How Square Enix made truly interactive game music
Long time readers know I love game music and as game music has evolved one of the things that’s become more prevalent is interactive or situational music. This see’s a piece of music adapt to your gameplay experience, sometimes seemlessly.
Sho Iwamoto from Square Enix gives a fascinating talk and demonstration of some internal systems he created called MAGI that helped him as Audio Producer to write all kinds of layered transitions between styles, instruments, tempo or time signature. He then talks about how they implemented into the game itself and the various technical challenges and opportunities it gives. There are some really clever parts where audio mixing, timing and small embellishments to realign tracks all come together. If you’d like to see the program in action itself, the MAGI demonstration kicks off around 10 minutes in.
I found the whole talk interesting and really opened my eyes to different disicplines in game and audio design. I often yearn for the 1990-2005 era of game music where it was about strong melodies but I have a new appreciation for this style of music now.
If you like what I do, and would like to help me make better and more content then please consider supporting me via Patreon. Thank you.