So I am familliar with music theory, chords, chord progressions, scales, intervals and figuring out the key of a song. But the thing is that I get angry with my songs if one of them don’t match my game or if it’s ugly.
I want music in my game. (I’m not releasing this game for the public to play though, i’m just a hobbyist.)
So should I make music or get music from games and stuff? Or add some old songs like bohemian rhapsody.
(I would rather write my own music than get music from online though.)
To answer the “how” : there are different softwares you can use depending on the use case. For instance, if you’re going for a very retro style, Bosca Ceoil is a very cool tool to use. I’ve composed a few tracks on it some years ago and it’s very enjoyable.
There are also more sophisticated softwares like FL Studio, Garage Band, etc. that are more flexible in terms of genres, but are more complex to use and usually come with a price, afaik.
And, I suppose there are lots of other softwares out there that I don’t know of but are cool alternatives too.
You could even use actual instruments if you have some recording equipment, why not. As long as there’s an audio track in the game at the end, that’s fine!
To answer the “should you make music” : nobody can answer that, it all depends on what you want. If you’d like to give it a try, then sure, go for it. If you believe it will take you too much time and effort, then don’t. Keep in mind that you can always use an already existing track and later on try to compose your own.
I personnally believe that making my own music is cool and it’s a nice addition to my games. I’m okay with using existing free to use music for jams or personal projects though, all depends on the time and motivation I have on each project.
Please note that, if you’re using music from games or like Bohemian Rhapsody, that there’s obviously a legal aspect in all of this, like you cannot just use Bohemian Rhapsody like this
I’m no expert on that topic, so I guess it’s fine for a purely personal use, but be careful with that still.
Most developers commission/hire dedicated composers to create their OSTs.
This is because the skill of musical arts is REALLY hard to master. Most devs don’t have the skill and/or don’t have the time for it.
I can’t learn how to make music because I have hearing problems. So commissioning a song for $50 - $150 a pop is what I’ll have to do.
Check out freelancers on Fiverr and see what you can afford/who’s the best fit. You can have multiple composers on a project if that fits your needs.
Last thing, I would NOT recommend using AI music for a serious project. The direction of the song is always random, unlike asking a composer for changes and communicating with them. Also, people WILL know that it’s AI, because one robotic slip obliterates player immersion.
This isn’t a rebuttal, I just wanted to add my thoughts to this as a non-musician.
To me, music/SFX is THE most imprecise art out there. Meaning, it’s impossible to imagine a song/sound unless it already exists.
Once it DOES exist and is in your head, then it’s quality is determined by intuition and feel rather than exact notes/sounds. And more often than not, different versions of the same song/sound aren’t strictly better or worse, but different.
So, if I song/sound is good enough, it most likely IS good enough. Making more unnecessary versions cost more money and/or time. This of course depending on the artist and/or developer. Meaning, it isn’t a hard and fast rule, but instead my own opinion on the matter.
Edit:
One more thing. If your game is released and players are used to a song/sound, changing it causes a bit of shock and discomfort for the player. Sometimes it’s necessary, but you’ve got to keep that in mind and decide accordingly.
Note that Bohemian Rhapsody is definitely still copyrighted. If you want to use old songs, then you have to look at something that’s more than 75 years old.
Also, don’t discount outsourcing your music. There is plenty of royalty-free music available on the internet, plus HumbleBundle regularly features music bundles for cheap.
Added:
Just noticed something important that I glanced over:
If it’s just for yourself and you don’t intend to make it publicly available, then all of the above is irrelevant. Do what you want! Find the songs that you think would go well with the game and put them in there shamelessly!
Just remember that if you ever do change your mind and want to release the game (even if for free), you’ll have to replace that music or license it.
I’m more a music producer than I am a dev, so it is natural for me. But, having been making music for over 20 years and still having so much to learn, I wouldn’t recommend game devs to do it by themselves just for the sake of finishing their game.
From my experience and for what other musicians often say to me, it takes about 10 years of practice until you start making decent music. So, unless it is something that you really love to do and want to learn and are willing to devote the time, I don’t recommend devs doing it by themselves just because it is needed to complete their game. It is preferable and easier to get some help from someone that is already into music.
Many devs might even have the temptation to use the new AI music generator tools out there, but I would not recommend that either. Music made by AI has terrible musical quality, even though it might sound okay to untrained ears; it will ruin the game for any trained ear that plays it, and makes the game look cheap.
My recommendation is to either produce the music yourself, if it’s something you love to do, or make a partnership with a music producer. But, if it is just a hobby, then you are more than free to experiment and learn along the way, as long as you enjoy it.
That was true about the quality. And you can definitely still pick out some AI music. I’ve been playing with Suno for a few months now, and the music quality has gotten way better. I had a music producer friend play around with it with me last week and we created some very specific genre songs using their latest v5 model. For example we made a Bossa Nova song with Chet Baker style vocals (it’s a pre-war commercial jingle for imitation seafood from the Fallout game series). It took a couple tries to get something where the beat was right, but the vocals were spot on every time. However without his ear to pick those things out, I would not have known.
So while I agree that a trained ear is going to pick things out, the average player is not a trained ear. I do think that that one should avoid AI music if they’re selling a game. But if you’re just playing around (which @DarkCat said they were) there’s no reason not to play with it.
There are a lot of ethical issues around using AI, but as a tool for content generation I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I also think that at least for a while, we are going to find that it’s not as good as the human touch. This is being borne out with AI coding, which is arguably where AI LLMs have advanced the most. And they suck at it. They’re great for creating quick prototypes, but they create a lot of bugs and security issues. There was a study recently showing that AI LLMs slowed experienced developers down by 20%.
I’m starting to believe that in the future we will find that there’s a difference between skilled and unskilled users when it comes to AI LLMs and things will settle out. For example, Suno just released a Studio feature, and reading reviews of it, audio producers think it’s really cool but too complex for the average user.
I just wanted to add something here, if you are going to do some electronic, 8-bit, or other music related to video games then you can use free plugins without a problem, but, if you are going to start making more heavy like rock and metal music, then you are going to have to spend money, free guitars are not good, there are some amps that are good being free, but the guitars itself are not good. You can buy a quality VST guitar or a real guitar, but that’s another topic. If you are not happy with what you are doing, then try to find some samples on sites like looperman, I make a song inspire by one of the ultrakill songs, and I use some samples from that website, and it was pretty nice in my opinion.
I agree if you’re gonna use AI suno is certainly the best. But it still creates fairly mundane music somewhat like most AI images look so polished twilight like and pretty obvious even now. But all AI is is predictive text on steriods at best. It cannot truly create. But there is lots of royalty free stuff out there too…. Just check the license if you did make the game public.
Perhaps. But I’ve seen what other make, and there is definitely different levels of quality. Also, version 5 which came out a week ago is leaps and bounds better than version 4 which was only released a few month ago.
People often want obvious.
Most people want the formula. That’s why Max Martin has written 27 number one singles on Billboard’s top 100 list over the past 30 years. It’s also why a lot of (most?) pop songs use the I-V-vi-IV chord progression.
Agreed. The problem being that it’s a lot easier to tell an AI model what you want and get something good enough than to search through royalty free sites that have AWFUL search features, looking for something you want.
Then there’s lyrics. If I want a song with lyrics that say exactly what I want, and I’m ok with the music quality - there is nowhere else I can get that in a few minutes. This is usually less of an issue with videogames, as we want background music. But if you want a theme song with lyrics, you can either pay someone to make it or have an LLM do it.
Again, I like to support artists when I can, and have a huge library of non-AI music I use all the time. But not everyone using Godot has that option.
I’ve used a website called AIVA. It’s an music generation AI, but it also has an editor. You can generate a few songs, using templates or uploaded songs as inspiration. And it’s completely usable free, with a limit of 3 song downloads per month.
I usually upload a song I like, generate 5 or 10 songs from it, take the one I like the best and edit it, and use that one.
Scott Buckley has tons of CC-BY songs in every theme imaginable. Check out his work. One of my game’s soundtrack is almost only his songs.
