Spore (released for PC and Mac in 2008) is an multi-genre, artificial life game by EA, in which the player creates an initially single-celled organism to be guided through 5 stages of evolution. While this genre may not attract all gamers, Spore's procedural music system is certainly something to be examined for anyone with a remote interest in game audio.
"...the music a player hears will develop and mutate along with their style of play." - Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone regarding Spore. [1]
This is the fundamental concept behind the game's musical system. Co-developed by Brian Eno, the system takes variables from user input and uses mathematical algorithms to create control data which subtly changes certain aspects of game-play, thus enriching the player's experience. The following clip is a demonstration of this principle in action. (2:55 onwards)
Creature Stage:
It can be seen in the clip that as the player changes the appearance of his creature in the editor the music responds appropriately. The initial, conspicuous sound effect is used as a reward for the player's action. Meanwhile, the musical structure (instrumentation and themes) is inconspicuously manipulated based on the new data. A similar example can be seen at the start of Stage 5 when building your first spaceship:
Space Stage
As previously mentioned, Spore spans 5 stages of evolution with each Stage incorporating entirely different game-play elements to the previous (hence the game's 'multi-genre' tag). The audio team (including Kent Jolly and Aaron McLeran) managed to effectively adapt different parameters in each Stage, giving each it's own identity and character. One major selling point for Spore is it's re-playability and the following clips demonstrate just how unique an experience each iteration of play can manufacture.
Tribal Stage: Primitive Creatures Hunting
Tribal Stage: Scurrying, Vicious Creatures Fighting
The clips show how the music reacts to intensity states (heightened by danger, proximity thereto, etc.) and the creature make-up to provide a reactive soundtrack to the game.
So exactly how is the music generated? I was interested to find the answer to this question. The following sped-up clip of a player creating a hi-tech car in the Civilisation Stage emphasises certain points of the playback process.
Civilisation Stage - Fast-Forwarded Car Creation (4:00 in)
As the car is built, you can hear the drum loop go around in the background. The delayed synths which constantly play are played back in random order with certain notes assigned to different player actions. The other synths have a low percentage chance of playing at a certain bar (adhering to the previously mentioned player action variables) which is why sometimes we hear them but mostly do not. This basis is the core function for all of the creation opportunities within Spore. A similar system is used to create the music in the Cell Stage, but the exact variables affecting the musical direction are unclear.
Cell Stage:
Procedural based music is regarded by many game audio enthusiasts to be the future of sound and music in interactive environments. A variety of academic papers written on the subject can be found here:- http://www.procedural-audio.com/papers.htm
General articles can be found at the following address*:- http://blog.lostchocolatelab.
References
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