BY CHRISTOPHER LEON
Mobile gaming is a hot sector of the video games market, accounting for 45 per cent of all video games revenue in 2019. It continues to deliver an ever-increasing variety of gameplay in a compact and versatile form-factor.
Tasmanian music producer and video games composer Cody Webberley (Koh-Dee) has come straight from the world of electronic music production to composing for mobile platforms.
Having worked on several indie mobile games, such as Find the Flubber and Twin Color, Koh-Dee tells us about his latest project Cracked Crusaders, and what it takes to compose and produce mobile video games music.
Hi Koh-Dee. How did you become involved in Cracked Crusaders?
I first became involved with Cracked Crusaders around mid-March, 2019. I was on the lookout for an independent music industry project to serve as one of my final assessments for my university degree – a Bachelor of Music, majoring in music technology at the University of Tasmania.
I’ve always been passionate about writing music for video games, so I took my query and posted in the Tasmanian Game Makers Facebook group. Luke Webster (Webbysoft) — the creator behind Cracked Crusaders — was one of the developers to comment on my post, and we just started talking from there.
You’ve made music for other mobile games in the past. But how does working on a 2D platformer, such as Cracked Crusaders, differ?
The other mobile games I had created music for before were only consisting of the one song. Cracked Crusaders is a huge 2D platform adventure game in comparison, so we needed to incorporate a variety of moods through the use of different music to help complement the storytelling of the game.
This resulted in me creating 12 musical pieces for the project, two select themes for each world, some music for the beginning of the game, and the tutorial section.
What challenges did you encounter as a video game composer?
Some of the challenges I dealt with were things such as timing restraints — my assignment’s due date — and finding different sources of inspiration for each new track. But also, figuring out how I’m going to create music that will be catchy, not annoying to listen to, and work well for this specific medium.
So how did you overcome these challenges?
Timing restraints is a bit of a weird one, because at the same time, they can be just as beneficial to your productivity, as they can be daunting.
As long as I kept on listening to more music of a specific style that I wanted to replicate, I’d find an idea that worked for me – because there’s an unlimited source of inspiration out there, it’s just a matter of figuring out whose other ideas will lead you to it first.
I found that by having the demo version of the game on my phone, I was able to listen to my drafted ideas while playing the game in front of my speakers at home, so I could see what worked and what didn’t.
I’d also read a couple of different books to help me get a better understanding of how exactly everything worked in this new and exciting video game composer world. The books that helped me were A Composer’s Guide to Game Music by Winifred Phillips, and Game Sound by Karen Collins.
The choice of music for the game gives quite a unique aesthetic. What was the inspiration behind fuelling a medieval-esque 2D platformer with electronic music?
That was somewhat Luke’s idea, but I’m definitely not sad about it [laughs]. Luke had sent me five reference tracks, which were consisting of mainly SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) original game titles, such as Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Castlevania, and Super Metroid music. But he also sent me the Crypt of the NecroDancer OST, which if you don’t know, is super electronic dance music-based!
So what I ended up doing was combining the elements of the two different styles — EDM and old-school SNES soundtracks — and blended it into what you hear today for Cracked Crusaders.
Can you briefly walk us through the music creation process with Cracked Crusaders, such as from the brainstorming stage through to the implementation stage?
A lot of the brainstorming stage consisted of just improvising with different SNES sounding instruments, in a suitable key, with a melody that suited the on-screen picture in front of me.
Luke supplied me with multiple GIFs of each section of the worlds, so then I could have a clip playing on loop of this little character interacting with its surroundings that I was making the music to. If I needed some inspiration of what a desert area track might’ve sounded like, for instance, then I’d source out some examples on Google and YouTube by searching up ‘desert area game music’, and usually something relevant would pop up. I’d then analyse what sort of instruments they’re using, what kind of musical scale the piece is in, and the overall general vibe of the song.
This is how I feel like I was able to create instinctively familiar area music, because it was based on the sounds we’re all used to hearing in those types of situations. I just had to put my own spin on it and bam!, we got ourselves a tune!
For others looking to get into video game scoring, what should they be doing to become involved in this industry?
I’d say learn as much as you possibly can, and practice. Doesn’t matter how, just as long as you’re actively trying. Don’t think that anything you create is a waste of time, because it’s not — it’s all going to accumulate up to be valued time spent practising and productively thinking, which does benefit your career, even if it doesn’t feel like it will at the time.
I went to university thinking that it was going to be the answer for me in becoming a better music producer/composer. It wasn’t. It was everything that contributed to me engaging in activities to help further this practice [that made me a better artist].
For me, it was spending time creating different music to video games that already had music, re-creating the style of the song but in a different way — such as a new melody, drum pattern, harmony, and overall form.
As well as this, I also read books, searched for new opportunities online — such as pro-bono work at the beginning — studied at university, hung around like-minded people, and found relevant communities to share and learn from.
Listen to the Cracked Crusaders soundtrack on Koh-Dee’s website. Learn more about the game itself right here.
Images supplied.