MUSIC
In This Chapter
• Planning for Music
• Working with a Composer
• Licensing Music
11.1 I
NTRODUCTION
M
usic is an effective tool for setting the tone of a game and makes the
game world more immersive. The Silent Hill series uses music and
sound to great effect to enhance the creepiness of a world inhabited
with demonic creatures. In some cases, music is the one of the last things consid-
ered on a project, and the producer starts looking for a composer well after the
game has started production. In other cases, music is an integral part of the en-
tire game and planned for during pre-production. For example, the Tony Hawk
series of games is known for licensing music from well-known bands. Licensing
music on this scale requires planning and legal negotiations. If the licenses are
not secured before the game is code released, the music track will likely be re-
moved from the game.
Things to keep in mind for game music include technical considerations,
budgets, schedule, and how music will be used in the game. In addition, you
might want to license music instead of having original music composed. This
chapter will give a general overview of how to plan for and use music in your
game.
Chapter 11Chapter 11
184 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
11.2 PLANNING FOR MUSIC
As with any other elements in the game, music needs must be discussed during
pre-production. You don’t necessarily have to finalize the entire music plan at
this point, but it is advisable to determine how much money you want to spend,
decide whether you are going to license music, compose original, or both, and
tentatively put together a schedule for getting the music assets finalized and
integrated into the game. Also, if you expect the music score to evoke a certain
atmosphere, discuss this in pre-production to ensure that the music meshes well
with the art and design elements.
Music Design
The sound designer will work with a lead designer or creative director to deter-
mine the music needs for the game. For example, if the game is an action-adventure
game where the player spends a lot of time exploring the world and part of the
time fighting the enemy, one type of in-game music can be used while the player is
exploring, and another type of music can be used when the player is fighting.
When determining the music needs, consider which major areas of the game
will need music:
■
In-game
■
User Interface (UI) shell
■
Cinematics
This can then be broken down within each category. For example, if using
in-game music, is the music coming from an ambient source within the game
world (such as a car radio), or is it constantly playing in the background? The UI
shell might have one piece of music that continuously loops or consists of several
songs that cycle while the player is in the UI. The cinematics might be scored di-
rectly to the image, or several generic music loops can be composed and placed
in the soundtrack by the cinematic artist.
After you have an idea of where music is going to be used in the game, es-
timate how many minutes of music are needed. Most composers charge by the
minute when creating original music, and the rates can vary from $300 a minute
to upwards of $1500 a minute. The rate depends on who the composer is, whether
the music is recorded with live musicians, or whether the music is created digitally.
Additionally, if live musicians are used, you might also need to compensate the
musicians; your composer can work out the details with you and the musicians.
The amount of music varies for each game and might be budget depen-
dent. For example, if you need 30 minutes of original music and can spend only
$10,000 on music, you will need to find a composer who can do the job for
MUSIC 185
around $300 a minute. On the other hand, you can reduce the amount of music
needed for the game and spend money on a composer who charges more per
minute. If you find a composer with whom you want to work, and they also want
to work with you, more than likely, you both can agree on fair terms.
Technical Considerations
During pre-production, the sound designer and sound programmer will need
to discuss any technical constraints that affect how the music is implemented in
the game. These technical constraints might create some challenges but will also
be opportunities to figure out creative solutions to overcome them. Some of the
technical things to consider are as follows:
Memory limitations: Consoles and cell phones have memory limitations to
consider when designing the sound for games. If the sound design requires
everything to be loaded in memory to work, you might find it is not well-
suited for a PS2 console, which has a 64 MB limit for everything—code,
sound, art, scripting. Cell phone games are also limited by this, even more
so than console titles.
Streaming audio: Streaming audio consists of sound files that stream di-
rectly off the disc and play in real time. Streaming audio does not have to be
stored in memory, which means that memory limitations can be mitigated if
this is used as one way to deliver audio in the game. The sound designer will
want to specify which audio files to stream and which to load in memory, so
there are no performance issues. For example, using streaming audio for an
AI response might slow things down since the code will have to search on the
disc for the appropriate file and then play it. If AI responses are loaded into
memory, the appropriate response will play immediately.
Disc space limitations: Another limitation to consider is how much space
you will have on the disc to store sounds. If you have several gigs of space
available for the entire game, it is likely this will not be an issue. However, if
you are planning to include multiple languages on a single disc, there must
be enough room on the disk to store every set of localized voiceovers.
Compression: As with cinematics, music files will need to be compressed
for the final version of the game. Compression allows for more music and
sound effects to be included in the game, because the file sizes are reduced.
The sound designer will want to determine which compression scheme gives
the most beneficial result, both in terms of sound quality and space needed
on the disc. If the files are compressed too much, the sound quality is very
poor; many nuances will not be heard.
Custom soundtracks: If your game supports functionality for custom
soundtracks, it means that the players import their own soundtracks into the
186 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
game, either by using a CD or MP3 files. So if someone wants to listen to
classical music instead of heavy metal while racing cars, the option is avail-
able. If your game includes this feature, you might choose not to spend as
much money licensing popular music since it is likely many players will per-
sonalize the game experience with their own music selections.
Audio formats: Which music formats will your game support? There are
several formats to choose from, each with different pros and cons. In gen-
eral, the sound designer and audio programmer will want to support the
format that gives the best quality sound and stays within the memory limita-
tions. For example, MIDI files are used for cell phone games; the sound is
not the best quality, but it does not take much space to store several min-
utes of MIDI music. Other digital audio formats available with higher sound
quality include WAV, ADPCM, Redbook Audio, and MP3.
Schedule and Staffing
Whether you plan to license music tracks or hire a composer, you need to deter-
mine the music needs well before your game reaches beta. By beta, it is usually
too late to commission a composer for original music, because you will not be
able to find someone who works on such short notice. If you do, it is unlikely the
quality of the work will be as high as it can be, due to the limited time. It will
also be too late to start negotiating with music publishers on which tracks you are
interested in licensing.
Alpha is a good time to start approaching music publishers for licensed tracks or
for sending out bid packages to potential composers. If you hire an external composer,
make sure the contract specifies that the work he is doing is a “work for hire.” This
means that your company owns the IP rights to the music, not the composer. Please
refer to Chapter 4 “Legal Information,” for more information about work for hire.
If you have an in-house composer available to do work on your project, it can
be tempting to manage this person without a formal deliverable schedule, since
you can go speak to him any time you want. However, this is not recommended.
As with any team member, the composer needs to specifically know what his dead-
lines are so he can plan accordingly. If he needs to deliver the final music mixes by
beta, he must have scheduled milestones between pre-production and beta so he
can hit his deadlines on time. The nice thing about having an internal composer is
that they are readily available for any emergency music needs that arise on a proj-
ect. Also, any work done by an in-house composer is fully owned by his employer.
As with voiceover, it is helpful to implement placeholder music during pro-
duction to get a better idea of the final music needs and how things sound in the
game. Just don’t forget to remove any placeholder music before the game ships,
especially if you are temporarily using licensed music to which you don’t have
the rights. Also, make sure that no early marketing footage of the game features
MUSIC 187
any licensed music you don’t have the rights to, as this can turn into a legal issue
if the musician or his publisher finds out.
When putting together your music schedule, include deadlines for any music
needed for marketing purposes. For example, marketing may need one to two min-
utes of music for an E3 game trailer. If the game is at an alpha stage, the final
music might not be ready, or the final tracks might not be legally licensed. In this
instance, you want some placeholder music that marketing can use free and clear
and that evokes what the final game music will sound like. If the final game is using
an orchestral soundtrack, placeholder orchestral music can be used for the trailer. If
you have already hired a composer or have an in-house composer, he can probably
compose some music for this one-time marketing deliverable in one to two days.
SCHEDULING FOR CINEMATICS
If you have pre-rendered cinematics in the game and are using original or li-
censed music, you must consider the cinematic deadlines when creating the music
schedule. For example, a composer who is creating original music for a set of ci-
nematics needs to see a rough version of these cinematics before he can begin his
work, so he has a clear idea of how much music is needed and what events in the
movie will be emphasized by the music.
Usually, composers want to compose to picture so the music can be timed ap-
propriately to key events in the cinematic. In order for this to happen, the composer
needs to get a final and correctly timed cinematic, with voiceover and sound effects
tracks, a few weeks before his final music deliverables are due. This allows him to
tweak the final timing of the music track for the cinematics and correctly mix it to
blend with the voiceover and sound effects.
If any edits are made in the cinematic after the final music is delivered, you have
to send it back to the composer for the music to be retimed. Depending on how ex-
tensive the edits are, this can take some time, because the composer rearranges and
remove parts of the music to fit within the new timing. If possible, avoid editing the
cinematics after the final music, voiceover, and sound effects are completed, as this
adds more time to schedule and can put the project at risk.
If the composer is just delivering music loops that play as background music in
the cinematic and is not relying on the music to punctuate key images in the game,
the timing is not as critical. If any edits are made, the music will continue looping as
necessary until the cinematic ends.
After you have decided on a composer or finalized which tracks you are
going to use, you need to determine the deadline for getting all the final music
assets for the game. The composer should plan to deliver the final music mixes
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