Indie Game Audio Manifesto and Discussion

[dflash]

I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post.

Background:

I am an audio provider who attended the GDC last week and attended a week’s worth of audio sessions. I learned a lot, but in addition to that, there was also a week’s worth of top studio egos to deal with. With the exception of Scott Selfon, not one speaker would even acknowledge that indie games exist and that many of us work in that area. For example, Ryan Clark (Grubby Games – Professor Fizzwizzle) attended a session I was at called How to Get the Perfect Music For Your Game. When he asked how an indie developer would do this, the panel essentially had no answer.

Initially I was frustrated. I was annoyed with their arrogance. Then after I calmed myself down I realized it was up to me to figure out what concepts that are being applied to AAA title game development can be applied in varying scope to indie games. I am now thankful for their arrogance, etc. as it has motivated me to attempt to crystallize my thoughts. I am hoping this will spawn a discussion that will help to benefit us all.

Before I begin, let me say that I know everyone is in a different situation, and this will not apply to everyone. However, I think these are some important points that everyone can at least think about.

Goal:

To establish a higher quality audio experience that will improve the game overall.

I have read on here that some people don’t think that audio is very important. It is commonly accepted in the industry as a whole that audio is 1/3 of the game experience. If someone feels very strongly against this, so be it. I am not trying to convince anyone that audio is important. The above stated goal is aimed at people who do see the value good audio can bring to a game.

How to achieve this goal:

1) Audio should be a part of development from the beginning and not something ‘thrown in’ after the game is done.

2) The developer and audio provider should work together during the implementation.

My experience, which may not be representative of everyone’s experiences, is that I typically provide content, but am not involved really at all beyond that. The game is near completion, and I am provided with a list of assets required. When I am done with them I send to files to the developer and that is my final step.

I believe that audio should be a consideration from as early on in the development as possible. Often times indie developers wear many hats so their knowledge is limited in some areas. If audio is one of them, talk with audio guys about different ideas and concepts. Ask yourself (and others): What types of audio will be required? What will the role of audio be? What are some creative uses of audio we can establish (for example: not just throwing in a loop of music for each level)?

Not only will determining these parameters in the beginning allow any technical considerations to be taken care of as the game develops, but it will allow the audio guy you hire to experiment with different ideas. When the game is almost done and I am given two weeks to generate the assets, I will most likely just play everything safe and end up delivering a fairly standard result. Sometimes this works out ok, but if the audio provider could be brought in early enough to experiment with ideas and discuss what works and what doesn’t with the developer as the game unfolds, I think we could raise the overall quality as originality of indie game audio.

This dialogue should continue all the way through the implementation. Audio providers usually understand audio better than developers, so why not use that to improve the final result? Involve the audio provider in the implementation. I am not suggesting you give up your executive authority in these types of decisions, but why not use the knowledge that could be available to you?

For example, when the audio provider generated the music, sfx, and voice over for a particular part in the game, maybe he had no idea when they would all be triggered. They were EQ’d as individual sounds. In game, they all trigger at the same time and sound like mush. If the audio provider is aware of this, he can re-EQ them so each stands out in its own frequency band. Or if you are using a sound engine that can handle this type of on the fly EQing, but you don’t really understand how EQing works, let your audio provider under the hood to help out in this instance.

Inherent problems with our situation can that impede this:

1) Lack of trust.

2) Lack of budget.

3) Lack of audio knowledge/understanding.

I am not so naïve as to think that I can just post a few suggestions and everything will be solved. I realize there are problems unique to our situation that can present obstacles. However, every situation has inherent problems. It is up to us to try and solve them.

Our indie community largely exists over the internet. Rarely do I get to meet indie developers face to face, which is one reason I attend GDC. There is a natural lack of trust between contractors and developers who are only online acquaintances.

Also, for many of you, these games are your ‘babies.’ This is completely understandable. However, sometimes this can create a lack of trust that ends up hurting the game in the end. The ego says, “I know better than anyone else what I want.” However, can the ego execute it? Is it possible that an outside voice could suggest details that could really improve the end result?

Lack of budget is often times looked to as the trump card in this discussion. “AAA titles have huge budgets, we can’t come anywhere near that.” This disparity exists in every aspect of game development, so it is nonsensical to only apply it to audio. This manifesto is not a sales promotion, or lobbying ground, so I will not specifically address budgets/rates, but I will say there are creative licensing options that audio providers and developers can work out together. I think we really need to address working together on these financial issues so both parties are happy. I think a lot of us on both sides are worried about getting ripped off, and rightly so in some cases. However I think realistic arrangements can be worked out that can please both parties.

I certainly am not advocating audio providers lowering their rates, or, God forbid, giving away their content for free, but I am also not saying that these ideas will require costs to rise for developers. Any audio provider worth his salt will want to be involved in the ongoing development and implementation without raising rates. It benefits us as well. Also, when creative uses for audio are developed, it can often times result in less audio being generated (which can equal less cost). A higher standard of audio does not mean wall to wall orchestral scores for every game. In fact it means the exact opposite.

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, indie developers often times have limited knowledge of audio. We as audio providers need to take it upon ourselves to be to open audio discussions, to help educate the developers. I know it can be a competitive field, and some audio providers won’t want to discuss their audio ideas freely. And while I am not suggesting that we all give every idea away, we should at least make ourselves available to have private discussions with developers and to answer questions, even when we are not working for them.

Wrap up:

In hoping to raise the level of audio, I think what really needs to happen is a development of trust between developers and audio providers, so that they can work together as sort of an ‘audio team.’ So if developers have audio providers they currently work with and like, work to establish a relationship with them beyond ‘content provider.’ Audio providers should do the same.

While I was amongst the egos of the AAA world, I really felt a need to try and get the indie world to communicate and work together to better the overall quality of games through my field of expertise which is audio. I know it is a competitive field, but being surrounded by egos and vultures, made me hope we could work together in the indie arena. I am not saying this simple post will achieve this, but I hope to initiate some discussion.

Thank you.

[papillon]

I think the biggest thing that prevents me from wanting to work with an outside composer is not simply the cost, but the cost combined with the difficulty in communication.

I find it much easier to look at an artist's gallery of visual art and get a handle on their style and what they are capable of than I do with a composer. I also find it easier to *express* to someone just what it is that I'm looking for in visual art than I do in with music. And I am a music major!

(Bloody useless music degree - refused to talk about anything even vaguely resembling practical musical uses, it was all Bach, Bach, Bach. I like Bach. Bach is great. There is a lot more to music than Bach.)

Since I don't have any money to *waste*, I find myself unwilling to get involved with musicians because I'm not sure they can produce what I want on the first try.

It's also much more difficult to take in a musician's portfolio online - the filesize of music means a lot of downloading and waiting just to get a sample, and the musician doesn't want to burn tons of bandwidth for browsers who may not buy....

[Christian]

Graphic designers have this problem, they have to make a research on its client, an investigation to know what they are looking for, this part is really hard, but it ensures that the end work will please the client and that the work will do its objective. The same thing should go to sound designers, and im sure that they will have the same problems than we graphic designers when we encounter "hard" customers... some clients dont even know what they want, so we have to help them find it, some think they know more tha us, some dont listen to what we say, etc, so, i think that one as a developer must know what to tell to the sound designer, and the sound designers must know what to ask so both can communicate and work with a goal in common.

I also cant pay for a sound designer or musician, so i do all that myself, wich is really fun, so i wont pay a sound designer and miss all the fun :D but thats just me i think, even if the end result is not so profesionall :p

[AnthemAudio]

Thanks for laying it all out like that. I truly believe more and more productions will be asking more than just "asset producers" as time goes on.

My first project was as an intern. I was able to meet face to face with these guys anytime I wanted to. I learned as much as I could about the game, the team, their tech, and what my role in everything was. I interacted as much as possible, provided feedback on both gameplay and audio functions and even designed a level I got to showcase during their Final Presentation.

Now, since then I haven't been able to meet any of my other clients. But I haven't lost that drive, that necessity to get as involved as possible in the production, not only doing my share, but helping and encouraging all other aspects. I ask for builds early, I play the heck out of them, give them some criticism, ask a ton of questions and then get to work. As soon as I have something substantial, I show it to them, discuss progress and direction, recieve my notes and get back to work. Wash, rinse, repeat.

When I get an urgent deadline like 2 weeks or the likes, well I step into overdrive and still try to give them the same level of interaction from me, though compressed. They usually see that I am a great boon to the development of the product and when they use me on their next project, they'll be sure to bring me in a lot earlier.

I feel we audio providers have to use the window they give us to the best of our abilities and fight for that early production cycle position.

It all boils down to trust. There's money, but if I can trust him, then he's worth the money. There's knowledge (or lack thereof) but if I can trust this guy to pull it off with quality then it's ok.

Build the trust, get involved in the project as much as possible, help campaign the product, post on all the industry forums...not just advertising your services, but your knowledge, support, and love of the industry. Composers are a dime a dozen, but those who can be beneficial to teams in unexpected ways aren't.

When they see this, they'll start bring us in earlier. We'll matter more. We can't wait for things to change through simple awareness, we have to change things for ourselves. Set the example.

That's enough from me for now...

Tony

[PoV]

Even in retail development, music is often an afterthought. I can't say I've worked on a project where the process was anything more than that. Half the reason to blame had to do with the generally perceived "lower standards" with portable games (Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS).

The process was either (best case) us as developers providing the music guy with tools so he could test it, or (worst case) nothing at all, and having them write Midi music and make samples that we'd have to adapt to the half ass music player we had (Music Player 2000 anyone?). That 2nd method is even more fun when you can't talk face to face with the music guy, and he doesn't speak (write) english too well. ;)

As developer who's nearly always listening to something, I'm amazed we get away with that sort of blasphomy.

[AnthemAudio]

And now you see the interest manifest...no one sayin' anything.

Doesn't faze me. I've got a job to do!

Tony

[dflash]

Yah, I didn't expect this topic to light up the board, but I was/am hoping that it will provide some basis for thought among a select audience.

Tony, you make some good points, especially regarding helping to campaign/market the project you are working on. Thanks for sharing that.

[soniCron]

Honestly, you're not going to convert anyone. Most people don't see the value in audio -- they're usually mystified by the intangibility of it all. Graphics they can see; game mechanics they can play. But music is some primal force that exists on a plane far beyond that of graphics or mechanics, and that's a confusing concept for many. If they understood the sheer power audio has to pique our emotions... No, I think appreciation of audio takes a special kind of person, and you'll just never have the capacity to sway those who don't understand. They'll never understand.

But that's okay. I think it's one of those things that separates the good from the great.

[papillon]

I'm definitely interested in audio, but I don't see anyone willing to help address my points. How do you get a better idea of what a particular sound/music artist can do for you, when portfolios tend to be limited and take a long time to listen to, and the methods for explaining what you want are awkward?

Slapping one or two song samples on a site and saying this is what you can do does not help someone who is inexperienced in putting game and music together to see the value of your offering. However, without the aid of a programmer/artist to build an integrated demo...

[dflash]

The song samples, I think, are just to display an overall proficiency. What else can we do? Provide nothing or provide 2 hours of music? Neither is a good alternative, so I provide clips that I think show a wide range and the overall production value.

I don't know how to get around the length of time it takes to listen to the samples. My clips are limited to a minute in length for this reason. You can get a feel for what I can do in 5 minutes. I know this is multiplied by the number of composers you research, but there really is no other solution to this.

I have no problem working up a 30 sec-1 minute demo for a prospective project, and I think that can provide an important basis for dialogue.

Another thing I don't get enough of is reference tracks. There is nothing new under the sun. Perhaps people are afraid of insulting us, but there is nothing wrong with saying, I want it to sound like this song, etc. At least it provides a common starting place. Then we can talk and figure out what aspects of the reference tracks are important, etc. and this can lead to my next suggestion:

As for communicating what someone wants, that requires education just like any other aspect of game design. There is a common vocabulary just like any other area.

[soniCron]

How do you get a better idea of what a particular sound/music artist can do for you, when portfolios tend to be limited and take a long time to listen to, and the methods for explaining what you want are awkward? Low quantity would be a problem with that particular musician and should probably be avoided. (You wouldn't hire an artist with a couple pictures, would you?) As for the time it takes to choose a suitable musician, that's just the nature of the beast. Music is a temporal experience, and as such will take time to devour. If you were a producer looking for a director, you'd have to bite the bullet and watch a bunch of films -- that's just how it works. If you have difficulty in expressing what you want, then you need to expose yourself to a lot more music. Try Real Rhapsody (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=5897) as well as the many free Internet radio streams available (http://www.shoutcast.com). And keep track of game soundtracks you find interesting -- see if you can isolate the music to listen independently. It is extremely helpful to be able to show the musician examples of similar music. "I want this style, with this tempo, and a little guitar." Once you're down to choosing between the musician's iteratives, then the process should be relatively simple, since you've already knocked out the major issues. And a phone call or two with some humming certainly doesn't hurt!

The truth is that it takes a lot of effort to get what you want with music, but don't let that discourage you. Fortunately, music can be pushed to the background during the decision process, so you can sample genres and musicians over the course of a few working days. I always surround myself with the style of music I choose for a game, as I'm developing it. This helps to bring a cohesive feel between the visual and audio elements, and provides a great deal of inspiration while working. Hope this helps! Good luck! :)

[AnthemAudio]

Well, that's the system we have now. A particular artist MIGHT be perfect for you and your project, but without investing time/money into learning about each other you have to go on recommendations and referrals from people they've worked with before.

Currently, "it's all about what you've done, not what you can do."

I guess that's the frustration here, generally...except it's not that unique to audio guys. Not unique at all. You're only as good as your last product. Personally, I don't subscribe to this, but I understand it's how things work for the most part...certainly when consumerism is involved.

But that's getting to heady for this. How to match up a composer and your project. Mind you this isn't anything definitive as things from the top of my head usually aren't.

-Their samples shouldn't take that long to download. If they do, they need to fix that. If it's a server hitch that's rectifiable. If it's because they chose the wrong compression ratio to stream they should know better. They just should.

-If their portfolios seem limited, do not hesitate to ask for a demo with basic specifications. "Hey, I'm looking for someone who can give me a Latin/Adventure sound for XXX game I'm working on. If you want to send me a quick 1 minute demo of this I may consider you to work on the project."

Most composers will be
(1) glad to be noticed
(2) thrilled to be considered
(3) able to produce a scratch track demo fairly shortly.

Because that turns the table on "only good as your last project" and asks "what can you do with this?" And it doesn't take out of your time to ask for this.

-Can this guy do what I need WHEN I need him to do it? Even if they talk about deadlines from past projects, can I trust him to be telling the truth? I don't have time to ask his old clients.

That's the murky area. You don't want to hire someone who you "thought" was perfect for the job, but turns out to be non-communicative and non-disciplined. Truly, that's one of the reasons I post on these and other related forums. Largely, because I'm fascinated with gaming and the people who make games, but also because I want to be known, trusted, seen as reliable, resourceful, and ultimately useful as I can to as many people as possible.

I think it's called networking.

I'll look into it.

Tony

[ErikH2000]

The obvious problem I think is just budget. Dflash mentioned it, but didn't really give a solution except urging indie developers to spend more money on music. If you work with somebody in the highly integrated way that dflash is talking about then the composer might have to put in 4 times as much time as if you'd just handed him an asset list and said "go".

Plus, creating flexible context-driven music, usually means creating more music to handle all the different situations that come up in a game, so again the costs go up. DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold had about 90 minutes of music to it because I wanted to cover different moods in the game. If I had just planned one song for each level style, then I could have gotten by with 30 minutes. The upcoming DROD: The City Beneath also has another 90 minutes of music to it. I made a deal with a musician to make instrumental versions of some of his existing work. If I commissioned 90 minutes of new music from someone at his professional level, I could easily blow $10,000 on the music alone. Most indies can't afford anything close to that. I know I can't.

So here's the other problem, which is actually bigger than the budget problem. You hear dflash or somebody else occasionally saying, "Come on guys. Let's have great music in our games!" Fine, let's have great music in our games. The problem is that your customers won't agree on what constitutes great or even good music. The professional musician, Jon Sonnenberg, who made music for my latest game really blows me away with his stuff. I've been a fan of his work for over a decade, and it seems to me that even if you didn't enjoy the music that much, you'd have to agree it sounds very polished. Then I play the music for the development team, and one guy really, really dislikes it. You can't please all the people all the time.

We've had three different composers, including me, releasing music for DROD over the years, generating about 4 hours or so of it. Player opinions are all over the map about which is best. Some people love a certain composer's music enough to buy the soundtrack on CD, write a piano arrangement for it, or write pretend lyrics for the song. Let the value of X be any of the DROD composers, and somebody has said "I wish we could have more music like X. I don't really care for the other stuff so much." And then other people have no strong opinion and are fairly apathetic about the music. People tend not to say they hate any of the music, but I think people are polite.

So I gave up on the illusion that you can find a composer who makes the great music that most people will love. There is also an ugly truth that safer, blander music tends to work better in games than the music that makes some people love it. Probably the smartest music to put into games is highly polished, ambient stuff with a subdued melody. Riskless. Nobody will love it. Nobody will hate it.

What I think we could really use is a way for a composer to make interactive music in some common format. He would compose the music independant of any particular game, but games that knew the format would be ready to use his music. The games would make calls to some API that requested a certain mood, (i.e. tense, comforting, mysterioues) and the interactive music would transition in clever ways to provide what was asked for. Then the composer can spend months or years putting together some wonderful uncompromised vision and recoup the cost from sales to players of multiple games. He doesn't even need to sell through game companies. The players will stop whining about how they don't like the music in a certain game, because they can just plug in the music that they like to hear. The indie developers will stop whining about communication and budget concerns, because the economics would let the composer create game music independently.

-Erik

[dflash]

ErikH2000, just clear up a couple of things:

1) Regarding budget I suggested that costs should not have to rise. I was putting the onus on the audio guys here to try and offer more in the way of design and implementation without charging more for those things. I also suggested that there are effective ways of implementing less audio creatively to also help lower costs.

2) I don't believe I said, "Let's have great music in our games." I am fully aware of the subjective nature of music. First off, I am talking about audio as a whole, which includes sfx and voice overs. As for quality, I apologize if I did not make myself clear, but I am talking about creative implementation (possibly including interactivity), and improving the way the audio fits the game as whole. I am not talking about the quality of music composition.

[AnthemAudio]

Oh...we just want to make games. Except the only code "we" audio cats know is the one that gets you 30 lives in Contra.

But I learn more every project I take on. A function here, a scripting process there. Until one day...I will become sentient and fully autonomous in the year 2027, reigning chaos upon the face of the earth only to be toppled by a group of ragtag misfits who harness the power of love and understanding in a world gone awry with it's own ambitions.

Huh? Oh...fell asleep reading a design doc. Oh cool! Mouse support!

[ErikH2000]

1) Regarding budget I suggested that costs should not have to rise. I was putting the onus on the audio guys here to try and offer more in the way of design and implementation without charging more for those things. I also suggested that there are effective ways of implementing less audio creatively to also help lower costs.
Aw, jeez, I screwed up a little here. Dave, I agree that you didn't say anything about raising costs, and I was doing some "reading between the lines" that wasn't fair to you. However, I feel that both the developer and the composer can't avoid putting in extra time if they work in a more open-ended way like you describe. So if more time is put in then something has to give. The musician makes less money, the developer pays more, or a little of both.

I definitely found this to be the case with the last two musicians I worked with. You are correct to say that "trust" is one of the problems. There are good reasons to give any contractor a tightly specced asset list and not allow much deviation from it, but particularly with music, when the composer goes off and "explores" I've learned to be wary. One guy I worked with, very talented, would have long brainstorming conversations with me, sending lots of samples. We'd talk about specific goals for the music to achieve, and he'd come up with these cool ideas like leitmotifs and instrument palettes for certain areas of the game. It was very chaotic though. He would throw out music that I had okayed and start over again when he had a new idea. Because we never stuck to a tight spec, the music never got done. Sadly, he put in a huge amount of work and produced lots of wonderful music that wasn't used.

For the next musician we stuck to the asset list. I reiterated a dozen times or so how the asset list was our blueprint and I didn't want to stray from it. The musician was flexibile and ready to try out lots of different ideas to make me happy, but if he made something that was good quality and fit what I wanted, I marked it "done" and asked him to move on to the next thing. This second relationship went perfectly. The music was delivered to us cheaply and quickly. It is also interactive music that plays in response to different game moods, and even though the musician never had a chance to hear his music played through the game engine, our spec was detailed enough to get good results from the delivered tracks.

I think that if we had the money to put the musician fulltime for a few months on our game, then there would be time to have the musician really fine-tune the music to match game events and come up with a better experience. I also see value in having the music and sound effects designed to complement each other. There just isn't enough money in our budget to pay for this level of work though.


2) I don't believe I said, "Let's have great music in our games." I am fully aware of the subjective nature of music. First off, I am talking about audio as a whole, which includes sfx and voice overs. As for quality, I apologize if I did not make myself clear, but I am talking about creative implementation (possibly including interactivity), and improving the way the audio fits the game as whole. I am not talking about the quality of music composition.
Okay, again I apologize. I was paraphrasing and that oversimplified your viewpoint to be more like something I've heard in the past from other people. I should be more careful!

-Erik

[spoomusic]

One obvious aspect of the music dilemma is that indie developers don't have the money that it takes to buy good music. This has been established many times over. One way to solve this dilemma is for the musician to have pro-bono options and options that cost nothing up front (ie: accepting only a small royalty percentage of a game that may or may not make $1). As a musician, it is your choice to offer something like this, a gesture of good will and admiration to a good game developer. You might get exploited, you might not. Just go into it aware of the risks. That pretty much always solves the budget issue.

One problem that arises from this, however, is the psychological aspect of 'getting what you pay for,' in that people appreciate more the things that they spend larger sums of money on, as this is one reflection of the value of the thing itself. However, a free Claude Bolling concert will still leave you elated... Developers may think it's too good to be true, but that is their loss.

If a developer takes your offer and the game is a huge success and you did a good job, it's likely that you will be first in line for the next game, and your agreement can always change.

When I say 'you' I really mean 'one' ... not talking to anyone in particular.

Some developers care more about music than others. It's up to us to find the ones that care and understand how much it effects the game, and to help them build their reputation with good music. A musician is very different from the rest of the team in that they really are not needed. I play fun web games with no sound all the time. Sound would help, but it's not necessary.

Good sound, though, can make a game so much more emotionally engaging. When that sad song slowly fades in during that cut scene... whew!

<3 always.

PS: For any musicians that want to quit their day jobs immediately and support themselves off of making game music alone, you may as well delete your indie forum accounts and get serious about your demo to send to Blizzard or something. If you want to make it off an indie game company, you're going to have to be generous, and it's going to take time. It's your choice!

[AnthemAudio]

Agreed about not making it rich with indie and freeware projects. Good place to start though, eh?

Most indie projects I've been on usually agree to the licensing fee (for songs) so it's a win-win. Cheap cost for them, yet I still retain song ownership.

Tony

[spoomusic]

It's definitely a good place to start. Plus, you may not have the corporate personalities that may come with working at a AAA company, which I see as a good thing.

Working with indie developers presents an opportunity to grow with a company from the ground level. It may take generosity in the beginning and maybe even working with only the promise of royalties that may never actually arrive.

If a company takes advantage of you, you learn from it and take that knowledge to your next project. You might plot some sort of revenge tactics, as well...

CACKLE.

[gmcbay]

It never ceases to amaze me how vastly underrated good music can be for a game. Ever try playing Bubble Bobble without the music? I'm pretty sure it is impossible to do so without going mad!

When I look back at the the games I enjoyed throughout the 8/16 bit gaming days, the one factor that virtually every memorable game experience had was great (if simplistic, due to the technology of the time) music that I can still whistle to this day, even if I haven't played the game in years.

I still get all emotional when I hear the Zelda theme -- no in-game graphic has ever had that impact!

Ignore quality audio/music at your own peril, game developers (indie or otherwise)!

[Speckled Jim]

Audio does tend to be treated with a low priority. I've worked on many commercial games where it's been a last minute job dealing with the audio. Personally I do appreciate a game where the audio is done right, a good score, nicely handled surround sound, etc, but for many people it simply isn't a priority.