Although players may not always notice it as much, the music of a game is often just as important as gameplay and story elements. A good score can work wonders in setting the tone and pace of a game, and is responsible for most of the drama found within. In a recent interview with Game Rant,Chivalry 2composer J. D. Spears gave some insight on his own composition process for the upcoming game, giving players a deeper understanding ofhow the music and the gameplay flow and fit together.
For those that may not recognize the name, J. D. Spears is the composer for the upcomingChivalry 2. Although this is his biggest project as of yet, players may have unwittingly heard his music before in various movie and television spots. He also has a big following on his YouTube channel, where he creates orchestral covers, original music, and more. Spears got his big break into the video game industry withChivalry 2, and one listen to the soundtrack makes it easy to see his prowess. As players dig intoChivalry 2when it finally releases in June, they’ll become familiar with Spears' music.
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The sound of the battle itself is incredibly important to the experience in Chivalry 2. Swords clashing, battle cries, explosions, and even footsteps - it’s all very front and center and tends to have a percussive quality to it. Because of this I had to approach the music from the perspective of making sure it supported the rest of what was happening in the audio space - and that sort of led to some big soaring melody lines as they tended to sit nicely on top of everything else.
When asked about how much of the game Spears had a chance to see or play before making his compositions, he revealed that was sent a nearly endless stream ofconcept art and gameplay footageduring his time composing. He even had access to the latest build of the game at any given time, allowing him to play it and get a feel for what kind of music should accompany it. This influenced his compositions heavily, as the quote above discusses.
InChivalry 2, the music needs to complement the battle, but add too much percussion for example and the music and sound effects will clash. This is why many of the tracks inChivalry 2instead feature expressive melodies.
However, in terms of logistics the most challenging cues were for the two faction cutscenes that give you thehistory of the Agatha Knights and Mason Orderrespectively. Things had just started to shut down completely due to COVID. We had traveled to visit my in-laws just before the first stay-at-home orders were issued. We were stuck there, although we wouldn’t have felt comfortable traveling even if we could’ve. During this time we began work on these two scenes. So I set up a temporary work space , which was challenging haha. I wrote those two cues on a hobbled together mobile rig while quarantined at my in-laws’ place. I went back and polished them up a bit once it was time to turn in the final versions, but the majority of the work was done while away from my main setup.
There were alsocertain challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, as it seems that even video game composers aren’t free from workplace disruption caused by it. Spears explains that he had just went to visit his in-laws before the lockdown started, meaning he had to write two pieces without access to his main setup. Listening to the soundtrack of the game, there’s no way a player would be able to tell that this was the case. Despite these challenges and the fact that Spears is relatively new to the video game composition scene, players will have no trouble getting engrossed in its gorgeous soundtrack.
Chivalry 2releases on June 8th for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
