Emotion is a complex beast, but composer Mike Raznick has made a video game song or two thousand in his time (you've probably played a game he wrote tunes for) and helps to figure out which musical elements have power over our feelings and why. You might learn something about composition, instrumentation, and most importantly, yourself.
Mike is on that Twitter thing and also has a website of his own, so click on Mike-related things!
How did you like this episode? If the answer is "lots" then consider following Train Station at 8 on Twitter and subscribing on iTunes, or maybe send an email to TrainStationAt8@gmail.com. Hearing from you would make our collective day!
The 8 Questions. Give us your answers, too, so we can talk and stuff!
1. What have you been listening to?
2. What are some of the most emotional soundtracks for you?
3. Are there any instruments that get to you in specific ways?
4. Which emotions are the trickiest to coax out of listeners/players?
5. Are the emotions in a game inherently different than another medium? Should they be?
6. Where is the line between conjuring up emotion and trying too hard?
7. Which emotional spectrum would you like to see games explore more often?
8. What have you been working on?
Stuff we talked about:
Music used in this episode:
- KK Podcasting (Train Station at 8 Theme) - Bryan Kelly
- Title / Main Menu - Sega/ Richard Jacques
- Ready Thy Shovel - Jake Kaufman
- Swag - Lindsey Stirling
- Freedom - David Housden
- Nerevar Rising - Jeremy Soule
- BioShock Main Theme - Gary Schyman
- To the Ancient Land - Koh Otani
- Demise of the Ritual - Koh Otani
- Revived Power - Koh Otani
- Winds and Memories - Junichi Nakatsuru
- Peace of the World - Dark Cloud 2