Music Implementation

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 Yo! Here's a breakdown of the dynamic music system in my Bunker level (https://youtu.be/n5j7IM10qDE). The music is a very loose arrangement of Sepiks Prime's theme from Destiny, written by the team at Bungie. I'll be explaining the main theme only for this post.

What: So, after you stealthily kill the first enemy, the intro song that's looping upon level load is switched out for the main explore theme seen below in the full pdf. This main explore song is an exercise in manipulating horizontal orchestration with Wwise. The song structure is based on the chord progression: i - V - iv - i6/4-V7. No matter what, the player will always hear these chords in that order. However, I'm manipulating the harmonic rhythm. The players will hear these chords in that succession, but when will each passage begin?

Why: I imagined stealth gameplay. I want the player to feel a little uneasy when exploring...(when's the next enemy going to appear? Will I be discovered?). The player not knowing when the next chord change will happen, creates some tension for them. However, the chord succession being the same throughout gives the player something familiar to latch onto. The player is in control of the situation within the level, but still has tension that they could be discovered any moment!

How: There are specially composed transitions that have the potential to take place between every chord change (the violins have a little thing that eases us into the next chord). I kept a similar vibe to the chord sections by retaining the i chord (Cmin) tonality. Here's the spicy bit - the transitions also have some vertical orchestration: sub-switch tracks that play the Sepiks Prime theme occasionally with a rhythmic ostinato.  It's colored in the pic above.