Brian Eno Scores Spore With Generative Music
As if Will Wright’s haircut wasn’t anachronistic enough, he’s been hanging out with Brian Eno for a while now. I mean that kindly. The father of ambient music has a career that spans decades and includes gazillions of technical and artistic achievements – including his recent “77 Million Paintings,” an experiment in digital art that features a generative soundtrack by Eno. What this involves, apparently, is a collection of random sounds played back at, well, random – making a new masterpiece with every listen.
In theory.
Which goes hand-in-hand with my “in-theory” feelings about Spore, Will Wright’s super-mega-god-simulator, for which Eno is also preparing a generative soundtrack. I’m not sure how I feel about Spore: it sounds like an awful lot to deliver, and I worry that in the end it’ll be just another god simulator with too much minutiae and not enough “god.” The concept is a little too abstract for its own good if you ask me, which nobody’s done, but then again, Brian Eno is a little too abstract for me, so it sounds like a beautiful fit.
All the talk is about how the soundtrack will never repeat itself, that every song unique just like the gameplay, etc. But I’m not so sure that “never repeats” is the same thing as “totally fun;” most of the gameplay elements we enjoy – or the enjoyable aspects of any media, really – involve pattern and repetition of moments, themes, behaviors that we’ve previously enjoyed. To me, “never repeating” is something I look for in a screen saver, not a game.
What say we all?
Brian Eno Doing Generative Music For Spore [GameSetWatch]
[Via: Playthrough]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff on 16 January 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: brian eno, spore, will wright
Anything that man touches is totally gorgeous. Perhaps not interesting, but gorgeous, and sometimes that’s all I want for a game soundtrack. (Like Okami!)
Sat through a live demo of Spore. No I don't have anything to do with it.
It's fantastic.
That is all.
I think this kind of creations are absolutely innovative and therefore amazing.
From the kind of game that Spore is turning into, it's obvious that it will involve hours and hours of gameplay, repeating the entire life cycle over and over with different creatures to see "what would've happen if the creature had four legs instead of nine".
Therefore, to not spoil the moment with the same music that you heard before, it's a perfect idea to make it generative.
It reminds me of Animal Crossing: Wild World. The only thing I'd criticize is the music. It does turn repetitive to the point that I have to put down the volume and play some CDs to avoid hating it.
I don't think this kind of innovations can be tagged as "maybe not fun".