These days the development of RPGs – if you have a closer look at the technical side – focused on the graphics-part. Sure, music and sound effects are somehow important, too. But the main focus is definitely on the graphics side. That’s sad.
You know, the first real cRPGs had their focus not on the graphics. Graphics weren’t as good as these days of course. That wasn’t possible due to the hardware-limitations. People had to use the music, they had to use sound effects to create atmosphere. Nowadays you use some super hyper graphics, put in some epic music and think “well, that’s atmosphere!”. And in this case you couldn’t be more wrong.
Music is a very subliminal way to manipulate the mood of the player. Especially in videogames it can affect the mood in so many ways. And that’s why we not only have a look at the graphics but also on the music (and on the sound effects, as you already know). We’ve given and we will give a lot of attention to the creation of the music for Chaos Chronicles.
Currently we are working on the different combat themes. You’re eyes aren’t foolin’ you: To achieve a deep atmosphere here we decided to not only have one, but several themes. We had the feeling that the players feeling should differ if he (or she) is fighting against different types of opponents. So we made the decision to go for unique themes for each type of enemy.
An example: Skeletons are different from human knights. They do not only look different, they do not only fight different, no, they also have to sound different. And you need another atmosphere for both of them. Or think about goblins vs. a diabolic demon. Shouldn’t be the same theme, should it?
What does that mean? We’ll explain that. Every type of enemy will have it’s own rhythm, harmony or melody and even it’s own signature instruments as an addition to the original Chaos Chronicles instrument setup (which consists of a string sextet, some large o-Daiko Drums and several more instruments that have a very unique sound that perfectly fits to the dark and gloomy mood of our game).
We guess you want to see (or hear) some example, right? Alright. Let’s have a look at the undead. If you fight against these you will hear (besides the mentioned instruments) a scary sounding Indian dilruba and anklungs which sound a bit like rattling bones.
Now that you’ve read so many words you’ll also get something to listen. Three examples. Each one standing for a different type of enemy. But please keep in mind: We have reduced the quality of these MP3s for several reasons. The first one being the traffic on the blog (as visitor numbers are growing and growing). The second reason is the fact that you’ll be able to enjoy the final quality in the final game (and keep in mind that some music parts might change during the process as everything is still work in progress).
The human one is simply amazing. Maybe when the PC’s are fighting something out of their league ( like challenge rating +5 above their level ) it should be hinted by a very “doomy” music to hint the players they are way over their head.
Very cool! The Human and Demon themes are great. I like the idea of having different music for different kinds of enemies.
RPGguy’s idea is also very neat.
Also- I have a general question: how will encounters work in and out of “local” maps? I’m guessing there’ll be random encounters when venturing across the world map. but when you’re exploring ruins, will enemies respawn after leaving the area? Will they always be in the same placeformation each game?
Absolutely love it!
These are great pieces of music, I love the Undead track.
I hope you value outsider opinion:
Your music is uninteresting. Do a travel somewhere, pick up new experiences. Or hire another musician.
Probably will be better for this game.
Is there an extended version of the music in the latest video? The one a few posts down.
This is pure awesomeness.
The Human theme gives me the chills!
I’ve been listening to selected game-soundtracks for years now and if you keep it up, this is gonna be one of the few ones that will make it into my list
Don’t mind the “mercy” guy, his mother is uninteresting.
Deeply impressed with those sound tracks, do keep up the excellent work(demons combat theme was down rite brilliant
)
These tracks have a very good sound quality.The instruments sound very realistic and succeed in creating the right atmosphere for this kind of game, especially the combat themes, due to he inspired use of exotic percussion. I personally found the undead theme very frightening and I hope it won’t hurt my heroes’ morale in battle! However, I fear that the instrumentation for the human enemies theme is somehow weak, because your string sextet cannot possibly create the epic feeling and depth of a full orchestra plus chorus like the music you chose for your first trailer. I think that the orchestration used for the soundtrack of Dungeon Siege I is a good example of the suitable orchestration for the melodic parts of your score. If your decision about the orchestration is irreversible, my suggestion would be to avoid melodic themes for battles and experiment on more atmospheric combinations of different types of percussion.
Hey, I have a suggestion about the maps- I saw you discussing about it in the RPGCodex:
You said that “important” rooms would be get auto-markers once you find them.
IMO, having something like Ultima Underworld would be far better- where you can “write” on the map itself. Like, for example, you could put a little “N” (note) symbol somewhere, and store some text in it.
Just a suggestion.
Immersive music’s fine and all, just make sure to splice in the sound of a duck quacking at the end of every single spell. That was the only reason I bothered paying for Baldur’s Gate ee.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your site. best wishes