The Game Music Handbook: A Practical Guide to Crafting an Unforgettable Musical Soundscape

Book Description

Do you want to learn everything you need to know to be a fantastic video game music composer? The Game Music Handbook is for you. This book takes readers on a journey through many of the greatest video game soundscapes to date, discussing key concepts and technical practices for how to create top-level game scores. It organizes game scoring techniques into an applicable methodology that gives readers a clear picture of how to design interactive elements, conceive and create a score, and implement it into the game. Readers will gain a solid understanding of the core techniques for composing video game music, the conceptual differences that separate it from other compositional fields, as well as many advanced techniques and topics essential to excellent game music scoring. These topics include using music to design emotional arc for nonlinear timelines, the relationship between music and sound design, music and immersion, discussion of the player’s interaction with audio, and more.

For beginning composers, this book makes the learning process as clear as possible. However, it also offers invaluable information for intermediate to advanced readers. It includes discussion of game state and its effect on player interaction, a composer-centric lesson on programming, as well as information on how to work with version control, visual programming languages, procedural audio, and more. It also offers indispensable knowledge about advanced reactive music concepts, scoring for emergent games, music for VR, and other important topics. Overall, this book explores the practical application of player and music interaction through the examination of various techniques employed in games throughout video game history to enhance immersion, emphasize emotion, and create compelling interactive experiences.

中文：

书名：游戏音乐手册：制作令人难忘的音乐音景的实用指南

你想学习成为一名出色的电子游戏音乐作曲家所需的一切吗？《游戏音乐手册》这是给你的。这本书带领读者通过许多最伟大的视频游戏音效的旅程，讨论如何创建顶级游戏分数的关键概念和技术实践。它将游戏评分技术组织成一种适用的方法，让读者清楚地了解如何设计互动元素，构思和创建分数，并将其实施到游戏中。读者将对创作视频游戏音乐的核心技术、将其与其他作曲领域区分开来的概念差异以及许多对出色的游戏音乐评分至关重要的高级技术和主题有一个坚实的理解。这些主题包括使用音乐来设计非线性时间线的情感弧线，音乐和声音设计之间的关系，音乐和沉浸，讨论播放器与音频的互动，等等。

对于初级作曲家来说，这本书尽可能地让学习过程变得清晰。然而，它也为中级到高级读者提供了宝贵的信息。它包括讨论游戏状态及其对玩家交互的影响，关于编程的以作曲家为中心的课程，以及关于如何使用版本控制、可视编程语言、过程音频等的信息。它还提供了关于先进的反应性音乐概念、紧急游戏的得分、VR音乐和其他重要主题的不可或缺的知识。总体而言，这本书探索了玩家和音乐互动的实际应用，通过检查在整个视频游戏历史中使用的各种技术，以增强沉浸感，强调情感，并创造引人注目的互动体验。