11-30-2017, 02:43 PM
I've been thinking about this a lot, especially as a game developer. It's hard to pinpoint where music stands in game design.
To oversimplify, graphics is what draws a you in, gameplay is what keeps you playing, but where does music stand?
Music and sound in general is the one of the few things you can turn off and still play the game as normal otherwise(most of the time). Not only that, but some of the more recent games only use music during a few parts, like some FPS and Sim-Racers.
It's clear that good music can increase the enjoyment of a game(like Sonic CD and Donkey Kong Country 3 on GBA) especially when there's excellent tracks that you keep replaying a stage just to hear, and a weak soundtrack makes things worse(like Sonic 4) perhaps to the point where you'd rather mute the sound, but I still don't know what perspective to look at it from.
Besides rhythm and other clearly music-based games, what would you say music is to a game?
To oversimplify, graphics is what draws a you in, gameplay is what keeps you playing, but where does music stand?
Music and sound in general is the one of the few things you can turn off and still play the game as normal otherwise(most of the time). Not only that, but some of the more recent games only use music during a few parts, like some FPS and Sim-Racers.
It's clear that good music can increase the enjoyment of a game(like Sonic CD and Donkey Kong Country 3 on GBA) especially when there's excellent tracks that you keep replaying a stage just to hear, and a weak soundtrack makes things worse(like Sonic 4) perhaps to the point where you'd rather mute the sound, but I still don't know what perspective to look at it from.
Besides rhythm and other clearly music-based games, what would you say music is to a game?
![[-]](https://forums.mfgg.net/images/emerald/collapse.png)