Post-Mortem: Adaptive Music in Game Jams

by YannZ – Composer | Game Jams | Narrative Audio

After working on several game jam projects this year, I’ve been reflecting on what really helped me get the most out of the experience—creatively and technically. One idea keeps coming back: adaptive music doesn’t have to be complex. It just needs to be intentional.

In jam conditions, where time is tight and resources are limited, the ability to do more with less becomes a skill worth sharpening.

Jams Are About Efficiency — But Also About Trying Stuff

There’s never enough time. Especially when you’re balancing a full-time job or life outside music. But instead of pulling back, I’ve used jams to push myself. To over-deliver in a way that’s manageable.

That doesn’t mean writing more music. It means writing smarter:

• One core theme can become three variations.

• One melody can carry five different moods.

• A short loop can still tell a story.

Narrative and Reusability Go Hand in Hand

With Lucid and Asami’s Journey, I lucked out: both games were built on atmosphere, pacing, and emotion. That gave me the space to do what I enjoy most—sculpt music that grows with the player’s experience.

What I’ve learned:

• You don’t need FMOD to make adaptive music work. It's a jam and there are other ways.

• All you need is structure, purpose, and a way to make your themes evolve.

In practice:

• Every loop I wrote shared tempo, key, and form.

• Each one could stand alone—or stack together.

• I reused stems and changed color with minimal changes: swap a flute for strings, pull back drums, add a low pad. 

• Some designated areas of the loop were created as "solo sections" were a lot of melodical variation will occur in that place in time on every loop version. 

That gave the devs flexibility: → They could choose the loop that best matched their scene → Or just let the music play linearly as a mini-OST

Lucid's full one-minute-times-ten OST

Modular Music Helps the Whole Team

In jam contexts, the dev team doesn’t always have the time or bandwidth to implement complex audio logic. That’s why I try to deliver musical building blocks:

• Intro tag

• Light loop

• Full loop

• Optional stinger or boss cue

All timed the same, all plug-and-play. If they want to use just one version, great. If they want to make it evolve across a level—also great.

Asami's Journey three-part OST

Final Thoughts

Every jam reminds me that composing game music isn’t just about making pretty loops. It’s about anticipating how the player moves, what the devs might need, and how the music can tell a story with just the right amount of pressure.

So yeah, sometimes it's three days, little sleep, and a DAW full of ideas that didn’t make the cut. But in between all that, I’m figuring out how to say more with less—and give the game something that sticks.

If you're a composer looking to improve your jam workflow, start small. Build a system. Think like a storyteller. And give your music the space to move.

— YannZ Composer | Session Musician | Game Audio Artist Spotify | Itch.io | Email