Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
the next major downbeat before triggering the new cue. This timing can in many cases be
controlled by the composer, expressed as beats and bars, or may require a programmer to translate
the musical timings into something the game engine understands, such as milliseconds, samples, or
frames.
For example, in the game
Shogo Mobile Armor Division
(Monolith, 1998) a system was created that
contained a series of small i les that enabled the game engine to analyze two cues and select an
appropriate pre-composed transition. The cues used markers to indicate possible places in the score
where transitions would take place. This meant that the composer had to map out and anticipate all
possible interactions between dif erent sequences—quite a job!
Music Gets Dynamic
Many developers, producers, and composers want game music to do
more than just loop in the background; they want it to interact with the
player's progress through the game. They want an immersive musical
score that unfolds or adapts as the game progresses. The most famous
example of early adaptive music is the music in
Space Invaders
. As
the player destroys additional ships, the speed of the attacking ships
increases, and the tempo of the music increases as well. This simple
change created an innovative experience for the gamer, and established
game music as a uniquely interactive art form.
Test your knowledge
of
musical terms
by
going over to the App,
main classroom, and
clicking on the Word
Search book!
Interactive and adaptive music follows the same logic as interactive
and adaptive audio, as we covered in our last Level. Some game scores
are adaptive; some are not. Game music may be interactive in the sense
that it triggers or plays at a certain time or for a specii c reason. Think of
it as though you are hitting a switch to make the music play when the
player moves to a new level, for example. With interactive music, the
music does not change as the game changes; every time you hit that
switch, the same piece of music plays. Adaptive music, on the other
hand, changes in relationship to the unfolding of the game. Each time
that same switch is hit, the music may dif er, depending on how many
health points the character has. Or in a situation in which the player
must choose the left path or the right path, the music may change key
to match the mood of the new location. Current adaptive scores can
tie themselves to almost any gameplay state you can think of, from
player health to the number of times the player has been to a specii c
location.
