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[tesselode]

I was randomly thinking of a game, and I had an idea. It depends on how well music subconsciously affects people.

Let's say you have a musical style for being in an underground facility, a musical style for an evil force causing some chaotic event to happen (like you falling into some weird trap), and a musical style for scenes where you're outside in nature. The underground and nature scenes would have gameplay that follows a trend that the game establishes with certain obstacles, while the chaotic theme would be for when you fall into some weird trap that breaks the normal rules of the gameplay and creates tension. Hopefully, the underground and nature music would be somewhat comforting (the nature scenes being more comforting), while the chaotic music would make people feel uneasy.

You could take this one step further by doing something like having one of the weird traps suddenly occur in a nature scene and then making the player feel paranoid for the rest of the game.

So, how well do you think music can subconsciously affect people? Do you think something like this would work? Are there other cool things you can do with music in a game?

[Sankar]

I believe that music affects people in a quite "conscious" way, like the Psycho Theme. A loud, screeching, very irritating noise.
Now, i'm not saying that there are "subconscious" elements to music, I believe they exist everywhere, and they work by associations that we made, the famous: "that smell reminds me of that person", if we do it in a conscious way, we do it subconscious too.

Now, for the music to play a big role in the game, the music need to be very good, and this is somewhat hard, cause it's hard to define what a really great song is. And since different people enjoy more different musical styles... you'll end up in a tight spot.


Now, from what I see, you want to use the music as a way to "guide" the player emotions, and to do that, you'll make connections. For example, before the first 3-4 traps (as you described) you would play the song, then, from that moment on, you would expect the player to "get anxious" when he/she heard the tune, cause a trap would be near.
This is one of the basics of Psychology (This can work even in some ""irrational"" animals), and I don't see why it wouldn't work very well in a game.

I believe you can stabilish any kind of relationship with music, I talked about Shadow of the Colossus in my Psychology series, and something interesting about the game is the colossus battle-song, Its not just a amped up, hi-energy song. There is a small part where he song has a very beautiful, peaceful melody. I don't think many people would feel "sorry" for the Colossi if the battle theme was a "kill 'em all!!" Metal Song.

Anyway, for the player to really care about the "Peaceful" song, you would need to be able to create a very beautiful song, that the player wishes to "get away" from all the creatures/traps that interrupt this song.

Techically, you would probably need to find a way to play more than one song file at the time, so you could shift between songs as you needed. Sometimes a fast change, like a "shock", and sometimes in a slow pace (like a eerie moment).
Portal does this well, the songs are rendered in separate Audio Files, and the AI director plays some and omits some, making "new songs" on the fly and changing seamless or abrupt as needed.

[Kegluneq]

It sounds like a good idea, as long as you're not blatantly obvious about it.
I hear that in Mass Effect, the theme of the big bad guy is the same as the game over music. Since the game over tune is only a part of the bad guy theme you don't really notice it, but it subconsciously builds this correlation that that particular tune represents something you really don't like. It's absolute genius.

[1982]

Music has become such a matter of taste, that you should consider getting the same effect with ambience sound effects or ambience "music". Music often distracts attention from the actual playing, either been too bad, too good, or clashes with taste matters. Ambience however can really work greatly in "subconscious" level. Remember the constant ticking noise from Eraserhead? Thats creepy.

Developers should work more with sound effects which lead player into dramatic event. Like for example if there is a mechanical trap in the corridor, player starts to hear the noise of that trap working, but can't know what it is or where it comes from. If this sound is also made a little bit "scary" it exaggerates the anxiousness. I'd prefer this way over musical piece. I probably don't recall correct, but I believe this approach was used in Cube movie.

[vinheim3]

Thinking about music subconsciously affecting people, if a person gets used to certain sounds being played in certain situations throughout a long game, imagine how it would feel in the 2nd half of the game where those sounds were used in the wrong situations.

For example, a person gets used to easy enemies, puzzles or platforming when there's a calm, peaceful background tune playing, but the person also gets used to difficult enemies, puzzles or platforming when sinister music plays.

In the second half of the game, the calm music is played in dangerous situations and the sinister music in easy situations. You're walking through a bright forest with calm music playing and fast, hard-hitting enemies swoop down out of nowhere. The player wouldn't be prepared because s/he was taking it easy. Or imagine coming across a dark, castle area with sinister music playing, the player would be all cautious, moving around slowly, etc, but the place is actually empty with few hazards here and there.

Sounds like a fun, unique way to toy with the player, but not annoying-fun, more like Eversion-fun.

[tesselode]

That reminds me of something that I was thinking of saying but left out of the first post. You can create quite an uneasy and strange effect when you play music that doesn't fit the mood of what's going on. For example, Phantom of the Opera has a part in the music which is a mixture of Carlotta croaking, the Phantom doing his evil laugh, and loud, happy music that's speeding up. It sounds quite demented.

So in a game, if you play happy and/or comforting music in a scene that should not be happy and comforting (like a place where there are a bunch of dead bodies or something really morbid like that), you can make the player feel like something or someone is seriously messed up.

[s0]

With game (or film, for that matter) music, the effect heavily depends on the context. I don't think using "happy" music in a "dark" context for instance, is always necessarily jarring. The

by Krzysztof Komeda sounds calm and innocent on its own, but becomes unsettling and creepy because of the movie it's used in and the way it's used in it.

Another important thing to consider is that the soundtrack music doesn't necessarily have to accurately reflect the image (i.e. "mood music"), it can also comment on it in interesting ways. Ennio Morricone's

(The Ecstasy of Gold), as used in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a good and well-known example. The feel of the music is almost hymnal, sacred even, when in fact it accompanies a scene of a bandit digging up graves in search of gold. This is a film soundtrack being used ironically and as a counterpoint to the image, without breaking the "fourth wall" or being jarring in any way.

Hope that helps! Sorry for not using any vidgame examples, I can't think of any offhand. Game soundtracks are unfortunately a bit behind movie soundtracks when it comes to this stuff.

[Kegluneq]

Hope that helps! Sorry for not using any vidgame examples, I can't think of any offhand. Game soundtracks are unfortunately a bit behind movie soundtracks when it comes to this stuff.

The

has an example of that (especially towards the end). It works partly because of the lyrics, and partly because Gears is just so badass, they seem to actually make it work for them. If anything, the slow, mellow song contrasts and emphasizes the intense action.

EDIT: