Tim Larkin:
Composing Myst’s Musical World
For the physics-enabled objects in Uru — like a rock the player can kick around — Larkin did his own Foley work (the separate recording of custom sounds to accompany motion graphics). “It actually takes a lot to get a rolling rock to sound like a rock,” he says, “with the right sounds for its physical properties and the surfaces it touches.” Larkin enlisted his son and daughter as assistants. “We went down to the basement and they helped me roll rocks around while we recorded the sounds,” he says with a laugh. “It was quite a bit of fun — especially when they saw and heard it in the game.”
Music Without Arc
In composing for games, musicians like Larkin face the particular challenge of a non-linear story line. “Games are totally interactive experiences,” says Larkin. “You don’t guide a player through, since you can’t count on being at a certain place at a certain time. I can’t write cue music to get the player to do this, this and then this. One player might hear the cue and run the other way!”
Because he hasn’t worked on film scores, Larkin didn’t have to un-train himself from the linear narrative style that uses music to propel action in movies. But as a jazz composer and musician for many years, he did have to make some changes for game audio. “A jazz piece has an arc, with melody line, chorus and solo sections,” he explains. “For games I have to create music that has less arc.”
That doesn’t mean Larkin’s music disappears, and he readily admits that’s not his goal. “It’s a bit bucking convention to say this,” he says, “but in film and game music you always hear, ‘You know you’ve done your job if the listener doesn’t know you’re there.’ Well that’s not the way I see it. I don’t mind grabbing the player’s attention. If it’s all so transparent, why have music at all? I want the music to be part of the experience, so that every once in a while the player says, ‘What was that?’”
The effect, says Larkin, is subtle. “It’s not the huge hit of an orchestra down your throat,” he continues. “Some directors are afraid to pull the player out of the experience, but I think it adds to it, like the special effects in a movie.” Larkin feels fortunate to be able to add something new, as he’s done in the soundtrack for Uru. “We all want to spread our wings a bit,” he says. “When I’m writing music, I want to create something really interesting, that they’ll enjoy and want to listen to. If it shifts their attention, so be it.”
You Are You
Exploration, not action, is the hallmark of the Myst series. To Rand and Robin Miller, the brothers who invented the original Myst, the goal was to create something different. “They saw it as more of a brain puzzle,” says Larkin. “There are no guns and there’s nothing to kill. It’s not a twitch game or a shooter game based on dexterity, or even a level-based game. You just explore through the environments. The designers want you to feel compelled to continue exploring, and both the visuals and the sound draw you onward.”
The game’s title emphasizes the exploration theme. According to Larkin, Uru is the Sumerian word for “city” or “gathering”; it doubles as a rebus for “you are you.” Says Larkin, “The idea is that you are your own avatar in the game. You set up one that looks like you, and you do your own discovery.”
Game Audio Gaining
Today’s games have evolved far from their sound-challenged beginnings (recall the single-note beeps in Pacman). “Now, a good creative director for games will think about sound as part of the experience,” says Larkin. It wasn’t always so. “Sound was an afterthought,” he adds. “The games were about graphics, and they took most of the bandwidth. Whatever was left over, we’d get for audio.” Although the hierarchy still exists to some degree, today’s greater available bandwidth makes audio more likely to get its share.
Star involvement is also driving the increasing importance of audio to games. “Uru uses a song by Peter Gabriel and voiceover by David Ogden Stiers,” says Larkin. “Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have thought of having those people in a game score — or had the budget to do it.”
Money, of course, is a big factor. Slice the industry statistics one way and video games now bring in higher revenues than their big-brother films. And that has grabbed the attention of game producers, directors, designers, composers and musicians. “People now see this as a viable industry, not just a toy,” says Larkin, “and many of the composers who write for video games are now recognized for being just as talented as film composers.”
There are even prizes. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which puts on the Grammies, now gives an award for game scores — albeit in a composite category that includes video and computer games and multimedia. But the British Academy of Film and Television Arts offers a separate award for game audio, and Larkin hopes NARAS will eventually follow suit. “People are used to what TV and film can do,” says Larkin, “and game music is approaching par with that — it has to, in order to compete.”
