Myself and a couple of friends are designing a game, and I have been handed the task of composing the music. I rarely compose my own music, and when I do, it doesn't sound right. Our game has sort of a dark theme to it, so I have to compose dark songs (I have to use FL Studio). If any of you have composed your own video game music, how do you do it?

keep it short and make sure it sounds ok as it loops back to the start. Silence itself can be darkness. Guessing you'll want about 20-50 tracks?

I designed and composed a music for a game of my friend and i also used the FL Studio ..... I think you are going on the right path .. Buh If you still facing some kinda problem do lemme know in detail and I hope i'll help you out ...

A general rule of thumb for dark melodies is to keep the theme simple, and have lots of sustained synths and rhodes. I personally like to insert some very quite and subtle changes that a listener generally doesn't pick up unless they listen for it; and then change the phrasing of that quite line when repeating a similar phrase. This gives a very slight sense of insecurity because the listener doesn't actively pick up the differences, but the differences are still recognized.

For example, I composed Spirit Cave (8472; written in FL Studio 8) with these thoughts in mind. You might not be able to hear it but there's six instruments in that song.

Melody: Organ and Piano
Counter-Meldey: Winds SFX passed through a Rhodes filter
Percussion: Tubular Bells, Bell Set
SFX: Record Noise

The organ, wind, and tubular bells are fairly obvious to pick out, but the other three are harder to find.

The Piano is fairly quiet and mostly follows the organ around. The bell set follows the tubular bells, but it is set a semitone off every three hits. The record noise changes pitch by 3 steps randomly every 12-18 seconds in a random direction.



The other thing that should be said is that dark colored music should be seductive; it's the best word I can think of to explain it. While typically people try to funnel anger into the song to say that it's dark (most rock music from today, actually), but that isn't the only trait. Things like forbidden desires, lust, envy, and genius should be thrown into the melody and planning of the song. That's how humans can relate to the music and feel the darkness from it. The goal of music is to paint a picture in a persons mind that allows them to relate it to a memory. To make a dark colored paint, you have to mix several other bright colors to get a rich darkness.

The best I can say which is not helpful I believe, is that you must try the best for the music to fit the scene/stage/level. Compose with the visual next to you. Find elements in these visuals that you think you can replicate musically. If there are not visuals, at least a description of the possible elements that will appear.

@HanTony

Yeah, I'm planning to keep it about 20 tracks. Maybe a little bit more, since I don't think I'll compose themes for every single boss we have.

@Henrik

Okay thanks. I might PM you soon, because I need some advice on something with FL Studio.

@M
Thats a very good track, and pretty much the kind of tracks I want to make. Thanks for the advice, I'll try my best to paint this picture :)

@Nyu001

That's a good idea, I haven't been doing that. I guess I've been thinking about the stages, but I haven't actually put the visuals into thought when making my songs.


Here are two songs I've already made for the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsBeXLcs-qk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWeZVpbufAE

The first song, the main theme, seriously needs to be worked on, but I tried to make it as scary but rock-ish as possible. It only uses two instruments, both being piano related.

The second song was only created using a pad, since I wanted it to have a peaceful and calm theme to it, as well as a dark theme.

The first one really needs a different Patch x_x.

Is this game going to be retro, or modern?

The first one sounds like a machine gun. Whenever you use a repeated notes variate its velocities moderately to avoid that static machine gun effect unless you aim for it. It sounds very plain without having any harmony, bass, counter-rhythm, reverberation, effects, etc. I would consider another Timbre in the first one also.

Have fun with the game~

Lol yeah, I know the first one bites. That was just a test theme I did using Appergiao (or however you spell it lol). Thanks for the feedback, I most certainly will compose a better theme.

A general rule of thumb for dark melodies is to keep the theme simple, and have lots of sustained synths and rhodes. I personally like to insert some very quite and subtle changes that a listener generally doesn't pick up unless they listen for it; and then change the phrasing of that quite line when repeating a similar phrase. This gives a very slight sense of insecurity because the listener doesn't actively pick up the differences, but the differences are still recognized.

For example, I composed Spirit Cave (8472; written in FL Studio 8) with these thoughts in mind. You might not be able to hear it but there's six instruments in that song.

Melody: Organ and Piano
Counter-Meldey: Winds SFX passed through a Rhodes filter
Percussion: Tubular Bells, Bell Set
SFX: Record Noise

The organ, wind, and tubular bells are fairly obvious to pick out, but the other three are harder to find.

The Piano is fairly quiet and mostly follows the organ around. The bell set follows the tubular bells, but it is set a semitone off every three hits. The record noise changes pitch by 3 steps randomly every 12-18 seconds in a random direction.



The other thing that should be said is that dark colored music should be seductive; it's the best word I can think of to explain it. While typically people try to funnel anger into the song to say that it's dark (most rock music from today, actually), but that isn't the only trait. Things like forbidden desires, lust, envy, and genius should be thrown into the melody and planning of the song. That's how humans can relate to the music and feel the darkness from it. The goal of music is to paint a picture in a persons mind that allows them to relate it to a memory. To make a dark colored paint, you have to mix several other bright colors to get a rich darkness.

Wow this is a really nice piece; I dig it a lot.