Mirandus Monday: The Sound of Music
Most people remember the first serious musical performance they attended. In preparation for this post, we polled some of the Gala Games team to see which performances marked their initiation into the world of music. From the classic Pink Floyd concert attended by Eric Schiermeyer and a Stevie Ray Vaugn concert for Lucas, to Jason’s Avril Lavigne concert, Nina’s “The Bangles” concert, and, best of all, Michael McCarthy rapping along to a cassette recorder at the Armory before he ever saw a concert on his own. Suffice to say, the Gala Games team knows how important music is to everyday life for most humans.
Music is typically seen as a part of the gaming experience, with a great deal of effort going into creating musical accompaniment in-game. However, what this means is that game developers can often leave aside some of the subtle atmospheric effects needed to create a truly immersive game. This is why, for Mirandus, we are going in an entirely different direction. We want to enable the PLAYERS of Mirandus to create music in a way that deepens immersion, not breaks it. While there may be music for a load screen or intro, there will never be a dedicated in-game soundtrack.
“If there is music in Mirandus, it has to come from a bard or a performance. There won’t be music when you walk around. “ says Studio Director Michael McCarthy, in an internal discussion about music within the world of Mirandus. “Music will be composed by players. Those compositions will be NFTs. Music and entertainment should be real moments of wonder when you walk through a town to hear an amazing composition, on a masterclass instrument, by a master musician.”
This raises extremely interesting possibilities for the world of Mirandus. Imagine, an arena filled with spectators, each of which has come together to witness a specific musician performing inside the virtual world, with each participant carrying the song in their heart…and the NFT in their accounts, as they spread out across the world. If the COVID-19 situation has taught us anything, it is that we, as human beings, are able to adapt to endless variation in the ways in which we connect with one another. Online conferences, like this weekend’s GALACON, or the Metapurse “B20” event in January, flourish when all of us stay at home. There is no reason that music and performance cannot be similarly redefined, opening the door for amazing innovations in performance art.
This is why Gala Games is looking for skilled musicians, specifically those who are able to produce music which is thematically connected to the world of Mirandus. The taverns of Mirandus need to be filled with bard, music, laugher, and dance. The woodcutters must find fine-grained woods deep within the forests to produce lutes! The vintners must make the fine vintages to be carried across the land, because wine goes well with conversation and song. Someone even might need to to fill BitBender’s mead horn!
So, today, on Mirandus Monday, we will leave you where we started, with a glimpse from afar, of a Farmer’s Hamlet. Are you ready to explore?
