Hello all! I am Kai Saruwatari, one of the Composers for Fate of Factions. I helped to create the Main Title/Character Select/Coast Arena music.
One of the most exciting and influential aspects of a video game is the music. Whether it is an epic orchestral piece for gameplay combat, or a relaxing solo guitar piece for a loading screen, the background music enhances the visual experience of the game sonically.
One of the unique challenges of composing music for video games, as opposed to a film score like in Inception or a stand-alone instrumental piece such as Bach’s Concerto No. 5, is that the music must be loopable. For example, until the player presses “start” on the main title screen of a game, that “scene” of the game is technically endless, and so the music should not suddenly stop (though some composers will choose to let it fade out to signify that the player is taking too long!). In the same way, whether a combat sequence in a game lasts 10 seconds or 10 minutes, the music can not keep playing into the next scene just because the player finished the combat too quickly, nor can the music simply end because the player “took too long.” The gameplay is always first, and the music has a responsibility to support that.
Above is a very simplified version and the basic form of how looping should be conceptualized. The red rectangle is the audio file for the Main Title theme. This piece is about 70 seconds long and is loopable, meaning when it reaches the end of the red area, it will start playing again from the beginning without any awkward pauses or blanks. It will sound like the music “keeps on going” even though it is simply just repeating itself. In the blue, we have the Character Select music. This one is a bit shorter (about 30 seconds long) and also loops. However, when it does, it will not go back to the beginning of the red area, but rather just the beginning of the blue area.
To take this concept of looping a step further, there is an interactive music technique called “musical transitions.” This is a small, one to two second long musical phrase that seamlessly transitions the music from where the player started to where the player is going. In this case, the player is transitioning from the Main Title screen to the Character Select screen. The shorter purple area is the musical transition. (below)
As mentioned before, the music must reflect the player’s actions. If the player chooses to stay on the Main Title screen for 10 minutes, the music must loop for 10 minutes. On the other hand, because the player can press “start” at any given time, the music must transition to the next at any given time as well. In the above image, we can see a visualization of the player pressing “start” at around the 26 second mark in a 70 second piece of music, having the purple musical transition play, and then begin looping the Character Select music. This method of using musical transitions is “going the extra mile” in video game music composition, and you may not see it frequently in many games. Many composers will choose to simply fade in and out of music as it takes much less work to both compose and implement.
There are many, many other thought processes and techniques that go into video game composition, and the composers for Fate of Factions, myself included, have done their best in bringing in their best to the table to enhance the gameplay enjoyment. We hope you will be able to hear some of these interesting elements in the music as you play! Happy gaming!
Choose your class, fight until you’re last man standing, and raise your banner high. Your efforts will decide the Fate of Factions!
Kai Saruwatari