Need help/advice with game music Thread

Hi there,

I have just put my game up on Greenlight and most of the feedback so far has been that the game music is terrible! Which is clearly something I need to address, and quickly to as the bad trailer music will be costing me votes.

I'd appreciate it if anyone could check out the page and trailer here and suggest/link any types or examples of music that might fit the game / trailer. Ideally I need to find free music / royalty free as I have no budget, I've been looking at freesounds etc, but i just don't know what to search as I don't know what type of thing fits, when it comes to audio choice I'm just no good.

Thanks in advance (also if you feel like adding a vote that would be appreciated to)

Matt

I don't see anything wrong with the music at all. It's appropriate.

I can't say it's a great tune, but it's not TERRIBLE per say

Have you had a chat with the one complaining ? Just to check what's wrong, perhaps they would expect another style, perhaps techno...it may fit as well

I am a composer and i would have happily given you soundtrack, but my genre is more fantasy

GeexGames thanks for the reply.

The feedback from those who didn't like it seemed to be that it looped bits to much. Thanks for the styles suggestion I will look at some techno tracks and see how they feel with the gameplay.

I'll keep you in mind for if I ever get around to doing a fantasy game of some form

Here are my personal thoughts.

The song sounds half finished. What I mean by that is the instrumentation, pacing, and arrangement of it sounds like there are supposed to be angsty vocals over the top but they got taken out for a karaoke version. It sounds like a song, not background music for a video game. Not that its bad or anything, it does sound totally fine...out of context.

I think some sort of upbeat, gritty trance music would make more sense. Something that grows and evolves gradually but really pumps you up as a player. A little frantic, to mirror the fact that you're surrounded by dozens of enemies at any given time and you have to constantly be moving.

Here's a track that I found on YouTube that basically demonstrates what I mean. You'll find that the tempo and beats line up with the general pacing of the player shooting. That's something you want in an action-type situation--the players actions and the music embracing and complementing one another. I could go at that pace for a long time with that kind of music. The other track doesn't put me into the action in the same way and I think about the music too much instead of what I'd be doing.

Hope that helps! I tried to be as constructively critical as possible

ianknowland wrote:

Here are my personal thoughts.

The song sounds half finished. What I mean by that is the instrumentation, pacing, and arrangement of it sounds like there are supposed to be angsty vocals over the top but they got taken out for a karaoke version. It sounds like a song, not background music for a video game. Not that its bad or anything, it does sound totally fine...out of context.

I think some sort of upbeat, gritty trance music would make more sense. Something that grows and evolves gradually but really pumps you up as a player. A little frantic, to mirror the fact that you're surrounded by dozens of enemies at any given time and you have to constantly be moving.

Here's a track that I found on YouTube that basically demonstrates what I mean. You'll find that the tempo and beats line up with the general pacing of the player shooting. That's something you want in an action-type situation--the players actions and the music embracing and complementing one another. I could go at that pace for a long time with that kind of music. The other track doesn't put me into the action in the same way and I think about the music too much instead of what I'd be doing.

Hope that helps! I tried to be as constructively critical as possible

Thanks that is some really useful feedback there, gives me a better idea of what type of track I should be aiming for.

I want to double ianknowland on his post. The music you have it is great in itself, there is nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't quite find it's home in the game. The piece he linked was great. You might want to try aggressive instrumental rock/metal options too. Depending of the particular level the player is playing. Environment and the spirit of the game dictates a lot. This is a good option at it's most aggressive sections. The general style is called hybrid rock or hybrid metal. Another style that you might want to look into is metalstep.

Bottom line is that consider the spirit of the game and the environments you have. Then make a decision based on that

MarkusLappalainen wrote:

I want to double ianknowland on his post. The music you have it is great in itself, there is nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't quite find it's home in the game. The piece he linked was great. You might want to try aggressive instrumental rock/metal options too. Depending of the particular level the player is playing. Environment and the spirit of the game dictates a lot. This is a good option at it's most aggressive sections. The general style is called hybrid rock or hybrid metal. Another style that you might want to look into is metalstep.

Bottom line is that consider the spirit of the game and the environments you have. Then make a decision based on that

Thanks for the suggestions and links to try out. It's certainly given me some extra options, I'll have to have a think about each style of level / stage to see what fits best then. Thankfully I now have some other developers with a more experience in game audio than me offering to help me out, so the final tracks should end up fitting the gameplay more when it's finished now.

That is good to hear Good luck with the production!

As a music composer myself, I'd say that the music itself isn't too bad but it doesn't seem to fit the action in the game. It should be less uplifting as the game features a lot of action. I am a composer, so if you want any work done. then don't hesitate to contact me at djhillcontact@gmail.com or www.dfunkdafiedbeats.com..

DJHillMusic wrote:

As a music composer myself, I'd say that the music itself isn't too bad but it doesn't seem to fit the action in the game. It should be less uplifting as the game features a lot of action. I am a composer, so if you want any work done. then don't hesitate to contact me at djhillcontact@gmail.com or www.dfunkdafiedbeats.com..

Thanks for the advice and offer of help, I've now got a composer working on the game so things are looking up on the audio front now.