Q: Hi Jason! What effects do you intend to achieve with your music on the players?

A: It is my hope to give the games some kind of emotional context - to make the player feel something, and get him/her emotionally invested in the experience. In the case of the cinematic trailers and cut-scenes, I try to help tell the story and convey its dramatic impact. When it comes to in-game music for a game like World of Warcraft, my hope is to develop a sense of depth and richness, to help create a compelling aesthetic environment that people will want to linger in and explore.

Q: Ok. What comes first: the music or the game? Or can the sound even have an influence on the development work?

A: In an ideal situation, the music discussions begin very early in development. In this way, it's possible to make important decisions about how music will be implemented in advance of actually writing anything. You can figure out when and why music should be triggered, and how long the musical cues should be. Also, in the case of interactive music, sometimes it's necessary to set up a whole system in advance that will determine specific methods of how music will need to be composed. The benefit of all this is that you get music that is tailored to the interactivity, and is a powerful complement to the game play.

By contrast, even good music can sometimes fall a little flat or even be annoying and inappropriate when it is just thrown in without much forethought. The implementation can be just as important a factor as the music itself in getting really good results.