Be careful what you dream of…
17 Jul
…it may come up and surprise you.
So sang Ian Mcnabb and for once in his life, he was actually right.
Theory:
Games do music wrong. Ok, ok, not wrong but we’re very much stuck in a tried and tested formula which we rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
There are notable exceptions. Runman: Race Around The World gets it right. The bar scene in Prey gets it right. The end of Portal gets it right. Music is emotive and wonderful, it doesn’t have to be variations on a techno theme, aping John Williams or generic movie score #21 or some bleeps and bloops.
The right soundtrack can elevate something into the wonderful more often than not, we get a soundtrack that just fits. It doesn’t elevate.
I have been equally guilty of this in the past.
Experiment:
If you have both Left4Dead (the first) and Spotify. Turn the default music down and play through a campaign with this playlist.
You will, naturally, lose a number of audio cues so be on your guard. Despite playing the exact same game you normally would, the experience is drastically different from normal.
Proof:
via the lovely Mike Meyer. A request from earlier in the week from myself. Fulfilled for Klik Of The Month. Give it time to load.
The simple addition of Moroder porn ‘tache disco makes all the difference.
Conclusion:
More games need disco.
Agreed! How good would Dangun Feveron be without the disco track? Why didn’t that start a trend?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangun_Feveron
Completely agree. I think one of the reasons Petri Purho’s game experiments work so well is that he finds awesome CC-licensed or public domain music to go with them. It’s so cool to play a little game and have banjo or ragtime music in the background.