Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538144
60 M PS E . O R G controlled by the player's actions. I believe Wilbert has spoken about this system in his various talks over the past year, so feel free to look those up! Preserving Musical Intent in an Expansive World What techniques did you use to preserve musical intent while allowing the gameplay to stretch or compress time, especially in longer narrative missions or emergent encounters? Simon: For exploration music, it was very much based on the feel of each location, so it was different depending on where you were. But we also didn't want to drown the experience in music, so we developed a "flavors" system where the music would play on certain occasions, but also sometimes leave space for the rest of the soundscape. For longer narrative missions, we focused on the big moments, such as boss fights, solving a puzzle, or epic vistas. The rest would then be handled by the same "flavors" system. If something unexpected happened, we could control the flow of music via a fallback system that would revert back to location, syndicate, intensity, and action—unless we said otherwise. Spatial Music and Diegetic Integration Were there special challenges in implementing diegetic music such as cantina bands, in-universe radios, or scripted musical moments that had to be edited to account for spatialization or proximity? Simon: The biggest challenge with implementing bands was ensuring that the sync with animation was kept intact. For things like radios and jukeboxes, it was more about making sure the sound propagated well in space. As you head toward the main area where the jukeboxes or bands are situated, the music would play in 3D, giving a sense of direction and activity. We'd also play with the low end to add liveliness as you approached them. Then, once inside the rooms housing the diegetic content, the music would with the type of music that Wilbert had written. So instead, we expanded on the themes approach, focusing on developing our syndicate themes into suites of music with layers for sneaking, low-intensity combat, mid-intensity combat, and high-intensity combat, as well as transitions to blend between them and stingers to play on top of certain actions. All of this was within the same tempo and key, making it feel like a very dynamic Star Wars score Dogfight Outside Wreck AKI Speeder