As I grow older and look back on my life without a doubt I can say a majority of it was spent either playing video games or watching people play video games. From watching a British cat play Minecraft to me playing call of duty with my friends and arguing about who is letting the team down. Across all the games I remember the thing that sticks out the most, the thing that allows me to remember the experiences I had with these games is the music. I want to know what makes music in games so important. What is music’s role and how does it play that role? I expect to find people stating the obvious and saying that the music in games is to make the player’s experience better overall but I want to go in a level deeper and find out exactly what and how. 

 

 In this video called “Adaptive Music (In Gaming) Is Amazing” made by someone that goes by “Noodle” a somewhat notable YouTuber creates a video displaying not only the reason music is important in video games but how music can be used in games. He also should give examples of what he thinks are good examples of the music that is used mainly in video games which are called Adaptive Music.

 

The video uses nice visuals and comedy to maintain the viewer’s attention. The visuals consist of cute pictures of the creator’s character, I think his main use of these visuals is to entertainingly express his ideas. After a joke to open the video he starts by asking the viewers to think of their favorite song from a game or soundtrack and then telling them that no matter what they thought of the music it did make their experience with the game better and which this statement he introduces Adaptive music stating “yea that what adaptive musics about the music adapting to what’s up here(him referring to his video)”. He goes on to explain creating a game that has timed transition based on waiting in the games is very difficult and confusing to do, then he introduces two options a game developer can do, the music just fades in and out which he makes apparent that is is very boring for a game to and two adaptive music, The video is broken up in sections talking about music progression over time. First, he mentions how back in the day when games were first created it was really difficult to add different types of music to games because the technology at the time wasn’t advanced enough to have many different types of music in one game. But as time moves on and technology advances so do the things game developers can do with music also advances. Noodle explains that there are different ways games can do adaptive music. One way is called mixing horizon which is just going from song to song which is as he put it kinda boring but mixing vertically is when a game uses a different version of the same song in different areas of the game to create a different vibe so, for example, there be the main bit of music when the player is just walking around and if the player goes underwater for instance the tone would shift or the same song would be played by a different instrument. All of these examples he mentions are how music plays its role in games.

 

Another video by a different creator called “the power of video game music” by a man that goes by name NakeyJakey a Youtuber with a decent following who creates videos mainly about video games makes a video talking about the music of video games’ impact on the actual player and how the music creates a lasting effect on the player. And showing his points by using examples from various games and explaining how the music had its effect.

 

Jake begins the video by telling the audience that “video game music is kinda crazy, in the sense that it’s not like anything else..”  accompanying this statement are just various clips of video games. Jake doesn’t use any visuals to catch his audience’s attention instead I think he’s playing into his strength and creating jokes to maintain the audience’s attention, jake uses this topic of music to create jokes by creating very bad rap using the music in the games he talking about to make his video entertaining to his audience. Throughout the video jake first mentions the music in games that tells the player the overall feeling of the game and how it positively impacts the player. For example, he mentions vice city GTA(a 2006 game) and how the music in that game makes him feel like scarface( a 1983 mob movie) like he’s taking part in illegal activities. He goes on to mention that music in games is also a way to let a player know what to do or what’s going to happen by outright telling the player, he mentions resident evil and how safe rooms always had the same music and how for the player it’s a huge relief for the player because now they know they are safe. He adds here that because the players of games spend so much time listening to the game’s music it will stick to the player along with the game impression and how good the game was to the player. The last way music is used in games jake mentions is the parts that come out of nowhere to make a sense more memorable. One game he mentions is Metal Gear Solid 3. Jake talks about a scene in the game where the player is spending a long time climbing a ladder to go with this scene. He added a woman singing the theme of the game to remind the player of what the whole point of the journey in games is about. One last point jake states are that “music is an insanely valuable tool, especially when creating video games… music isn’t just music anymore it is something intangible that has been stapled to your identity as a reminder of what you love to do ” here jake is trying to hammer his point that music is an important part of games because it impacts the players in such a deep way.   

 

In the article “hail the nightmare: music sound and materiality in bloodborne “ written by alexander Kolassa a lecturer at open university in music and a Ph.D. in music composition. The source is about FromSoftware, a game company famous for their difficult games’ 2015 game Bloodborne based in late 18th century London with heavy elements of H.P Lovecraft’s horror. He goes into depth talking about the game’s design choices and music and how it amplifies the players’ experience creating a very complex story without actually outright telling the player. 

 

The article paints an in-depth picture of how the game starts and its overall atmosphere. As mentioned in the article bloodborne is created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, Miyazaki is famous for his brand of games, all of his games are very difficult and very punishing but at the same time very gratifying to play and finish, Miyazaki creates stories in games without making it the games’ CenterPoint. Out of all his games being based on knights and dragons that are not meant to insight fear in the player, bloodborne stands out the most because it is based on Lovecraftian horror. He goes on to mention its music and how well it goes with the gameplay,  “Bloodborne’s tortured and twisting, temporally unstable score – the one that rears its head with the arrival of the game’s monsters” him calling the music tortured and unstable to show how unnerving music is in the game. FromSoftware put an incredible amount of effort into the music using six different composers working through multiple years. The style they chose was victorian gothic, they were going for a very dark and gloomy feeling for the music they create the music to both unnerve and enchant the player. Hp Lovecraft is an American writer whose short stories are most known for producing an overwhelming sense of sheer hopeless terror these stories are thought to be impossible to turn into any visual media but with a terrifying marriage of music and gameplay bloodborne can do the impossible.  Kolassa goes on to add an example of how music adds to the experience of gameplay the chorus of the score for one of the boss fights is sung in Latin and how the notes were used to add to the uncomfortable feeling, that hopelessness based on Lovecraft is being instilled into the player using music. The game uses so many different techniques to leave its mark on the player, bloodborne is a game whose most defining feature is its music and how it uses it to create a lasting impression on the player. 

 

In the end,  it amazes me how hard it is to make music for games and how many small moving parts there are in adding music in games from vertically and horizontally mixing to deciding if music should be the center of the scene or to let it be in the background just to aid the passing moments in the games. More game developers should do this creating music like this may be a pain but in the long run, it will make your game a lot more memorable. If there is anything at all you should take away from this is that music isn’t just a sound to go along with the game you are playing it is a device that is used in many different ways to leave its mark on you it’s so when you remember the time you played that game you think of the music and remember you epic fight you had against the game’s boss putting a smile on your face.  NakeyJakey put it best “music is an insanely valuable tool, especially when creating video games… music isn’t just music anymore it is something intangible that has been stapled to your identity as a reminder of what you love to do ”.