Music for Games, Films, and other Visuals

One of the great things about video games today is that we are starting to see the history and evolution of certain threads. Threads related to game play, game design, visual art, animation… the list can go on and on. For me, I like seeing the evolution of the music and sound. Which brings me to the title of this blog. Why Grim Fandango? Why am I writing about a ten year old PC game? Aren’t there better games to write about?

Well, in a word, no. Ok, sure sure, there have been better games (quick help me out I can’t think of one!) however, Grim Fandango still stands as the best (and almost last, I’m sorry we have to think about The Dig again…) point and click graphic adventure game developed by LucasArts. The story was hailed as spectacular when it came out and the time and care that went into all of the creative elements was apparent. Tim Schafer as the writer and Peter McConnell as the composer were a great combination!

For composers, though, there is more to it than just another great game. Grim Fandango is one of the great game scores of all time. The soundtrack is very difficult to track down, but is now hosted by the fan site Grim Fandango Network. It was crafted perfectly for the game, elements of the folkloric side of the story as well as big band to match both the writing style and artistic realizations. This is one of the ultimate examples of weaving music tightly with the other elements of the game. A marvel of creative collaboration between visual, story, audio and, believe it or not, programming.

Why did I mention programming? Well, Grim Fandango also relied heavily on a technology developed by LucasArts called iMUSE, Interactive Music Streaming Engine. This technology was started with games like Monkey Island II and led to some of the most of the music toolsets video game composers have access to today.

Take a look at this trailer and tell me you don’t want to play this game!

Interestingly enough, I was preparing a presentation about Grim Fandango last week on campus, when a friend forwarded me this article, that talks about the game and why it was more of a cult favorite as opposed to a commercial success. I’ll write more about that presentation in the coming days, and why I think Grim Fandango is important in the timeline of video game music!

I was catching up on my reading the other day and I ran across an article that I had bookmarked months ago. I’m not one to wax philosophical, but some of the comments and observations made are worth pointing out. As it is with most people who have a connection to the video game industry, I am constantly challenged about the validity and societal implications of video games. This article speaks to those questions and challenges the industry to continue to strive to be “better”.

The best quote of all comes from Jane McGonigal, ARG designer

the four key elements of happiness:

• having satisfying work to do
• the experience of being good at something
• time spent with people we like
• having a chance to be part of something bigger

The world is most certainly changing in a positive direction when that conversation is happening among video game developers.

One of the most tedious tasks in the game audio world is re-naming a large number of files to conform to a set format. Something like “fs_male_gravel_01.wav” and “fs_male_gravel_02.wav”, etc. There have been many batch processors over the years but there are times when you might be away from your main audio workstation and you want to rename the files from within ProTools.

This is a fairly easy task, but some of my students have been surprised at the results they get. Understanding the way in which Pro Tools will apply the new names can clear up the confusion. Here we see a simple session with four edited footstep regions.

One might assume that a renaming command would name these files from top to bottom in the tracks view. However, Pro Tools doesn’t look at the track order when renaming, it looks at the order of the regions in the Region Bin/List! If we were to rename these 4 regions the naming order from top to bottom would be 3, 1, 4, 2 based on their order to the left in the region list. If you sort your region list by a known parameter you can force the renaming to operate in the way you want. Watch what happens when we sort our list by name, like this :

After we run the Auto Rename function we get this :

Notice the order on the regions. If you look at the track view only you see the rename function ordered the regions 1, 3, 2, 4. Take a look again at the original and then how the regions were ordered in the region list. I hope it makes sense now!

Using the PT ordering function you can effectively order almost any region list to obtain the sort of functionality you need on your project. In this example you can see that I’m sorting by Timestamp :

Which in turn, makes the rename function order the regions in the track view as 3, 1, 4, 2!

I used to always export my regions/files for renaming functions in other applications, but given ProTools fairly robust functionality, the need for that is less. Just keep an eye on your region list and it should all start making more sense!

The Game Developer Magazine has been doing a salary and other compensation survey for several years now. They recently released the 7th annual report. If you are thinking about working in the Video Game Industry it is well worth the cost of the digital download (or the magazine if you can find it!)

A few tidbits for audio professionals from the report…. 92% of audio professionals reported having some college-level coursework, predominantly a Bachelor’s degree or higher. I know there is an increasing trend in the U.S. for college level coursework regardless of profession but this seems indicative of the necessity to get some training/education before you start looking for a job working on game audio.

Salaries continued to increase, even for people with three years experience or less. That is great news! We’re still lacking on representation of women in game audio at just 8%. Not that the industry in general is doing much better…

All in all, salaries and bonuses were up in the game audio departments. It should be noted that the industry still continues to hire contract audio professionals more often than full-time employees although from my discussions with audio directors, more positions seem to be opening up each year.

With entry-level positions averaged at over $60k the video game industry should be a goal for many of you aspiring sound designers and composers, but only if you really want to work on video games!

Today was the first day of the full conference at GDC. I was thrilled to run into some colleagues, chat about the industry and to see some wonderful panel discussions. If you’ve never been to a large conference, I have to tell you, the possibilities are very daunting. You can schedule yourself solid from 9 am to 9 pm thrice over! Needless to say, I had to make some choices if I was going to be able to both see the panels I found interesting PLUS catch up with people I only have the opportunity to see at this one time of the year.

The morning started off with a keynote address by John Schappert, from Microsoft. He spoke about the burgeoning online game world. With the introduction of the next-gen series of game consoles, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3, delivering content online has never been easier. Mr. Schappert’s goal is to democratize the process of making games, much like iTunes and other online services has done for the music world. Games made by individuals or small independent teams will now be available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. He also highighted the XNA developer’s toolkit as a great resource for anyone with a game idea that wants to do guerilla production.

After the keynote I ran into Berklee alum Dan Lehrich from Seven Studios. We met up at one of the best panels I’ve seen, on the topic of creating procedural music for the game Spore. Kent Jolly and Aaron McLean gave a rundown on how they are using Pure Data, an opensource audio and music programming environment, to create the generative music components used in parts of the game. Working with Brian Eno, they were able to develop some fascinating musical ideas. Kent started with a quick rundown of how they molded the PD environment to not only create generative music pieces but also to have the ability to select ideas that had a musical relevance. I’m hoping the GDC makes the audio transcript available. Here is a snapshot of the demonstration in PD. This isn’t a script from the game but rather what they used to demonstrate making generative music musical.

If you look closely at the generators you can see how they were able to get the generated music to fall into a given musical idea. Notice the weighting they can do to force a major, wholetone or minor scale. It was a very interesting way to algorithmically cause a musical scale! Aaron McLean went on to talk about programming the rules of counterpoint as stated by the master text by Fux which allows counter-melodies to be generated by the music engine. Very fascinating indeed!

This was interesting primarily because it was a lot of very technically minded creative people sitting around talking about music. Again and again on this trip I was reminded of the importance and relevance to being skilled not only in the technical areas of making games but also as a musician. The future is looking great, from my vantage point, for music and musicians!

Another wonderful day in San Francisco, despite the rain! I had the chance to sit down with some Berklee alums and also to listen to some very informed views on game curriculum, both from educators and practitioners in the field.

This is an interesting time to be coming into the game development field. Most people working in the industry did not receive any formal education in game development, but that is changing now. There have been programs popping up that deal with all manner of game development and there has been a huge leap in the past 5 years for game development education opportunities. The IGDA held their first summit on game education in 2000, that is hard to believe! 8 years ago! The Education Special Interest Group or SIG has been thinking about game education for a long time. However, the question came up again and again, about the style of education. On the one hand you have the classic higher education model which is about molding the person, making them more well-rounded, teaching critical thinking and global citizenship. On the other hand you have a more vocational approach which is about teaching a specific skill and a specific toolset.

On a quick glance these two may seem at odds with each other, one is more theoretical the other is more hands-on, but I kept seeing links between the two during the day. Interestingly enough, when I went to visit with an established game audio director and talk about game audio he saw the connections as well.

At LucasArts in San Francisco I imagine life is pretty good! Here is the view from the walk through the Presidio that ends up in the middle of their complex. This is a statue of the Father of Cinema - Eadweard James Muybridge.

Muybridge had an interesting career, balancing creative vision with technical limitations, which by the way is a great definition of a game audio composer and sound designer!

I was at LucasArts spending a bit of time with alumnus David Collins. He graduated from Berklee in ‘99 and at that time we had no specific course geared toward game audio. However, through his education, he learned specifics on audio fundamentals, music production techniques, teamwork, collaboration and problem-solving skills. To hear David talk about his work is to have a rose blossoming in the room. As hard as the work may be at times, it is evident that it is ultimately very satisfying. He is hard at work on the next big Star Wars game Star Wars:The Force Unleashed as the Audio Lead.

I know a lot has been said about the physics and graphics of this game, but wait until you hear it! David has had some of the finest audio talent working on this project and it shows! As you watch the trailers that talk mostly about the visuals and effects think hard about what it would take to create audio to match the images. One documentary shows how they’ve created solid objects that react the same as they do in the real world. Wood cracking, metal bending that sort of thing. David’s job is to figure out just how that would sound. He couldn’t rely on simple samples since every instance is different depending on the situation. This is an interactive audio gold mine!

Then there is the question of music. David has an audio team that on one day may be cutting sound effects, recording dialogue or even editing music. Video game enthusiasts expect a classic John Williams score in all of the Star Wars games, but unfortunately Mr. Williams isn’t always available! David’s job is to make sure the music meets expectations AND works in the game. An interactive score must not only sound good but also has to work in the context of the game. Everyone who works for David on this project has to have a strong sense of musicality to make their edits believable, and that is what brings us back to the beginning question, creative or technical?

In this little snapshot of the industry at LucasArts, I witnessed that every member of the audio team has a strong theoretical understanding of audio and music and those same people having a very high proficiency in technical skills. Working in game audio is a combination of both the technical skills of today balanced with the need for a balanced critical-thinking approach and knowledge of music and sound. So if you you are thinking about entering the field, I have two recommendations. If you are an accomplished musician and/or sound designer, start delving into the world of interactivity and the technical implementations of that. Download Fmod or XNA and start diving in and creating sounds that change based on outside factors. If you have been more technically-minded and understand about scripting or using MAX/MSP start thinking about the music and the aesthetics of sound design. Expose yourself to different musical genres and start listening critically to the music and sound in games and even film. A career in game audio is worth the time studying, and you can never be too prepared!

learn network inspire

Those are the three words on the GDC pamphlets. Very simple words, but with so much meaning…

It is a lovely day in San Francisco today! Not because it is warm and sunny (it isn’t) but rather…. it is the first day of the Game Developers Conference! I had the chance to sit in on some great conversations about education and games offered as part of the 2 day summit on game education by the IGDA.

The morning sessions started with an impassioned plea to do it right. Our job as educators is not to train our students for a specific job when they leave our school, but rather to build a student’s knowledge base and their critical/independent thinking. In the music world you might think of it as teaching a musician how to approach sight reading as opposed to trying to teach the musician every single piece of music they might ever be called upon to play.

I love the GDC slogan. Learn, Network, Inspire. It is perfect in this day and age. We all can bear to learn more, of course, that means we have to look at exactly where we spend our time. None of us has the ability to learn everything about everything we are interested in. Susan Rogers, from McGill University, compares it to science. Back when Leonardo DaVinci was learning about science there was a small set of known truths. He really was able to master most of what was known at that time. Now things are different. Not only in science where researchers can spend a lifetime on the smallest of details, but also in music. I can’t, as someone who studies drums for instance, be a master of all styles. I can not master the playing styles of Vic Firth on timpani, Evelyn Glennie on percussion AND John Bonham on set. I must choose where to spend my time and energy.

Network. Some might think this is a hard sell for students, but in reality it might be the one thing that separates a great student from a great job. In every industry, networking is a part of the process. You can be the most talented “fill in your own blank here” but if no one knows about you it doesn’t matter. Networking is a part of the modern life. There are so many opportunities that come up through a network of professionals. Being a part of that network will help to put you in the right place at the right time.

Inspire. Great art has to come from somewhere. Great artists are inspired. The videogame industry is one of the few remaining places where great artists are rewarded when they are inspired. It is also a place where creative people inspire other creative people. Teamwork and collaboration are the foundation of great games. That very same teamwork and collaboration helps one artist inspire another.

A wonderful set of three words, meant for the modern world.

learn network inspire

I ran across a couple of great articles earlier in the month, related to working in the video game industry. You know, things have changed drastically in the last few years. In case you haven’t been keeping track, the video game industry now far outpaces the film industry when looking at profits. We all know that usually equates to more work! According to the most recent Mix Magazine Game Audio edition where they quote a study from the Entertainment Software Association, more than 80,000 people were employed by the US entertainment software industry in 2006. Now, that isn’t just music and audio, it also includes legal staff, marketing and all of the other positions needed in a software development company, but oh my goodness, that seems like a lot of jobs!

All of this is to say, if you’ve ever wanted to work in games, this is the perfect time! Ok, ok, calm down… it is not as if game developers are hanging out on street corners begging people to come work for them. Now, more than ever, they are looking for qualified people that are also very creative. They are also really only interested in people that really want to work in the games industry. Being genuinely interested in the industry shows and they can tell if you love games or not. So, perhaps I should change that sentence above slightly…. how about this….

All of this is to say, if you’ve ever wanted to work in games, this is the perfect time to work your darndest to make it happen! I wish I could say I have the ultimate list of ways to prepare for work in the industry, but honestly, there is no one way to get your start. Just like the music or film industry, everyone takes their own path, it can’t be scripted. There is no Harvard Business School education that gets you into the equivalent of the Fortune 500 in the video game industry.

Over the holiday break, a couple of stalwart staples of reporting and discussion on the videogame industry came up with some resolutions for getting a job. Take a look at the CMP article on Game Career Guide and the rebuttal on Gamasutra for an interesting look at what you should do if you want to work on games.

I’ve decided, after reading the two articles, basically the same thing I decide every few months… really, I need to buy “a couple” of new games so that I can research them and really listen and assess how I think the music and sound work in them. It’s all about the research…