There are google docs exploring relationships between objects, which objects will conduct which others, how rhythm and harmony will be explored, etc.īelow is an early concept from the development of Mini Metro.
#Mini metro how to#
There were many nights I would be lying in bed, utterly consumed with ideas about how to make the music system most effectively support the gameplay. RV: Intense! We did quite a bit of prototyping, and even more thinking. I was inspired by the works of composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and things like the film Dots by Norman McLaren.įor emotional state, I couldn’t get the old Nintendo Wii menu music out of my head. I wanted to approach a sort unity between shape, motion and sound, and I think having the simple visual shapes helped me to realize that goal. RV: The sound of the game was inspired by minimalism a great deal.
Sometimes the harmonic structure of the music will change depending on which week of gameplay you are currently in.ĭS: What were some inspirations for both the design and the sound pallet you ended up using? Altering a line alters the rhythm by shifting it to the next available rhythm in a list of possible rhythms. Altering the subway line least recently altered replaces the oldest note in the harmonic structure with the next one in line. Each subway line has a rhythm and a note tied to it at any given time. Each level contains strings of notes that represent the harmonic structure and the voice leading of the music. Which of those are played at any given time is somewhat controlled by the player through their decisions around the size and shape of their subway system. RV: Each city/level has an inherent set of musical qualities access to certain rhythms, harmonic choices, and train engine sounds among other things. What’s the controlling source for these musical components? I find it to be a rather unique game, because of how it can be very meditative to play but also quite stressful when your system starts to overload.ĭS: Are all musical elements tied to the player’s actions? When we play, we hear melodic / rhythmic elements, tonal / chordal elements and percussive elements as well as different evolving rhythms and harmony. One of the unexpected side effects of approaching the audio this way is that I think the music helps to actually counterbalance some of the stress the game can dole out. I kind of wanted to tap into that feeling further. I think this desire came out of how the game made me feel when I played it. I also wanted the music to have a minimalistic, entrancing sort of quality. From the outset I think we knew that a good audio design could supplement the user feedback system and help the player engage on a higher level. RV: I tried to walk that fine line where the audio accomplishes both. There was an intent from the beginning to do something procedural, and after seeing the original prototype (which you can play on the Mini Metro website: ) I knew the game would be a worthy counterpart to and challenge for a procedural soundtrack.ĭS: Was the goal to create a soundtrack that worked as a core component of gameplay (providing the player with information) or more to be reflective of what’s going on? Rich Vreeland : Dino Polo Club (the developer) reached out to me based on the strength of some my earlier delves into procedural music, such as January. Pretty much everything you hear in the game consists of samples that are trigged in real-time as a result of player actions.ĭesigning Sound : Where did the original idea for the music system come from? Rich was the composer and designed the music system in Mini Metro. I sat down recently with Rich Vreeland (aka ‘Disasterpeace’) to discuss the project. As art of the Audio Programming theme this month, I thought it would be interesting to learn about the interactive/reactive score to Mini Metro, a game which was released late last year by developer Dinosaur Polo Club to broad critical acclaim.
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