Issue 05: Sound

The Sound Issue

VOICE ACTORS. CHIPTUNES. ORCHESTRAS. LET’S PLAYS. AMBIENT DRONES. VIRTUAL IDOLS. WHALE SONG. SILENCE. Welcome to the “Sound” issue.

Editor's Letter: The Sound Issue

Games have more in common with music than with movies, and the Sound Issue makes the case for listening closer.

Two figures on a hillside, one strumming a guitar, a rainbow of music streaming from a speech bubble across a green field of

I Sang to Shigeru Miyamoto

A ballad for the creator of Super Mario Bros.

Angular shards of blue, green and cream fractured across white, resolving loosely into a figure in flight.

Say Hi To Lumi

Japan's virtual idol craze has come to consoles in Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Child of Eden, and it begs the old pop question: Do you care how the song is made, as long as it makes you dance?

A luminous white fractal spire rising from a red hexagonal grid under a starfield, streaked with falling light.

The Polynomial

Dmytry Lavrov's PC shooter renders fractals that pulse to its soundtrack, turning a math experiment into a psychedelic space.

Chris Tilton

Game designers aren’t taking music seriously. One composer explains what’s gone wrong and how to fix it.

A face lit from below emerging out of near-total darkness, eyes open, the rest of the frame black.

Taking the Deep Dive

World War I-era gas mask. Heavy breathing. Total darkness. One terrifyingly intense game.

Hand-drawn lettering in red, orange and black reading “I don’t know if my voice is annoying,” the letters built from keys, bo

Voices in the Dark

Who would record a 22-hour playthrough of a game? A late-night journey through the online video culture known simply as “Let’s Play.”

Lana Del Rey

The singer behind “Video Games” on her boyfriend’s World of Warcraft habit, and why the song is really about belonging.

Nolan North

An interview with the star voice of the Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed series, and one of the most ubiquitous everymen in gaming.

A schematic drawing of brass instruments and circles connected by wandering lines, anchored by a green faceted shape.

Play It Again, Samus

In jazz as in games, freedom starts with following the rules.

A Big Daddy diving suit rendered in sickly green and gold, a Circus of Values vending machine set into its chest.

Worlds of Sound

From the cha-ching of a vending machine to the distant roar of tragic monsters, Irrational Games’ Pat Balthrop and Ken Levine talk about the sounds of their bestselling franchise, BioShock.

Mux Mool

The Ghostly International producer on playing Minecraft with his fans, staying sober, and making music with no specific purpose.

A collage of concentric red rings over a mountain landscape, a vintage radio, a cut-out portrait and floating wireframe cubes

Bloop and Thunder

They couldn’t sound more different, but the twee chiptune scene and the heavy sounds of metal find common cause in passion, nostalgia and maybe even soul.

Noteworthy: The Music that Influenced The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Koji Kondo built Ocarina of Time’s score from five ocarina buttons, Gregorian chant, Baroque cadences, jazz planing and a borrowed Ravel ostinato.

Concentric teal rectangles spiralling inward on a printed field of stars, a white circle low in the frame.

I Am Sitting In A Room

While the soundtracks in games are pushed farther and farther into the background, their composers can learn from the ambient innovators who turned background music into art.

A figure in a striped shirt and headphones seated inside a coiled tangle of colored cable, small objects orbiting around them

Nico Muhly

The composer on the augmented sixth chord in Mario's theme, and why influence should be worn as openly as possible.

A faceted portrait of Jim Guthrie with long dark hair and a moustache, eyes rendered as blank white, on a pale striped ground

Small Communities, Big Ideas

In the strange and spectacular Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, indie rock and indie games come together and learn from one another.

A dense grey field of small repeated marks receding in perspective, like a surface of sound waves seen at an angle.

Cantus Firmi

The dream of dynamic music is a flowing, responsive score that matches the player’s every move. Will better technology make it a reality—or is something else getting in the way?

Young musicians packed close together in a rehearsal room, instruments and music stands raised, seen from behind.

A Gaming Rehearsal in Three Movements

Can a local student orchestra lead a city to classical music?