Interactive Storytelling Summer 2022

Inspiration for background music

As I mentioned in another blog, I’d like to insert some background music into my own interactive storytelling. At first I don’t know what kind of music I should insert to achieve a specific effect, to make players immerse themselves into these stories and make this story more vivid. I was inspired by someone else, who told me I can use some songs to make story better. As a result of this, my first idea is to insert a song like “something just like this” by The Chainsmokers since the main character wants to be a superhero in this story, and add a song like “demons” by Imagine Dragons when the main character realize these superheroes are evil and hideous, so he will be hesitant about what he should do the next as like some demons in his mind when he needs to make decisions.

But now, I am a kind of changing my mind. I was inspired by some soundtrack I listened before. Because I think these music will distract players attention while playing these games, especially song lyrics will distract them and make them hard to immerse. In this case, I’d like to use pure music, like soundtrack made by Marvel studio. It would be a better way to make this story immersed according to my own experience of watching a movie.

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2 responses to “Inspiration for background music”

  1. danish Avatar
    danish

    I like the idea of adding music to a game, as it can add ambience and other things. Sometimes, it can even imbue players with emotes, in some cases, amplify them. However, I do have to agree with you! Sometimes lyrics can be distracting, or take away from a certain focus.

    Have you considered instrumental music? I know you touched up on using things such as pure music, but if you’re looking for a quick search into YouTube, instrumental music might be what you’re looking for! You can even use instrumentals from the songs you mentioned too (such that they don’t have the lyrics/ singing over them).

    Overall though, good luck!

  2. selena.tran1 Avatar
    selena.tran1

    I’m all for music in games! It adds another layer of immersion and also a way for your story to be memorable. In a lot of games, music is used to keep the player hooked since you wouldn’t want to be playing a game in silence. The memorable factor is also important for games as a lot of iconic games have very recognizable music. Like in the Mario games or Legend of Zelda, even if you’ve never played them before, you can most likely recognize the music and know where it’s from. I know your not making your own original soundtrack but just simply putting a melody over a story just gives it a higher chance that people will remember your story.

    I do agree that lyrical music can be distracting and that you should probably stick with using soundtracks and instrumentals. Lyrics of a song may take meaning out of your story and from the examples you gave above, it may come off a little cheesy (unless that was the vibe you were going for). Just like what Danish had said above, you can look through Youtube for a variety of soundtracks that you can use for your story. You could also go through a list of your favourite movies and see if they have any soundtracks/instrumentals that you could use.

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