MUSI20173 - THE ART OF

GAME MUSIC: logbook

SEMESTER ONE, 2014
Week 1, Friday 7 March 2014
The very rst class was today, the last class to end a massive week of classes after an
amazing three month break from everything, and it was for sure very interesting.

As a person that only plays games casually (I hardly have time these days), I was sort of
glad to rstly hear that you dont need to actively play games, to compose the audio in
video games.

To work in this industry, it is common that the one guy does literally everything, also
known as the Game Audio Content Provider. This was kind of a shock to me. Music
(score), sound design, recording, mastering, and voice overs are all done under the same
person generally in Australia. It denitely sounds like a lot of work.

George then talked about the Functions of Music. The fact that it:

1. Sets a location
2. Sets a time period
3. Flux of time (how its controlled with music)
4. Distract Audience

As someone that has played piano for over a decade, these four principles have never
occurred to me. I found it great to look at overall music in a much different perspective.

I cant wait for next weeks class.

Week 2, Friday 14 March 2014
We went over what we did the previous week for the rst part of todays lesson, specically
- the role of the Game Audio Content Provider. It was a great refresher, a week at the
VCA can kill you and make you forget things.

We then looked at what game music was uniquely. Storage space (RAM), interactivity, and
non-linearity were all things that we had to keep in mind. George then brought up the
importance of 24 bit, 48kHZ, proving to us, that it the quality is signicantly better, however
what makes great for a lot of projects (especially lm!), is its SMPTE, which is a synchro
protocol for 00:00:00. Of course in the case of video games, it always does depend on
how much memory is allocated.

What I really took from todays lesson was at the start when George showed and played us
a little excerpt of a composition that he wrote. The whole piece was beautiful - melody,
1 By: Leon Tan
Week 3, Friday 21 March 2014
We nally had the chance to work in groups today when we were given a little project, we
got the trailer for a game called Castlevania. I found this task quite difcult, as it was hard
to nd and decide which parts needed and didn't need audio. This sounds super difcult,
for game audio content providers, especially when normally only a sheet full of text is there
to explain what needs to be done.

However, when we really got thinking together as a group, it made the task simple. Due to
the limited amount of time, we broke down the trailer into two parts - actual gameplay and
cutscenes. After that it was quite simple in that we needed to remember that sound effects
generally have to do with immersion whilst music is there to dramatise particular situations.

What did I take the most from the lesson you ask? Probably what we learnt from the rst
lesson, the main reason why sound appears in all forms of media - location, time period,
and change the ux time.

Week 4, Friday 28 March 2014
N/A - Absent.

Week 5, Friday 4 April 2014
Due to my absent last week, I received the ostinato assignment. Im pretty excited to work
on it, and I cant wait to start, however Im pretty nervous given that I havent really
composed anything and submitted it in the past.

We spent a lot of todays lesson watching back a few peoples Castlevania videos, and
they all sounded really great, the different ostinatos that some group had came up really
did resonate with me. Some videos (like ours) did have a few gaps of silence, this really
did remind me how important sound is to any form of media, especially a video game,
where without it, a sense of immersion is lost. Atmos plays an extremely vital role in video
games.

Afterwards, we were required to do a bit of a dictation and write down what George said
about coin operated games. Of the year and a half I have been at VCA never have I
written so much in one sitting; my hands cramped really heavily, they still hurt now (thanks
George!). Nevertheless, I completely forgot that coin operated games had sound to them.

System specications

Developer and manufacturer making different components, therefore every arcade

machine being different to program

Audio systems generally built from scratch for each specic games

Play times are much shorter

Audio to be delivered at 44.1kHz and in .WAV or .AIFF format

These were all the factors of coin operated games. Being a game audio content provider,
sounds a lot more complicated than it sounds on the surface.


Week 6, Friday 11 April 2014
Today we viewed other groups Castlevania projects. A lot of them sounded really amazing
in regards to the choice of sound, I particularly liked how some groups chose to have
2 By: Leon Tan
some groups did sound quite empty as atmos was not present, and without anything it
made it sound empty.
We learnt the best way to approach adding sound to particular things is atmos, sound
effects and then music. Music being last as it should only be added where it is vitally
needed.

Also, I found that the voice overs and dialogue for some groups were too soft, and it could
not be heard at all over music, this also shows the importance of automation.

I really do hope we spend a few lessons focusing on how to approach composing music
for video games in a more music perspective perhaps, for e.g. what time signatures could
work well, particular dissonant chords, typical musical cues which are used.

Week 7, Friday 18 April 2014
No class ran today due to Good Friday.

Week 8, Friday 2 May 2014
Today was the rst lesson back from Easter break (which was amazing).

We moved onto a new project: tubular. So George put us into pairs and we were given a
task book of everything about this game; how it works, what kind of game, genre, etc.
However what was most useful was that an audio assets list was given to us, which meant
that we were already halfway there.

I am happy working in pairs, however, I would much prefer to work alone (I dont like
relying on people or being relied on when it comes to assignments). What was great about
working in pairs though, was the ability to discuss things with someone.

We were then told to nd a temp, which is a short clip that would sort of be a placeholder
for the audio of the game, due to my partner leaving early, I was left alone when we had to
discuss about what audio to use in the computer lab. Although, I was able to team up with
someone else and found that certain aspects were vital, these were:

Fast tempo

Futuristic sounds - synthesisers, sampled instruments

Density. It cant be too dense or the atmos and sound effects wont come through the mix

Intensity - being a racing game, the more intense it sounds (through the use of
sixteenths possibly, dissonant intervals/chords and of course fast tempo)

Week 9, Friday 9 May 2014
Today we were given our assignments for both Castlevania and Tubular. I am a bit peeved
at the assignment that we were given for Castlevania as we are now composing for the
trailer instead of music which occurs in the actual game. This makes it more difcult as
there are more cuts between different sections which makes it more difcult to compose.

We listened to a few of the temp scores others have chosen and it gave me a better idea
of what would be needed.

I have no clue what to do at the moment compositionally but hopefully it turns out alright.

3 By: Leon Tan
Week 10, Friday 16 May 2014
It was presentation day for the music students today. It was really great listening to all the
compositional students ideas and what they were thinking. Ive noticed that between all the
composition students, there was more of a focus on arrangement and form than harmony
and melody.

I had fun presenting, despite being extremely nervous. George raised a problem during my
presentation stating that the video had already nished and I still had several notes being
played after the video had already been nished. Yes, I initially thought that was a
problem, however the video itself had several milliseconds where the frame did stop.
Regardless, denitely something to consider in the future.

I am quite anxious about Castlevania, I have no idea where to begin and how to start, I
dont know how I should approach this, its back to the drawing board!

Week 11, Friday 23 May 2014
Second day of presentations were held today. It was the turn for the Parkville students to
present and many of them were fantastic. It was great to see different perspectives on the
project. Especially the way that some students analysed their temp scores and the
questions, it was extremely in-depth and detailed. As a music student, it was very different,
as these were ways that I had not thought about before.

I found it very interesting when George mentioned his specic use of fades in that in
general we would leave the reverb tail on specic tracks, however it was then highlighted
with Tubular the important of cutting everything off.

Week 12, Friday May 30 May 2014
Today was the nal class for the year, and in all honesty I was tired and just wanted to go
home (after a 9am start with two assessments - rhythmic and harmonic devices). However,
I stayed for the presentations of everyone else's tubular score.

I found the presentations to be very interesting and just like the previous week, students
mentioned specic bits of information I would never have thought of: analysing hit points,
looking at the audio assets list, etc.

I did nd some students to contradict themselves in that they talk about the rhythmic drive
as a really vital thing in their temp scores, however in their nal original score they present
a dub step groove. I extremely disagree with the use of dub-step as it does not have a
rhythmic drive especially given that drums are in fact are often played in half time generally
making everything feel a lot slower; ux of time, you don't want that in a racing game! (I did
pay attention George!)

I have learnt a lot in this class and have thoroughly enjoyed everything. It has been great
looking at the compositional side of commercial music especially one with such a growing
popularity like video game music. However, it has been great to know that many of the
skills learnt in this class can easily be applied to other forms of music: lm, television, even
in contemporary music today.

George, I would like to thank you for all the hard work, inspiration and expertise that you
have given us in the past twelve weeks. Thank you.
4 By: Leon Tan