Having just got my brand-new music production software, Propellerhead’s Reason 4.0, in the mail the other day, I’m all geared up to start working on the soundtrack for the new version of AddairWare’s Hydrok. We initially submitted it to the Independent Games Festival two years ago to less than stellar results, but we like the idea of Hydrok too much to let its development story end there. Going in a new direction, we hope that all the knowledge and experience we’ve accumulated since then can help us win some awards this time around.
Although my plan for Hydrok’s audio isn’t as innovative or interesting as 2008 Excellence in Audio Award Winner AudioSurf’s is as far as music goes, I do think I could execute it well enough to at least give Hydrok a shot.
Goals for Hydrok Musical Score
- Create a rich musical atmosphere conducive to puzzle-solving
Hydrok’s new direction takes it away from twitch gameplay and more towards traditional, slower-paced puzzle solving; of course, the music has to change as well. Originally, Hydrok had a fast tempo, electronic soundtrack, but this will be slowed down to “thinking music” – even pace, even dynamics. And I say a “rich musical atmosphere”, because I personally feel games such as Ballance (an absolutely fantastic puzzle-solver otherwise) only lose by having their musical world so sparsely populated. It makes the game feel stagnant and hollow.
- Utilize natural instrumentation
Part of the decision for an electronic soundtrack for the first version of Hydrok was technical limitations. My old music software, FLStudio 5, is really designed for loop-based techno – making really nice string pieces, acoustic drum tracks, or anything of that sort is very difficult. Fortunately, Reason seems to be up to the task of producing some great piano and string parts – and I’ve updated my drumkit samples since the first version of Hydrok as well.
- Experiment across different genres insofar as the first two goals remain intact
One reason I love having music as a job is that to really be effective at creating a great soundtrack, you have to be familiar with and compose in genres that you may not have touched otherwise. I haven’t played one note of jazz up to this point in my life, but I’d really like to try out some jazz-influenced pieces to break up the classically-grounded piano. Maybe it could even lead to a new love of the genre for me.
I’m sure I’ll write more about how the composing and musical production for Hydrok goes, so we’ll see how well these goals are implemented in the coming months. With any luck we’ll see Hydrok’s name on the IGF’s Finalists page – under Excellence in Audio, if I have anything to say about it.
