Video Game Music Class: An Update.

So the semester at UM is roughly three weeks away from wrapping up and my class is (hopefully) working on their final game audio projects.  I've asked them to each make 90 seconds to 2 minutes of game audio with extra credit possible for students who create double that amount.  While a small portion of the grade will be based on "crafty" work-- that subjective thing that happens in arts teaching-- the vast majority of the music will be for projects that make sense.  By this I mean, if the students have said they're writing music for a FPS, that the music doesn't sound like a cartoony platform game for kids.

For inspiration, I've suggested that the students use artwork, other music, or perhaps a written description of the scene(s) they're scoring.  Other possibilities exist as well.  One of the biggest boons of this game music work is the possibility for interdisciplinary connections.  So, today, I took a few of my interested (and available) students over to a game design class in the Engineering school and heard pitches about some of the student games.  One of them jumped out at me as being cool and so I'm planning to write some music for it, which will be my first attempt at game music.  I'm really excited by the possibilities and I think several of my students are as well.  It's really cool to hear the concepts described and have the game teams discuss what they are thinking about in terms of audio.  A couple of teams had temp tracks they'd been playing to already and were looking for things "close to that."  Some had playable footage and others were more in a screenshot stage.  All in all, it was a very cool as it adds a big pinch of realism to the class.

I've been really happy with how the class has gone so far.  This weekend I get to grade some quizzes that the students did on Thursday.  The initial quiz the class did had amazing results.  I was really happy to read that they're listening very intently to the music and definitely thinking more about when music plays, how it transitions, and why.  This time around, I asked more about how various audio jobs shaped the sound in a scene, where a design team might find inspiration for sound, and various audio distinctions across game genres and platforms.  Looking forward to seeing what they came up with.

The rest of the semester after Tuesday (which is mobile/social gaming) is devoted to answering questions about the final project (composition quest!) as well as topics of student interest.  I'll be sure to list the topics they ask for more info on here.