Interview with Jack Wall
For what media do you compose besides games?
I also compose for film, television, planetarium shows, location-based entertainment (LBE), and wireless entertainment.
What are the differences in your strategies and processes between all the different kinds of music you compose, for example, for TV shows, games, and other media?
There's alot of commonalities really. You're basically trying to conjure up a tone, a feeling - no matter what medium you compose for. However, you also have certain constraints that you have to plan for that may be slightly different with each medium. For example, in a game, you can't ever forget that the music must be programmed in to work correctly. In film, that's not a concern - you write and produce the music and it's pretty much married to the linear track of the movie.
How do you go about composing for games? What are the steps involved from beginning to end?
1. I read the design document and get briefed on the content of the game, the tone of the game and what the designer's or producer's vision is for the tone of the game. I talk alot about tone, because asking someone about what kind of music they're looking for is a little like dancing about architecture. It's just not a good way to communicate most times. There are times when that's unavoidable, but generally, if I get a strong sense of what the producer wants to feel, I'm pretty far along in nailing it.
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2. Next if the producer hasn't done this, I'll map out or "spot" the music for the game. That's simply starting out the process saying "I think music should go here, here and here and it should be this tone, that tone and the other tone."
3. Once we agree on this, we'll make a shedule for delivery.
4. Then I'll write the music.
Of course, it's always good before starting to write, if I can get as many assets of the game as possible - artwork, cinematics, storyboards, scripts, etc. I like to immerse myself in that since I feel that I'm about to contribute greatly to the telling of the story. It is good to know the story before you begin to tell it.
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