Welcome to the third installment of my four-part article series on the core principles of music interactivity, including video demonstrations and supplementary supporting materials that take these abstract concepts and make them more concrete. In Part One of this series, we took a look at a simple example demonstrating the Horizontal Re-Sequencing model of musical interactivity, as it was used in the music I composed for the Speed Racer Videogame from Warner Bros. Interactive. Part Two of this series looked at the more complex Horizontal Re-sequencing music system of the Spore Hero game from Electronic Arts. So now let’s move on to another major music interactivity model used by video game composers – Vertical Layering.
Tag Archives: The Maw
Comedic Sound for the Game Music Composer
In this week’s blog, I’d like to explore the role that comedy can play in a video game, and how we as game composers can use some of the techniques from comedic sound design to our best advantage. Along the way, we’ll be looking at an interesting essay article by pop culture critic Christopher Gates, a presentation by game sound designer Luca Fusi at the December 2015 Vancouver Sound Design Meetup, and an interview with film sound designer Chris Scarabosio.
I’ll also be sharing some of my experiences applying comedic sound design techniques during music composition for the video game The Maw – an award-winning and very funny game that was developed by Twisted Pixel Games. To the left, you can see that I’m working hard to give The Maw its proper dose of comedic wackiness… but more on that later.
First, let’s get a broad perspective on the role of comedy in gaming.
Call of Champions
Winifred Phillips, composer for the Call of Champions game
I’m very proud and excited to announce that I composed the music for the Call of Champions video game, developed by Spacetime Studios!
Call of Champions is an awesome action game in the popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or MOBA) genre. The game pits players against each other in exciting timed matches within a futuristic fantasy-inspired setting. The game was created by the team at Spacetime Studios, an accomplished group of top industry veterans (including developers responsible for the famous Wing Commander series and Star Wars Galaxies.)