How Music Greatly Improves Your Game

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I gave a talk about music and sound design at the IGDA Swiss Chapter in Zurich December 2011 and I’d like to post some parts of the talk here.

As we know, the work it needs to complete a game is divided between several individuals, even more so that members of indie teams are often spread all over the world. Somebody does visuals, somebody game design, programming, 3D models and so on. Normally, composers are only needed for a short period of time. Thus, composers join and then leave indie teams again after they delivered their part of the puzzle.

That’s why I’d like to open the magic box and give you an overview of what it is composers do on a high-level. Next time you run into one on your project, you maybe can even direct him / her better to get the best out of this team member and increase the quality of your game overall. As a side note, keep in mind that everything I say about music in games is just as well applicable to movies. Enjoy.

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Speaking at the Swiss IGDA Chapter Meeting

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The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) is quite a big organisation in the US that tends to the needs of game developers worldwide. They organise leadership forums and local meetings to chat and network with like-minded people. I’ve recently stumbled upon a brilliantly narrated and inspiring talk by Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games: The Secret to Studio Structure. Have a look, it’s worth it!

Now, Switzerland, being the small country that it is, doesn’t have the size of the US game developer scene, obviously. But there still exist small local so-called chapter meetings. Matthias Sala, CEO of Gbanga, an old high-school colleague of mine, incidentally leads the Swiss IGDA chapter meetings. He founded his own game company in Zurich, Switzerland, some time ago.

As I delved into music and sound design for games a few months ago, and the Swiss chapter hasn’t tackled a topic regarding sound or music yet, Matthias invited me to come and speak there. It was a great opportunity for me getting to know the Swiss game developer scene. It took place November 28th, 2011 at the Machatronic Art Lab in Zurich. There were about 40 people attending the event. Check out some pictures +Aurelio Lucchesi of the MechArtLab did of the event.

Topics of My Talk

There have been a few chapter meetings already, but non of them tackled sound in any way. As there were mainly developers and only a few sound guys that probably knew what I talked about, I decided to give the majority of the audience an insight into the world of music and sound design in movies and games. These were my topics: (more…)

Super Panda Adventures: Concept Track

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Another cool indie title that drew my attention. I contacted Paul Schneider, the maker of GunGirl2 and the upcoming Super Panda Adventures. He was looking for composers for his game.

I created this concept track after giving him a description of what I had in mind. He liked it very much and I made it to the last decision round.

Alas, there seemed to have been another composer who had a slightly different take and eventually got the job. Kudos :) As always, I’ll follow this project closely!

All about the game (I expect it to get its own website soon): http://www.gungirl2.com/?p=731

Paul Schneider’s website: http://paulinthenet.de

The Archer: Concept Track

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I recently stumbled upon a very promising indie title called “The Archer”. It has gorgeous artwork and a great feel to the gameplay.

I read in a forum post that the developer Gabriel Verdon was still looking for composers. I created this concept track for him, which he liked very much. Unfortunately, I haven’t noticed that he already found a composer to work with ;) But he gave me permission to use his developer log videos and release them together with my concept track. Thanks Gabe!

Gabriel looked for a metal track for The Archer. He described it as follows: “Music like Alexisonfire, but more for inspiration. Themes very much like Dog’s Blood. The actual game soundtrack would have to be subtler and more atmospheric, to support the gameplay rather than draw attention from it.” This is what I came up with. Don’t forget to go HD fullscreen.

All about The Archer: http://thearcher.co/​
Follow Gabe on Twitter: @GabrielVerdon

L’ombre fidèle part 2: entering sampler land

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I accumulated several software packages over the last few years. Until now, I mostly used their presets and only tweaked minor parameters to shape a sound to my liking. This time, I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the functions of one of those packages. I still didn’t quite dare to use Native Instrument’s uber-sampler Kontakt. I probably would have gotten lost and would have never come back.

But I knew from using CamelAudio‘s Alchemy several times that it has a very straight forward user interface. It also features a sampling and a granular synthesis engine, which I wanted to try out for a long time anyway. I challenged myself building the sound of the shadow creature in this tool to learn how to use it. So, Alchemy it was.

My ultimate goal was to play the shadow creature like an instrument. Let it ask questions, let it be happy or sad. Everything with the touch of my MIDI keyboard. Let’s get started.

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L’ombre fidèle part 1: sound props for the shadow creature

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In this series I try to explain a little bit about the process creating the sound of the shadow creature in the animation short “L’ombre fidèle”. You can watch the movie in my showroom.

In this first article I would like to give you an insight of the discussion I had with the producer and the items I found to create the desired sound.

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Blog Initiation

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Hi. I’m currently preparing my first posts regarding my latest project “L’ombre fidèle’. Especially how I created the black creature could be interesting. Stay tuned.