Hey so whilst reading 100% Indie I saw that they're asking developers what music people listen to whilst developing and it got me thinking. Now I know some of my colleagues prefer sitting in silence but personally I do prefer music, both video game soundtracks like the Halo Mjolnir Mix and Harry Gregson-Williams's MGS music (ok maybe a bit obvious ), but also for my sins an awful lot of J-Pop (on now haha). Any thoughts from the Touch Arcade developers?
Since my games are mostly dark horror themes, I would sometimes listen to Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Slipknot for some motivation depending on what I'm working on. Other than hard rock, I always listen to OST music from Danny Elfman (mostly Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns). Music for Lucen (my first game) had alot of influence from the style of Danny Elfman.
I usually listen to some of my favorite bands while developing like The Strokes, Bloc Party, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, The XX, Foals, Phoenix, and several others. If I'm not in a music mood I might listen to a podcast. Sometimes when it's late at night and I'm trying to stay up another hour or two I'll start blasting(in my headphones) some dubstep or remixed music. It might sound cliche, but I plan on listening to more classical music when I start working on my next puzzle game. However, if I get stuck on something or start a section that gets difficult I usually turn off everything, ha.
This might be lame, but lately I've been listening to the soundtrack from Cirque du Soleil's O. It's catchy, generally has a good pace, and isn't distracting. Pretty much everything else causes me to lose focus. I probably tend to sit in silence more often than not though...
I play a lot of music in my office. Ambient noise helps a team relax and focus on the same wavelength.
I tend to listen to a variety of music, usually from my itunes songs or spotify playlists - so ranging from chillout and electronic tunes to pop and rock songs! Lately been listening to: Songs from Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon Songs from Need For Speed Most Wanted Metric Foster The People Thievery Corporation Electric Guest (good album!) POLICA Bastille Imagine Dragons Of Monsters And Men (good album!) Bob Marley I do prefer chillout and electronic while dev'ing... Cheers,
I do sometimes but in general I think it will help me work, but I soon realise I don't notice it if I am working well so I might as well be working in quiet. Plus I feel doing it makes me forget about sound and sound is like super important and takes games to the next level. average game with good sound often becomes a good game.
Hey everyone Thanks for messaging back! Looks like a fair amount of varied music types (doesn't make me feel so weird haha). Seems like they had a pretty varied amount over at 100% Indie too - a lot of trance it seems? (http://www.100percentindie.com/2013/08/28/whats-your-fuel-the-indie-developers-soundtrack/) What do you think? I like some others I would rather avoid but hey each to their own eh .
Actually I completely get it sometimes I have to turn everything off if I need to really really concentrate
Brian Eno: On Land if I'm focussing. Marc Maron WTF podcasts if I'm doing simpler tasks. Lots of ear-bleeding random shuffle of my music library if I'm working on artwork. Inspiration from varying sources to keep it fresh.