The Sounds of... Elvira Björkman
Every month, we discuss the unique process of making music for video games. This month, Marie Dealessandri dives into the musical universe of Elvira Björkman, co-founder of composing duo Two Feathers, who’s behind the soundtracks of Angry Birds 2, Aragami, Hammerwatch, Apex Construct and more
What would you say are the typical challenges of writing for games as opposed to more linear narrative forms? Personally, I wouldn’t say the difference is that huge, but the established cultural heritage is different. Just like film music, game music has a history of how it sounds and we as gamers might expect certain things or are tired of hearing certain elements already. It’s important to have that knowledge and appreciation for the form to be able to present something refreshing. I believe it must be the same thing for film! It’s about knowing the medium very well to effectively write to it. Many would probably take the interactive part as the challenge, but I see it more as a tool rather than a challenge. In the end it just boils down to presenting something that can create some raw emotions together with the context of the game. How has the role of the composer evolved in games over the past years in your experience? One difference could be the technical knowledge that is expected from a composer. You can’t just compose and send a file anymore, but need to know your way around middleware, engines and I think also a bit of coding too. I can only speak from experience, but I also think we get more involved with the development as a whole. Since I have the technical knowledge working with engines such as Unity and Unreal on top of also knowing my fair share of C# scripting, I usually ask to be the one to implement the music too. That way I can plan ahead on how the music will act interactively and exactly
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02/05/2019 12:22