Sound of Play: 15

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JaySevenZero
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Sound of Play: 15

Post by JaySevenZero »

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Welcome to our podcast all about our favourite videogame music – Sound of Play.

For many of us, it’s hard to think of almost any videogame without our minds conjuring up the music that accompanied it. Over the decades they’ve evolved from simplistic monaural beeps and bloops to full orchestral scores recorded in 7.1 surround, but from their earliest days right up to today, soundtracks have played an integral part of our memories of the games we played, and the times in our lives when we were playing them. What we aim to bring you with Sound of Play is a diverse sample of our favourites pieces from the many air-punching, spine-tingling, tear-jerking and grin-inducing videogame soundtracks we’ve heard over the years.

This show’s presenters were: Leon Cox, Jay Taylor and Paddy Smith (Twin Humanities).

Community contributors were: Ben Blaster and Sean S Thomas.

Track listing for this show is as follows:

Track 1: Snake Eater (Japanese Version) by Norihiko Hibino, featuring Akiko Wada - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, 2004
Track 2: Fable Theme by Danny Elfman and Russell Shaw - Fable, 2004
Track 3: Freedom by David Housen - Thomas Was Alone, 2012
Track 4: Greenvale (vocal) composed by Riyou Kinugasa, Takuya Kobayashi, and Hiromi Mizutani - Deadly Premonition, 2010
Track 5: Hit The Jackpot! by Tsuneo Imahori - Gungrave Overdose, 2004
Track 6: Mute City by Yumiko Kanki - Mario Kart 8, 2014
Track 7: God Hand by Masafumi Takada - God Hand, 2006
Track 8: Space Valley by Hirokazu Ando - Kirby’s Dream Course, 1994
Track 9: End Credits (Dared To Dream) by Jake Kaufman - Double Dragon Neon, 2012


Sound of Play: 15 was edited by Jay Taylor

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Flabyo
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Re: Sound of Play: 15

Post by Flabyo »

I can remember the first time we heard the Elfman composed theme. We used to have whole company meetings on a Friday where the various teams at the company would briefly talk about what was going on with their projects and then Peter and the other directors would do entire company stuff. One meeting we all sat in silence to listen to the Fable theme which had just arrived from the US. I remember not thinking too much of it, although it wasn't the best listening environment. Opinion was definitely pretty split. It came to grow on most of us in the end though.

The main motif was always pretty good, it appears in the second game as a sting sometimes. We did drop use of it in the later games, I suspect for financial reasons but it could equally just be Russell wanting to move away from it. The score for Fable: The Journey is probably the best of the five main Fable games, although the least known for obvious reasons.

As with any piece of music from a game you're actually working on, you end up hearing it dozens of times a day. Only the really outstanding tunes stay likeable to you. Title themes you don't get tired of, mainly because your debug build will almost certainly be skipping all the front end to go right to the areas you're working with. Music for a specific region though, that stuff can *really* grate. I love the pizzicato piece that was done for Bowerstone Market in Fable 2, for example, but as an area without any combat it's one I heard very rarely during development (I worked enemy AI rather than town life AI on that one...). The music for a combat area like Bower Lake though... drives me up the wall... heh.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Sound of Play: 15

Post by ratsoalbion »

Nice insider info, thanks Glen.

I think the Bowerstone Market piece is the one I've heard used as incidental music in various BBC programmes.
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