I really need to hire a contract worker for a lot of video game music, but I have been postponing it because honestly— I don’t even know where to begin.
I have been to several different websites selling music, and their examples are nothing like what I imagine. In part, I don’t even know what I want. It is very hard to explain something you need when you have been so musically challenged your entire life.
I believe that music in a RPG is one of the most important features for some players. For me as a developer. The theme music of Ultima Online is something that is not only beautiful for me to hear, but brings back so much nostalgia it almost makes my heart sink. This is what I want for the player, several years after they stop playing the game and hear it on a youtube video they stumbled upon.
And for something that is so important, I just can’t bare to even ask, “What could you do for me?” to any contractors, especially when I am so incapable of music in my own life (by far my worst talent and skill flaw). Yet I do not know if it is appropriate (or respectful) to ask a company, “Could you take a look at [this] for me and see if you could come up with something similar, but entirely unique to you?”
I trust greatly in the artist’s own ability to come up with THEIR own work. My goals are always just a guide, or a spark to their beautifully skilled imaginations. Something I lack. By this I mean— if I like one piece of their work, I would certainly like all of it. Finding one person/company to do ALL the music for a robust game (and continue to do more in the future) is very important to me.
I love the old school feel of this, the instruments, the background music, the constant beat and tone of repetitive but beautiful notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X1gC3BLq2w&feature=related
But most of all it would need to be something that is repeatable for hours without becoming annoying. (Not hours all at once-- but something that doesn’t make players want to stab their ears out every time they log in to the game).
This is the big kicker though: It doesn’t even have to sound the same as that. Not at all. But it “does”. Not in the notes heard, but in the nostalgic 1990’s simplified music where companies probably just messed around to create something simple, and out came the title music. After all, games in the 90’s were different from modern day games.