Video Game Music

This lesson is part of the Style & Compositional Techniques category.

Objectives

• Students will be familiar with the compositional processes involved in writing for film, video, and video games
• Students will be able to create a sequenced track which underscores a short video scene
• Students will be able to plan a soundtrack for a limited video game segment with different possible player actions or movements

Resources

Readings

• Entertainment Computing:
  • Plut and Pasquier, "Generative Music in Video Games: State of the Art, Challenges, and Prospects"
• Music Theory Online:
  • Atkinson, "Soaring Through the Sky: Topics and Tropes in Video Game Music"
  • Medina-Gray, "Analyzing Modular Smoothness in Video Game Music"

Listening or Videos

• Reale, "Variations on a Theme by a Rogue A.I.: Music, Gameplay, and Storytelling in Portal 2" (Part 1 | Part 2)

Class Activities

• Discussion of the mechanics and compositional challenges of scoring video games
• Sketching a compositional plan for a short video game segment

Assignments

• Analysis of music from one or more video games
• Design a group of musical cells for a generative application