Music for Gaming
In the process of transferring over my MP3's and other music files from an old desktop to a new one, I lost some of the info I'd inputted into the Itunes entries for the files, forcing me to go through them one by one. I've built up a library of music files categorized for game use, mostly instrumental scores from movies, TV shows, and video games broken down by genre (usually Soundtrack), grouping (usually Score), subroupings (definitions added on to grouping based on the geographic origin of the music), scene (what kind of action is going on), setting (what time period the music is good for), and mood (the kind of emotions the music tends to inspire). Right now, these are the fields I've built up:
SUBGROUPINGS: African, Asian, Caribbean, Celtic, Eastern European, French, German, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Native American, Oceanic, Russian, Soviet, Spanish
SCENE: Action (usually a combat scene, but can be any kind of intense effort), Atmosphere (not for any definite kind of scene), Investigation (mysterious background), Pathos (trying to evoke a particular kind of emotion), Suspense (tense and more immediate-sounding than Investigation)
SETTING: Alien (weird and definitely abnormal sounds), Any, Baroque (somewhere between Medieval and Modern), Fantasy (like Medieval but with a more mystical sound), Medieval (anything that evokes a period of the European Middle Ages or older), Modern (any time period from the early 20th century to today), Pulp (like Modern but evoking a distinctly adventurous and heroic attitude), Tribal (primitive and/or ritualistic sounding), Ultramodern (could be of today but also futuristic-sounding, probably techno), Western (evoking the feel of the American Old West)
MOOD: Any, Battle (background for large military conflict), Bittersweet (like Melancholy but not as hopeless), Creepy, Festive (evoking a celebratory scene), Horror (sounds inspired by absolute terror), March (like a military column or caravan, something that denotes movement), Melancholy (softer and less immediate than Horror but in the same vein), Mystical (otherworldly background but not necessarily frightening), Noir (evoking dark foreboding, usually uses horns), Ritual (steady beats, chanting), Sentimental (hopeful background), Tactical (like Battle but on a smaller scale, could be used for any kind of intense action), Triumph (uplifting, epic tones), Wonder (also epic but specifically of a wondrous nature)
So what I'm going to start doing is posting the data I built for each album, one at time, no more than one every day or so. Hopefully, this might be of some use to people who use music to set the scene for their games.
SUBGROUPINGS: African, Asian, Caribbean, Celtic, Eastern European, French, German, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Native American, Oceanic, Russian, Soviet, Spanish
SCENE: Action (usually a combat scene, but can be any kind of intense effort), Atmosphere (not for any definite kind of scene), Investigation (mysterious background), Pathos (trying to evoke a particular kind of emotion), Suspense (tense and more immediate-sounding than Investigation)
SETTING: Alien (weird and definitely abnormal sounds), Any, Baroque (somewhere between Medieval and Modern), Fantasy (like Medieval but with a more mystical sound), Medieval (anything that evokes a period of the European Middle Ages or older), Modern (any time period from the early 20th century to today), Pulp (like Modern but evoking a distinctly adventurous and heroic attitude), Tribal (primitive and/or ritualistic sounding), Ultramodern (could be of today but also futuristic-sounding, probably techno), Western (evoking the feel of the American Old West)
MOOD: Any, Battle (background for large military conflict), Bittersweet (like Melancholy but not as hopeless), Creepy, Festive (evoking a celebratory scene), Horror (sounds inspired by absolute terror), March (like a military column or caravan, something that denotes movement), Melancholy (softer and less immediate than Horror but in the same vein), Mystical (otherworldly background but not necessarily frightening), Noir (evoking dark foreboding, usually uses horns), Ritual (steady beats, chanting), Sentimental (hopeful background), Tactical (like Battle but on a smaller scale, could be used for any kind of intense action), Triumph (uplifting, epic tones), Wonder (also epic but specifically of a wondrous nature)
So what I'm going to start doing is posting the data I built for each album, one at time, no more than one every day or so. Hopefully, this might be of some use to people who use music to set the scene for their games.