Composing Music In Video Games

Being in a band has let me see some great compositions by Tyler Grant, and Robert Smith. The amount of joy I, and my friends have gotten from playing this music has inspired me to want to compose music. This experience highlights that composing music brings many people joy, helps, and inspires them. As a music composer, one could compose for animation, video games, or movies, to have fun composing while affecting humanity. One profession that involves composing music is an animation score writer. All types of music has its style and rules, and animation scores are no different. Musical scores for animation are often more energetic than other forms of media. (Fernandez) Music for animation changes styles, tone, and mood more often than other …show more content…
“In video games the role of music is to support the game—to provide a sonic backdrop and dramatic connection with the visuals and gameplay. It is the job of the composer to create a score that is immersive and representative—a score that helps make the gaming experience more interactive and real.” (Broadbent) When composing music for video games the music is not the main focus but it is important for establishing and covarying the emotion and message of the characters, environment, and just the game in general. Music in video games is used to portray the character feeling, and the drama of certain situations.(Broadbent) In many games, sad events, or scary events are met with equally sad and scary music. This helps portray extra emotion someone might have without any music. “The video game composer creates interactive music with different tension levels (low, medium, and high for example) that will change based on the game state.” (Broadbent) Players might not realise how important or unimportant certain events, or items are in the game. Audio cues, jingles, or music might help players understand just how important a situation is or is not. “The music will change when the player is exploring, approaching combat, or engaged in combat.” (Broadbent) In certain games that are open world or are not on a linear path music changes help players know what is happening, like music changing when escaping enemy. Using different instruments for different areas and levels immerses the player more (Broadbent) This will make a score unique to the composer and to the game, or game areas. When composing for video games make sure to use the score to support and help the game convey feeling and