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The Basics of Adaptive Video Game Music Scoring

Musicnotes

• 5 min read
Video Game Music

It’s no secret that video games have been responsible for some of the most iconic melodies of the past few decades. Koji Kondo and Nintendo are responsible for so many synth earworms, and Martin O’Donnell’s Halo Theme has spawned an endless stream of YouTube videos. But video game music is about more than hooks and jingles. In fact, Classic FM recently attributed its growing audience of young classical music listeners to video games, and video game music has been featured on stages across the world by the popular concert series Video Games Live.

Video game music has become both big business and good listening. Not only are some of our Signature Artists are creating incredible renditions of video game music, but composing for video games has become a dream career path for many composers.

So what does it take to compose for a video game? Well, it’s complicated. Crafting a score for a video game isn’t exactly the same as scoring a movie. And composers can’t just rely on players to experience a game in a linear progression, so they have to get a little creative.

Over the years, video game composers have pushed the boundaries of what music in video games can achieve. They’ve crafted intricate musical backdrops to huge virtual worlds and meticulously arranged music loop triggers to serve as immersive gameplay cues.

The strategy composers use to present immersive soundscapes to players is commonly known as Adaptive Music Scoring. Here’s a quick rundown of the history of adaptive music scoring and its purpose within video game storytelling.

Watch our Signature Artist, Frank Tedesco, perform a Piano duet of Gerudo Valley from The Legend of Zelda

The History of Adaptive Video Game Music Scores

Video game scores have always faced a different set of challenges than scores for stage or film. While film scores accompany a linear and consistent scene, even the simplest video game scores have to adapt to changing circumstances, which are entirely in the hands of the player.

Video game music has to serve not just as a backdrop for gameplay, but also as a gameplay device itself. Some of the earliest and more simplistic examples of adaptive scoring stem from the need to indicate to players a change in conditions.

There of course are the iconic Super Mario Bros themes that accompany each of its biomes, including the Desert, Ground and Water themes. These iconic themes give players a clue as to what kind of obstacles and enemies they can expect from a level. But there were also in-game objects that change the gameplay and accompanying music when interacted with.

These objects, like the Super Star from Super Mario Bros or the fruit from Pac-Man, entirely change the gameplay choices available to the player for a short time. Music plays a key role in helping players distinguish these moments from typical gameplay, and as simple they were, these musical cues helped pave the way for today’s most innovative video game scores.

Watch our Signature Artist, Kyle Landry, take on the theme from Skyrim:

Adaptive Music Scores in an Open World

As video games became more complicated, the music that accompanied them did as well. The looped themes and simple interactive triggers that worked well for 2D games were not up to snuff as video games moved into the 3D era.

One of the first games to bridge the gap between the 2D and 3D eras in video game music scoring was 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Although its environmental themes were still relatively simplistic and repetitive, it was one of the first and most successful 3D games to introduce reactive combat music.

It’s become old hat in newer open world games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Minecraft, but reactive combat music for 3D games was once quite the conundrum for video game composers. Unlike 2D games, enemies in 3D could be a threat to players without being visible on screen, so designers knew that music was the key to warning players about potential combat. But how and when would the music trigger, and how would it be coordinated with the normal theme music?

Anyone who has played early 3D open world games knows that the transitions between in-combat and out-of-combat music could sometimes be very abrupt and jarring. Ocarina of Time’s biggest contribution to adaptive music scoring was its ability to weave those two states relatively seamlessly.

Although it was far from perfect, Ocarina of Time’s system of attaching its music triggers to the proximity of open world enemies and making clever use of cross-fading marked a change in the way video game music composers approached their work. Instead of the music reacting to simple toggles, various themes were now being integrated into one another to create a more cohesive score.

Watch our Signature Artist, Eddie van der Meer, take on the theme from The Last of Us:

The Mechanics of Modern Adaptive Video Game Music Scores

We’ve come a long way since 1998, and video game music composers are pushing adaptive music scoring techniques even further. Many of today’s most popular open world video games feature scores that have been written from the ground up to adapt to the player’s every move. To achieve this, many composers are writing their scores with layering in mind.

For example, if a video game music composer wanted to write an adaptable score for an open world game today, they would begin with their theme and add instrumental layers and harmonies fit for various circumstances.

In this example, the most basic main theme could include a piano and a string section. For combat situations, the composer could add an additional vocal harmony to both warn the player and indicate tension. If the composer wanted to represent a moment of suspense, they might add an additional harmony with brass or woodwinds. These iterations of the theme would then be introduced and layered together as the player met specific parameters within the game world. Sometimes multiple themes come crashing together to give some moments some extra oopmh.

Consistent style has always been necessary for any score to maintain its identity, but adaptive music scoring for video games requires an incredible amount of foresight on the part of the composer. To properly weave in and out of themes on the fly, composers are forced to play within a set of rules of their own making. Video game music composers will often confine themselves to a single key or limit the range of instrumentation that they use on a single theme so that they can make deviations from the base theme more impactful.

Watch our Signature Artist, Joe Jeremiah, take on various themes from Super Mario:

The Future of Adaptive Music Scores

Video games are becoming more mainstream every year, and the level of immersion they offer is only growing. Game makers are using every tool available to them to heighten the emotional attachment the player has to their virtual worlds. Music is one of their most potent tools.

It’s likely that, in the future, games will offer players the choice to radically change the music that accompanies their experience as they play. Even today, some games have music that changes over the course of the game depending on the decisions that players make. With such an incredible amount of work and inventiveness going into crafting video game music, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the fastest growing fields of interest for young composers.

We’ve hit on a few basic ideas behind adaptive music scoring for video games, but there’s so much more behind the process. We can’t wait to hear what the many talented composers in the video game industry bring us in the years to come.