Simon Amarasingham says, "While there are some examples of interactive music currently being used in games, it is not yet widespread. There is a growing buzz about it though and ultimately it will be the way all music in games is written." During his tutorial, Amarasingham will explain that making game music interactive will heighten the reality of the gaming experience because gamers will have their own unique soundtrack to accompany them, based on their actions during game-play. "Interactive soundtracks will play a greater role in tomorrow's games. Instead of simply accompanying the game action, they will routinely give the player important clues and feedback, making the music an integral part of the game-play," he explains.
To give composers a real world example, Amarasingham will give a demonstration of the interactive music prototype he created for Unreal Tournament 2004. This prototype became available to owners of Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Xfi PC sound cards last year.
Amarasingham continues, "It's really exciting to be a composer working in the game industry right now because we have the opportunity to make huge advances in game audio. Huge advances have already been made in game graphics, so now it's our turn."
The 123rd AES convention is being held at The Jarvis Center in New York from October 5 - October 8, 2007. Simon Amarasingham's session, Adaptive Music For Games: Introduction to Nonlinear Music, will take place on Saturday, October 6th from 3:00pm - 5:00pm.
Simon Amarasingham is a classically trained pianist and is dSonic's co-founder and principal composer. He has composed music for major game titles such as Mage Knight: Apocalypse, Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide and Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance.
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