Interview: James Hannigan

James Hannigan is a BAFTA-celebrated composer of music for games. His credits include Republic, Evil Genius, Grand Prix 4, FIFA and many others. I quizzed him on the relationship between games and music.

On the activity of combining games with music...

“I think it's inevitable and fun because in playing some games you are partially shaping your own experience, which is unlike passively watching a film or TV.

But there are games which are manipulative and tell a story as you progress through them, and it's for those I think you need still need composers and more of a universal/pre-determined score.”

On which styles of music suits which games...

“If a game is attempting to be cinematic the language of film music tends to come into play as it is so widely recognised and understood.

There are parts of the games industry more self-contained and self-referential and I do think there is music still identifiable as 'games music' at first listen.

This used to be the case more often than now, as the sound of the underlying technology was part-and-parcel of the sound. Since digital audio levelled the playing field and brought about all this convergence, there's been a blurring of the lines between many forms of music and markets in general.

Games music means different things to different people now and I think the industry in general will continue to fragment.”

On whether the importance of music in games is underappreciated...

“Not entirely. Many games succeed with or without good music in business terms, so I think games may be less reliant on music than, say, films – at least in terms of how much music is thought of as part of games design.

In other words, people may still buy games and be satisfied by them when the music is bad or even absent in some cases. But this isn't to say music isn't becoming increasingly significant and integral to the experience.I think the function of music in games differs in that it may be less emotionally manipulative than film music a lot of the time, in order to immerse the player in a convincing reality. And it may also exist less for narrative support and more for atmosphere, as players are often in control of the 'story' themselves.

But it's hard to discuss music in blanket terms when games are so diverse in genre and purpose these days, spanning action/adventure, sports, simulations and so on.”