By video game composer Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow
Welcome back to this three article series that’s bringing together the ideas that were discussed in five different GDC 2017 audio talks about interactive music! These five speakers explored discoveries they’d made while creating interactivity in the music of their own game projects. We’re looking at these ideas side-by-side to broaden our viewpoint and gain a sense of the “bigger picture” when it comes to the leading-edge thinking for music interactivity in games. We’ve been looking at five interactive music systems discussed in these five GDC 2017 presentations:
- Always Be Composing: The Flexible Music System of ‘Plants vs. Zombies Heroes’ – Speaker: Becky Allen, Audio Director
- Different Approaches to Game Music (Audio Bootcamp XVI) – Speaker: Leonard J. Paul, Educator
- Epic AND Interactive Music in ‘Final Fantasy XV’ – Speaker: Sho Iwamoto, Audio Programmer
- Interactive Music Approaches (Audio Bootcamp XVI) – Speaker: Steve Green, Sound Designer
- The Sound of ‘No Man’s Sky’ – Speaker: Paul Weir, Audio Director
In the first article, we examined the basic nature of these interactive systems. In the second article, we contemplated why those systems were used, with some of the inherent pros and cons of each system discussed in turn. So now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of tools and tips for working with such interactive music systems. If you haven’t read parts one and two of this series, please go do so now and then come back:
- Video game music systems at GDC 2017: what are composers using?
- Video game music systems at GDC 2017: pros and cons for composers
Ready? Great! Here we go!
The 2017 Game Developers Conference could be described as a densely-packed deep-dive exploration of the state-of-the-art tools and methodologies used in modern game development. This description held especially true for the game audio track, wherein top experts in the field offered a plethora of viewpoints and advice on the awesome technical and artistic challenges of creating great sound for games. I’ve given GDC talks for 
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