Music Design: Between Game Development and Music Composition

"Tell me something important about videogame music without actually speaking about music."

Music design is a process of specifying of what music you want in your game and how this music should respond as the user interacts with the game.

When thinking about the possible music in your game, you quickly realize there are myriads of reasons why some music should play. Music can react to your player's current location in the world ("city", "dark forest", "underground"), the current mood ("victorious", "threat", "imminent defeat"), and other music-worthy situations ("bonus round", "boss fight", "being in a secret room", etc.)

This course is mainly about spotting these reasons and figuring out how to accommodate multiple reasons at the same time. It is about design decisions that should be taken and committed to when starting with music in a game.

What You Will Learn

- The role of the music designer - The levels of music design - The difference between adaptive and static music - How to pick a genre for a videogame - How to use silence as an integral part of your music design - How to spot the musical contexts (opportunities for music) in your game

Why You Should Take This Class

Music design (dramaturgy) is often an overlooked phase of the game development. Game audio courses often start with how to use a DAW and how to compose melodies and harmonies, but without a proper design (what to play, when, and why), you might end up producing pieces of music that will not match your game. They will either confuse your players or get axed from the final product altogether.

Whom This Class is For

- Music composers and producers You are the people who create the music. You should know what decisions to take before you get to compose your music. - Game designers You are those who decide how the game should work when it is done. You should know how to communicate with the music composers so that your creative vision is realized. - Developers You are the ones who are aware of what is technically possible and how to tweak the technology if something extra is needed.