How we improvise our music
Sound alchemist Mert takes us behind the live-recording of our game music — and why we trust the moment over the sheet.
Most studios compose first and record later. We often do the opposite: we imagine an atmosphere, then open the mic and improvise.
Why improvise?
We want our games to feel “hand-woven”. A perfectly quantised track can be too sterile; small timing imperfections add a human warmth.
The best melodies arrive the moment you’re not afraid to get lost.— Mert Kaya
The process
- Pick a mood from the region’s concept art
- Improvise 20–30 minutes on a single instrument
- Pick the best 8–10 second moments and layer them
- Feed them piece by piece into the adaptive music engine
Mistwalker’s adaptive score was born entirely from this method. In the next devlog I’ll explain, more technically, how these layers are triggered in-game.
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