If you’re like many MMO gamers, you’ll ultimately, if not instantly, flip off the music to your recreation as you might be taking part in. The truth is, in many of the video games that I play, I’ve the music turned down to just about zero, even Star Wars video games, as a result of the rating, irrespective of how implausible, will get in the best way or turn into distracting to the precise work of taking part in the sport. Nonetheless, I’ve discovered a recreation that I’ve put over 100 hours into over the previous few weeks, but I’ve not turned the music off and even turned down the amount. The music is so built-in with the sport that it turns into as a lot part of it because the sound of your character’s footsteps within the sand. That recreation is, in fact, is Dune Awakening.
Final week, we sat down for a dialog with Knut Avenstroup Haugen, the composer of not solely Dune Awakening’s rating however the rating underpinning many video games, tv reveals, and flicks over his 22 years within the business. Knut Haugen (for his first identify, you pronounce the okay, so it seems like okay’noot) began writing music for video video games with Age of Conan for Funcom and has come full circle by writing once more for Funcom with Dune: Awakening. And through my dialogue with him, I discovered an amazing deal in regards to the depth, thoughtfulness, and fervour that goes into composing a rating for a legendary (pun meant) mental property like Dune. Particularly, we talked in regards to the distinctive challenges of writing for a online game versus different sorts of media and the grit it takes to beat the hurdles that no different medium carries.
Individuals can level to many implausible scores in movie, just like the Star Wars theme by John Williams and even the music of Dune Half One and Dune Half Two by Hans Zimmer. However memorable recreation music is more durable to give you except they’ve been round for over 40 years and have names like Mario or Zelda connected to them. Haugen identified this wrestle once I talked to him.
“By way of the music in a recreation, particularly like in an MMO like Dune, the music must be, a whole lot of the time, fairly withdrawn, or you’ll want to watch out to not make an excessive amount of out of it,” he advised me. “So there are two issues: One, the participant spends a whole lot of time in the identical space and shall be listening to the identical music. How do you repair that with out it getting boring? Two, the opposite factor, you’ll want to watch out to not do one thing that stands out an excessive amount of within the music as a result of it should a lot faster turn into annoying.”
In movie or tv, composers write music to the narrative or character, and to some extent, they try this in video games too, however as Haugen mentioned to me, “In a movie, it’s simply the scene. It’s what it’s. It’s 5 minutes, after which that’s that. However for those who write the five-minute cue for the online game, yeah, that’s good. Cool. However we want 100 minutes extra.” It’s a quandary that doesn’t have a easy resolution, and plenty of video games reply the query incorrectly, inflicting many individuals to do what I did earlier than taking part in Dune: flip the music off.
Think about you’re in a dance membership. For those who’re like me, that may take a whole lot of creativeness as a result of I don’t go that usually, however I do like membership music and benefit from the work of fine DJs. How they’re able to seamlessly weave the rhythm and instrumentation of 1 tune into one other tune at all times fascinates me. This weaving of music permits DJs to stretch songs out or hyperlink songs collectively in order that there are not any awkward cuts or fades. The tips that DJs use are nearly precisely those Haugen used when arranging the music for Dune Awakening.
“All the music – nicely, let’s say 99% of the music – of the sport has been written in D minor and 100 BPM,” Haugen defined. “So meaning you possibly can take the drums of part B of cue quantity two and put them in part C of cue quantity 57, and they’ll nonetheless work. So immediately, you’ve got a Dune Awakening development package with nearly limitless potentialities.”
He additionally mentioned slicing up the music “vertically,” too, which means particular person devices might be added or taken away at-will. “Vertically” on this case derives from the best way that tracks are specified by the composition software program. The tracks (or particular person devices) are stacked on high of one another, whereas the sound is laid out horizontally. Naturally, I requested him if vertical divisions meant that the music and instrumentation might be chosen at random.
“[You could] select randomly for those who like, or you possibly can program,” he elaborated. “If it’s ABCDE, you possibly can program it to be BECB. Or you possibly can loop one, you possibly can loop two, or no matter you need. In order that helps, however then once more, that’s sort of the vertical slicing, however you even have the horizontal slicing, as a result of every of those sections can have perhaps 30 layers. Every instrument is a special layer. You may pull them out, and you’ll put them in once more. So you possibly can have the identical piece, let’s say, simply give attention to one part of the piece, you simply need to hear the strings. And I need it to loop twice. After which the second time, I need the flutes to return in, or I need the drums to return in, or one thing like that. You may mix nonetheless approach you need.”
And it really works! Having performed Dune Awakening for nicely over 150 hours now, I can let you know that I’ve not turned off the music; in reality, I haven’t even turned it down. The music is delicate and becoming the scene or zone I’m in. It provides me mild nudges when one thing harmful is occurring with out punching me within the face. Most significantly, it suits within the Dune universe.
The truth is, there was some concern that when the Dune motion pictures got here out that it could imply further wrestle for the Dune Awakening rating. “That’s at all times tough,” Haugen mentioned, “So the factor is, in fact, that you simply can’t stray too distant as a result of then individuals will say, oh, this isn’t Dune music. That is flawed. And in addition in case you are too shut, it’s plagiarism and also you’re copying somebody. So you’ll want to discover a steadiness… I believe I discovered a very good steadiness.”
My dialog with Knut Haugen was a delight. Music has been an lively a part of my life since my first days singing within the junior excessive choir (shoutout to Mr. Sutton). We had a reasonably deep dialogue about his profession as a composer of online game music, however I needed to share this excerpt with you first as a result of I believed it was a implausible departure from the usual approach of placing music collectively for a online game. For those who, the viewers, wish to learn extra about that dialog about Haugen’s profession and the way online game music manufacturing has modified within the final 20 years, tell us!
Thanks a lot to Knut for taking the time to sit down and discuss with us – and thanks, Funcom, for persevering with to rent Haugen to compose music for MMOs! You may scope out extra of his work throughout the business on his web site.
