Celebrating the power of games music

Behind every iconic game series is a diverse range of creative teams who work in harmony to shape its identity. The music department is just one of those teams who are crucial in elevating the storytelling and immersing players in its world, and working in that team can come in many forms, from composition to production.

The ability that music has to transport players and evoke emotion has led to an increased appreciation for the craft, as audiences attend live performances and soundtrack streams are in their millions. Here members of the music production team at Blizzard Entertainment share how this shift has impacted their creative process. They discuss how they choose which instruments to work with, where to find inspiration and the skills to develop…

Games music isn’t just about creating a soundtrack. Derek Duke, music director at Blizzard Entertainment describes his crew as “game designers”, saying: “we’re not just composers” and emphasising their mission is “to fulfil the vision of the game.”

Ted Reedy, lead composer on Diablo 4 adds it’s about starting by taking emotional cues from the narrative team. He says: “we put such an emphasis on the creation and development of themes… because we want to identify those throughlines that are prevalent throughout the story.” So, as well as receiving notes from narrative designers about the game’s “background and lore and history,” they’re especially looking out for emotive words that show “how we feel when we play it.”

While, Leo Kaliski, lead composer on World of Warcraft, says “the player experience” is at the heart of the work. Because Blizzard Entertainment specialise in open-world games, he explains “the player isn’t experiencing this in a linear way…that’s a big part of the planning. Any time we’re looking at music and looking at it in context, it’s not just does this feel good in a short snapshot, it’s how is this going to feel over a half hour, two hours, when they leave and come back? You don’t know exactly how much they’re going to hear it and when they’re going to hear it, so you have to be prepared for all those different variables.”

So, how long does it take to produce a game soundtrack? Reedy reveals work on Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred took a year, time that was important “to evolve the music.” A lot of creative choices are made during this process, and as Ready says: “we put a lot of thought into what instruments we’re using. That selection process takes a while.” He adds: “You may be surprised by how much electronics is in Diablo… If you just listen to those sounds on their own, it just sounds like electronic synth instruments but the way it’s integrated in to support the orchestra, support the strings or varied inside of the atmosphere is something you might not realise otherwise.”

The team at Blizzard Entertainment shared their advice for how to kickstart your career in games music:

• Duke’s top tip is to keep creating: “make demos. Don’t wait for the opportunity… Keep making things so you always have new stuff to show.”
• Kaliski emphasises the importance of getting inspired: “As a composer I think the most important thing you can do is just always be listening to new music… that will give you new inspiration and new influences that you might not even know.”
• Charlotte Pyle, principal producer of music, encourages budding producers to develop their “communication style, the soft skill piece of being a producer is really important… How you build the relationships with people is just so key to doing a production job.”
• And Reedy stresses being ready to collaborate: “be open to putting yourself out there and meeting as many people as you can, forming relationships that may last a long time and you never know what’s going to happen.”

Both the games industry and game players are increasingly interested in games soundtracks, with live concert orchestra performances of beloved soundtracks growing increasingly popular around the globe.

There’s a “real desire”, as Duke describes, to listen to game soundtracks during everyday life, and it has changed the way Blizzard Entertainment distribute their music. Pyle recalls how they “used to do a soundtrack per expansion, it was in the collector’s box as a CD, and that was that.” Whereas now they are publishing new music far more regularly. “Within this past year,” Pyle estimates, “I think eight separate releases we’ve done, and we now release on 35 platforms worldwide.” Each release receives millions of streams every month, “a massive change” that has evolved since Pyle joined Blizzard Entertainment 10 years ago. Duke said the shift in appreciation of games music is “fantastic; there’s a real appetite for it and we can see that in our streaming numbers. That’s huge.”

• These insights were shared at a celebration of 30 years of the BAFTA-nominated games series Diablo at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly.