This week I am reviewing The Assassin's Creed presentation at the Game Developer's Conference.
This presentation makes 3 great points about defining a story within a set of games. The first point is the music history within the game. They talk about how each game's music helped establish a character of its own and how this was something the fans adopted as an important part to the game experience. Jerome hits more important points of the game history in general. He goes on to say how the brand stays true to itself by making all the games within a part of world history. The details that the game follows are helped immensely by the sound design and the music. Using a combination of cinematic music effects in combination with period correct instruments and soundscapes gives an immersive feel to the story overall.
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One such instance was adding "The Beggar's Opera" into a period appropriate theater in the game. They decided to record their own version of this opera to implement into the game. This proved to be a difficult task so they decided to actually record speaking and singing elements of the show and made able to loop. This project shows that it can be important do research and development on large projects such as this one to develop special sound placement and mixing techniques. This project also proves the importance of developing a unique voice to that project. While it is important to stay true to the brand, one must not rely on copying a previous element or doing something less than what could be done. On a similar note, they go into length on discussing how they were able to get in contact with an actual Mohawk tribesman who practice the authentic and traditional songs. This is important to a game where history is the actual game.
Story telling through themes can be an effective technique in games just as in film scoring. It is important to write out exactly what the music is trying to convey and actually represent in words. This way as you compose you can make sure that you are sticking to the plot you’ve set out. It is important to develop and work a theme so that you can play it over and over to make it memorable. They talk about how many times it can be necessary to repeat them. Key moments should be what cues a theme or a motif. This will leave a lasting impression musically and visually in your brain. Depending on the music required for the game, each significant aspect of the game should have it’s own musical component.
