Lunch Time Discussions: The importance of music

[PSmonkey]

Just a small note, this is just a simple thing I wrote up during my lunch break. Sorry if its not have proper grammar and depth. It’s just some things that have been floating in my head since yesterday.

As I sit here during my lunch break eating a salad and listen to some music, I start visualizing how I could make a game based entirely off the music I am listening to. It makes me think back to a discussion I had with a friend recently as well as other discussions with the sound engineer at my previous job. Sometimes people don’t take audio in video games seriously. They think of it as an after thought or like a movie where the music forms around the game and not the other way around. Yet in the case where a game is entirely made based on music (and I’m not talking DDR here people). Great games that push this point are Loco Roco and Lumines (for example); games that just are not the same with the audio on mute. Also one that might not be the case but where the music just fits so well that imagining a different song would change the entire game is the LittleBigPlanet demo from GDC (Which features the song “Get it Together” by “The Go! Team”).

So referring back to my friend, we had a small discussion regarding gaming built around pieces of music. We both checked deeper into music by “The Go! Team” and already could just visualize the blocks to an entire game by just using their music alone. We already could see the first world in our game using Bottle Rocket, A cheerful level full of color (on the level of the Green Hill Zone in Sonic games). We could see the Hot Chip Remix of Ladyflash making a wicked song during tutorials and information menus. Not mention many places we could fit songs like “Junior Kickstart” & “The Ice Storm”.

During our discussions we ran into one major roadblock, what type of game do we make from this? We easily could see something like sonic using music like this (See Sonic Rush to hear great music by Hideki Naganuma & Teruhiko Nakagawa). We also could see a puzzle game resulting from this. Ultimately we settled on the idea of trying to somehow combine the two. A 2D puzzle game yet that give you a sense of urgency and speed to fly though the puzzles continuously with no disconnect between puzzle boards yet also be a challenge like playing checkers (not going to BS and say deep though provoking chess here).

So what does this have a connection to homebrew? It does to some extent. See the thing is, PSP homebrew does not have a lot of creativity going around. It’s just game clones and half baked lua ideas. I am not trying to look down on homebrew coders but I would like to see more creative ideas come out of the scene. Homebrew is probably the most perfect place to see creative, original, & innovative ideas to come together in a small game. Remember that some of our favorite games came out of simple ideas that teams pushed together with no commercial intent. flOw was done as a concept in flash, Portals was originally an idea put together by digi-pen students, Katamari Damacy was a creative idea by a Japanese student before graduating, Every Extend Extra was based on a small pc homebrew game called Every Extend, as well as many others floating out there. So why are we not seeing more of this creativity in psp homebrew?

Sorry running out of time here so I will simply wrap this up for now.

What was the whole point of this write up? Well somewhat boredom, somewhat me wanting to rant about the lack of creativity in the homebrew scene, somewhat me wanting to shoot out ideas and see what others think. Will anything come of me and my friends’ discussion? Well that is up for him to decide and so far he wants to keep toying with the idea mentally for a little longer.

Anybody have their two cents they would like to add to this?

[gunntims0103]

music definitly takes a large role in making a game succsessful. Im impressed with Zion's perseverance in trying to get decent music composition in his homebrew game Wandria. I myself try to look for good music for Sora Adventure homebrew game i am working on. The music in game is good, especially boss battle music which is crucial for bringing that "suspense" element into the game.

Some great soundtracks in commercial games that i'v come across is in games such as legend of dragoon(ps1), Final fantasy 7(ps1), and Zelda orcarina of time(n64).

[yaustar]

In terms of music, I was considering using indie bands. There was this one group that I managed to grab a CD off and seeing at a later stage if it will fit in any projects that I make.

The main problem is that Programmers and Designers are usually exclusive skillsets in my experience. However, while programmers are willing to come forward and make something, designers are reluctant to do the same or their ideas are just too grand in scale.

[Paiku]

I just want to say that I concur.
Music for me is incredibly important, I value it as high as the actual graphics, not least in rpgs.
I always have game music playing when I work on gfx for a game. I couldnt stand working for hours without it.