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WILL
24-09-2006, 09:19 PM
I think that one of the biggest parts of what will make for a really great game often gets neglected the most in the whole project... music!

Think about all those games that you played and where inspired by the atmosphere so much that you just had to keep playing and playing it over again to absorb as much of that world as you could spare in your free time. Imagine how diferent that would be without the amazing music or sounds that played in the background. That'll give you an idea as to how important the game's music can be.

Most project teams that I know of mostly consist of at least one main programmer and either a graphics artist or two. Fair enough, it is afterall a small indie team out to have a little fun or shoot for next low budget hit. But what about the music?

Do you scout around for public domain and free sound clips? Or do you hire a guy to slap together a few tracks within your specifications that will complete an already completed game? Maybe... you even intergrate a musician into the development team so that he can work with the project leader and artists to build a complex enviroment for your game.

No matter how you do it, the music and sound in your game will determine how your menus and areas of the game will feel to the players.

So what do you do to tackle this aspect of your games? Do you have a musician in your team? Are you looking for one? Or do you know of where others can go to find one?

Personally I'd love to hear more about music development in the games we see here on PGD. Maybe it's a far reach for the scope of this site, but then again we do get a lot of graphics questions... maybe we are just waiting for the next innovation in music development in games for this to become as complex a programmer's/development team's issue here.


Please, post your thoughts here...

Jesse Hopkins
24-03-2007, 06:33 PM
It seems like most Indie developers are hiring music contractors. I've had pretty steady work since starting, but only by lowering my rate to just barely pay the bills. It can be frightening at times, but its living the dream.

Its true that most of them seem reluctant to spend money on music. I think most developers are more visually inclined, either having been the type to draw dragons and robots in their notebook margins, or fans of games which never had good music anyway. There is a rich history of terrible game music, and a small history of great game music. History has proven that a great game does not need great music. However, in the past, the market was a smaller, mainly console driven market. Video games are less of a curiosity and more mainstream, so it is time to ramp up music quality, even in smaller titles, if there is any hope of competition with established developers.