Ludonarrative Harmony : Music production through the lens of game design

Abstract: This is a study of how game design has influenced my artistic process as a music producer fora video game called Sang: The Desert Blade. The artistic practice is used to explore a conceptin game design called ludonarrative. The experiences gathered from this exploration arepresented with examples of music that have been created and implemented for the gameduring this study. The music examples are contextualized together with video documentationfrom my creative process and video recordings of the game. The study concludes that videogame music is directly interconnected with game design and its aesthetics is directly affectedby the degree to which a music producer is included in the development team. The study alsoshows how unpredictability is a fundamental part of game design and suggests how it can beexplored in future artistic research of video game music.