Case Study: Music and Sound Design for an Adventure Game
How do you create an interactive soundtrack?
Unlike sound for movies, which is always played back in the same order, sound for games is played back in a unique way every time. Music for games must be broken down into different sections, which can be looped, crossfaded, layered or branched seamlessly in real time. The end result is a sound track that is immersive, responsive, and seamless.
For this case study, I've composed music and sound for the classic game of Pokémon. I invite you to explore by playing back the isolated sound clips, and then checking out how all of the sound comes together to complete the game experience. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of the process of creating an interactive soundtrack.
Step 1: Spotting session
The first step is to make a list of every audio element that is needed for the game. In film scoring, this is called a spotting session. There are 3 main categories that are needed: Music, Dialog, and Sound Effects.
Music and Sounds required for Pokémon:
Sound Effects:
- Cash Register
- Hit/Explosion
Dialog:
- Indiscernible gibberish loop
Music:
- Exploration music
- Shop music
- Battle music
- Intro Cue
- Low Intensity Loop
- Transition Cue
- High Intensity Loop
- Victory Cue
Step 2: Create the Music and Sound Effects
Now that we have a list of all the sounds we need, it's time to start creating. For the shop and exploration music, a looping piece of music works to provide a soundtrack. These two pieces are the perfect duration so that they can loop seamlessly.
The battle music is more complex. There are up to five separate pieces that are played during the battle.
Sound Effects and Dialogue:
Step 3. Implement audio into the game's audio engine
Now that the audio is composed, it is ready for implementation in the game’s audio engine. In this step, we can configure each sound file to play back based on game parameters. Dialog and Sound Effects will be linked to specific actions in the game. The playback of the music will change based on conditions within the game.
- When the scene is changed, the previous music cue will stop, and the next cue will begin.
- When health is above 50%, the low intensity battle music is looped.
- When the Pokemon’s health dips below 50%, the transition is played once, then the High intensity Battle Music is looped.
- If the battle’s outcome is victory, the victory music is played.
- If the battle's outcome is defeat, then the music switches back to the exploration theme.
The above image is of FMOD Middleware. Middleware is a tool that is used to implement audio into games. In the FMOD user interface above, the connected modules control the logic of the music playback. Controls for auditioning the audio are also shown.