The biggest challenge facing game music is technology. The rapidly shifting landscape of software and middleware means that technical requirements are a central part of the creation process for composers. In this module, we will be training you in game audio middleware, as well as taking a look at other topics such as game engines.

Furthermore, in this module, we will be pushing you down the road of integration and exploring the possibilities of creating adaptive music assets in video games. We will be walking you through the technical and creative challenges with professional sound designers and composers. You will be introduced to using a game engine, navigating projects, implementing events, and creating adaptive music.

This module will give you a deep dive into the fundamentals of Audio Middleware technology, training you on specific programs.

Both professional and academic research gathers relevant information from a wide range of sources before analysing, evaluating, synthesising, and drawing reasonable conclusions on the basis of that information. The research will be evaluated on the basis of its originality, depth of insight, and the quality of the supporting argument.

Research can constitute:

• Professional research (i.e. further understanding gained from examining the professional output of other practitioners)
• Academic research (i.e. further understanding gained from theoretical/historical/analytical activities)

We expect students to:

• Analyse, synthesise, critically reflect, and build an argument
• Use academic writing, including referencing and a bibliography

Furthering your work in adaptive music, you’ll start tackling branching, and developing compositional skills to allow you to move from passage to passage, according to the needs of the game.

You will be using middleware to game engine integration to test your work in game to enable you to experiment with your music and how it’s constructed.

In this module, you will:

• Learn how to adapt your music as the game progresses and changes
• Understand the how to use and the benefits of Stingers.
• Delve into more advanced techniques that combine both horizontal and vertical systems together.

Here students will have the option of tailoring the course to their own needs. You can pick one module from the following:

• Unreal and Blueprint
• FMOD
• Sampled Orchestration
• Composition: Telling Stories
• Musical Sound Design
• Career Development for Musicians

For more information on these modules, click the button to download the Course Handbooks. Please note, the availability of MA elective modules may be subject to a minimum enrolment. The choice of electives is provisional and may be subject to change.

Composing music for media has come a long way since the golden age of film scoring. The orchestra remains a core tool within a composer’s toolkit, but the reality of contemporary media scoring is such that almost any sound is a potential addition to the sonic palette. “Hybrid scoring” is a term that is often used to describe blending the traditional orchestral score with a sound set that would not normally be part of the orchestra. It is this style of scoring that students will explore in this module, combining different genres and instrumentation, larger than life percussion, synthesis, musical sound design with the orchestra, which may well be processed in a hyper realistic way itself.

In order to achieve this creatively, students will gain an understanding of important technical techniques such as split recording sessions, recording soloists and advanced audio manipulation techniques.

This module provides students with not just a technical skill set, but also a way of thinking that encourages exploration, research, and the inevitable conclusion that almost anything is sonically possible when it comes to contemporary scoring.

This module will:

• Look into the fundamental differences between scoring for linear media such as films and TV, compared to scoring for adaptive media like video games.
• Learn how to compose for different gaming genres including contemporary action and dark fantasy.

In this Final Major Project, you should be highlighting all your best work. From composition to the technical implementation, we are looking to see how you can use what you have learned over your course into a single final project.

The final major project is a major piece of work that represents the culmination of creative, technical, and research skills acquired during the rest of the course. Students will be required to complete a full project from the provided list. This is a substantially longer piece of work than any other so far. It requires both solid technical skills and a much broader and deeper creative insight into the source material

You also have the option of completing a written dissertation if you prefer. The dissertation will represent your research into an area of music intended for or in relation to games. The dissertation is an extended piece of scholarly written work.

You will be asked to write an essay of 12,000 words (+/- 10%), including footnotes, but excluding bibliography. This is substantially longer than any of your other work so far. You will undertake the work as an individual, under the guidance of a supervisor, with whom you will meet regularly in one-to-one sessions.