The schedule for the 2017 Game Developers Conference is shaping up nicely — today, for example, organizers are proud to announce a cool talk taking place at the show about how Hangar 13’s Mafia III got its sublime soundtrack.
In their GDC 2017 session on “‘Raising a Ruckus: Bringing the Blues to ‘Mafia III'” composers Jesse Harlin and James Bonney will break down how Mafia III was scored.
Through an experimental and exploratory demo process, the game’s score pointed towards the creation of an interactive, all-original blues score. However, Harlin and Bonney suggest the blues introduces several challenges: its form and structure is very simple, its instrumentation is limited in color, and often its players, while accomplished, are not musically literate. This talk will address the challenges of working with a music tradition that is not typically used for scoring video games.
The talk will address creating concept demos for an alternative ensemble, overcoming scoring and orchestration issues, how to produce efficient recording sessions with alternative methods of communicating with players who improvise or don’t read music, how to respect the integrity of a music tradition while stretching its boundaries, and how to technically and creatively work improvisation into a dynamic scoring system.
So make time for it in your GDC 2017 schedule, and don’t miss your opportunity to save some money by registering early — the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 18, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th – March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas
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