John Lemon Haunted Jaunt (Creating Dynamic Music)

During the holidays I challenged my understanding of Wwise by creating three adaptable, interactive audio systems and implementing them into a Unity Demo game. The systems were designed to create interactive music, interactive environments, and interactive player sounds with the goal of reacting to in-game enemies and using audio to inform the player about the state of the game.

What is the dynamic Music System?

The dynamic music system is an interactive music system that changes melodies, chord progressions, and motifs based on in-game syncs and scripted audio metering to create an interactive music experience. This allows for an immersive control of the music where the players' live interactive actions can be felt in real-time without causing distraction.

As a composer, I was intimidated by learning how to compose non-linear music. But in an interactive world, interactive music is needed to evolve with each scene to immerse the player into the world and communicate key information to the player. Is the NPC over there dangerous or friendly? With the help of interactive music reacting to game objects, we can tell the player the dangers or rewards passively with music.

How Does It Work?

The Interactive Music System breaks down into 3 functions. Room Instruments, Player instruments, and Enemy Instruments. Interactable game objects such as the player and enemies will each have their own instrument, triggering midi to play their instruments through wwise. Meanwhile, each room will be set to a specific chord progression for the game objects to follow. This will create a dynamic, interactive music system that is never the same. A minimum of 2 instruments should be heard at all times with the additional 3rd instrument depending on if John Lemon is near an enemy. Game objects will be given restrictions to play their instrument for one melody for one bar within a key along with some musical guidance. Game objects will also be restricted from playing their instrument too often and will rely on distance from the player to dictate Instrument volume and how often they play their instrument.

Why should you care?

As game creators, it's our job to communicate with players the details of our game, preferably without breaking immersion from the game. Music is key in immersing audiences. Whether it's a solo violin piece to emphasize the loss and isolation a character may feel or if it's an adventurous brass section marching towards triumph. We use music to communicate what the player should expect. What better way to communicate to the player, than allow for the music to change the message to communicate new information to the player in real-time.

If you don’t know, I’m a huge League of Legends fan. If I were allowed to, I’d change DJ Sona's in-game music changing based on her HP, AP levels, or overall Level. What I offer is a chance to make the game more fun for your players in a way they'd love or may not even notice!