Borderlands 2 - Developer Talks Video Game Music

Forbes has an interview with Gearbox Sound Designer and Composer Raison Varner talking about video game music.

For Borderlands 2, the sound team designed a system to “measure the intensity of the experience for the player.”

They used the data they gathered to ramp up the intensity of music during truly challenging moments in the game. Interestingly, this didn’t include all combat scenarios, just ones that were actually threatening to the player.

“We wanted to ensure that players only heard aggressive combat music when they were being challenged,” Varner says. “If the player is killing monsters but is not experiencing a challenge, then we wanted to hold the music back and reserve it for the moments that count the most so that we are maximizing the impact of those moments.”

As Varner points out, games are an interactive experience, and the music is a big part of that interaction.