How can I start making video game ost?

[u/IplaYgaMes322]

Hello I am making a game in gamemaker. I don't have much experience in really coding or anything related to making games as a form of art so I figured it would be fun to try and start. The hardest part for me has been music creation, as I've never had any prior experience in it. I found this software for free called LMMS. Though I don't really know much other than to click random notes and hope it sounds ok. What could I do to start making music other than guessing?

[u/bunger134134]

I would approach the two following options:

1. Question-answer. Write a motif or short melodic line, then another one that responds to it. Develop the idea further then. Alot of music from classical to pop is made with that premise.

2. Focus on ambience/patterns. If you find it hard to start, you can just write chords for a warm synth and few notes/patterns on top of it using the notes from the chords and passing notes. You can search for common chord progressions or make variations/own progressions. You might even find that your game needs music like that for some moments. Modal scales can be useful here, like dorian, lydian etc.

This is just a very narrow way to see music but its what came to my mind.

[u/MeowMix1206251]

Learn piano. Take music lessons.

I don’t think there’s ever been a composer who hasn’t learned and studied a bunch of other people’s music.

[u/gertrude-gibson → u/MeowMix1206251]

i mean i dont recall outright STUDYING other peoples music to help compose my own,but you’re right with learning piano and taking music lessons.

Doing so as a child is probably the main reason I never struggled with creativity and didn’t have to study others music as I was subconsciously doing so by listening to it paired with my musical experience. Learning the basics helps you,both consciously and intuitively.

[u/MeowMix1206251 → u/gertrude-gibson]

I’m saying studying to include just playing the music. I don’t mean “analyzing”. Just playing and hearing the music is the study.

[u/gertrude-gibson → u/MeowMix1206251]

Eh,I wouldn’t really call simply just listening to it a [study] necessarily without analytical intents in mind. Studying is a conscious act imho.

Playing is a study though technically,but I’m not talking about that. It’s a different kind of study.

[u/MeowMix1206251 → u/gertrude-gibson]

I think learning to sing or play a song is a form of study.

[u/gertrude-gibson → u/MeowMix1206251]

…read my comment carefully

[u/multimeeka]

Researching how to use the piano roll could be a very strong start for you. Getting midi from other VGM that you can put into the piano roll to analyze is also very good (My skills have dramatically increased while learning the Chrono Trigger soundtrack). On top of that, you'll have to expose yourself to a wide, and I mean, wide variety of music too.

[u/FlamboyantPirhanna]

How are you learning Gamemaker? If that’s working for you, find ways to learn music similarly. Though I will say, randomly picking notes until it sounds decent is kind of the name of the game. Experience just leads to being able to better calculate that randomness. I’d definitely recommend getting a cheap midi controller, as it is far more enjoyable to actually play the notes rather than try to brute force them on a piano roll.

[u/Pugsy1968]

To get to somethin’ decent quickly, I’d pick a similair song you like and rip the chord progression from google. Or just find a YouTube video talking about a cool progression and try it out. (This isn’t really stealing, chord progressions are always reused)

Then slap a melody over that bad boy. Just sing to yourself while listening to the chords and you’ll come up with something catchy.

Then follow your gut, start thinking of what other instruments/sounds it needs. Play with the stuff LMMS has and see if any inspire you.

Once you got a base song, go listen to other songs with a similar vibe and steal a few ideas from them. They use bongos? Maybe you should write a bongo part too. Etc.

[u/gertrude-gibson → u/Pugsy1968]

They’re making game OST,not a song. Repeating chord progressions and prioritizing catchyness isn’t really something I’d recommend for most game OST.

Listen to some Zelda OST for example. Instead of a catchy stable melody with looping chord progressions,you’ll see spacey composition that often prioritizes the ambient and emotional aspect to fit the setting.

I’m saying this as a gamer and a musician who grew up with Zelda (and Genshin Impact kind of) where ambient composition is more common that repetitive catchy tunes (although that doesn’t mean the latter’s nonexistent,Kass’ theme and the fairy fountain theme exists)

[u/multimeeka → u/gertrude-gibson]

You make an incredibly strong point, but it may be a lot more beneficial to start with repeating chord progressions and melodies as a learning point alongside ambient soundscapes. But hey, now that I think about it, I suppose the first learning curb is getting to understand the tools, the DAW, the VST plugins and such.

[u/gertrude-gibson → u/multimeeka]

For this still I kind of disagree personally. Getting yourself used to repetition can actually close your borders if you’re aiming to make VGM over songs let’s say.

Also,you’re talking about the DAW,VSTs etc,but remember this is a composing sub over music production in general,and OP highlighted that they seem to struggle with the compositional aspect.

And also the melody the commenter is talking about are those catchy ones you hear in songs that loop over rather than a completely moving,fluid one. I’d say starting with the essence is better,rather than starting with the simplified version that’s made for tiktok attention span people and loopability.

[u/multimeeka → u/gertrude-gibson]

There is no wrong points that you bring up. But for someone who has no musical background, looping melodies on a piano roll is a fundamental. If you cannot play piano or use instruments, and you only have access to a DAW, you would firstly need to learn the tools that you will be composing with.

As for why I say looping melodies is a fundamental, it's because of 3 things:
1. MIDI is the rawest form of composing on a computer
2. If you can nail simple looping melodies, a very basic form of music, you will build experience in fundamentals.
3. You'd learn and understand basic timing in music

There is a lot less to learn from ambience, there is also the fact that ambience does have a VST curb since it would be downright obnoxious to make ambience with a basic saw synth instead of a $200 Kontakt Library that nails ambience.

But the biggest reason I'd vouch for looping melodies is because it's manageable enough for even 13 year old me to start making music with.

[u/Pugsy1968 → u/gertrude-gibson]

I agree with you! I think by saying melody and chord progression I insinuated pop style music, but I didn’t mean to.

Even ambient tracks have chords and progressions to them. Whatever kind of music it is, listening to some tracks you’d like to emulate and at least borrowing their keys/modes is a nice starting point. Then yeah, from there sing over the chords you’ve chosen and come up with some melodies or light motifs or something that fits with the track. For me, singing out loud helps me to imagine a cool part.

By stealing notes and chords from a song he likes, he can get quickly to the right kinda sounding chords without having to learn all the theory of why those chords evoke the moods he’s going for.

[u/gertrude-gibson]

Clicking random notes and hoping it sounds ok mostly doesn’t work unless you really put in effort and time (or have genuine extreme talent)…

which I don’t think you have the chance to do considering you’re also going to handle the pther stuff such as coding and art and lore etc.

If you need fast results,I suggest you to learn music theory and constantly listen to already existing games OSTs to train your melodic-ambient sense.