Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to my game development blog! I’m Ninichi and I’m a freelance game music composer. I create music for games, film and media and I work closely with independent game developers, small games studios, small film studios and more, to help them create custom soundtracks for their games and films! I also run this blog where I try to share some insights into the work that I do, what I’ve discovered from working in this industry and where I pull together resources that I believe will be useful for the game development community.
What I’ve noticed from my blog is that I’ve now created quite a few different articles to do with game music! So, I thought that it could be useful to have somewhere that highlights the best of them all in once place so that they’re easy to get to, read and so that we can all see an overview of what’s what so far!
1. Why it’s Useful to Think About Music Early On in Game Development
When development a game from scratch there are certainly many different elements to think about. Music is one component but it’s also a crucial component to get right since it sets the tone for the game, helps set the mood and helps to immerse people into the whole gaming experience. Thinking about what kind of music you want and how you want to use it to enhance your game early on in game development can really help. Find out why in this article.
2. 4 Ways to Source Music for Your Game
Once you’ve decided to start thinking about the music in your game, you will need to figure out where you want to source it from. One option is to do it yourself but you may not have the required skills to do this well in which case you will need to explore your options. Read this article to find out more!
3. 6 Different Ways to Harness Music in Games
Explore the many different ways to harness and make the most of music in games. Here I try to share some insights into how music is used to connect with players in a game and to enhance the overall gaming experience. Hopefully this will be useful for you as you begin to explore what kind of music you want and need for your game to make it shine!
4. Understanding how much an indie game composer costs
If you are thinking about whether or not to hire a composer for your game, this article will help you understand some of the steps and costs involved in this process. Budgeting for your game and game music are often things that you will need to think carefully about and so this article offers some insight into how composers often price and cost their work and what sorts of things you’ll need to take into consideration when hiring a game music composer to create custom music for your game.
5. 3 Basic but Important Game Music Rules!
Get some tips and insights into what kinds of things you’ll need to be thinking about in order to get the game music right for your indie game! They may be obvious points (or not if you’ve not considered these things before), but they are pretty important to be aware of. Bad game music is usually obvious and can really interfere with the gaming experience leading to people not wanting to play your game at all.
6. 5 Reasons to Hire a Composer for Your Game
Perhaps you’re in two minds about whether or not to hire someone to compose the music for your game. Find out why it could really be a game changer for you. There are some investments involved usually but at the same time, most games do dedicate a lot of time, care, effort and attention to their game music soundtracks and often this involves a dedicated game music composer who’s job it is to create that amazing soundtrack!
7. How Different Video Games Use Music
After being interviewed and asked by the BBC about how I go about writing music for games and what sorts of ways different games use music, I thought that I would write up some of the things I discussed and also have experienced. This article outlines a variety of ways that music is used in different types of games and are probably things worth thinking about and considering when putting together your game music soundtrack.
8. How to Choose the Right Music for Your Game
Now we’ve established just how important game music can be, you’ll probably be wondering how to select the right kind of music for your particular game and for each part of it. This is tricky to offer general advice around since each game is very different but in this article I try to offer some ideas to get you started hopefully on the right track.
9. 3 Mistake to Avoid When Creating Music for Your Game
It’s easy to make some mistakes when it comes to game music especially if it’s not your area of expertise. Hopefully if you were working with a good composer they will be able to help you avoid all of these automatically but if not, these are some things to be aware of.
10. 5 Top Tips for Hiring a Game Music Composer for the First Time
For those who haven’t hired a game music composer, this article is designed to help you! It’s not always easy to understand the process or to know what to expect from a composer if you haven’t worked with one before and so hopefully this article with give you an idea of how to approach the whole topic and how to find the right composer for you.
11. How to Communicate Effectively with a Composer
Communication is so important when it comes to working with anyone in game development or in any project. If you do decide to hire a composer (or any other freelancer), it’s incredibly important to know how best to communicate with them in order to get the best results. Here are some guidelines to help you get the most out of your relationship with your composer. It requires you to describe your vision, know what i tis that you want from them and to talk openly to them as you work together to build the music for your game.
I really hope that you find some of these articles useful. There are more that are scattered around the blog and so feel free to use the search bar to look for specific topics if you didn’t find what you wanted here or if you simply want to see what other articles there are on the site. Whichever stage you are at with your game development, I wish you the best of luck with it and encourage you deeply to spend a bit of time on the music side of things and not to leave it to the last minute! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog and do stay connected with me on Twitter and Instagram!
About the author: Ninichi is a freelance UK-based indie game music composer. She works with indie game developers and indie filmmakers to create soundtracks for video games, film & media. She can compose in a wide range of styles & loves getting involved in new projects. Find out more about her game music or royalty free music and contact her to discuss your project and music needs.
Follow her @ninichimusic
