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Composing for Medievil 2
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Introduction
Medievil 2 is the follow up game to the multi award-winning Medievil 1.
For Sony it was the opportunity to develop a successful franchise and
for the development team at Sony Cambridge it was an opportunity to implement
everything they didn't have the time to put into the first one - a win/win
scenario!
The Impact of Medievil 1
We learned much from our experience of writing the score for Medievil 1,
but now it was time to move forward both technically and artistically, whilst
maintaining a high level of consistency between Medievil 2 and its predecessor.
Sound Effects
Medievil 1 saw the development of a custom sound API.
As sound effects creators, we know the kind of functionality that is needed
to manipulate sound successfully so got involved with the production of
game engine tools early on.
music
Medievil 1 music was our first attempt at composing a fully orchestral
score using synthesised instrumentation. We had a very general system
setup (hardware, software and samples) and it wasn’t geared for
orchestral composition. Despite this we were happy with the way the score
turned out. It was a case of doing the best we could with the tools made
available to us.
The Birth of Medievil 2
During an all staff meeting (around the end of '98) the design of Medievil
2 was revealed to the studio for the first time. It was at this point
that we began communicating with the team about sound. Where sound is
concerned, design documents can be vague at the best of times. The brief
said "More of the same please", since the audio on its predecessor
had been so successful. This, we decided, wasn't enough. As with the design
of the game, we wanted to do more.
Preliminary Work - Planning
music
The score from Med 1 was extremely successful, but the orchestral sound
was created using synthesisers & samples for cost reasons, but also
restrictive musically. We wanted to achieve a more realistic sound, although
a live orchestra was still out of the question for financial reasons.
The only way to do this was through a more extensive use of samples and
a more authentic film approach to composition. This required some outlay
on new hardware and samples as well as some scoring and arranging training.
A NEW SETUP
Medievil 1 had been achieved using a combination of:
• 1 x Roland JV1080 synthesiser
• 1 x
Akai S3200 sampler using the Peter
Siedlaczek 'Orchestra', 'Advanced Orchestra' & 'Classical Choir'
sample CD-Roms.
• 1 x 'Symphonic Adventures' audio
CD containing riffs played by real orchestra's - basically stuff you
could never program convincingly.
• Emagic Logic Audio 3 & Digidesign Protools III
PCI for the Apple Mac.
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We bolstered this setup with the following upgrades:
• Miroslav Vitous 'Orchestra' sample CD's (5 in total covering
the entire orchestra) - £3500.
• Spectrasonics 'Symphony of Voices' sample CD's (5 covering most
of the classical vocal requirements necessary) - £600
• Best Service 'Scoring Tools' sample CD, another palette of orchestral
riffs which we would treat as a “bed” of sound to build on
top of - £200.
• Kurzweil K2500R synthesiser / sampler (128 MB ram as opposed to
the Akai's 32) WITH the orchestral card - not bought for the project but
still new and not heard on Medievil 1.
Once we had all of the new gear, it was necessary to create a virtual
orchestra in the studio. We chose to use all of the available outputs
on each device in order to help us when mixing the final compositions,
as well as giving us the freedom to pan the sampled instruments as they
would appear on a stage in a standard orchestra in order to help separation.
A NEW COMPOSITIONAL APPROACH
Through trial and error and our own musical intuition, we'd already learned
a substantial amount about orchestration, but we wanted to take it to
the next level. Fortunately Michael Price (a friend of Bob's) was the
musical assistant of Hollywood Film Composer Michael Kamen and offered
his services for free. He came to Cambridge to provide an insight into
writing for a real orchestra, teaching us invaluable lessons on structure,
arrangement, voicings
and instrumentation.
In essence he taught us to treat the samples as we would the real thing.
Instead of playing strings in a chordal pattern on a keyboard (like you
would play a piano), we began to write the parts out individually for
each of the separate sections of the orchestra - Violins I & II, Viola's,
Cello's & Double Basses.
Even with this new approach, samples can only sound so realistic. A single
sample can only provide a “snap shot” of what is sonically
achievable on an instrument.
For every new playing technique the violin has to offer, a new set of samples
would be required across the whole range of notes the violin can play.
A brass instrument, when blown harder, changes the whole tone of the sounding
note (giving the impression of becoming more “raspy”.
This is where the use of a virtual orchestra is fundamentally flawed. The
ear, even a non-musical ear, is very sharp at detecting subtle imperfections
in sound and is less easily tricked into acceptance of this than the eye.
To go some distance towards making up for this problem, we implemented some
simple MIDI controls onto our main instruments. This allowed us to manipulate
them in real-time in order to approximate some of the subtleties of live
playing discussed above.
Full production took around 13 months in total to complete, and it’s
succinctness was mainly due to a solid design early on that changed relatively
little once production began.
MORE INTERACTION?
We were keen to implement a more interactive score that referenced the
onscreen action much more than its predecessor. Medievil 1 by comparison
had “wallpaper” music (music that plays constantly in the
background.) Improvements to the API
meant that we were not only capable of streaming from the CD during game-play,
but we now had the ability to change playback tracks on the fly. The standard
format for compressed streamed music on Playstation 1 was XA
The XA format allowed for switching between 8 musical pieces over a very
short time frame. We experimented with writing a single 'generic' level
tune to encompass the feel of the level, and creating 7 other 'variations'
of this track, adding new elements to heighten tension and extracting
existing elements for more exploratory areas of the game.
In practise this is hard to achieve successfully. The first problem to
overcome is for the code to know where a musically suitable moment appears
for a switch to occur. This can only happen effectively if the code understands
musical structure through tracking the beat. Without beat tracking, audio
glitches began to appear in the music. Another problem with this system
is that it doesn’t work effectively on orchestral music because
of the nature of the sound. Orchestras usually perform in large halls
and most, if not all recordings of orchestras contain large reverbs.
It's relatively easy to write long flowing passages that merge beautifully
with each section, but the tail end of the reverb would trail off into
the next section and would often not work when switching to a sparser
version of the tune. This system would work far more successfully within
different musical genres - dance music for example where there is generally
less reverb on the recording.
SPLIT LEVEL LOADING
A lot of the game code would have required alteration in order to allow
for this and the way the game levels were divided up into zones also didn't
lend itself particularly well. We were able to utilise this technique
in the final level, subdividing the level into 4 musical tracks ranging
from very basic instrumentation (solo voice & organ) to upbeat, fully
orchestrated action cues.
Sound Effects
We decided that we wanted to overhaul the sound effects process in line
with the changes that were being made to our musical creation process.
The two main areas we concentrated on were upgrading our equipment and
libraries, and educating ourselves on more sophisticated techniques of
sound design. Most of our approach until this point had been based on
intuition and common sense.
PRELIMINARY WORK
Extensive work was undertaken by the audio programmer on Medievil 2 to
give us more functionality in the sound API
(taken from Medievil 1.) This gave us increased creative control over
sound effects playback in-game.
A NEW SOUND DESIGN APPROACH
Having received some tuition on the music side, we decided that the same
approach was necessary for sound design. We spent two days with Chris
Sweetman (an experienced film sound designer), learning the art of field
recording and we began building our own database of sounds effects. We
also complemented this tuition with a greater interest in material available
on the web. We downloaded articles created by the Sound Designers at Skywalker
sound.
A couple of little gems we picked up along the way.
• Sounds of wings flapping - shaking a leather glove
• Sounds of bubbling lava - a car radiator that's just been running
A NEW SOUND DESIGN SETUP
More equipment was required to improve on our existing system:
• Sony's top-of-the-range portable DAT recorder
• a Sony shotgun microphones
• an MS stereo Sony microphone
• Software: SFX Machine in BIAS Peak & Hyperprism
In addition, we bought a new selection of commercially available sound
effects libraries to complement what we already had. Prior to that, our
collection had been used on every project for the previous 4 years!
In summary, our new approach included location recording, sounds recorded
in the studio, a new and extended CD library, a broader range of skills
through experience gained from education, complemented by better implementation
through the updates made to the API giving us a whole new outlook on the
sound design process.
FMV & Cut-Scenes
There was much less FMV
content in Medievil 2 than its predecessor. This meant that we could focus
more of our attention on the scenes that we did have. Our approach remained
the same from a technical perspective, but we utilised our new skills
in both sound design and composition in order to preserve consistency
across the whole project.
music
Writing the music for FMV is one of the most enjoyable parts due mainly
to the fact that there are no hardware constraints of the platform to
limit the creative process. Due to the linear nature of FMV, you know
exactly when an event is going to happen and the music can be structured
to emphasise key moments. This is not possible with in-game music as it
is usually not possible to tell when a player will reach a key moment.
music for FMV in more detail
Cut-Scene One: The Zarok Showdown
The opening cut-scene was a retrospective look back to the original title
and the defeat of Zarok at the hands of Dan, culminating in his return
to the tomb and eternal rest.
This was a full on action sequence with music to suit the mood. The music
was original in the main although we did revisit the original theme associated
with the sad moment when Dan returns to his tomb.
Cut-Scene
Two: Palethorn’s Spell
This cut-scene introduced the game player to the setting of Medievil 2
(Victorian England) and set the scene for the progression of the story.
Lord Palethorn has found some of the pages of Zarok’s spell book
and has used them to cast a spell over the city for the obvious net gain
of World Domination.
The music needed to be quite different from that heard previously in
the last cut-scene. The mood at the beginning of the cut scene is very
upbeat so we chose to encapsulate that mood musically by writing a waltz.
This gives the feel that everything / everyone is gliding along on a wave
of blissful ignorance and helped to set up the dramatic change in mood
later in the scene.
Cut-Scene Three: The Final Farewell
There were two endings to this particular scene depending on how well
the player had progressed through the game. There was a bonus ending for
the most accomplished of players.
The music needed to emphasise the euphoric mood of world salvation. We
found the moment where Dan stood against the wall quite humorous, so we
added a musical reference on the clarinet to a “Fist Full of Dollars”
for the comedic Western visual reference, although the end result was
deliberately understated in the final mix.
SOUND EFFECTS
The sound effects for the FMV in Medievil 2 were a careful blend of comedy
and drama. It was important that the comedy sound effects did not dilute
the impact on the player during the game.
Sound Effects for FMV in more
detail
Cut-Scene
One: The Zarok Showdown
The opening cut-scene was a retrospective look back to the original title
and the defeat of Zarok at the hands of Dan, culminating in his return
to the tomb and eternal rest.
From a sound effect perspective, it was important that the scene was
consistent with the original so we went to great lengths to provide the
same sounds for each element in order to stay faithful to the original
and preserve the continuity.
Cut-Scene
Two: Palethorn’s Spell
This cut-scene introduced the game player to the setting of Medievil 2
(Victorian England) and set the scene for the progression of the story.
Lord Palethorn has found some of the pages of Zarok’s spell book
and has used them to cast a spell over the city for the obvious net gain
of World Domination.
The trickiest sounds in this scene to create were the dinosaur sounds.
They needed to have plenty of impact in order shock the player into realising
that they were alive! It also sets the precedent for the first level so
it was important that these sounds were right.
Cut-Scene Three: The Final Farewell
There were two endings to this particular scene depending on how well
the player had progressed through the game. There was a bonus ending for
the most accomplished of players.
The sound design was fairly simple, with the scene relying more heavily
on the music and its ability to convey the emotion of the scene more effectively.
Problems Encountered
Traditionally with game music, not enough thought is put into planning
out how the musical elements of a game should be tackled. You can’t
build a house before you’ve planned out the design and layout! Likewise,
an intelligent score can be more effectively put together if the main
themes are written first and their usage decided early on.
We have learned to develop an “audio map.” This would contain
general information about the game (number of levels and environments)
and where and how the music would fit into it. It should have information
about the main characters and which ones should have themes written for
them. It should even talk about how the instrumentation can be changed
to give a theme a different spin.
In film, the idea is taken one stage further with a “cue sheet.”
This is a document produced detailing exactly where each of the film’s
cues will be placed, where they will come in and drop out, instrumentation
etc. As games music becomes more event driven, a future extension of the
“audio map” might be to produce more detailed information
about a game’s music in much the same way.
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