Today, I reopened the assignment I needed to do for my film scoring class for Humber. The task of the assignment was to compose interactive music for a Halloween themed video game called “Dino Jump”. I began by re-listening to my sound design that I created last week.

After being satisfied with the sound design components, I decided to plan the game states for the game. I arrived at 3 different game states: the menu / selection state, the desert level, and the Halloween level.

To compose interactive music, I needed to include an element of multi-track intensity layering. This basically means having multiple instruments on top of each other for each level. For each level, I decided to have between 10-15 instruments.

The idea was to open up Logic and have music playing at all times from start to finish. To do this, I decided to start with a singular 4-8 bar motif, which I then orchestrated for different instruments. Each instrument had different functions, including either melody, harmony, rhythm, sustained pad, or counter melody.

I started by composing the menu choice state. I wanted to aim for a Halloween action theme, so I thought using pizzicato strings and glockenspiel would achieve this. I then added some sustained cello lines as well as violas. I wrote a melody for the French horn and tuba, but later ended up scrapping this. I think it’s important to stress that in the composition stage, no idea is a bad one!

Once I added these instruments, I finished by adding various other percussion. I added a sixteenth note rhythmic motif for marimba, snare drum and timpani. This served as a call and response to the pizzicato cello line I added earlier.

As highlighted earlier, my finished result had music playing from start to finish, with all layers playing at the same time.

Next, I decided to write the music for the desert level. I was inspired to listen to some desert music from the super Mario games. I noticed they had some prominent instruments featured including tabla, sitar, darbuka, shakers, and finger cymbals. I decided to find a core rhythmic pattern first in the darbuka, which I built off of for other percussion instruments. Each instrument had rhythmic parts interwoven, and once these instruments settled, I wrote a melodic pattern to be played overtop.

I finished there for today, but was excited to compose the music for the last level tomorrow!