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Music or ambient?
What is your preference on music in adventure games? Do your prefer full soundtrack (Grim Fandango, Gabriel Knight), only the ambient noise (Riven) or combination of both (Neverhood)? My opinion is that games with a full soundtrack is more fun to play, but ambient noise helps build the atmosphere better than the music I guess. What do you think?
Riven and myst series all have soundtrack actually i dont know any game without a soundtrack at all.Soundtrack completes mood when music starts at the right time,
some games on the other hand which loops soundtrack frequently nothing but breaks the
all over mood anyways.
“Going on means going far - Going far means returning”
I always used to turn music off as soon as i load up a new game & head into the options. But since the past year or so, i give the music a chance & listen to it on a first play along with the ambient. If it’s good i leave it on. Or if it interrupts the ambient sound too much, i turn the music off.
I usually turn down the main music to just below halfway. I like it on because it creates atmosphere and sets the tone of the environment or whatever is happening at any given time in a game, but it needs to be soft in the background or else it’s too intense/in my face and I can’t concentrate.
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I was going to say “full soundtrack all the way” but it really depends.
Just like with movies, a soundtrack is an integral part of the experience, and a good soundtrack can lift a game up a few notches in terms of atmosphere and even overall quality.
Just having ambient noise is often too silent. Not that it can’t be effective (in a spooky mansion, just hearing wood creak can send chills down your spine without requiring a poorly tuned violin to creep you out).
Basically, it depends on the atmosphere the current scene needs to emit.
When handled well, it can create unforgettable experiences (imo, The Dig still has the best soundtrack for any game I’ve ever played). When handled poorly, it can break immersion completely.
Personally, I very rarely turn off the music. It needs to really annoy me to get me to do that, or it needs to be totally inappropriate for the in-game moment (like during a sports game). In fact, when I’m playing games while the missus is watching TV, I always use headphones because I refuse to turn off the sound…
I agree with Roman5 that the music shouldn’t be too overbearing in volume, though. It shouldn’t drown out the voicework or any of the other sounds in the game.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
For me there is no distinction between, sound design, music and ambience.
All can work together or alone(if done really well).
KentuckyRouteZero plays with all three seperately really well and succeeded.
So good that even the VA aint needed. BS1 also comes to mind.
But music is really important element for me in any game. Music of Rubacava still ringing in my head as i type this 
, hence my love.
(imo, The Dig still has the best soundtrack for any game I’ve ever played).
Truer words have never been spoken.
Here’s a question: What was the first adventure game to use ambient music? Could it be done with PC speaker or MIDI (or in console terms “8-bit sound”) or did we have to wait for more advanced audio technology?
Great soundtrack definitely improves the game. But of course sound can be used wrong like anything else. Music has to be fitting for the atmosphere and not drowning all the other sounds (except if this is an intentional gimmick to emulate a panic attack or something).
Lack of music can be a gimmick too like Timovieman already mentioned. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has one episode totally without music, to enhance the reality and pain of a lost loved one. It is one of the best episodes in addition to the brilliant musical episode, so music can definitely be utilised in many ways.
So, I wouldn’t want to give up that ambient sounds either.
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I usually turn down the main music to just below halfway. I like it on because it creates atmosphere and sets the tone of the environment or whatever is happening at any given time in a game, but it needs to be soft in the background or else it’s too intense/in my face and I can’t concentrate.
Me too, I usually set the music below 50%, the sounds at about 65-75% and voice at 100%.
Good background music for me, is something I don’t notice at all, but something I would notice if it wasn’t there. (perhaps this is why I suck at the Adventure game sound… uh, game) I absolutely hate it when a game doesn’t allow me to adjust the music, sounds and voice individually.
I must confess that sometimes I also turns the music completely off, and then put on some music on my stereo instead, but this has more to do with multitasking and hearing music and playing games at the same time, then replacing the soundtrack with something else.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Good background music for me, is something I don’t notice at all, but something I would notice if it wasn’t there.
Agreed.
I usually turn down the main music to just below halfway. I like it on because it creates atmosphere and sets the tone of the environment or whatever is happening at any given time in a game, but it needs to be soft in the background or else it’s too intense/in my face and I can’t concentrate.
Me too, I usually set the music below 50%, the sounds at about 65-75% and voice at 100%.
I absolutely hate it when a game doesn’t allow me to adjust the music, sounds and voice individually.
I do like that concept, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever played a game that allowed me to adjust the various sound components individually. True to be told, I don’t recall adjusting the sound at all in any game I’ve played although I have occasionally adjusted the volume on my computer up or down while playing a game.
I must confess that sometimes I also turns the music completely off, and then put on some music on my stereo instead, but this has more to do with multitasking and hearing music and playing games at the same time, then replacing the soundtrack with something else.
That I’ve done frequently as well, once to my detriment: I was playing Myst but listening to a favorite mix CD instead of the ambient soundtrack and consequently missed the sound clues in the underground maze. I wound up having to map the entire maze, all the while wondering if I’d missed a clue or a map somewhere.
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I usually turn down the main music to just below halfway. I like it on because it creates atmosphere and sets the tone of the environment or whatever is happening at any given time in a game, but it needs to be soft in the background or else it’s too intense/in my face and I can’t concentrate.
Me too, I usually set the music below 50%, the sounds at about 65-75% and voice at 100%.
I do the opposite. Music 100%, voices maybe 80% and sound effects slightly lower, maybe 75%. I hate loud explosions and gunshots.
I always have subtitles enabled so it doesn’t matter if I miss something because the music is too loud. But if people are blabbing over my lovely music I get mad 
I always like music to be kept to a minimum. I think there’s nothing more powerful then a sequence that’s mostly atmos until a major turning point occurs and you can hear the strings come in and heighten the suspense or place an exclamation mark on a revelation.
Of course exceptions are allowed, I’ve been replaying The 7th Guest on iOS and the level of scary that soundtrack added to the game has kept it as creepy today to when I first played it around 20 years ago.
(imo, The Dig still has the best soundtrack for any game I’ve ever played).
Here’s a question: What was the first adventure game to use ambient music? Could it be done with PC speaker or MIDI (or in console terms “8-bit sound”) or did we have to wait for more advanced audio technology?
I guess it depends what you mean by “ambient music”. A quick web search and a glance at Wikipedia doesn’t help; this Wiki entry on game music has a clip from a game called “Battle for Wesnoth” which is labelled “ambient music”, but is in fact very far removed from the classic ambient sound that Brian Eno developed in the 70s. That clip just sounds like generic fantasy orchestral background music to me.
So I’m guessing that when we think of ambient music in adventure games, we’re thinking of the type of music found in, say, the hotel in Gabriel Knight 3?
Anyway, at a rough guess, I think it’s fair to say that adventure game sound engines weren’t really equipped to play ambient music (whatever your definition of it may be) until LucasArts developed the iMuse system for Monkey Island 2. I’m not saying it was exclusively used for ambient music by any means, though.
Anyway, at a rough guess, I think it’s fair to say that adventure game sound engines weren’t really equipped to play ambient music (whatever your definition of it may be) until LucasArts developed the iMuse system for Monkey Island 2. I’m not saying it was exclusively used for ambient music by any means, though.
That would’ve been my guess too.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
I guess it depends what you mean by “ambient music”. A quick web search and a glance at Wikipedia doesn’t help; this Wiki entry on game music has a clip from a game called “Battle for Wesnoth” which is labelled “ambient music”, but is in fact very far removed from the classic ambient sound that Brian Eno developed in the 70s. That clip just sounds like generic fantasy orchestral background music to me.
So I’m guessing that when we think of ambient music in adventure games, we’re thinking of the type of music found in, say, the hotel in Gabriel Knight 3?
Anyway, at a rough guess, I think it’s fair to say that adventure game sound engines weren’t really equipped to play ambient music (whatever your definition of it may be) until LucasArts developed the iMuse system for Monkey Island 2. I’m not saying it was exclusively used for ambient music by any means, though.
Since you mention the hotel in GK3, what about music like Monkey Island 1 in the forest? That was before iMuse, right? It’s not quite “music” and not just noises like wind and a few birds, either. Well, technically it is music, if you compare it to 20th century classical it’s probably extremely musical. It’s there to serve the atmosphere, more of a backdrop than anything. GK3 in the hotel was more orchestral/thematic if I remember, which in my mind is anti-ambient.
Since you mention the hotel in GK3, what about music like Monkey Island 1 in the forest? That was before iMuse, right? It’s not quite “music” and not just noises like wind and a few birds, either. Well, technically it is music, if you compare it to 20th century classical it’s probably extremely musical. It’s there to serve the atmosphere, more of a backdrop than anything. GK3 in the hotel was more orchestral/thematic if I remember, which in my mind is anti-ambient.
Well, here’s some of the GK3 hotel music: brief background touches of music that heighten the atmosphere of the scene, even possibly triggered or developed interactively by the player discovering a new object, or investigating a newly-discovered area within the current scene. And, crucially, not a linear piece of music, but almost randomised, recurring snatches of themes that suggest a mood, rather than telling you explicitly what the mood in the scene actually is.
By contrast, although I agree that the MI forest music is very atmospheric, it’s still one piece of music played from beginning to end and then looped, in a similar manner to any other example of adventure game background music.
That said, I’m not entirely sure the GK3 hotel music is a perfect example of ambient music either. I can’t, for example, recall whether it was “interactive” to any great extent. But I do feel it’s closer to what I believe ambient music to mean - which I think we can at least agree is pretty subjective
(And for what it’s worth, my favourite adventure game music is probably from GK1, which is far closer to the MI1 music model of a set of tracks played and looped in specific scenes.)
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