Ready Player One: Music levels up video game play

My level-35 catlike Khajiit crouches in the mountains of “Skyrim” and peers over a ridge that overlooks a camp of marauders. I have her pull an arrow from her quiver and notch it silently.

As I take aim, the orchestral music swells dramatically – one, two, three – the arrow leaves her bow and sails to its target, all the while accompanied by the beating of drums and the rise of the orchestra.

It’s a heady feeling to hear a soundtrack as you play a game. The musical accompaniment adds huge depth to the experience and helps make the game cinematic in scope and effect.

Without music, many favorite games just wouldn’t be the same.

A game’s score can turn a mediocre experience into an eye-popping, edge-of-your-seat thrill that turns you into the main character of an epic story.

I’ve touched on a few things that add scope to the video game in this column, but a good soundtrack is arguably one of the most important aspects of a game. Many times a game’s success is dependent on its soundtrack. An amazing game can hit all the benchmarks for a blockbuster, but without a comprehensive soundtrack it will lack heart.

With the influx of games that strive to match the production value of big-budget movies and television series, forming a uniquely comprehensive soundtrack is becoming the norm. With the average budget of video games generally on the rise, developers are investing in soundtracks that mimic a cinematic score and can be tailored to change with the character’s actions.

Video games offer a whole new way to think about composing music – it’s a far cry from the simplistic four-note soundtrack that many early games adopted.

Don’t get me wrong – where would we be without the brilliantly simple synthetic sound that accompanied Mario or Samus? Just last week I was sitting in class when someone’s phone went off – it was the “Super Mario Bros.” jingle, and it immediately brought me back to hours of childhood enjoyment. It was also stuck in my head for a good 48 hours.

The “beep beep boop” of the early soundtrack elicits so much love for the older video games that it is essentially synonymous with the industry, and video games that contain the synthetic beat of the early games are still being created. There’s a huge nostalgic following, and orchestras will even perform for game revelers the songs of their youth, harkening back to the catchy tunes of older games but presented in symphonic brilliance.

Back in January, the Daily Bruin did a profile on Cris Velasco, a UCLA alumnus and music composer who has created music for the massively popular “Mass Effect” and “God of War” series. Starting as a classical composer, Velasco soon realized he was more interested in composing music for video game soundtracks, and he’s been scoring games ever since.

Composing music for video games can almost be seen as the next frontier for musical artists. It allows musicians to put more time into the creative process because, instead of having only 140 minutes or so to showcase their music, they potentially have hours to play with various sounds, as a video game might take a player days to get through.

On the other hand, writing music for a video game can also be incredibly tiring. Not only does the music have to match a character’s movements and actions, but it also has to fit in without becoming repetitive. The fifth time you face a monster and the same music swells, it gets a little boring. So composers make little tweaks and create hours of different music, just for the eventuality that a player might notice the music getting a little stale.

Music inhabits almost every creative project, so it is no wonder that video games are taking advantage of the powerful effect that music has on the consumer. It’s also becoming more prevalent that you can purchase video game soundtracks to listen to even while not playing the game – you can find them on iTunes or other MP3 providers. Mario would be so proud.