Elements of Game Technology- Sound for Games

Sound is something that can make or break a game for me.

As I’ve mentioned before when I wrote about level design, audio cues can be used to lead the player and to make environments more believable. Pickups should make appealing sounds when you get them and enemies should sound the way they look, whether that be scary and alien or something more quirky. Plus there’s nothing quite like the level up “ding” to alert you that you’re doing well, or doing awesomely (see Wildstar).

But if there’s one thing that can always enhance a game for me it’s good music. Nothing makes me more excited for a boss battle than the promise of some good upbeat or intense music. Nothing disappoints me more than a boss with some generic orchestral piece in the background with no real hook to it. This might just be my opinion, but if there’s one thing the whole trend of making games more ‘cinematic’ has been bad for its letting the drama overshadow the melody.

I’ve referenced this game countless times already, but I feel Metroid Prime is a very appropriate title to reference here not only because of its great sound design but also because I often write these blogs with music from the game playing in the background. Music from this game (mostly composed by Kenji Yamamoto) is enjoyable to listen to and appropriately alien sounding, but not distractingly overpowering. It sounds like it’s just oozing out of the environment, being made by all of the flora and fauna and everything in your surroundings. Compare it to the music in Other M where almost all of the music was limited to traditional orchestral instruments and nothing stood out.

The boss themes are similarly alien sounding, while more upbeat with powerful chords and distinctive tunes. One of my favourite pieces of video game music is the theme for the Hive Totem, a small miniboss near the start of the game. I remember it from back when I first played the game- for some reason it stuck out to me. That’s what good music should do, turn something that wouldn’t ordinarily make a huge impact into a memorable experience.

Of course music doesn’t have to blend in, it can be a main feature. I found that the first time I played Super Hexagon I wanted to keep trying to get further just so I could hear more of the music, and it was really exciting. The graphics are very simple, and extra colour and movement only exists to support the music as the shapes pulse to the beat and the colour changes hue like disco lights. Music with a good beat works wonders for fast paced games like this, and Chipzel’s work is a perfect fit.

Hotline Miami is similar, with its need for quick reflexes, retro music, colour changing background and the way you can restart in a split second after death. This game chooses to have the music continue playing even when you die so it doesn’t become repetitive, and this works very well in preventing death from becoming more of an annoyance than is necessary. Super Hexagon manages to do this too, despite having the music stop and start upon death by having the music start up from different points in the song, while staying away from the most intense parts to leave them as reward. This makes the tune seem newer for longer and prevents restarting from feeling too repetitive.

As a final note, there’s nothing more exciting than an important boss having a proper song with lyrics as its theme song- even more so if it is an improved version of a song earlier in the game and/or the title theme. Key things to consider with this though are repetitiveness and of course how appropriate it is for the situation. My favourite examples of this would be the final boss of Sonic Adventure 2 playing the full version of the title theme, and the final boss of The World Ends With You using a remix of several different songs from earlier in the game.

All in all, I think the most important factor in game music composition is making things memorable. Fitting music will always make a huge difference in the atmosphere of a level or boss and will affect the mood of the player significantly. Get it right and it’ll make all the difference.