Introduction
Audio is an integral part of all our games, and music specifically has been a central focal point. From working with talented musicians to compose original scores for the street musicians in Mosaic, to using a lullaby the whole team grew up with in Among the Sleep. In our two smaller games, The Plan and Sunlight however, we decided to use powerful classical works to carry the narrative and emotion of the games, and we thought it would be fun to elaborate a bit on this process.
Contains spoilers for The Plan and Sunlight.
Decisions
On all our projects, the starting point for the music was the emotional and narrative goal of the project as a whole. It might seem obvious, but really picking apart what the game is, was key to understanding what we want to achieve with the music.
In The Plan, we chose Death of Aase by Edvard Grieg (give it a listen!) because of its grandiose feeling of ascending ever upwards, going somewhere. To us it also manages to combine a sense of personal and delicate tragedy, with the enormity of life and death, which will make sense to anyone who has played the game.
For Sunlight, we chose Tchaikovsky's Cherubim Hymn. Firstly, we knew we had to work with a choir, as it captures the core theme of being one with each other and our surroundings quite literally. This piece also has a divine existential element to it, which hit all narrative nails on the head. And just listen to it – it really does sound like sunlight. We were lucky to work with Kammerkoret Aurum and Ambolt Audio, and the session can be seen/heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvS_jaIogV8
Production and Implementation
While working on The Plan we were fortunate to get a local orchestra, Oslo Cameratas, permission to use their rendition of Death of Aase. This was most likely possible because the project had little to no budget, and we were releasing it for free.
For the first section of the game we used manipulation techniques, separating chords from the song into long ambient drones. This creates a serene and subtle musical backdrop, while at the same time allowed us to establish the song before it would play.
We then split the piece into parts, selecting the first two major parts we wanted to use. The first part plays as you approach the canopy of the forest. The second, and more climatic section, starts once the forest disappears, and you enter the universe. The hope was that players might not notice the transition, so it is somewhat timed to your move speed, if you are in continuous motion.
In the games end, it was crucial to time the musical climax perfectly to the fly impacting the lamp – which was tricky since the player naturally controls the fly. To achieve this we actually move the lamp in addition to the fly for the final minute of the game – so if you continuously fly up we push the lamp away, and if you stay still the lamp is actually approaching you. Because of the framing this turned out to be completely invisible to players.
Now on to Sunlight! Here we also split the piece into parts, although a lot more. We ended up looping sections of the music based on how far in the game narrative the player is to tailor the general structure of the piece to the dramaturgy of the experience. Below is a visualisation of how the parts were isolated, which made it easy to talk about and implement the correct sections where we wanted.
Playing through the game, you can for example hear how the red “Intense” section is only used once, timed to a specific section of the manuscript. The yellow “Intro” section on the other hand, is repeated a number of times throughout the game, and based on how much time you spend in various parts.
We recorded the choir with Ambolt Audio, who engineered the session. We had a lot of ideas on how we wanted to experiment and make the music more interactive, so we captured the choir from as many angles as possible, some singers up close, the room itself etc.
Amongst others, when you approach the end of the game, the wasteland, the music slowly fades, but left behind are 3-4 lonely voices standing alone, against the absence of the rich forest you used to wander in. The unified choir returns to the individual. As they also slowly fade, the song leaves you not with a crescendo, but with a whimper. We did this by placing spot-mics on specific singers, that would capture their voices in isolation away from the rest of the choir.
We also recorded versions with 1/3rd of the choir singing, for a sparser sound, as well as only 1 person per voice, and while we did not end up using these recordings, it informed later decisions.
Since we worked with the choir directly, we were also able to experiment beyond recording music, so if you listen closely to the sounds of creaking wood and wind, you can hear it’s also the choir. As a finishing touch, we also decided to record the choir entering and leaving the room, which we play as the game starts, and as it ends.
Ending thoughts
Working with older classical works has its pros and cons. In general you do not need to get the rights to the music itself, as past a certain age, all music is free to the public. You do however need permission to use the performance/recording of it.
A potential caveat is how some pieces come with a lot of baggage. We did not want the music to be a distraction, which is another reason why we were happy with the specific pieces we chose. They are not Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, or Bach's Toccata & Fugue, so to speak.
But from The Plan, which was the very first game we released, to Sunlight, which is our latest, we feel it’s obvious how the music greatly lifted the experience, while enhancing the themes and narratives we wanted to explore. To use works of art that never was intended for this new form of media, like translating a linear piece of music into a non-linear experience, is also a rewarding process.
There is so much gold in our musical history, and it seems to be a piece for every specific emotion, however nuanced and unique it may be. They are right there, just waiting to be discovered, harnessed, repurposed and enjoyed anew.