Aside from the notion that an ambient track should reinforce a sense of place or a specific level of tension/relaxation, I would like to know what are some of your compositional considerations when writing an ambient track? What role, if at all, does melody play? What kind of pacing is important? What components (texture, dynamics, harmonic changes) would you consider incorporating the most variation? As a beginner with this kind of track, the challenge is to create a track that is non-invasive yet still retains an interest and does not fall flat. I'd love to what the community thinks. Edit: Two Sample Ambient Tracks Watchman's Lab -I was interested in capturing a place that would invoke a mad/obsessed character whose lab is completed engulfed with clocks and mechanical parts that are working, functioning, modified, etc. Desert -This track is focused on invoking a sense of wonder, grandeur, openness that would be part of a deserted field, cave, etc. The idea is to put the player in an enviornment that is bigger than the character. [Edited by - grhufnagl on November 6, 2008 11:35:27 AM]

When creating atmospheric, I consider that a particular atmosphere is supposed to be, in a large way, representative of the area or scene the player is involved in and that scene, especially in games, is fairly static.

There are a number of factors to consider when representing a scene:

* Themes
If you have thematic aesthetics in the music design, make sure you appropriately represent them here. If the area or region has a theme or if the player recently interacted with or was impacted by some story element or if you have a motif--make sure it comes out, but make it come out subtly.

* Harmonics
Unless you have a strong harmonic motif or harmonic theme that is in reference to something, keep it simple. The harmonic base is the ground on which your user stands and so you need to make sure that they are firmly settled in your atmosphere, like a pocket, and you don't pull the floor out from under them unless that's the atmosphere you want to create.

* Movement
Make sure your movement is elegant and subtle, unless you have some kind of bombastic atmosphere in the scene, you'll want to scale back some of the larger movements you make harmonically, thematically, and instrumentally.

* Space
Make sure you understand how to mix and master your instruments into their respective spaces and how adding and creating space has an affect on your perceived atmosphere.

Most of all: Make sure you have a firm understanding of how your musical choices affect the listener--you will want to employ your skill at its fullest, in my opinion, as atmospheric tracks can sometimes be the most challenging.

Dannthr,

Really great feedback, thanks! I do have a couple of more questions as a follow-up to your comments:

1) What formal considerations might you have when writing? For instance, based on the locale or point of place within the game itself, how might you parse the music in terms of hierarchy? Do you consider ambient tracks to be incidental or more as serving a textural infrastructure?

2) How do you differentiate an ambient track from genre to genre? Single player RPG vs. MMO? Puzzle game vs. RTS? What about games the don't necessarily incorporate "scenes?" This may be more of a personal choice, but I'd like to know what kinds of questions you would have for developers/artists/programmers for this kind of issue.

Thanks so much for your time!

The bottom line consideration for me is that games are entertainment. How a game entertains is completely subjective to the game itself. A roller coaster entertains by bringing you up very high, and whinging you around quickly with large drops and "close-calls." The tilt-a-whirl is another kind of ride that entertains by spinning people around and around. The Merry-go-Round also has it's own game mechanic and so as artists who are trying to aid our games in entertaining as they're meant to entertain, we must customize our music in order to enhance that experience.

There's no DO this when this or DO that when that--what's important is that you UNDERSTAND conventions so that when you employ conventions they don't come off as cliche and are effective.

Work closely with your project director to make sure you're representing his or her project to its best.