Better soundtrack to set up the thinking mood

ar2rsawseen

Hello all,
So in Jenots we have a little logic/thinking game, and we have huge internal discussions about which music is better for this kind of thinking game.
There are two main groups, one saying: something more relaxing is much better and allows to think better.
Others saying that we need something with more action, or players will get bored to death while playing. And action music will add more spice to it.

So what do you guys think, how do you like to play thinking games in action music or more relaxed music?

If anyones interested, here's the video of the game:

Don't mind the music in the video, it's just a filler.

And here is the first attempt on soundtrack, which was deemed too much "actiony"
http://jenots.com/magness.mp3

gmarinov

This can easily get complicated and has to do with the overall sound design of your game. Music is all about emotion and atmosphere. True, its internal rhythm can drive the pace of the experience, but you can delegate that role to the effects. See a game of Bejewelled, there's instant gratification in those visual and sound effects and you _want_ to go faster, not simply follow the clock.

So if you wish to leave what music does best to the music, then look at atmosphere and emotion. Here are a bunch of notes on alchemy, from Wikipedia:

"Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners' claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. " [...] "alchemy differs from modern science in the inclusion of Hermetic principles and practices related to mythology, magic, religion, and spirituality" ,

and this: "Alchemy is the art of liberating parts of the Cosmos from temporal existence and achieving perfection which, for metals is gold, and for man, longevity, then immortality and, finally, redemption. Material perfection was sought through the action of a preparation (Philosopher's Stone for metals; Elixir of Life for humans), while spiritual ennoblement resulted from some form of inner revelation or other enlightenment"

and this: "Despite the modern split, numerous sources stress an integration of esoteric and exoteric approaches to alchemy. Holmyard, when writing on exoteric aspects, states that they can not be properly appreciated if the esoteric is not always kept in mind"

in your actual gameplay, you're already dealing with the material aspect of alchemy (the preparation), and so you can leave the meditative/spiritual aspect to the music. Give two options to your composer. One is to really tone it down, strip it and go slow and drone-like, much like the youtube video (ask why you did "temp" that video with that music). The other, and more interesting in my view, is to listen to e.g. Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, and see what rhythmic aspects of that can translate, obviously with a change of sound palette to suit. You do want to preserve some of its urgency but take the edge off and travel east in a way, to a more philosophical destination.

loucsam

I'm in 2 minds about having any music at all in my puzzle game. Maybe music will distract thinking processes, rather than bring a better gaming experience.

If the first thing anyone is likely to do is turn the music off/down in the game (to concentrate) then it probably isn't worth having music in the first place.

Platypus

I prefer the music in the video. It sets a great mood.

ar2rsawseen

Ok, so I see that leverage is one the calm music side.
There was also an idea, to provide both action and relaxing music, that user could set in settings, but don't know if it would be an overkill