Music in Game Cutscenes
The music in cutscenes can empower the entire gaming experience and make it memorable. Music is a fantastic tool to help establish so many elements of any scene. It can tell us what to expect, what’s coming up and even how the characters feel, all because the right sounds where hard.
Volume balance is one thing that can be an issue with game cutscenes (or any medium really). When the music overrides the dialog, if you are a creator, it can be surprisingly easy to overlook this. As you spend hours on end with the material that when it comes to simply reviewing the content, you’re so used to listening to it and checking for other types of errors you overlook the balance in the volume of the music. The best way to prevent this is to have someone (preferably a person who is not too deep in the project) review it.
In video games, because they are so interactive, the mood is crucial. With music ranging from all tunes and types, the job of a music composer for video games is quite detailed. For some, they have to line the sound up with the overall tune of the game itself. This can be challenging, but so many composers make it happen none the less.
As Koji Kondo once said “The ultimate goal for me in making music, or at least one of the main goals for me, is to create memorable melodies. That goal is there regardless of the tools we have.” This attitude is a fantastic one to have because instead of giving into any potential limitations you are actually making them into strengths. No matter what you do, if you enjoy your work, you’ll go far in it. Whether it’s creating music or writing lyrics do each thing with all the strength you have, you’ll accomplish amazing things.