Music Survey

Hello.

I work for a newspaper in Sweden and Im writng a new column about music for indie games.
Music is a very interesting part of a game and can bring you alot of different emotions.
I would be very happy if I could ask you some questions about gamedev and musicdev.

1: Is music that you use in your games a big deal?

2: Do you write and produce your own music for your games or do you hire someone do it it for you?

3: How about sounddesign? Are you doing it yourself or is someone else doing it for you?

4: How much would you pay for a theme song?

5: If you have a finished game, with music and everything, do you think it would "feel different" to play it with someone elses music?

6: Are you fastidious about the music in your game?

7: If you hire someone else to write the music for your games - do you give them ideas on how the music should feel and sound like?


Thats it!

I would be very happy if you could answer these questions so I can keep working with my column
Thank you!

Mike

You should post this in the developer's section.

Oh okay.
Can the moderator please move this thread to the right section?
Thank you

NOTE: I don't have anything published yet, but I'm working on it.

It sort of depends on the game, but for the most part, yes, music is an important and integral part of most games. People expect it, at least for the title screen, but in many cases, in-game, too.


I'm a one-man show. I have the skills and tools for both and while it's a bigger workload for me, it lets me design cohesively so that everything comes out as I envision it.

Were I to do so it would depend on the requirements of the song and the skill of the musician I've tapped to do it. I'd probably put an average dollar figure of $100-300 per song on it though -- again dependent upon if it's a full song (title/end piece) or some short, in-game ditty.

Of course. I can't speak for all developers but I think most of those who come up with an idea have a relatively encompassing vision of how it's going to look, sound, feel and play from the get-go and whether a one-man operation or a team, the developer will try to realize that vision to match as closely to what they pictured as possible. If you swap out the music for someone else's it changes the texture if not the whole feel of the game, especially if the style and execution of this new music is markedly different from what was there originally.

In what way? Do I have very specific ideas on what the music should be?

Absolutely. It's had to describe music but I would try to give as vivid a depiction of how I'd like it to feel in order for it to fit the mood that I am trying to create in the game.

1: Is music that you use in your games a big deal?

Music inside games is a very big deal as it plays a very important part in game play and the users overall game experience.

2: Do you write and produce your own music for your games or do you hire someone do it it for you?

Beatnutz are hired to produce and write all the music in the Big Pixel Studios games so we don’t hire.

3: How about sounddesign? Are you doing it yourself or is someone else doing it for you?

We do all the sound design if needed, however When we approach a project we tend to write the music first and also compile a SFX package which also contains very high quality useful sound SFX which works with the audio.

4: How much would you pay for a theme song?

Sorry this question does not apply to us as we are the production company that writes all the music, but I would say depending on your skill and your sound companies will pay very high price to obtain your music.

5: If you have a finished game, with music and everything, do you think it would "feel different" to play it with someone elses music?

Yes I think that depending on what type of music is used the user experience will be different.

6: Are you fastidious about the music in your game?

Most companies already know what they want the audio to sound like, however as a music producer for games I would say if you are talking about being
Fastidious in the sense of giving careful attention to detail, then yes we are, as quality is sometimes what separates you from other companies and wins you work.
This only comes from being careful and paying attention to even the smallest detail within the game

7: If you hire someone else to write the music for your games - do you give them ideas on how the music should feel and sound like?

As Beatnutz are always hired and not hiring I could not give you the answer to this, but when were commissioned to write a piece for a game the client always comes to the table with a brief and a few examples.

We then go away and work from the brief, however we also write extra tracks with the Beatnutz flavour to give our clients choice and I'm glad to say so far they have always gone with the Beatnutz flavour.

Hello Mike,

Here is my answer to your survey based on our experience at Quebarium inc. (we are a small indie game developer located in Montreal/Canada).

1: Is music that you use in your games a big deal?

Yes, as this will help to set the mood/ambiance/atmosphere of the game. Currenrtly our puzzle game (a work in progress) is based on a medieval/fantasy theme, so the music has been composed accordingly. Also it is in 2 part, one part that have good mood/rythm and another part with a more dark mood when you are in a critical stage (read as soon to be game over ).


2: Do you write and produce your own music for your games or do you hire someone do it it for you?

The music is done in house by one of the co-founder who is a musician/audio technical guys . So we don't really need to hier someone to do it for us.


3: How about sounddesign? Are you doing it yourself or is someone else doing it for you?

Same as above, well its a colloboration between the developer (me or the co-founder that is a developer) and the the musician co-founder guy. I give my visiton/input of what I need and the the musician let his imagination do the rest. Of course this is a iterative process, we put the sound/music into the game and see how it fits and what to be changed.


4: How much would you pay for a theme song?

No ideas, as we never ask ourself that question as we have someone on the team to do it.


5: If you have a finished game, with music and everything, do you think it would "feel different" to play it with someone elses music?

Maybe, depend if we have participated in the creation process of the music (by giving input/ideas/vision). If its music that was composed not for our game specifically, change are that it might not be suitable or not set the mood/atmosphere right (same like playing your own music via your iPod library).


6: Are you fastidious about the music in your game?

I think I would say yes , we want to get it right and the musician in our team is also like that.


7: If you hire someone else to write the music for your games - do you give them ideas on how the music should feel and sound like?

If we had to hire someone of course this would be the way we would go, this is exactly how we are doing it with the other co-founder. I wrote the game design document with a section specifically for the audio parts needed in the games (give a list of different type of sounds, and musical style with of course plenty of reference materials).

1: Is music that you use in your games a big deal?
It's something I definitely care about, as I feel it sets a mood for the game.

2: Do you write and produce your own music for your games or do you hire someone do it it for you?
I worked with Paul Hardcastle to create the music for Charmed, and with Matthias of Morningdew Media from Sweden for the background music for Flight Deck.

3: How about sounddesign? Are you doing it yourself or is someone else doing it for you?
I hired Matthias of Morningdew Media for the sound effects for Charmed.

4: How much would you pay for a theme song?
Depends on the length of the music. I would pay up to $200 for a shorter piece (less than 1 minute), but more for a longer one.

5: If you have a finished game, with music and everything, do you think it would "feel different" to play it with someone elses music?
Absolutely. I have a goal in mind when getting the music made. As I said above, I try to have it match a certain mood. If some other music was in there, they may not have the same idea in mind.

6: Are you fastidious about the music in your game?
I am fairly picky. I like making a few main variations at first, then zero in on one that feels about right and start tweaking it in various ways. Sometimes adding an instrument; sometimes removing one or changing what instrument is playing a particular melody.

7: If you hire someone else to write the music for your games - do you give them ideas on how the music should feel and sound like?
Definitely. Otherwise it they have no idea where to start. In some cases I can't show them anything except a screen mockup, so being able to convey what emotion or mood I want to set is very important. I also often provide links to some examples that are in line with my goals.

A little off-topic, but holy crap, Paul's still kicking around? That's awesome.

Yeah, I was pretty amazed when he responded to my post looking for a musician for Charmed on craigslist! My first thought was "Hah...this guy has the same name as the guy who wrote that Vietnam song '19' ", then it turned out to actually be him.

I think he is working now with a high-profile game developer on an upcoming title, but I promised not to tell who it is or what the game is.

That's very cool, I'm glad to hear he's still doing his thing. I do my own music but I'm sorely tempted to commission him to do a track or two just for the cool factor.