Interactive Arts go hand in glove with music. Surely you can separate them, but the question is why?

Music and sound can make or break a game. Think of really old games. Sonic the Hedgehog, do gamers remember how the trees were drawn? Do they remember what color eyes Sonic has? If you play some of the music from Sonic, they will remember it. Music has the ability to withstand time as well. Music, when written correctly, can almost become timeless.

My honest opinion is this. We live in a disposable society. People LOVE to be bombarded with everything right now, as fast as possible, and then throw it away. Having a very well written and strongly committed soundtrack for a game is very important. I state this on the grounds that most gamers have healthy and unhealthy addictions to playing games, and a lot of those gamers, as Tony said, respond so strong to the music and the sound. For example, if you haven't seen Video Games Live, check it out, it is worth the ticket price! :) They sell out their concerts, however, the Symphony Orchestras in Ohio do not, they have to give tickets away. The audience at VGL is full of fans ranging from 15-80, CSO, mostly 60+. (When I go to the concerts, I am usually one of the youngest.)

One could argue the global importance of music and sound, but I feel that videogame music and sound is incredibly important to this decade. People want to listen to it, they want to experience something with the music. When one of the horn players played the horn melody from the Medal of Honor theme incorrectly, a few in the audience booed.

Music and sound are like oxygen, you couldn't even possibly know how important they are until there is none. (Although a stretch :p)

Sean

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Original post by Anonymous Poster To stress again I am not saying music cannot be timeless or important blah blah blah, but graphics are AT LEAST as important, and probably more important since they convey 90% of the inromation the player receives.

How many people you know play Final Fantasy IV or VI for the graphics? I mean, when a majority of people know the mario theme 15 years after playing the game or are reminded or an entire fictional universe when hearing say the 'chocobo' theme or the 'imperial march' from 'Star Wars' it lends itself to the idea that melody is the most paleteable thing to the human ear AND the human memory. Whether or not you are willing to recognize it, music DOES make or break a game. In most cases graphics are merely a tool used to allow the player to enter the game playing world and where the music can be looked upon as something far more incidental. However good music has a tendency to engrain itself upon the mind of the player/listener far more readily. I am willing to make the claim that a good melody has the potential to stay in the mind of the gameplayer far longer than any sprite or visual effect.

Also, it is useless to bring up the quality of olfactory input in gaming for your argument because its non-existent in game development, at least at this point.

[Edited by - Rain 7 on November 26, 2006 2:06:56 AM]

I don't think alot of the public actually puts a whole lot of stock in audio for games. Maybe some of the music may catch their ear but for the most part, for the general public, they're too busy with the graphics, gameplay, bugs, patches and all that. If the sound really sucks then you'll certainly hear about it but it is certainly down the list on whats important in a game for most.

I think the ones who really take notice are the guys making the sounds...lol.

I think it's pretty obvious the role audio plays. Everyone has already said some of the most important reasons so I won't waste time echoing the statements.

Good thread tho.

In my opinion it's wrong to say that it's the music that makes a game. As wrong as to say good graphics makes a good game. As wrong as a good gameplay makes a good game.

It's the mix of all important components that makes a good game. A game is a multimedial thing. When the gameplay is good, the graphics are good, sound fx and the music is good, when everything at this game is good and fits together in a way that you forget everything around, then you will remember the music.

Everything has to fit together. And with that i don't mean that every component has to be highes possible quality. It just has to look and feel like it was made for each other. Super Mario still makes fun, doesn't it?

One not fitting component, be it music, sound fx, graphics, etc., can decrease the whole gamefun. Even a single sound FX can be such a troublemaker. And then the whole game is not this good. Because then you remember this incredible not fitting EEEEK sound instead the good gameplay. No matter if it contains an oscar winning song as background music but has weak gameplay. As no matter if it has sucking music but high quality professional graphics.

Music, at least to me, is incredibly important for games. Most of my favorite games of all time have had excellent music (Most of the FFs, Chrono Trigger, etc). Sound effects really add to the immersion as well.

All I know is that I wouldn't play a game if it didn't have any music, it'd be way too boring. Music describes the scene just as much as the graphics to do, IMO.

First of all people should take note that:


Music and sound are as important as the designers make them.


As I mentioned earlier it has incredible potential to carry information to the player--this goes beyond the emotional impact music and sound can offer that I think is NOT in dispute in this thread.


I remember the first game I played that required COLOR. Up until then game designers had not made COLOR an important part of the gameplay. The game was Bart simpson vs. The Space Mutants. In the game anyone wearing purple was a space mutant, but on my 9" mitsubishi black and white ANYONE could be a space mutant. Ultimately the game became nearly impossible to play on a black and white television and I had to petition the use of the family TV.


My point is that game designers are not ALLOWING music and sound to be important elements to gameplay.

Imagine a game with 3D positional audio that has a sound cue you have to track down in order to "find" some significant element to the game. Well there you go, in that case it has become as important as any other element to the game.


I understand the argument for a distilled look at game design and its significance in the minds of gamers--but graphics and sound are just mediums of information and they CAN BE as important as the designers make them.


Which, tragically, is not yet.

Very good point. I love bringing up Metronome in these kind of discussions. I don't think the game will ever get finished beyond Prototype according their lead, but it's still a cool step forward.

Metronome

Actually, looking at the site it may get a next gen revival after all (there used to be more info but it now says under construction which I actually take as a good sign!)

Basically the premise was you go around this huge city recording sounds in order to solve puzzles or accomplish goals. You would actually record the output of the game (in game of course.) They had an example of one gameplay idea in which you needed to scare away someone or something from guarding something (sorry, a bit vague here). So one way was to record someone else screaming. In order to get them to scream you needed to surprise them. So you set up your recorder, knock over a bookshelf and record their scream. Then take the scream and play it back to the guard.

Something like that. I hope they do in fact finish it.

Tony

A guy at our studio was the sound designer for that. It sounds like such an amazing project but i don't know what's happened to it, i guess they've had difficulty getting it signed... Publishers get scared off by new I.P. nowadays which is (imo) killing originality in the industry. A shame :(

One thing I have to add which I'm not sure someone has said before is if the music is the same or similar in lots of different games then to me it makes then feel the same and me less wanting to play them. For instance Neverwinter nights, Oblivion, Baldurs Gate, Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars all have the same music, for me it just ruins the atmosphere when I play a game and I have heard the music before, and it seems to me that they havent even bothered to try something different.

I think music can really set the flavour of a game if matched well or can even completely change its feel. I just wished they'd stop using the same damn music in lots of these games.

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Original post by Torquemeda One thing I have to add which I'm not sure someone has said before is if the music is the same or similar in lots of different games then to me it makes then feel the same and me less wanting to play them. For instance Neverwinter nights, Oblivion, Baldurs Gate, Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars all have the same music, for me it just ruins the atmosphere when I play a game and I have heard the music before, and it seems to me that they havent even bothered to try something different. I think music can really set the flavour of a game if matched well or can even completely change its feel. I just wished they'd stop using the same damn music in lots of these games.

Well, those games are different stories :p Three of those games, (Im not sure of Baldurs Gate) were scored by Jeremy Soule, and he is notorious for never changing a thing in his music. However, his music for Prey was different, albeit not as good as his normal work. I also heard a number of loops in that soundtrack.