Monday, August 12, 2013

Musings: Comparing video games and tv/movies

When I first started getting into video game music and talking about creating this class with my colleagues and friends, I often explained the class this way: "it'd be just like a film music class, but with video game music."  Now, almost a year farther into the the project, I think back to this comparison a lot.  In some ways it makes sense; in other ways, I was naive.  At this point, I'm almost tired of hearing people say, "oh, it's like film music," or "you should talk to so-and-so who studies film music."  I'm starting to think that game audio is different enough that it's almost past the usefulness of comparing the two.  What do you think of the comparison?  I'm just jotting down some of my thoughts.  I know that in high scholarly terms, not much (if anything) here is groundbreaking, but I just wanted to brainstorm a bit, get my mind wrapped around the idea more, and get a dialogue started if there's one to be had here.

This comparison makes sense:


The basis of most game music studies begins with film music studies.  In Karen Collins book Game Audio, which I have sitting beside me, the second review on the back cover is by the author of a book on Sound Design in Cinema.  That's just a blatant example that's convenient.  The fact is, nearly all of the academic works that I've read cite material in film studies as a basis for creating the field of game studies.  Film has been around a lot longer than games-- I'd say film audio has roughly a half a century headstart ahead of game audio.  Games music is similar to film music in that they are both "moving" images with audio added.  I think the correlation is natural.  There're plenty of great ideas in film audio studies that are perfectly applicable to game audio.  No need to deny these or belittle them.  Instead, use them as a springboard for largely already done work and then move on.

Both genres are constrained by budgets, communication by various parties working on the project, and other marketing and practical creative concerns.  Being unable to anticipate the exact differences between sound systems in theaters isn't much different from home systems and if there is such a thing as a "fixed" theater sound system parameter, game audio has much the same when considering creating music for a portable system where speaker limitations are a known.

How much music is enough is another big shared fact between game audio and film/tv audio.  Everyone agrees game/film music should be amazing.  Everyone also seems to agree it shouldn't overwhelm the experience in any way.  For instance, I love Star Trek TNG, but early on the music for the show is a little old school overwhelming.  The producers realized this and changed the style as the seasons went along.  The same is true in game audio: the wall to wall games like Manic Mansion style of music where something loops forever until you do something that triggers a new loop aren't as common now.  There's definitely a shift toward less is more.  Perhaps budgetary, perhaps gamer tastes, and certainly because of the addition of spoken dialogue in many modern games.

If you read composer interviews, game composers constantly cite watching tv/movies as sources of inspiration for their game compositions.  If you asked someone to compose a score for a kids game, they'd hang up the phone and watch some kids tv and movies!  Of course they'd play some kids video games for inspiration too.  However, movies and tv are mentioned in nearly every interview in Aaron Marks prints in Guide to Game Audio.  Film/tv are easily accessible ways to see/hear what's going on in the moving image and sound world, whether or not you're familiar with the genre!  If composers are taking inspiration from the field, there must be some use in comparing the two!

This comparison doesn't make sense:


Because of the interactivity of game audio versus the passive nature of film/tv audio, game audio presents many interesting challenges that film/tv doesn't.  By this I mean that as you watch a film, you're seeing the same movie that unfolds the same way each time you watch.  You might notice different things if you rewatch it, but it's the same, linear unfolding.  With a game, you're making the onscreen action happen.  Choices you make determine what audio events occur and when they happen.  This leads to a completely different, active, adaptive audio experience.  

This also leads to a huge challenge in game audio which is that, unlike a linear musical medium (such as film), the audio has to be flexible enough to adapt itself to whatever your current moment is.  In an old game like Super Mario Bros, this means, when you go down a pipe, the Overworld music stops, the pipe sound effect plays, and then the Underworld music starts.  This changeability has to be able to happen at any moment, and should (theoretically) happen without a jarring audio glitch.  (Hence the pipe sound effect to cover the moment between the two musical themes!)  In a very modern game, this might include audio that adapts itself to your style of playing: if you lurk around and are very cautious, that should yield one audio experience.  Contrast that with another gamer who rushes in head on and blows everything up quickly blasting from one challenge to the next.  The best possible world of audio would be very different experiences for these two players!

Also, considering game music, how will music flow from one piece to the next?  Will it change at the end of a loop?  Will it change no matter where in the musical piece you are?  With game audio, there are parameters constructed: you're in a room and if you get close to this machine, an alarm goes off and the music changes.  How will the transition between the two pieces of music work?  All this must be planned and constructed and should feel intuitive and perfect for the gamer.  In movies, this isn't a problem: the pacing of the movie is set, the timing decided.  The movie, like most music, is linear.  Music for film can be constructed exactly in a way that game audio simply cannot... unless perhaps you're playing a game where all you do is push the A button to continue.

The constraint of memory is huge for games and is a non-existent problem for movie music.  A five hour movie can have five hours of super high quality audio, always synced up perfectly.  Five hours of audio is way more than almost any game can have these days.  Keeping the music relevant (and not turned off) but not annoying and repetitive is such a critical game design area.  Movies rarely happen with the audio turned off.  Some games (Candy Crush?) are probably played with the audio rarely turned on!

Some games now rely on the audio engine to mix the music to your playing style.  Film, in contrast, just needs to be synced up one time perfectly and then is saved.  Because the game designers don't know exactly when you're going to jump across a series of stones, they have decisions to make in the audio construction of the game: should an affirmation of your successful jump happen in sync with the visual?  Should it happen close to sync with your visual but on an important beat in the music?  Consider Skyward Sword: if you're doing very well in battle, the music might be just playing a couple of tracks, but if you're fighting a monster who deals you a critical blow, the music might swing into full volume and intensity, playing many more of the possible tracks.  This causes the composition style to be very different for games as well, as many games now need to be composed in stems that can be mixed according to the audio engine and the player.

One of my favorite uses of music in a game is to lead a player through a challenge in the game.  Imagine audio leading you through a maze (like the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time).  If you listen closely, you can hear which direction you need to continue.  This is brilliant!  Film music can tell you what to expect, break your expectations, and build tension as you watch a scene, but because the movie isn't interactive, it can't cause you to make any choices about how the movie progresses as you watch.  (Although, an interactive movie would be a cool idea!)


So, the more I think about it, the more game audio is its own thing which was best served by film music being a jumping off point for a start of studies.  Really, I think it's time that comparison was left in the past.  Let me know what you think!

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