Composer for Video Games

Welcome, my name is Joff. I'm a composer for video games specialising in soundtracks with a cinematic sensibility to enhance and intensify narrative gaming experiences.  

Like many colleagues who write music for games, I often pitch to new projects. This blog is for game developers looking to collaborate with a video game composer and fellow musicians interested in pitching and writing music for games.

Pitching Music For Games

For game composers, pitching for new projects is a regular part of securing new work, and for game studios, asking composers to pitch ideas is essential when shortlisting and making the final choice of composer for a new game.

Often, a pitch begins at the request of a developer or game studio. People reach out to me, having followed many digital breadcrumbs and signposts to arrive at the doorstep of my humble abode here on the World Wide Web.

The Music Brief

After the first email exchange, I thoroughly read the music brief. The music brief is where I can drill down into a game and figure out what the project requires. It's also a crucial part of my writing process because this is where the ideas start forming! A good brief makes it easy to stay on point and deliver a beautifully crafted cue.

But what makes a good music brief?

Simply put, a good music brief is a doorway into the imagination of the developers. It describes what the music needs to achieve and what emotional tone it should set. It outlines the genre and usually includes a reference track. It may incorporate a storyboard if the music is to be synced to a cutscene or an energy map that highlights the build points - generally, the more detail, the better.

Once happy that I understand the brief, I take a few days to ponder and sketch. A musical idea might not occur to me instantly, and the direction of a score can remain hidden for a while. But after a few days, I usually uncover a new piece of music.

Composing music for a game pitch is always exciting but can also be daunting. And whilst dreaming up a game sound world from scratch is great fun, it is never a given that what I’m writing will win the day - other composers may be pitching with a radically different approach! So, I follow my instincts, listen to my gut and write what I believe is right!

I want to share how I make a pitch using a cue I recently wrote for a Sci-Fi city builder featuring robot workers that harvest plants grown for humans on Mars.

In this instance, I had a strong intuition - the music needed to be uplifting and fun but not become overly childish or naive. This is what I came up with.

Composition Breakdown

The cute design of the video game and its setting got me thinking about the celestial bodies of outer space, and in my mind, that screams Lydian! For non-composers, Lydian is a Major scale mode with an uplifting or otherworldly quality.

Harmony

The harmonic progression came to me first and developed the Lydian idea, starting with a C6#4 chord (C, E, F#, A) before moving to a Dadd2 (D, E, F#, A).

You can see the first two chords share three notes (E, F#, A), but by raising the bass note of the second chord from C to D, it’s possible to create a sense of lifting.

Continuing the theme of a rising bass note, I transposed the first chord up a minor 3rd to Eb6#4 (Eb, G, A, C) before resolving back to a D7sus4 (D, G, A, C) which again shares three of its notes with the preceding chord and creates a suitably satisfying symmetry - Ah, alliteration! Try saying that 3 times in a row quickly!

Arpeggiating the chords in an ascending direction accentuates the uplifting effect further and creates a rippling, rhythmic effect.

Melody

I think music for games should be striking, and the melody ought to be memorable but malleable enough to support contrasting aspects of gameplay.

With that in mind, and after noodling for a while, I settled on a simple melody of just five notes outlining the underlying harmony.

Transposing the melody up a minor 3rd to match the Eb6#4 sounds good, and rounding off with a little descending line as the harmony moves to the D7sus4 chord completes the phrase nicely.

Development

Music is, in many ways, the art of balance. Too much of one thing and not enough of another makes for poor composition.

For example, repetition creates familiarity. But too much repetition becomes annoying and predictable. The antidote? Development! Introduce new ideas to freshen things up and restore balance!

With this in mind, logic dictates there should be a balancing development after the first phrase. So, I wrote an additional 16-bar melody to extend the opening bars.

The developed melody follows the underlying harmony but introduces a new rhythm and melodic contour.

That’s it for the building blocks of the composition, although many additional elements add to the final effect, including instrumentation, sound effects and subtle changes to the harmony.

Let me show you how all the elements work together.

Clinching The Deal

As I mentioned earlier, when pitching music for games, there are no guarantees of success! For this pitch, I'm happy to say that my music was the development team's favourite.

However, there's more to closing a deal than writing the best music!

Start-up companies are often on a tight budget and sometimes allocate too little money to the music for their game. As with all things in life, there's a balance to be struck - for example, do you spend your money on advertising or invest in building the highest quality game you can afford?

It's a tough decision. Without any advertising budget, the game may be invisible to the potential audience, but if the game is going to make its mark in a crowded market, it needs to stand out - where music can make a big difference!

Sadly, in this case, the development team set aside too little money for the game music, and we were unable to work together this time.

If you’re wondering how much hiring a composer costs or need help budgeting for licensing music, check out these sections of my Music For Games blog Music Composer For Video Games and Music Licensing For Video Games.

Treated properly, the soundtrack for a game can become a valuable revenue stream for game studios and composers alike. But the potential for extra earnings is often missed due to a misunderstanding of music rights, publishing and royalties, which is a topic that deserves a future blog post!

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Stay creative!

P.S. Thoughts and comments are welcome just add them below. Score enquiries can be made here! Thanks.

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