"Something I try to do in a lot of my work is bring the music more up front, [to] get people to remember [and] enjoy video game music again."
- Mick Gordon on the role music plays in game design in an interview for Noclip.
Following December's release of the Noclip documentary on the creation of Doom, series creator Danny O’Dwyer has shared an extended cut of his interview with Doom’s composer Mick Gordon.
The interview, embedded above, is filled with informative tidbits for game developers on what a powerful soundtrack can bring to a game and how best to work with composers to stay on the same creative page.
As a fan of the kind of relationship games had with music in the '90s, Gordon says that video games have come a long way in the past 20 years, but that music has since been pushed to the background. With the soundtrack of Doom, he wanted to change that.
“The music should really sit up front and center. The player should be aware of the music. The music needs to play that sort of emotional payoff role. It is the reward for doing well, it is the motivator. It tells them that yes, you are ok. You are doing well.”
For more on the resurrection of the Doom series, take a look at the full three-part documentary and accompanying developer interviews over on the Noclip YouTube channel.