A game’s music has the power to completely immerse the player, or drive him totally insane. A well-placed song can turn a regular gaming experience into something deeper, even spiritual.

Portuguese composer Pedro Macedo Camacho recognizes that a game’s music should augment its environment, not pollute it. With several awards to his name and a varied resume that includes Autumn Moon’s upcoming Vampyre Story, it’s not surprising that Pedro was picked up to compose the music for Auran’s Fury.

With its fast-paced PvP matches, Fury needed background music that players would be happy to bust heads to, and according to Producer Paul Whipp, they found it with Pedro:

“We’ve agonized over getting the perfect music for Fury for well over a year now. Pedro nailed it with his well paced, sharp and beautifully themed compositions. We’re delighted to have such a talented composer working with us.”

Ripten was fortunate enough to net an interview with Pedro. He talks to us about how he achieved Fury’s intense sound, his inspirations, and a little bit about upcoming projects.

Q: Since Fury boasts some of the fastest gameplay ever presented in a PvP game (with less lag before or after characters cast spells, etc), did you compose the game with a tribal hunt in mind? There’s a lot of heavy percussion in some of the pieces that really stirs the blood.

A: Fury is all about hardcore and fast action gameplay and working for the game completely changed my own concept of “battle music”. In Fury, normal battle music would not have enough power for a warm up. I still remember my surprised reaction when I submitted my first composition for a battle track on this game.

I did the most active music I thought possible to suit any game and the feedback was that is was too soft! Imagine that. A day later I had a new version made with the most aggressive and powerful percussion I ever used (with a lot of care in terms of theme development and overall art direction of course) and that one finally was approved.

Screen image from “Fury”

The game is about 4 combat schools (Growth - Earth Element; Life - Water element; Death - Fire element, Decay - Air Element) So in the each of the combat pieces I gave them a different setting to fit the school in question. Tribal Hunt, as you mentioned, was really in my mind for Growth School.

Q: Of course, there are pieces that are calming and beautiful–but still menacing. Did you find it difficult to strike a balance between melody and urgency?

A: It is not an easy thing but I was glad everything came out very natural from me. Apart from the first combat piece, all my other pieces came out suiting the game quite well and quickly. I am a melodic composer and I think music in the end should always serve a melody. If you notice, most soundtracks that you can remember from the past are the ones you can sing the melody in your brain. With this in mind, I always make sure melodies are not compromised at all by the orchestration, so ‘urgency elements’ in the orchestrations are added with a lot of care.

Still in the melody subject, I shared in all tracks a common main theme melodic motif. This motif was used and reused in the most different ways you can imagine so you might not catch every time the motif comes in.

Screen image from “Fury”

Also in this game Life and Death are distant in terms of setting (Fire vs Water) but very close since heroes never actually die. With this in mind I used a second melodic motif to share in all Life and Death school tracks. The main difference is that Death school track were composed in 5/4 time signature with a dark mood and Life school tracks in the usual 4/4 time signature with a lighter mood.

Q: How far along was Fury when you began composing for it? Was the game still an idea on paper? Were several environments already built? Or were you just given an extensive idea of what Auran was looking for in terms of music?

A: I came into the game quite late in the production process so things were already in mid alpha but for me the most important thing is to understand the world I am working in and take some days to read the story of the game for at least three times. Then I was given a precious written description of each piece. Having some screenshots and being able to test the game was a plus but I never actually needed that to compose. Music is extremely important for a videogame and it must “paint” what you can and cannot see in your monitor.

Q: You’re also working on “A Vampyre Story” by Autumn Moon, which is a little more lighthearted than Fury–but still carries a bit of a dark theme. Though the soundtrack likely won’t be as urgent as Fury’s, are you still aiming towards a more ghoulish sound, or something a little less serious?

A: Let me tell you, A Vampyre Story is going to be really great game! For starters it is being done by the same art team that did all Monkey Islands while at Lucas Arts. Music in this game has absolutely nothing to do with Fury. In Fury I did an epic soundtrack mixed with a lot of ethnic and some electronic sounds. A Vampyre Story is a really funny and spooky pure orchestral soundtrack. The soundtrack will be a mix of my own composing language with a bit of inspiration on John Williams’ work in Harry Potter, some groovy pieces that remind me of the Monkey Island setting and folk music from around the world.

Screen image from “A Vampyre Story”

Q: Do you have a preference for composing haunting, serious music over more lighthearted fare?

A: I have a preference in being able to work at the same time for different kinds of projects that enable me to explore an orchestra under a complete opposite angle and orchestration. I love variety because that each time I switch project I feel like I am breathing fresh air. Something I would not like to do would be to compose epic music for many games one after the other all of them with a similar story setting.

Because I am a classical trained composer I must say I love to use orchestra but I love to mix it with several other types of sounds. For example, I wish I have a project in a near future of a hardcore fast paced racing game so I could make an electronica / experimental soundtrack with some orchestral elements.

Q: Your biography on Autumn Moon’s website mentions that you started composing music at the age of fifteen, an age where average kids are still having trouble dressing in matching clothes. What inspired you to start writing music? What were some of your earliest projects like?

A: I always loved music and games a lot, just like my father, but I only decided to start composing around that age. I am not sure if it is directly linked but that was as soon as my father got extremely sick.
In the last months of his life I composed my first music ever and showed it to him. He liked it a lot and praised it and that meant a lot to me. Some days after that he got worse and I would never be able to show him any music again.

It was made in the computer that marked my life the most, the Amiga in a program called OctaMED Pro that came in a coverdisk of a magazine. I can go around things like this quite easily but I am sure music helped a lot on this one because it kept my mind busy all the time and made me quite determined that I wanted make music for games when I was older.

My earliest projects were making music just for the sake of doing them and composing for live ensembles as part of my composition studies.

After years of studying composition, harmony, orchestration, counterpoint and more than a decade sequencing on my own I decided it was time to accept my first game project. This happened only 1 year ago.

Q: Obligatory question: What/who are your inspirations today? Are there any specific games that you feel have particularly inspiring music?

A: The composers that most influenced me were: Johann Sebastian Bach, Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem, Palestrina, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Eurico Carrapatoso, Luís Tinoco, Claude Debussy, Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Matt Uelmann, Richard Wagner and John Williams,.

Also, in general, World Ethnic Music and Old School Amiga Demo Scene Music and metal, influenced me a lot.

My favorite music pieces are The Firebird and Rite of Spring from Stravinsky, Tristan and Isolde from Wagner, St. Mathew Passion and so many other incredible works from Bach, Quator pour la fin du temps from Olivier Messiaen.

Elvira’s game music served as an inspiration

Some games that were musically inspiring were: Shadows of the Beast, Flashback, Another World, Project X, Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3, James Pond, Elvira Mistress of Dark, Diablo 2, Dragon’s Breath (aka Dragon Lord), Wipeout, Zack Mckracken, StarCraft, Speedball 2 and The Chaos Engine.

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