Topic

Glitch needs Generative Music

So, the glitch music was fine, for a couple of hours... Now I feel that I can't stand another minute of it.
A lot of long games suffer this syndrome, not enough music. I think one game solves this beautifully, portal 2. When doing certain actions, the player turns on and off different layers of music, this creates a sort of generative, infinite aspect of its form.

I think something like this should be implemented into glitch. Perhaps a kind of markov (google markov chains) labyrinth of chords could be running on the server and be influenced by the actions of the players, and on a local level the location, it's inhabitants and the user interactions could influence the music.

Sounds trippy I know, but a lot of this stuff is really simple to realize. If you want to make really blurry, abstract and soothing music for a game like glitch, then it's very simple to mask the fact that the music is algorithmically generated. By masked I mean that, it doesn't turn into cacaphonic contemporary classical music unless you want it to.

Here are some examples of how algorithmic music can sound:
http://veqtor.bandcamp.com/track/mosaic
http://veqtor.bandcamp.com/track/snowflakes

I imagine how an instrument could transform, a plucked instrument could go from an eastern-ish metallic sound to a more harp-like tone when going from a desert to a more southern european climate etc.

I don't know how much the game taxes the target systems right now, but I believe that at least some sound processing could be done alongside the gfx etc. Most games process audio anyway and I've seen some pretty nifty stuff being done in flash, see http://burn-studios.audiotool.com/ for an example of very impressive audio processing in flash!

Note: The music I posted was made by me, if the devs are interested I would really like to help develop this idea, I'm studying for a bachelors in computer science w. interactive sound design as my major.

No offense but I think this game needs something like this, the world is very interesting visually and mechanically but the music and audio in general is something lacking and that really shows in comparison to the rest of the game.

Keep up the good work!

Posted 17 months ago by Veqtor Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I actually play games with the sound off. I like silence.

    But! I do like this idea. I had never heard of algorithmic music before, so thanks for sharing it.
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I too, would prefer less repetitive music, and something that comes out of our actions would be quite interesting.  Imagine a group of people trying to make a song out of jumping around!
    Posted 17 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Shoot, I might actually turn the sound on, Millie.
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Very interesting Veqtor!

    I actually have the music turned off in the game because I'm usually watching TCM at the same time.  The sound effects are fine... but the music is distracting.  I *loved* the first link you posted... and the idea that the music might be affected by our actions is intriguing!!

    Stoot?  Waddya think?
    Posted 17 months ago by Pirate Apples Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is a great opportunity for Glitch to be original in yet another way!

    I would like to know Danny Simmons' (Tiny Speck musician) take on this.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ximenez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm honestly impressed that you made it a couple of hours, Veqtor!  I think there's a total of 8 minutes of ambient music in there right now (4 two minute clips played randomly).   If we can get that kind of millage, we could be on the right track at least. ;)

    Admittedly, it was a bit premature to add it to the game.  I would have preferred to have had it yanked until we had more.  I could imagine that reaching for the volume slider is almost an inevitability with all the time people are putting in playing.

    We’ve talked about our desire to implement adaptive music in the game in other threads.  This is the dream!  Everything has taken longer than expected; and, unfortunately, the engineers that can make this happen have not had time to spare.  But! fortunately, thanks to their efforts, you are able to spend hours staying interested and having fun!

    On a personal note, we decided to move ahead with ambient music right when my second child was born a couple of months ago, and I’ve been slow to recover.  Other than that, there is no real excuse for not having more music in the game - we’re on it!  For now we’ll provide more music more or less under the current model, with geographical variances.  We’ll also be trying music out to see what works and what doesn’t.

    I like the idea of algorithmic music as it provides endless variety.  I personally lean towards the model of having layers added and subtracted based on game play.  Processing sound based on your surroundings (ie. reverb in a cave) would be fantastic too.  It’s expensive though, and it’s all we can do to keep the game running smoothly as it is!  

    The possibilities with audio in Flash are exciting.  We’re big fans of the audiotool folks and what they’re doing.  We are about to build something that will allow us to jam together, which will also give us the tools to do more interesting things with the ambient music.

    Thanks for sharing your tracks!

    Ximenez, you’re right!

    A big question is what elements of game play would affect the music? That would be a great thread!
    Posted 17 months ago by Danny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for your post, Danny. It's exciting to know you are working on these ideas.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ximenez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • On the other hand, the ambient music in Glitch is particularly nice and apt. More of the same would also be welcome!

    It's worth noting something a player wrote in Google+ a few hours ago: "Sunday night and I still have my Glitch game tab open so I can hear the game music cycling over and over." (I won't say their name because they didn't post it here.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Ximenez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Glitch should have music by Emily Howell.
    Posted 17 months ago by Tofu Casserole Subscriber! | Permalink
  • While I'm looking forward to more variety in the ambient music, I don't get bored or irritated by the music there is. That's saying a lot, because I play for long periods of time. I'd love to have access to music made by individual Glitches in very controlled ways (music boxes, personal homes, maybe parties). It can be unpleasant going to parties and hearing music you don't like... although, in Glitch, you can just mute it....
    Posted 17 months ago by sakmet Subscriber! | Permalink
  • love love love this idea, and looking forward to seeing what the tiny speckers have in store!
    Posted 17 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow Danny, that's some great news! Layers is great to work with, maybe certain thresholds of animal population could control what layers are being played? Like a lot of butterflies could increase the plausability of a fluttery airy sound playing. Also, a lot of processing could be done ahead of time, diffusion networks like reverb are very expensive, so is the convolution type, I think you're better of using seamless loops of pre-recorded "wet" signals to mix in to taste.

    The jamming concept sounds really great, what would be great is if it could also result in some kind of reward, the question is, how would the game judge the effort of the players without restraining their freedom of creativity?
    Posted 17 months ago by Veqtor Subscriber! | Permalink
  • like
    Posted 17 months ago by Gabriel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hey Veqtor.  I agree about the layers.  As far as the jamming, it would be more for open ended fun than involving any judging.  That would be left more for your playmates.  I also think imposing constraints is not only unavoidable, but desirable -- at least at first!  You could work up from a pentatonic scale to, say a 12 tone scale.  Who knows!
    Posted 15 months ago by Danny Subscriber! | Permalink