Part II - Creating and Programming Game Music

Summary

Video game music is often sonically similar to film music, particularly when games use musical styles that draw on precedent in cinema. Yet there are distinct factors in play that are specific to creating and producing music for games. These factors include:Apart from books and manuals that teach readers how to use particular game technologies (such as, for example, Ciarán Robinson’s Game Audio with FMOD and Unity),¹ some composers and audio directors have written about their processes in more general terms. Rob Bridgett,² Winifred Phillips,³ George Sanger,⁴ Michael Sweet,⁵ Chance Thomas,⁶ and Gina Zdanowicz and Spencer Bambrick⁷ amongst others have written instructive guides that help to convey their approaches and philosophies to music in games. Each of these volumes has a slightly different approach and focus. Yet all discussions of creating and producing game music deal with the three interlinked factors named above.