Developing a Soundtrack for Your Game?

[Rosstin2]

Fellow VN peeps, what is usually your strategy when developing a soundtrack for your game?

In my last couple games, the musicians for the game were also my programmers and writers. They were intimately familiar with Kitty Love and King's Ascent, so they were able to independently decide what tracks to write with very little direction.

For Queen At Arms, none of the core team this time is musicians. Serenity and I are faced with drafting a list of songs and delivering this to the musicians. Frankly, I feel a bit in-over-my-head. What sorts of tracks should a visual novel have? What is necessary?

I have Ash working on a soundtrack for Queen At Arms, but I think in-part due to a lack of direction on what to write (or too much direction-- we gave him a long prioritized list of 7 tracks with listed variations that made it look like 20+ that I think scared him) and a lack of a hard deadline, he hasn't come up with anything. I'm planning to meet up with him, give him a hard deadline, and a much much smaller more focused list of tracks.

It's still tricky for me, because I feel kind of out-of-my-depth giving a tracklist to a musician, as someone who doesn't have a lot of musical sense.

[Rozume]

In developing the soundtrack for my free VN, Flowers on the Dance Floor, I didn't give my musician much direction. All I did was give him an overview of the game, its themes, characters, etc and I emphasized that I wanted the music to reflect the characters. I also had a genre of music in mind (Club/House) that I wanted the tracks to be orientated to, too.

I'm not a music person either, so when giving my musician direction I tell him what kind of "mood" I want, what context the track will be playing in, etc. 9/10 times my direction is really vague otl but luckily he puts up with me and adds ideas of his own.

The music he makes is great, even better than I imagined, and it fits perfectly with my project even with its constant changes.

[MayPeX]

Music for a visual novel can be similar to music for film or media in general. Whatever fits and helps enforce the visual will work.

I've had a read through your Music Asset List, you should add reference tracks. Links to pieces of music that you feel would work for your novel if you could have them. By providing the composer with an audio example they could then understand a feel of how the music should sound and feel. What more is that it can spark inspiration. Maybe use the same key as the reference piece, but use the rhythm of another, then perhaps a similar harmonic structure as another. Borrow ideas off those pieces and turn it into something of you're own.

Queen at Arms is a medieval fantasy. So the music will be typically organic percussion, orchestral, choir like. Find some films, games, music that relates to your novel and draw out pieces you like and feel would work for your novel, show this to your composer. Maybe point out specific parts in a piece you like.

For example:

"I really like the way the percussion is done here at 1:43, perhaps we can have that with no strings and horns."

Or

"The way the strings flow from here sounds really nice from 0:43 to 1:05, but I want a single Viola to play something like this, intimate but not as complex and intense."

[SundownKid]

Well, one thing you can do is give the musician the game and tell him to make a list of the songs he wants to put in. But doing it yourself, I tend to go by certain themes (for example, a theme for "happy", "love", "sad" conversations, battles, etc.) There can be themes for frequented areas in the game and even individual characters if they are major enough.

[Rosstin2]

Thanks guys, this is very helpful so far!!

I'm a big fan of the Fate Stay Night anime soundtrack. I don't even like the anime very much, but I think the soundtrack is amazing.

What do you guys think of a sound like this for a Visual Novel like Queen At Arms, which is a fantasy? Do you think a sound like that fits?

[clannadman]

Just wanted to chime in with a question, since it didn't seem like I needed to make another soundtrack related thread.

What sort of agreement would you need to come to with your musicians regarding selling the soundtrack as merch? If they're contracted and paid for their work, do they hold any sort of copyright on the tracks? Should they get royalties? Is it something that needs to be in your original contract?

[Rosstin2]

Personally, I think that a portion of the profits to the soundtrack NEEDS to be paid to the musicians who created that music. Not through any kind of business rule, just because it would be pretty callous not to have them see the fruits of their labour. The people who made the game ALSO need to be paid, because the sound track wouldn't be as popular without the game behind it.

The exact split there needs to be negotiated between you and the musician, yeah.

I've never had a game popular enough to sell a soundtrack with... someday maybe.

[MayPeX]

Just wanted to chime in with a question, since it didn't seem like I needed to make another soundtrack related thread.

What sort of agreement would you need to come to with your musicians regarding selling the soundtrack as merch? If they're contracted and paid for their work, do they hold any sort of copyright on the tracks? Should they get royalties? Is it something that needs to be in your original contract?

There are several ways to go about this,

You can pay a flat fee per track accepted into the soundtrack.

Half now, half when finished.

Or you can come to an agreement on a ratio for the game sales.

When it comes down to copyrights it can get iffy. You could argue they gave up their copyrights when they gave you the track for the project. So the music now belongs to the project and not them anymore. However you can make an exception, but this in turn would fall down on your head should your musician decide they want to bail with all their music.

It would be safe to make an agreement to commit the music submitted to the project. You would be pulling your hair out if the composer left half way through and took along all their music with them, leaving you nothing.

Whatever you state on the contract would be what they abide by if they sign it. Should they get royalties? Yes.

[Sharm]

Unless you've worked it out beforehand you can pretty much assume that the musician has retained copyright and you've bought a license to use it in your game, and you don't have the right to resell. Resell rights are usually more expensive.

[Nakashima H Soft.]

Well, I use Free Music of Kevin Mc Leod and others....
Search here:
http://incompetech.com/music/
License info: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/
And....
http://freemusicarchive.org/
I hope can help and sorry about my english, I am from Mexico.

[Rosstin2]

I just download the latest albums by Daft Punk and Sleigh Bells and put the MP3s directly into my game. Who's going to know?

Kidding kidding!

[Rosstin2]

I'm considering hiring Andrew Morgan Smith to compose a soundtrack for Queen At Arms.

https://soundcloud.com/andrew-morgan-smith