By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow
Welcome! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and I’m glad you’ve joined us for this continuation of our discussion of the dynamic music system in the video game Spyder! As you may recall from our previous discussion, Spyder is a spy thriller set in a retro world that’s vibrant with the famously over-the-top music and aesthetic of the late 1960s to early 1970s. The game was developed by Sumo Digital for the popular Apple Arcade gaming platform. The protagonist is an intelligent gadget resembling a tiny robotic spider. This device, named “Agent 8,” was created by an elite British spy organization. As the hero of the game, Agent 8 undertakes high-stakes espionage in order to defeat a sprawling evil organization known as S.I.N.! Sumo Digital recently released a developer diary video about the making of the music of SPYDER, so let’s check that out:
As you could see from the video, the Spyder video game features a dynamic music system designed to convey the iconic 1960s style of a classic spy thriller. In this two-part article series, we’ve been exploring how that system was created.
Sky High Spy
In Spyder, action music is structured in vertical layers, with the instrumental texture building into more complex and propulsive mixes that flow seamlessly into each other as events proceed. The way in which the layers are combined will vary depending on the layout of the game level and the tasks that Agent 8 is asked to perform. The result is a dynamic musical system that reacts quickly and smoothly to the actions of the player. For instance, during one of Agent 8’s perilous missions, he is smuggled on board an enemy bomber plane that’s about to attack a cargo ship carrying humanitarian aid. Agent 8’s goal throughout this mission is to 
Because of the nature of this level, action-oriented gameplay tends to occur in fits and starts, rather than in continuous sequences. Each action sequence is accompanied by the same interactive music composition, but each time that the action music is triggered, the number of layers changes. In order to make this possible, I composed the music so that every single instrument could be isolated into its own recording, making sure to create the most instrumental layers possible. I then submitted these recordings to the audio team at Sumo Digital as a large collection of instrumental music files that could be mixed and matched. All the recordings were labeled according to an emotional intensity scale, so that they could be incorporated appropriately as the action ramped up, and removed from the mix whenever it made sense to do so. Let’s take a look at an example.
Early in the Sky High Spy level, Agent 8 works to drain the plane’s engine of its oil supply. During this, the action music begins as a relatively low-keyed jazz groove featuring keyboards, vibraphone and some light synth. Let’s check out how that sounds in-game:
Later, Agent 8 works to flood the engine of the plane with coolant. The action music is triggered again, except now it also includes drums and bass support for added momentum:
Finally, while attempting to defuse a bomb, Agent 8 is dropped along with the bomb out of the belly of the plane. At this point, Agent 8 must attempt to explode the bomb in mid-air so that it doesn’t reach its target. While this is going on, the action music appears in its full-mix version, complete with a robust saxophone choir and orchestral string section.
In the case of the Sky High Spy level, the action music is triggered in separate instances with custom mixes that scale in intensity. However, the actual mixing changes are happening off-stage, so to speak. The player doesn’t get to experience these changes in real time. In other levels of the Spyder video game, the action music makes these dynamic changes on the fly while the track is playing. Let’s check out how that worked.
Space Invaded
Crawling along the outside of a damaged ship that’s being pummeled by debris, Agent 8 makes his way to an electrical subsystem that he must rewire in order to repair the life support system for the struggling astronauts. As our little hero maneuvers his way across an electrical circuitboard, the action music begins in its simplest form. At this point, it’s only a light synth melody and a few synthetic chords and effects. After completing the task of rewiring that board in expert fashion, Agent 8 makes his way to a second electrical system, and the music explodes into full-scale space disco complete with a funk guitar, high disco violins and lots of spacey musical synth effects. Let’s see how that worked. Notice the layer activations taking place as the music plays:
This is a fuller realization of a vertical layering music system for the action sequences of the Spyder video game. To get a better understanding of how the system works, let’s take a look at another example.
The War Room
So in this vertical layering implementation, the action music started with fairly sparse instrumentation and gradually built into a full mix by virtue of the addition of layers. If you’d like to hear the entire music composition for The War Room, you can check out this video posted by the developer Sumo Digital that features the full-length track:
Now let’s take a look at an action music implementation scheme that proceeds in the opposite direction.
Bugged Out
Conclusion
The interactive music system of the Spyder video game is more complex and multifaceted than can be feasibly included in these two articles. By applying a narrow focus to specific ambient and action music systems within the Spyder game, we’ve taken abstract concepts and rendered them more concrete and applicable to our ongoing work as game music composers. I’m very proud to have composed music for the Spyder video game, and it was amazing to work with the outstanding audio team at Sumo Digital. I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of some of the dynamic systems in the Spyder video game score!
