.
HISTORY OF MUISC LOOPS IN GAMES
In the past video games it has been difficult for game developers to fit all the components into a console such as, music, sound and graphics, all in just one storage space
to fit games into a whole console with music, sound, graphics, etc. all in one storage space. The better the optimization of this data, the quicker the performance of the video game and the less data required to be stored. However, years back when video games were only being developed, they required to have a rather small storage space in order to be successful.
Therefore game music composers had quite a challenge ahead of themselves, they needed to create music that would have a minimum space on a disk and on the other hand with a good amount of length, and due to the person interaction of the game, they needed to create a sound that wouldn’t have a fixed time, some people like to play for a few minutes whereas others like to play for hours. Therefore the invention of a looped composition was so successful; they had small files to fit in the limited storage space and had the option to be extended.
DISADVANTAGES OF LOOPED COMPOSITIONS
There have been in the past and up to now some disadvantages for looped compositions such as, despite the sound/music loop created being great to listen to, its possible that it may become too repetitive and can start to get boring. It could eventually just repel listeners rather than making the game consistently enjoyable. Also, while I was researching I realized something quite important, the sound loops being produced needs to bring a variety of elements within them, but this is difficult to be done because the length on the loop should be carefully done. Just by thinking this, it makes me feel like it is quite difficult to create a sound loop that would be 1-2 minutes long and that has to have a variety of sounds to please the gamer.
As the length of the song needs to be short, as I mentioned earlier, “the better the optimization of this data, the quicker the performance of the game and the less data required to be stored” it needs to contain a good variety of element in order not to bore the player.
I read on a page that a great way to do this, is to apply a contrast, If part of the music is soft, the other part can be tense, this does increase the interest of the listener for atleast a longer time, and it balances out the two different tunes. However if you want to create a small loop, it’s very difficult for the loop to contain a variety of elements due to its size, this makes me think that looped compositions should be longer, for instance if a racing game lasts 12 minutes, I don’t think theres nothing wrong with producing a loop of 3-4 minutes.
When the industry started to produce, these weaknesses did not have really a massive impact, after all, most games could could now incorporate a musical background due to the loop. This was a great achievement. But as the years come along, and games progress, The situation is much different now. Games are getting more complex and almost every technical aspect of game production has improved greatly. As technology advances, games become better, theres more gamers, therefore higher rate of demanding greater – quality content, and developers are always on constantly adapting to new techniques and methods.
kc | luis meneses 