Hey everyone! I had a lot of fun with this jam and I was super impressed with everyone's submissions- they were all super fun to listen to!
When writing my submission, I was trying to think about what are the specific characteristics that make a good town theme? What separates this type of music from other area theme? I came up with my own ideas which I tried to incorporate, but I'm curious what opinions all of you have on this question!
I had really fun too! And I learned a lot from listening to you all.
Personal mode: I was born in 1981 and the games of my childhood are the Zelda of NES and SNES as well as Secret of Mana. So my imagination when I hear about "Town Music" is very much linked to the games of that era.
I was pleasantly surprised by the very varied genres that were proposed and that work very well to illustrate a city.
To answer your question "What makes a good town theme?", I would say two things:
1 - it should not be boring, if you have to stay talking with NPCs for 20 min, the loop should be long enough that you don't want to cut the sound
2 - that she is forgotten so that she colors the city without drawing attention to her
That's it, I don't have anything better :D
What about you?
I think those are two of the most important characteristics of a town theme. When I was planning for this jam, I was thinking about some of the most iconic town themes I could think of and what they had in common. The games that I think give the masterclass in town themes are the Pokemon games since there are at least 8 different towns with unique themes in every game. Some characteristics I thought of when reflecting on these themes were:
1. The overall sound matches the flavor of the town. Home towns sound sweet and welcoming. Coastal towns sound laid back. Spooky towns sound spooky. etc. Without seeing the artwork, you can reasonably imagine what the town will look like or what kind of lore it has just by listening to the first few seconds of the theme.
2. They have a distinct and memorable, but not an in-your-face melody that helps define the town like a fingerprint. When I hear the Pallet Town theme, I immediately think of that small 4 house town and running to see Professor Oak to pick my first pokemon. The town without the melody is more generic and more difficult to identify.
3. While there are some interesting chord progressions in some, there are often predictable chord progressions that are pleasant to listen to and don't stick out or try to be too experimental. And when they do use a unique progression, they stick to it closely so that with repetition it becomes comfortable. This goes with Selkione's second point, though I would revise it so that instead of "forgettable" I tend to think of it more that it blends into the background and can exist in the game without being the focal point.
4. To go with Selkione's first point, because you often spend a great deal of time in towns, they should be loopable without awkward pauses. They should loop seemlessly so you are never aware of how many times you've listened through the entire loop.
5. While I love themes with overarching dynamic builds or varying intensities, town themes seem to be best suited when the entire track keeps a single energy level throughout. This allows for that ability to disappear into the background and to be able to lose the spotlight while still being identifiable when you pay attention to it.
6. Because you don't want town themes to sound repetitive, there has to be some variation in form so that you at least have both an A and a B section. I've found that the "freshness" (or lack of becoming annoying) of the sound seems to be linearly proportional to the length of the section and almost exponentially proportional to the number of unique but connected sections. Because of this, I often opt for adding A, B, and C sections in my themes. And to support a previous point, because the theme must be memorable to be the fingerprint of the town, you can't make it too long in case the player is simply passing through the town. Short sections, but more sections makes sense to me to find that balance. I personally like the ABAC template which is widely used in videogame town themes.
7. The sound should mirror the amount of space the music is trying to portray. As many people commented on in this jam, cities have a different sound from towns. The sound of a city is bigger than a town, which is bigger than a village, which is bigger than a building, which is bigger than a room. This can be achieved through instruments selected, number of instruments, busy-ness or amount of space left in the music, or a number of other factors. Mixing can also play a big role in this characteristic, especially with the use of reverb in compositions using realistic instrumentation.
8. The last point I could think of in a quick brainstorm is that towns are places of congregation, where people gather and where you should want to be. There needs to be some level of interest created in the player by the music which makes them want to go to/stay/be in the town. This often means that town themes are pleasant to listen to and make you WANT to listen to them over and over again.
I don't think that these are hard and fast rules by any means, but these are at least patterns I've noticed and tried to emulate in the composing of my submission.
I would be really interested to hear what other ideas people have! It would be cool to have some "town theme theory" documented, especially if there will be more of these town theme jams so that people just starting out have something to reference for more easy accessibility if they want to participate but aren't sure where to start.
I totally agree with all these points.
The point 5 is really important. It would be disturbing to have stingers at some point in the music. And this constancy in dynamics could also apply to the tempo (not to the metric)
And you’re right, I use « forgettable » but « blend » is better.
Thank you for this detailed analysis, it is very inspiring (especially point 6 on the ABAC structure).
Adding to that, town themes should have quite a calm tempo, not exceeding 170 bpm in order to be mentally pleasant to listen to in loop.
Since, from a game design stand point, a Town is a break point between two events, a way for the player to rest mentally before playing the heart of what the game really is. The town music should follow this path and act as a breath of fresh air!
