How a score crafts an emotive experience in video games
- Kartik Tiwari
- Jun 16, 2020
- 3 min read
I Found this article about a year ago and I immediately saved it because of how emotive music in games really is. Games are an experience, and what better way is there to take the emotion levels (max feels) up a notch than composing or adding music/score that fits well with the theme of the game? I’ve played many games with great soundtrack, but some stand out exceptionally well.
Let’s consider firewatch, the narrative is based around a fire lookout. The job of a fire lookout is often lonely and isolated. The game designer, Chris Remo says,
“So much of my effort on the game was on the design side and making sure that all of the elements meshed between the story, the game design, the atmosphere, that’s really the point of Firewatch – the marriage of those things. So, I saw music as more of a tool to achieve that goal rather than a standalone suite of music unto itself” (Remo, 2018)
It is clear that he prioritized making a soundtrack around this overall feel of the game. The soundtrack really hammers home the emotive experience of the game, a feeling of awe and amazement, of loneliness, and of isolation.
Another example would be Life is strange. It’s about a coming of age photographer, Max Caulfield. Now, we all know how emotional that time in our lives can be.
The soundtrack of the game fits in very well with the intended emotive experience especially for people who are coming of age themselves - It’s very relatable for them. Even for people who have passed that age, it almost instills a feeling of nostalgia, from folk songs to songs with a lot of acoustic guitars to even electric tones, It’s a very diverse soundtrack which describes the journey into adulthood perfectly.
Whereas,The aforementioned soundtracks are very easy listening and meant to craft a beautiful game experience - On the opposite end of the spectrum, there lies the soundtrack of Doom (2016). This game needs no introduction and neither does the kind of soundtrack it is. But, it fits so well with the game it feels like the music was made first and then the game around it (it wasn’t). Just like the first doom game ever made, the design philosophy of Doom 2016 was to move and shoot (DOOM: Behind the Music, 2017), that’s it. Everything in the game is based around that philosophy, no cover system, no health regeneration. Just pure chaos. Coming to the soundtrack, there’s hardly any down time, it just keeps going and going. It’s energetic, fast paced and very heavy. This enabled the players to feel emotions of aggression, rage and even urgency (to move).
The score of a video game is as important as anything else, even if the game is not a rhythm based game because, in the end we as game designers are crafting an experience, and there is perhaps no better way of crafting an emotive experience than by adding a well thought out score to our games. You know a game’s soundtrack is excellent when you’re reminded of all the emotions you felt while playing the game for numerous hours, just by listening to a few minutes of its soundtrack.
Bibliography
Remo, C. (2018). What goes into creating a memorable soundtrack?. Retrieved from https://www.pcgamer.com/au/what-goes-into-creating-a-memorable-soundtrack/
DOOM: Behind the Music. (2017). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FNBMZsqrY&t=2294s
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