Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Guy Whitmore is
a game composer
with more than just
a passing interest in
adaptive music. With
stops at Microsoft and
PopCap, he's spent a lot
of time composing for
all kinds of interactive
environments.
Teasing Apart the Terms Interactive
Music and Adaptive Music
h e dif erences between interactive music and adaptive music have
more to do with the design of the game experience and the users'
perception during the game, than with the techniques used to integrate
the music. Interactive music occurs when a player is making game-
play decisions based on what he/she consciously hears in the music,
and thus is reacting directly to how the music is behaving. But with
adaptive music, the interaction is between the player and other aspects
of the game design such as visuals and game mechanics. h e game-
score in this case, follows and adapts to the state of the game overall
and how it's being played, creating appropriate moods and gestures for
each game-state while remaining largely subconscious to the player.
In theory, that dei nition seems fairly black-and-white, but in
practice there's a spectrum that spans interactive and adaptive
music, wherein most scores land somewhere between each extreme.
A composer's intent may be anywhere along the adaptive-interactive
spectrum, and a player's awareness and interaction may evolve over
the course of a game. For instance, a player may become more conscious
of a how an adaptive score functions over time, and begin using it
interactively, to aid game-play or simply to 'mess with it'. Also, most
interactive music 'rhythm games' very much rely on visual interaction as
well as musical (to the extent that advanced players can play with the
music of ) thus making the score as much adaptive as it is interactive.
So the key for composers is to be aware of how their score will
be consciously (or subconsciously) perceived by players, and to be
intentional about their music design, i.e. asking the question: where
along the adaptive-interactive spectrum will the score ideally sit, in
order to best serve the overall game design?
To see this how this
type of adaptive
music experience
can work inside a
game environment,
check out the Music
Maze example in the
Holodeck area in the
App.
 
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