Collins Chapter 8

Collins talks dynamic music as being more of a requirement for games as production values increase, and players tire of looping playback music. The looping music Mario used for its time is pretty epic. However, if someone tried that today, they would be considered lazy. Collins says why hire a composer if the music isn’t going to play a functional part in the game? The way that the game is designed, length, and how many players playing it, has a critical effect on what is composed. Listener fatigue is when you are stuck on a level and the music loops and makes you mad. Just like the music from the castle levels on Super Mario World.

Games are largely unpredictable in terms of the directions the player may take. This messes composers up, so they create a branching tree, which provides dynamic sound for every relevant event in the story. From there Collins talks about the Ten Approaches to Variability in Game Music.

1   Variable Tempo

2      Variable Pitch

3      Variable Rhythm/Meter

4      Variable Volume/Dynamics

5      Variable DSP/Timbres

6      Variable Melodies

7      Variable Harmony

8     Variable Mixing

9    Variable Form (Open Form)

10. Variable Form (Branching Parameter-based music)

It is cool to think that some composers can make variations of the same music to give it more shelf life. It makes me think how this same approach is used in movies and other digital media.