How I Make Music For Video Games
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Howdy! Today I want to nerd out and talk about making music for video games.
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If you get the joke at the end, we can be friends.
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That caught me so off guard, I'm stuck in a chucklefit. hoo boy, my cheekbones are actuated. Great way to start the day
I presume when friends interrupt your work to go out and do something. I like hanging out with my one producer friend, but our styles are so different and I feel so counter productive, even though I enjoy hanging out with them.
It’s from GTA 5, right?
@@apoplexiamusic GTA 4.
Great throwback. Took me by surprise 😂.
Who else watched this kind of video but never actually released or finished a single music piece?
Upvote this comment if @Da29.Hi45 needs to change that and release something.
I probably have over 200 unfinished tracks for like 2-4 finished ones.
I watched this video and I hate music
@@VenusTheory we need* 😔
@@r3dsnow757 same, I just get lost on arrangements and development, that's awfull
What i love about doing video game music is that you can make whatever you want. Sometime a failed project can just be music for a silly level
We also need a video on how you can get these gigs.
Exactly. The part of this video that most of us probably came to actually find, he skips right over. GETTING THE BRIEF is the hard part?
+1 on how to get the gig? what to avoid? how to protect yourself from being scammed? how to navigate licensing? what's appropriate to negotiate? what's not appropriate? what are the contracts like? legal stuff, etc... no one explains these stuff...
I do some game music for some Roblox games time to time. its a good start to make some carrier portfolio. From there you can switch to dedicated games once your stuff gets recognition.
The two fundamental questions: how to land into a client that give great briefs (like this in video) , and how to do original music. But the best clients and most creative game devs want a distinct musical quality, in my opinion . Many people underestimate the skill necessary to get there. To have a good client that gives an easy task to compose generic music like on video like this is probably not common. But it is good for beginning and to show in a tutorial. It all depends if one wants a carrer out of this or a side gig.
People like Toby Fox going from making music for a web comic in high school, and then going on to working on music for big game franchises (Pokemon) is always the dream for people wanting to get into video game composing (including me)
It's really mostly about immersing yourself in the scene. People in game dev are generally really curious and welcoming to newcomers. Game jams are everywhere, too. It's really just about jumping in the deep end.
if you don't mind an annoying vtuber. cuz that's what i'm doing. i have friends i'm making games with too i have a 2nd youtube, this one i just use to make comments. tonight i sound design for items for an hour or 2 live.. what games has venus theory worked on? i can't find anything about this
Your point at 11:48 is interesting. I'm happy that you and others are considering this. As an Audio Director I'd prefer to get the music from you as you mixed it without you making too many adjustments to cater to the games mix. When I'm implementing music alongside sound effect, I'm already going to be doing some adaptive mix processing to make sure everything fits well. Especially if the game is doing resequencing or vertical remixing during gameplay. In that situation we have even more control to make sure it's all going to gel well.
That's not to say the thought isn't appreciated. I just don't want musicians to sacrifice their creative intent purely to make sure stuff fits within the games mix. It's my job to make sure your work along with everyone else's meshes.
Of course each game is different, as you said. I'm just saying not to sweat it tooooo much.
So how does one exactly get their foot in the door to the elusive game music composer gig? I presume it takes a portfolio of music playing to video?
For sure, luckily most audio engines are pretty powerful nowadays for ducking things or frequency specific sidechaining but then again there are also the indie studios (or even large studios) using custom audio middleware that is...not as powerful haha. Definitely comes down to a case by case basis but usually I just suggest to play it reasonably safe but it also just really falls down to what the music calls for. Figured better to explain things the safe way in a video like this though - gotta learn the rules before you go breaking them 😅
@@VenusTheory You are totally right there! I absolutely appreciate the fact that you're thinking about it and encouraging others to do so as well. Frameworks like that are important :)
This video is aimed at beginner game composers. Their clients will be small indie teams with 1-3 developers and the composer is responsible for the whole audio mix. That's why the video has good advice on mixing. It will take many years until they get big clients who can afford a separate audio director. By then they understand your job very well and know what audio to send you.
@@apoplexiamusic Honestly, you could have the best sounding portfolio with a wide range of examples of your work, but no one will hire you if no one knows you. Networking is half the battle with getting a gig in games because once a game dev puts out a post or listing that they need music or sound, their inbox is gonna be flooded with applications. I’ve seen people with barely any or even no portfolio get music gigs. And there’s a lot of devs that are like “Man I can’t find a composer” even though there’s thousands hungry for work. Devs are more likely to hire someone they know, so you’ll have to go and try to make genuine connections with devs at meetups and events or try to have a large online presence where people online know you. Those are the big two paths to getting the gig.
... Okay I'm convinced you have some form of "Your viewers have also searched this" or something like that. Cause like not even two weeks ago I literally typed almost that exact title into the RUclips search bar. I mean I'm really happy you made this but still, I'm on to you...
Haha well most of my philosophy is just 'make the video I wish I had a day/week/month/year/5 years ago' because I'm sure there are a ton of people out there in the exact same positions I was in.
Using search trends relevant to the topic as points of inspiration in a way that helps remember “oh yeah I used to struggle with this” for video ideas seems efficient (if finding relevant search trends is easy lol)
I'm not a game developer looking to write music for a new game, but rather, a musician interested in learning game development just so that I can score it.
Starting the video with one of the most terrifying boss fights from my childhood was a great move
Many nightmares as a kid from that same boss scene myself haha. Some very underrated horror vibes in the earlier games.
When making the title theme most games have the main part of it up front and center. I actually forgot to do this for my game because I structured it like an actual song rather than a video game theme. This is actually one of the big problems with my game’s music. When establishing any musical motif, do it within the first few seconds of the track. That’s what makes so many games iconic.
You can also give characters a certain instrument or set of sounds that give them meaning. Like you could have saxophone for one character and weird synth-based stuff for another.
Gotta say you had my full attention from beginning to end. There's nothing like hearing from an authority on an area where you the viewer aren't really any good, and the video-maker is incredibly good at what they're describing: you learn so much about what you weren't considering. It's like if Hans Zimmer was willing to show his work :)
We're all humbled by your presence here Chris haha. Glad you liked the vid!
newsletters are the best thing that has come back recently, its so fun to find out about new stuff from a creator you enjoy like that, instead of a post on a social platform where everyhing gets so easily crowded with distractions
of course, thank you for having one lol
Bro I was just looking for vids on this and then veenie makes one 😮
🤠
This was great man, I love your videos and appreciate your willingness to share your experience and knowledge with everyone that follows your channel. That bit at the end about the EQ for the track was especially interesting. That's something that wouldn't have occured to me.
I had an idea for a video game, and because I'm a musician and have zero game development skills, I started by writing the soundtrack to a level based story board drawn up by my ex-wife. I finished about 7 levels completely, the theme, and the pause menu, and then got side tracked with life and it ended up going nowhere.
But that creative process allowed me a reason to think outside of the instruments I can actually play, and write pieces with other instruments in mind. If I ever encounter some hardcore Sega Genesis enthusiasts with game dev skills and a desire to create a retro game in the vein of the NES tribute Shovel Knight but for Sega, I would return to finishing the project
ahhhh great work. all of your content is so good and has the potential to get a ton of views across audiences that may not even know who you are at the moment but with this one you've gone even further!
Never pressed on notification as fast before
Welcome to the party zone.
Dude. I've been slumped and helping try to make music for one of my friends' indie games, and this video seriously got picked up at the perfect time!
Extremely insightful on all the things you have to take into consideration when working on a composing project like game soundtracks!
As someone who's been doing ambient pieces for a friend's game on commission, this was a nice video to get. Many thanks.
this was exactly what I was looking for wow !
Templating situational scenarios is most definitely a time saver and a most brilliant way to tackle projects. Great vid sir! As always 🔥👊🧡👍🔥
Way off topic here, but the cello is such a nice visual element.
Half bought it for the sound, half bought it for the [ a e s t h e t i c s ] haha
@@VenusTheoryAlso, thank you again! Year two on my return to music and I’m back in love with the process - even singing!
As someone who is getting started with an indie game company as a music director this video is PERFECT for explaining a bunch of the things to start making music, ty for the wonderful explanations and video that i can show my team.
I was just in need of this video, thanks!
Glad to be of service 🤠
been a big fan for ages! thanks for all your gems!!!
For someone properly and justifiably aggravated by the algorithms, you really do nail the content creation part perfectly, though. These videos always slots perfectly into my home office lunch breaks. Not too lengthy, enticing topics and you feel enlightened afterwards. Thanks for doing these!
Very useful for a (aspiring) game dev and composer such as myself. Thanks Cameron!
This is a fantastic video and very insightful 😎
Love the theme especially! Great video. Thank you.
BTW...What chair do you have? I'm having a hell of a time picking one lol.
Amazing video, thank you so much!
This is all great stuff! I also think it’s critically important for folks to look at programs like wwise and fmod and see what it takes to actually get audio into a video game. I don’t feel we, as composers, need to be a professional at those programs (although if you spend some time with them you can only bolster your portfolio) but it’s very helpful when creating music to know what goes into actually getting this stuff (especially fX) into games.
I would love to see a video from you about the more intermediate and advanced techniques for video game music! If that will be on your Patreon please let me know!
That ending. 😂 Always love your videos, Cam! Thank you for this.
video game music has always been one of my favorite compliments someone says about my music- I like writing to a theoretical scenario, and because of that there's a lot of differences between the entire sound signature of the tracks :0
Great production! 👌
Love seeing Reaper in these videos. The soundtrack is ace man. Great job.
As a solo dev who started looking into the technical aspects of making music after I realized I would probably either be using stock music or composing my own, this is incredibly valuable. Thank you.
MAIN PAGE SWEEP
woo >:3
Love this. I will need this for my passion projects but it's all the stuff I already knew, nonetheless it's just good food for thought.
oh, literally 12 minutes ago my friend asked me if i can make some music for his game ._.
Ah neat, congrats! The first time around is always a pile of nerves, but it's a ton of fun!
Let us know how it goes buddy
ive wanted to make video game music since i was like 12, now im 35 and i practice a lot. nice video
Straylight would have been perfect for parts of this. Lots of dark drones, textures, pulses and atmospheric stuff.
I normally HATE these genre tutorials, but it's Venus Theory so I trust this will actually be good.
2:55 I think in broad strokes I agree with a lot of what you said. But the two best pieces of video game music I've heard in the past 10 years are exceptions to the rule. The first is obvious: Balatro. All the music in Balatro. Hecking heck that game deserves awards for the music. It fits the game perfectly and is wonky enough that you can listen to the same theme for 20 hours and not get tired. That's how you make excellent video game music. And the second piece is great for exactly the same reasons, the Far Harbour OST "Peace is Possible", that oboe man. Neither is singable. But they're entirely memorable. I think you can make very good music by following the rule but you make the best music by going out there.
I don't know if it's an obvious choice without ever playing it, but your enthusiasm for it makes me curious. What is Balatro? What kind of game is it and what platforms is it on? Any other reasons why you like it?
I've been looking for a video like this for quite some time. Every other youtuber talking about videogame music just talks about zelda and pokemon... thanks!
Glad to be of service! 🤠
Dude, your voiceovers are so pristine and perfectly leveled! I must know what compressor you're using ... :)
Your timing couldn't be better Vebus Teary - I'm in a game jam, it's due in 5 days, the theme and game are totally outside my skillset and I do NOT want to let them down. Thanks for the guidance and inspiration!
Oh yeah and I'd also like to do this as a job one day. That too.
Funny this came up in my feed while taking a course on video game music and sound design
Making video game music is great. Having limitations and a guide to what the devs want really hopes tune the focus to get into a flow state
A lot of larger studios will implement frequency controls in-engine; adjusting the EQ at runtime in Wwise or similar so the track itself doesn't need to be rendered with destructive EQ that would cause problems for use in things like trailers etc.
even 27 years later this video reminds me why i should've been chasing the dream of VG music instead lol. but the info is definitely legit and actually does help put things in modern perspective compared to 20 years ago. very informative and worth rewatching as much needed to let it sink in.
Where do you actually find gigs like this? Do you just email developers? I've always been hesitant to contact devs since I can imagine they get hundreds of those kind of messages. I'm confident in my ability but actually landing gigs seems to be the hardest part of all.
You miss every shot that you don't take. Remember that. Do you have a Twitter account? There's a large indie dev community on there. All of my contract work has come from people that I met on that platform. It's one avenue if you aren't sure about sending cold messages.
I think that's pretty much how it works, yeah. One of my more recent favorite game OSTs (the soundtrack to Souldiers) came to be when the composer simply saw the game on Twitter and really wanted to compose music for it, so he contacted them and he was hired.
I imagine it's like any other job opening, really. You just apply till you get one, I guess.
would recommend finding game jams with active communities and advertising yourself there. for example the godot wild jam is monthly, week long, and has a pretty active discord
Very, very good instruction: The best, I must add. 👏😊
I was working on a soundrack for an action soap opera, and I wasn't told about what's actually needed from me. They rejected many of my works, but didn't want to tell, what they want. It was funny and stupid as hell, then they cancelled the entire project, because they realised that they don't know what they want in terms of plot. I LOL'd.
Super cool ❤❤❤❤
You became my English teacher, amazing depth of voice and clear diction.🙂
I about spit my coffee out, seeing Leisure Suit Larry 😂😂
Dude, I LOVE your no-bullshit attitude. Oh, annnnd I learned something - thanks!!
Please make more videos about the ambient composition for the games
Love your work dude , top tier as usual !!!!! Im just spit ballin here , but would multiband comp or spectral processing sidechaining not be better for adjusting the lows and highs during action??? 🤔
Super valuable.
Super cool vid!!
LOL Larry suit, I remember playing it back in the nineties. I pick up a girl and forgot to buy a protection. You know what happen afterwards.
I enjoyed this brotha, thank you.
/also, is there a way in unreal or any engine to sidechain frequencies/sound effects to create a more glued sound? Or would that be a bad idea.
Very nice thing about traditional video game music is that songs are usually very simple in structure and especially in older consoles they were usually just like 32 bars long designed to be looped over and over again.
Usually they are very easy projects to manage and do not eat that much CPU power.
Funnily enough for an ambient track I've written for my project I used that new strings patch you kindly gave for free, the Decent Sampler one. At octave 0 the faint clicks turn into sounds that remind me of the sound of ships' rigging. I think everyone wants to be the next Nobuo Uematsu but those pads and beds that define the tone are just as important and as you said, may be atonal. ETA: Ah yes the bees stuck in a pipe organ Fear Drone
I think this what I need right now - want to do music for a TTRPG story/podcast
That actually sounds like an awesome project haha.
How long did it take you to compose all of this - and how long would you expect someone to take to do this first time?
@@martinheuschober4341 The music for this video took about 3 days, but that's with like 15+ years of making music and like several games/apps/film things under my belt at this point.
The first time around, depends on how much music is needed obviously, but I'd anticipate for an indie title things would at least take about a month or so while you get your feet wet to deliver say an hour of music or so.
@@VenusTheory sounds like a lot of work, but then that is still something manageable and gives me a timeframe to aim for. That podcast project is the reason why I got into music making. so expect a ping on the discord when it is finished - I am 100% sure this video will help.
Great video
Another awesome vid - thanks ! Do you have any suggestions how to connect with game developers who are looking for original music? Thanks
when we're talking OST's, you _have_ to check out the ones from Gothic I and II if you haven't already
You using Reaper makes me very happy. I don’t know why…and it’s kinda weird…but it does. 👍
Hahaha great video and such a satisfying outro
Great vid VT. Being old, there were no video games in my youth. Just Saturday morning cartoons and cheap sci-fi movies that relied on twisted and bombastic classical music instruments accented with gunshots, machinery and tape speeds. We can’t help being subconsciously motivated by what we grew up with can we?
thank you! :)
Definitely saving this for review when my God damn tenacity pays off and I finally get to do this for real some day.
thanks so much man
That ending caught me off guard... God damn it, Venus Theory! Ending it w/ GTA 4 reference :P
I do music for Retro games, mainly on Amiga and occasionally other retro consoles; due to the limitations of the medium (that i love by the way) in the PHYSICAL limitatons of the machine (four channels PCM 8 bit and limited RAM shared between audio and graphics, so no more than 70k in a OCS/ECS machine and like 300k fpr AGA) to be creative is mandatory
Interesting enough here is an example of ambient music for a lovecraftian-themed dungeon crawler on Amiga:
ruclips.net/video/MYR0AdTDYzc/видео.html
4:40 so fire
That Theme is so Nine Inch Nails! 🤩
To me no intro theme is more memorable than the first Metroid prime
I'm in a band because other composers I met told me that's the best way to improve your writing. Besides the band, I make tons of little demos and have a small writing group. Had a few mentorships for engineering, but what else should I be doing?
Hmmmm the categories make sense for *some games but there are soo many types. Im currently in love with the hyper happy and naieve soundtrack of Park Beyond. Cause just a Kettel fan. But i guess that doesnt even quite have regular "levels" and so might be considered to just have a single sorta level with diff flavours
This was great! I recently discovered your channel and learn alot. But, how do you go about landing these gigs/briefs? What is the process of outreach and getting a contract with a developer? Thanks for your awesome videos!
Excellent stuff. I just wonder how much music play time needs to be generated for a project like this?
Hey man, how much time did you take to compose the 3 tracks? Usually how much time you think somebody should spend on composing a track ? ( not having a deadline ofc )
Thanks for the video anyway, great job
Great! 3:30 When faffing about, do you decide on a key in advance?
Good starting point, will there be a followup on this? Asset preparation, implementation into audio engines wwise/fmod/elias? Unless you're working for an AAA developer, most indie devs won't have a dedicated music editor, so a large chunk of asset preparation will left on composer's shoulders. In my exp, having no engine knowledge is an instant dealbreaker. Unless you're Hans Zimmer or Atticus Ross, ofc.
I have this part covered. I have 1000 hours of original game soundtrack music. Excellent video as always, but how about "How to land a job making videogame music" or "How to get hired as a video game music maker". Do I have to not only create the music, but also know how to code it in to a game? Or is that position dedicated to someone else? long time subscriber!
Ngl, those "airy parts" would actually make a lot of sense as the build up to the dynamic music. You're underwater. Air is a vital resource. Add an oscillator to them such that the airy parts have a ragged breathing rhythm and you'd have a pretty great bit of indicator music that tells you an enemy is around.
I wouldn't put it so eloquently, but yeah, tenacity and hard work is key.
Nintendo lawyers are gonna assume the opening shot of Ocarina of Time was playing on an emulator and not just a RUclips video, LOL.
God help me.
Recompiled PC port?
I'm kinda surprised at that last tip.
I'd have figured that programmers could trigger an EQ curve tied to player actions. So if the bullets need sub-bass to feel impactful, anytime the player holds down the fire button, an EQ curve is applied to the music.
That way the music doesn't have to lose out on a lot of frequency information all the time just to satisfy the potential frequency needs of other game components.
You could go totally ham on this concept and apply various EQ curves to tailored to all kinds of dynamic situations if you had tons of money to burn.
I wish UVI would invest more into fixing Falcon's UX, especially for game developers and advanced users who spend a lot of time inside it. People are complaining all over KVR about this, yet nobody from UVI seems to pay attention.
My question is when you want to focus on a theme (Let's say, Fire level, or Forest Level), then how do you learn what colors or instruments and palette are what can contribute towards this theme? At the moment I'm just googling *how to make a fire level theme* and kind of try to see what instruments or key scale they use. I'm trying to basically have a friend make a fake game so I can make music for each level to help myself have a project to work on, but now I'm stuck in the 'ok just try whatever until it sounds like that theme' stage haha.
@venustheory Thanks for the great video I just have a question that I've had for a while now. How would you go about submitting game music with all the possible changes depending on what's going on in the game. Do you have to submit it so they can edit it into what they need for the game or do you submit sections that can go into each other separately. I've been composing for libraries for a while and just always have a hard time understanding the game music side of things. Thanks again
In almost all cases, it's all just implemented as stems. This way you compose functional pieces of music, but it gets put together in real time by the game engine and often also features things like sidechaining or EQ/edits from the audio engine. You still write whole bits of music, but it just gets chopped up by the game if/when it's used dynamically. There's quite a few videos on RUclips about the basics of music with FMOD and WWISE that you can check out to get a sense of how it all gets put together - sorta like generative music meets a clip launcher in Ableton.
@@VenusTheory Thank you
Ha, great timing
For the section on frequency ranges at 11:50, could one use a kind of reactive EQ to reduce frequencies introduced by the game? This way, the music gets out of the way of the sound effects and dialogue, but only partly, while remaining unchanged through quieter sections of the game.
Not really - most of the time this is actually implemented in the game audio engine to be done in real time as it depends on what's happening in the game itself and not in a test video you're working against. This stuff is handled dynamically so you can't really predict it using a dynamic EQ on a static mix.
I REALLY want more resources and information on getting a foot in the door. I think I can make decent compositions for smaller indie games as I grow, but am not sure how to get started.
Interesting ♨now 😀🤘🏼
So, do you just get an mp4 of some game footage, then make the tracks and send it back? I thought I had to know how to apply the audio to trigger in the game when it should play