After finishing the course, I began to dig deeper, increasing the importance of music in the scene and tried to make a dynamically changing music track depending on the game circumstances.
Walking through the location for the first time, I wondered why it was so empty and felt fear and discomfort about it. These emotions dictated to me the choice of the thriller genre for this scene and music. (Subsequently, to enhance these terrible emotions, I also changed the scene, added fog.)
At the stage of the concept, I pushed off from the genre and the Slavic-Scandinavian pagan theme of the location. I decided to write scary dark music with an abundance of untempered sounds from strings. I also added to all this the eerie timbre of the bass bassoon and the whisper of the female choir, similar to the witches' rite. It holds together the whole texture of a dry rhythm ― first a big drum, then a wood block.
The music track consists of three parts/states, gradually replacing each other in the gameplay:
😬 intense research.
↕↕
😳 feels as if someone knows about your presence.
↕↕
😱 feels as if someone sees you and you have big problems.
↕↕
😳 feels as if someone knows about your presence.
↕↕
😱 feels as if someone sees you and you have big problems.
One of the tasks was to make the transitions as smooth as possible both incrementally and backwards. I tried to achieve the result without audible glues, as if it were done by live performers in real time. Also, one of the main difficulties was the tempo, which was an important means of musical expression and differentiation of sections here. Thanks to the FMOD, I succeeded.
Due to I can't know exactly how many times the player will encounter danger and how long he will take to explore the location, another task was to make the music not boring. FMOD helped to solve this problem again, allowing you to choose a different track from the available ones each time.
I have written four pieces of music for four instruments of string group for each of the three parts. When changing a fragment into one part, the instrument changes its role, the nature of the game and the way of sound production. Due to this, it was possible to make the sound different every new loop, but in the same color and mood.
Here are some examples of the string part in the second movement:
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🔊
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In addition, there is always a musical constant in the parts in the form of percussion instruments which set the tempo and rhythm and giving shape and clarity to the entire musical texture.
FMOD project
You can evaluate the project interactively by downloading the .exe build in source files :)
