The Prophecy Network: How long did Dynamedion work on the music for Black Prophecy, and how many minutes of music was composed?
Dynamedion: We worked on the soundtrack over a period of about 10 months, including production steps like composing, orchestrating, recording the orchestra and post production. Altogether, we composed over one and a half hours of orchestral music for the game.
TPN: How does Dynamedion work with games developers when composing the music for a game like Black Prophecy? How do you realise the criteria warranted by a game?
Dynamedion: At first, we do a spotting session with the developers and try to find out together what kind of music the game needs. Mostly, the developers have a fundamental idea concerning the style of the music for their game and are able to tell us in a few words what they like. Regarding Black Prophecy, the developers wanted the music to be very epic and sweeping, with a big orchestral sound. So we composed the music for big sinfonic orchestra and big choir but still tried not to sound like Star Wars
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TPN: How much contact did the composer have to the Black Prophecy artwork, game engine and assets when composing tracks?
Dynamedion: From the very beginning we really gained deep insight into the game. Before we started composing the first track, we knew the entire story of the game and have seen many screenshots and some of the gameplay.
TPN: Has the team at Dynamedion produced music for any other space based settings, if yes what? if not what were your key influences (films, games, etc)?
Dynamedion: Yes, two years ago, we did the soundtrack for the game “Darkstar One“. But even though both games play in space based settings, the soundtracks are very different. For Darkstar One, the soundtrack was based on modern, synthetic sounds and percussion, while the BP soundtrack followed another concept. It is much more epic and orchestral, I think you can’t really compare both soundtracks.
TPN: More technically, on what scale was the music produced for the game, how many people were involved in the production of any one track from start to finish?
Dynamedion: Well, we had many people working on the music: 4 composers, 3 orchestrators, a 70-piece orchestra and a 20-piece choir, conductor, solo instrumentalists, recording engineer, scoring mixer. So we went to great expense to realize an optimal soundtrack for the game.
TPN: What are the difficulties in composing music which can be used for different situations, for example a score which specifically deals with combat, or a score which is used for a station, and still contains continuity between the tracks?
Dynamedion: One big challenge for composing a good game soundtrack is to master the complexity of the whole thing. The different tracks have to fit together and correspond with other, because in a game the situations are changed by the players choice – there is no composing along the line….you can’t plan what the player is doing next. So we followed a very strong concept concerning the coherence of the individual tracks and composed comprehensive Leitmotifs for the different races. In addition, we composed some transitions; short cues which have the function to lead from one track into another. We tried to create a very organic and coherent soundtrack with very smooth transitions.
TPN: How much control does Dynamedion and the individual composers have over the final tracks released within the game?
Dynamedion: At first, a good game soundtrack is always the result of good teamwork between composer and game developer. So, as I said above, the first step was to agree with the developers about the general style of the music. This was not so difficult because the developers had a very good understanding of what the game needed. When we composed the music, the developers could exert influence on the individual tracks by giving us feedback. This was very important for us because the developers of a game are usually more competent at judging the compatibility of a track for specific game situations than we are. As soon as a layout of a track was accepted by the developer, we took control over the next few steps; orchestrating, recording and mixing. In the end, we sent the final versions of the tracks to the developer who integrated them into the game.
TPN: Reakktor's other current project, Neocron 2, has some pretty epic and iconic music tracks within the game, do you feel the music you have produced will have a long lasting and powerful impact bringing shivers to the spines of Black Prophecy players?
Dynamedion: I think, Neocron2 was the first time we worked together with Reakktor, and we still like very much what we did for the game. For Black Prophecy, we tried really hard to do even better, and we feel confident that we achieved a really good and epic soundtrack for it. Actually, you can have a listen to some of our music – it is in the actual game trailer on Reakktor’s homepage.
TPN: In creating the music for the game, did you receive much input from Reakktor Media for the style and pace of the music, perhaps the Community Manager SnowCrash singing bangs and twangs down the phone or other pointers from the Team?
Dynamedion: Haha! No, unfortunately, we had to do most of the work by ourselves – but I will propose that mode of operation to Reakktor, perhaps we will do like this for the next project.
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Apart from that, we received some spotting music, music from movies that the developers liked, just to get some inspiration. And, as I said before, we talked a lot about the musical style that is most suitable for the game.
TPN: Tell us what you like to do in your spare time? Do you play MMO's or other games?
Dynamedion: Mostly, I play the games that we worked for, because there is a kind of natural interest if the soundtrack works well in the games. But apart from that, my favorites are traditional RPG games like “Baldurs Gate“.
TPN: Are any of the dynamedion team going to play Black Prophecy on release?
Dynamedion: I will definitely do so, because I’m really impressed by the graphics and I really like the music we did – so I’m really looking forward to playing that game!
TPN: To wet our appetites even more for the upcoming Black Prophecy beta, any chance of a little more music to feast our ears on?
Dynamedion: I am sorry, but I can’t decide these things – you have to ask the developers. Who knows? Perhaps they will be really friendly and put some tracks on the Black Prophecy Homepage.
18/04/2009, 13h43
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