STEP LOCKED: COMPOSING IN TANDEM WITH GAME DEV

STEP LOCKED:

COMPOSING IN TANDEM WITH GAME DEVELOPMENT

BY CHASE BETHEA

Many of us don’t get the privilege to score an alpha prototype. You look at the build with beautiful customized art and functional game play. You may ask yourself, “what does this sound like?” As you play the game for 30 minutes nothing musical comes to mind. You play longer, and an hour passes, two hours pass, three hours pass. You decide to turn the game off and return another day, return the next week and still nothing musical has come to mind. After a month without a note written you start to wonder is this game a gem? You say to yourself, “I’m having fun but I’m not hearing what the game is telling me to write for.” This is how it all started when I approached the music world for Aground.

Aground is a game about mining, crafting and unlocking new areas. In the game, you dig for resources and use those to upgrade your character and get better equipment. Survival is only the beginning. The only way for humanity to have a future is to return to the stars and confront them. However, it will require a lot of ingenuity and help to recover everything that was lost and even that might not be enough.

It took three months to write the main theme for Aground ,“No Sky Limits/ No Boundaries.” I put a lot of nisus into creating the sound palette. I was concerned that nothing would come to me but the duende that came from the team was strong and that energy pushed me to think away from the game. The challenge was not to have it be an opuscule but rather a larger piece that could be digested subconsciously while the player was collecting resources. Perhaps this was the challenge that I had faced which is why it took so long to compose.

However, once I wrote the track the formula was clear. I needed to incorporate a through-composed method in order for the goal to be achieved. This method of writing had naturally been my favorite but was never well received among my peers. So, I took a really big chance on this methodology of writing.

Here is a journal entry from 4/30/2019 that explains some different mental struggles:

“I was told that you need to tell stories. I know this. Old ideas from what we learned from previous composers over the past two centuries. Tell sentences through phrasing [and] that’s still accomplished in what I write. However, did anyone consider that sentences are interrupted by people you meet and talk to? That attention spans change more rapidly than ever in our time 2019. When you speak to someone, you may not always get your point across or finish your sentence. The person listening may get bored of your paragraphs. You or them may shift topics etc. This is what the music language is saying and this is how I interpret it to be.

People have a thousand ideas a minute, you will like something one second and then you change your mind and this is what is constant. This is how I chose to break the monotony,still have a conversation and tell a couple stories in one listen.

So, if you’re old school and thrive on traditional harmony/melody and yearn for that, I have good news for you. There is a ton of music out there for you to enjoy. In contrast, if you’re searching deep, want something different, fresh, unique, abstract, eclectic, un-traditional,sometimes random, complex and catchy, I have all of that right here and more.”

Once the demo was released to the public, I had realized that risk was a success.

PROGRESSION The theme of Aground is about progression. Since the game always evolves in story and through the development it only made sense that the music would do the same. Sound palettes for consistency is often discussed for many years when composing for games. You want the player to feel familiar with certain instruments and textures to keep the cohesiveness of their entire art form. I needed the sonic identity to be very specific to each island and planet of Aground. Oftentimes throughout the entire soundtrack, I would recall the theme from “No boundaries/No Sky Limit” while expanding more and more on the sound palette with the texture.

Asset sheets played a big role in the direction for most of the music because they had descriptions of what island and planet was being designed for the player to experience. I use this inspiration in conjunction with the art.

SPECIFIC SYNTHESIZERS When I visited the Yamaha headquarters in 2018, I was reminded of the classic synths in their synth history room that Yoko Shimomura, Yuzo Koshiro as well as other Japanese game composers used during that time. For example, the Yamaha SY 85. So, I found an emulation VST synth of that keyboard synthesizer and used that in the sound palette as well. That model can be mostly heard near the end of the track of “Grimoire Architect,” where in the game you have a masterful grasp of magic on a specific island.

Other honorable mentions for synths used in the Aground score are Autogun, from FL Studio, Korg M1, Vanguard and Sprike. Some more Easter eggs are some vocal messages that are musically connected to the theme of the track depending on the island or the planet that you’re exploring. LIVE MUSICIANS With the Aground being in Steam Early Access, I was always wondering how I best myself with the next track that I would compose for the next island or planet. The thought of collaborating with other musicians was becoming more enticing however, I didn’t know exactly when I would want to collaborate. It became apparent when I wrote “Subaqueous Metropolis” and “Hive Dive Havoc.” I wanted the process to be smooth with little preparation and really good ear training/improvisatory skills. I reached out to a couple guitarist friends that I knew could achieve this very quickly. I treated the sessions as jam sessions rather than “recording sessions.” I have found over the years collaborating with live musicians that when it comes time to recording they tense up. I do my best to keep the atmosphere as mellow as possible but with this approach of making it a jam session it really loosens the vibe and the nerves to achieve really great recordings.

MAKING HISTORY Of course you never think of these things when you’re writing the music until it occurs to you later. With composing “Neila Enemui Bar Amber,” which is a cryptic name for a track that conflates between two Elvish languages, I wanted to make the track and title feel as if it was related to what was happening in the game as it is “foreign.”

I thought to myself, “if I could create a cipher/anagram and translate that into creating music then, it could prove to be a powerful metric and composing tool.”

On top of that I thought about time signatures to which would feel completely disoriented but have a strong groove. So, I composed a time

signature that I believe has ever been written in the history of game

music. Only one of my friends, who works at Respawn Entertainment, has been able to figure out the time signature. So, I leave it as a challenge for anyone that does figure it out and if you do consider it the ultimate badge of honor to your ears. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chase Bethea is a freelance Composer that has shipped 19 titles in his nine years experience. He scored games such as I Can’t Escape Darkness, Super Happy Fun Block, </reality> Aground, and Potions Please. Chase has received many accolades throughout his career. In 2013, Chase’s score from the successful flash horror game, I Can’t Escape received an honorable mention in Indie Game Magazine. His soundtrack for Cubic Climber earned a Noteworthy on Destructoid. In 2016, Chase was nominated for Artists of the Year – Independent Composer by VGMO in the entire industry. In 2019, he was selected to perform live at Indiecade. He is also a co-host of Game Audio Hour and an iASIG Steering Committee Leader.

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