Except for taste and smell, all your senses are engaged when you sit down to play a video game. While a game’s visuals usually get the most attention, audio also plays an essential role in the gaming experience.
From the beginning, music has shaped how players experience video games. The music accompanying the most beloved games has changed significantly from beeps to symphonies. This article looks at music’s evolving role in video games.
Why is Music Important to Video Games
Developers design video games to provoke players’ reactions, and music plays a critical role in making that happen. Most people are familiar with slot machines, with many playing them online and in brick-and-mortar establishments.
Imagine playing these popular games without music – It would completely change the gamer’s experience. When people sit down to play the best online casino games on Bodog, they may focus on the visuals, but the audio is also a big part of the overall atmosphere. The same goes for any game.
Music stirs a player’s emotions and helps set the scene as the story unfolds. If you’re playing an adventure or RPG title, the game’s music will signal you when you’re about to encounter a boss and celebrate your victory when you defeat a foe.
You’ve probably noticed the pace of music increasing as the action picks up in a video game. Ensuring the music keeps pace with what’s happening on screen is another way game designers establish what’s happening in a scene.
Back to the Basics
If you were around in the 1970s when Pong and Space Invaders, you experienced elementary sounds accompanying primitive gaming graphics. Although game developers lacked the tools to turn these pioneering games into works of art, they used music deftly in these titles.
As the name suggests, Space Invaders was about shooting down alien intruders to save the world. It was a fast-paced game that required quick reflexes, and the closer the aliens got to the landing, the faster the music got, communicating to players their time was almost up.
The simple music in this game provoked all sorts of emotional reactions in players, likely increasing their heart rates and making them sweat. They may have even started to panic as the aliens got closer and closer.
Space Invaders would still be a fun game without the accompanying music, but it wouldn’t have proved the same emotions in players. They wouldn’t have felt invested in the game in the same way as they did with the music playing.
This illustrates that a game can produce powerful emotions even with basic music. In the same way, music plays a critical role in movies; it can do the same for video games.
Gaming Music Levels Up
By the early 1980s, video game music had evolved from basic sounds to producing a few notes. With the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, more sophisticated sounds became common.
The most famous examples were the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Both games showed how essential music could be in shaping the gaming experience.
Super Mario Brothers quickly became the most popular gaming soundtrack of its time, and almost everyone could hum its famous tunes. Despite all that progress, video game composers were still limited by technology.
Music Front and Center
As the technology supporting video graphics improved, audio technology did too. If you heard it on its own, video game music got so good that you wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the music played in concert halls worldwide.
Music became central to all aspects of a video game. It was no longer a passive component relegated to a subordinate position in the background of a game. Instead, it was front and center, supporting the story and setting the atmosphere throughout the game.
Video game music was no longer limited to tracks specifically composed for a title. Designers sometimes borrowed popular songs to use in video games to enhance the gaming experience.
Designing music for a video game isn’t as simple as being a musician or artist; specific technical skills are needed to make it work. Much of the music has become so good that gaming studios have released entire soundtracks for some games.
Video Games and Pop Music
Video game music has provoked such strong emotions in players that many have become best-selling soundtracks, with fans listening to them even when not playing the games they were composed for.
The soundtrack from the original Halo game is the best-selling of all time. The popularity of Halo and other video game music has created a demand for live performances.
One of the most famous is the touring series called Video Games Live, where fans can listen to their favorite tracks performed live.
