Video game composers gain respect in the industry

IguanaGrrl · Staff Member Joined: 17 Jan 2002 Location: Sacramento, CA

In a recent article by Greg Kasavin of GameSpot, video game composers, including Jesper Kyd of Ultramix 2 fame, expressed their thoughts on the industry and the evolution of video game music composition as an art form. It's a good read for a further in depth look at an often ignored craft.
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Jerry Tasslemen · Trick Member Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: In Tumbolia

Umm... should this be under the general games form

O.K so DDr is a music game, but other games have music!

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Jerry Tasslemen · Trick Member Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: In Tumbolia

Ohh... Jeez I didn't see it in the front web page... sooooo sorry!

Don't kill me

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gs68 · Trick Member Joined: 06 Apr 2002 Location: on a plane

So true. It doesn't matter how good a song is, if it's in a video game no one wants to listen to it.

I mean, these folks are not sellouts. They strive to make great soundtracks for games. Yet no one ever thanks them for their work.

My favorite game soundtracks are those of Gradius Gaiden, Cho Ren Sha (an old 2D shooter for the X68K computer), DoDonPachi, IIDX

, and Ikaruga.

Oh, and this article wins a cookie for mentioning Wangan Midnight (the game series).

Jerry Tasslemen · Trick Member Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: In Tumbolia

Yep... some video game music is good, I would listen to it more but I can't find to many CD's and I can't buy any right now anyway

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ZephyrGlaze · Trick Member Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Location: Las Vegas, NV

The_Austin · Trick Member Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: Caldwell, ID

I hope I'm not the only fan of Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy). Lest you belittle me by calling me a "fanboy", just listen to One Winged Angel from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack. It's amazing.
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'Ivan · Trick Member Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Location: Thailand

Zarcom · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:01 am Post subject:

IguanaGirl, thanks for pointing that out on what you said on the update. Composting IS an art form, I myself compose songs, I took piano lessons for 2 1/2 years.

Anyway, I better not ramble on anymore, good work

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Drakken · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:18 am Post subject:

Very cool, thanks for pointing the article out. Video game music is extremely important to me when playing a game. Great music can make a great game into a timeless experience, and make a so-so game a lot more enjoyable, to me, at least.

I myself would like to compose music for games in the future...

Ryu_Hirakashi · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:04 am Post subject:

.hack//*cough* · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:36 pm Post subject:

I find it sad that even in this day and age video game music and their composers still get no respect from the elite among the music community, as well as the general public. Of course, public perception is slowly changing as video games become more mainstream, but the fact of the matter is that most people tend to look at graphics and visual effects before they listen to the audio.

The truth is, video games have always had their fair share of good music and soundtracks, even back in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. One of the names I fondly recall back in the early 8-bit days, and I'm surprised nobody's mentioned, is Koichii Sugiyama, composer of the Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior games back in the days of the NES. He, along with Nobuo Uematsu, Yuzo Koshiro, Tim Follett, and others I'm sure, paved the way for the current generation of composers we have nowadays. To other people, it may have been bleeps and boops, but to me, that was what I grew up listening to, and I'm not ashamed to say I own soundtracks from those eras. Heck, I can remember humming Dragon Warrior's theme back when I was a kid, or Actraiser, or Chrono Trigger, or any other theme that struck my fancy at the time. Fact of the matter is, we didn't have to wait until the Playstation came out for us to hear good video game music. Video gamers have known that for some time, but the rest are only realizing that just now.

It's high time that these composers who work so hard to make music that will fit the game get noticed. We live in a surround sound DVD culture now, so it's not like it isn't for lack of technology. Maybe the mainstream music culture and record companies will wake up one day and realize that if they don't start producing better material, they just might be lost in the shuffle of their competition, video game music composers.
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