Adaptive Music in Kingdom Come: Deliverance
•Transferir como PPTX, PDF•
3 gostaram•1,606 visualizações
My talk at the Game Developers Session 2015, Prague. Video game music often reacts to events of the game by altering its atmosphere by performing transitions between parts of the soundtrack. This is usually referred to as "adaptive music" or "dynamic music". For example, the music goes from peaceful to agitated when the player is attacked by an enemy, or from neutral to dark when the player enters a cave. The challenge is to be able to respond in a timely fashion (within a second) to the evolving gameplay and yet make the transitions between parts of our soundtrack as seamless as possible. A number of systems and techniques exist, including synchronized cross-fading or reorchestration. These techniques typically cater to electronica and ambient sound design. They often rely on constant tempo of music, non-existent or simple harmonic progressions, and absence of clear melodies. In our project we focus on symphonic music in which maintaining the correct voicing and harmonic progressions is crucial to the listener's experience and the tempo changes depending on the musical content. In the talk I presented several of our original techniques, already implemented in the upcoming game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, scheduled for release in 2016 by the Warhorse Studios, http://kingdomcomerpg.com
Recomendados
Recomendados
Mais conteúdo relacionado
Mais procurados
Mais procurados (20)
Último
Último (20)
Adaptive Music in Kingdom Come: Deliverance
- 1. Adam J Sporka Warhorse Studios Czech Technical University in Prague GDS 2015 Prague
- 2. @adam_sporka JAN VALTAADAM SPORKA Photo Credits: Pavel Dobrovský
- 3. @adam_sporka
- 4. @adam_sporka
- 5. Purpose of Music • Tradition – Present in most of the released titles – Why not in yours? • Declaration / Affirmation of genre – “Yes, this is an 8bit retro.” – “1870s, North America” @adam_sporka
- 6. Purpose of Music • Presentation of emotion – Valence of emotion (happy, joyful, depressing…) – Actor-based vs. world-based • Suppression of ratio – People are less analytic @adam_sporka
- 7. Purpose of Music • Setting the expectations – Difficulty – Game pace • “Sonification” of the game status – Changes of music over time indicate changes in game @adam_sporka
- 8. Game Music Characteristics • Theme music is feature – Recognizable theme – Elaborate – Genre announcer – Everyone will hear this • Underscore is background – Mood setter – Does not distract – Can be listened to throughout the gameplay @adam_sporka
- 9. Game Music Characteristics • Silence – Dosage of music • Used to emphasize music – Keep the ambient sounds present – Complete silence “something wrong” • “Are-my-speakers-on Problem” @adam_sporka
- 10. Music Design • Genre • Purpose of music – Responsive vs anticipatory • Music space – Contexts of game • Exploration, stealth, combat, minigames … – Variables characterizing the state of game • Health status, imminent loss, expected victory, … @adam_sporka
- 11. @adam_sporka
- 12. Static vs Interactive Soundtrack • Static soundtrack – Predefined – Not changing – Loops – Assigned to specific screens / levels @adam_sporka
- 13. Static Soundtrack • Early and simpler games • Level-based games • Pengon (1984, Atari 800XL) – One music loop – Game over stinger @adam_sporka
- 14. @adam_sporka
- 15. Nimble Quest • 2013; NimbleBit; iOS, Android • Arcade / RPG • Early 2000s pixel art graphics @adam_sporka
- 16. Static vs Interactive Soundtrack • Adaptive Music = Dynamic Music – More complex control of the music playback – Engine “aware” of the state of the game @adam_sporka
- 17. @adam_sporka
- 18. @adam_sporka
- 19. @adam_sporka
- 20. @adam_sporka
- 21. KC:D Music Design • Film-like score • Live orchestral recordings • Production from samples – Realistic orchestration! @adam_sporka
- 22. KC:D Music Design • 1400s • “dungeons, no dragons” • open world, sandbox RPG • Typical for open-world RPGs: – Multiple contexts • Landscape exploration • Combats, battles • Dialogs – Unknown order of those contexts @adam_sporka
- 26. KC:D Music Design • Villages / Towns – Period music • Nature – “Timeless” • Consistent vocabulary of themes • Consistent instrumentation @adam_sporka
- 27. KC:D Music Design • Exploration – Location-based – Weather – Recent crime – Ambient, slow-paced – Landscape – Environment • Action – Stealth – Combat – Chase – Fast-paced – Player vs enemy – Player’s health
- 28. KC:D Music Design • Alternating between silence and music – Combat always has music – Villages alternate between music and silence – Forests will be mostly without music • Sparse usage of themes • Usage counters • Timeouts and Priorities @adam_sporka
- 29. KC:D Music Design • Is “combat” always more important than “exploration”? • Should music always follow the player’s activity? • Rigid responses – consistency • Loose responses – interestingness • When does a piece of music become unsuitable? • “Karma” of a place • Weather @adam_sporka
- 30. KC:D Music Design • Traditional adaptive music techniques: – Resequencing – Reorchestration – Modulation – Generative art @adam_sporka
- 31. Transition Handling • Genre: Symphonic music – Continuous harmonic progressions / voicing – Crossfade not an option – One track at the time – (Unlike techno / electronica) Resequencing @adam_sporka
- 32. @adam_sporka Standard Resequencing Example (too complex and impractical)
- 33. Transition Handling • “Seamless transitions” – Exploration music – No hurry – 15 seconds @adam_sporka
- 34. “Railroad Switches meet Teleports”
- 35. Seamless Music Transitions in KC:D Design by Adam Sporka and Jan Valta
- 36. Seamless Music Transitions in KC:D • Each scene (track) has its own start and end • Each scene has a number of branches leading to one of the three music configurations = Alephs • aleph is the state of music: Tonality, instrumentation, voicing tendency, etc. • Three global alephs throught the soundtrack • If change is requested, the playback reaches an aleph via the nearest branch. A compatible intro of the destination scene starts, sync’d with the end of the branch. @adam_sporka
- 37. Transition Handling • “Transition via cinels” – Exploration Action – ASAP! – 1 second @adam_sporka
- 38. Design by Adam Sporka and Jan Valta Transitions via “cinels”
- 39. @adam_sporka
- 40. Tricks • Destination (“Pattern B”) synchronized with the bar lines of the Origin (“Pattern A”) • We let the Origin finish (decay) even after the playback of the Destination started @adam_sporka
- 43. Further Tricks • Traditional scoring • Creative freedom • Musicians involved early in the game development • Close link between the devs and musicians (= we are devs ourselves) • Own adaptive music middleware @adam_sporka