Followup Interview w/ Todd Masten

For those that have joined in the past year, you may or may not be familiar with the interview I had with Sigil's audio guy and now Associate Producer, Todd Masten. Now, slightly over a year later I was able to get a chance to do a follow up interview concerning all sorts of things from music in games, to his newfound responsibilities and what comes next after launch. Enjoy!

“Wow, it's been over a year since our last interview. It now seems to be approaching the home stretch with a Winter '07 release window, rather than back in Fall of '05 when you folks had a larger window of "2006". To summarize (if even possible), how has development changed since then?”

“Where to begin? We've made significant advances in our development pipeline and really streamlined the process. We've implemented all of the major systems in the game world and we are in the process of iterating, tuning, and tweaking everything. There are several places where the team was perhaps a bit, (read insanely), overambitious, and we've had to make some tough choices in scaling certain areas of the world down and earmarking other areas for post-launch and expansion content. We've also switched publishers to better position Vanguard in the market space since last we spoke. This was a relatively controversial decision, but one that was the best thing for the company and game moving forward.”

“In this past year you've taken on another role in Vanguard's development other than being Sigil's sole audio guy. What have these new responsibilities entailed, and what brought them on?”

“When I first signed on with Sigil three years ago, I was very vocal in wanting to get more involved in the development of the game, aside from sound. I spent many months coming down to the design department asking questions, learning the process, and offering solutions and help where I could. Mind you, I've been in this industry for ten years now in many different roles including management and director responsibilities; but swore to never return to the politics and crap you have to deal with in management. With this project however, I felt a strong sense of ownership, and believed that I could help guide the company down a better path from the one it was heading down. When the opportunity arose, Brad asked me if I wanted to help out in Production, and I agreed to give it a go as the Associate Producer of Vanguard. Originally I was supposed to only dedicate half my time to managing while maintaining audio duties, but I have to admit that the producer role has consumed almost all of my time from the onset.”

“In our previous interview, you had mentioned your daily schedule involving finishing up writing the main themes for Vanguard. Now that these are written and recorded, is the music generally finished for the game? Or is there more work to do on it before launch?”

“The music for the game is basically done. I conducted and recorded the main themes with the Seattle Symphony in December 06, and after these were mixed I stopped composing for the game. Over the past year we've made a great deal of changes and additions, and I could easily go in and spend another year adding more and more original tunes to accompany the new geographic and adventuring areas. My other responsibilities have kept me far too busy, but I would LOVE to write another 20+ pieces that I feel are warranted for release. There are currently over 120 unique compositions for the game, so there is no shortage of music. However, the world is so enormous that I could double that number and still not hit everything I would like.”

“There seems to be a constant stream of threads on the official forums regarding the music in Vanguard. One commonly asked question involves the concept of "epic boss music". This is, of course something found primarily in single player games. However, in the context of partying or raiding and paying off a long night's effort, do you feel that such music would have a place in an MMO? (Regardless of if it's in Vanguard or not.)”

“This is a concept we have toyed with, and I have a pretty decent design document for how this will eventually work. Tying music to an encounter or an NPC is a bit different than tying the music to a location, and there are a few coding issues that would need to be resolved. I think it is a good idea and I would like to eventually get this in Vanguard when I get the time and resources. The main drawback with doing this in a MMO, is that players are likely going to tackle a raid boss multiple times, and unless you have a suite of 'boss' tunes, you are still going to encounter the same type of repetition inherent in any game music system. You can script this to be extremely dynamic with changes based on NPC hit point percentage, initiating a special ability, time in battle, and myriad other variables.”

“One more thing about the music before moving on: It has been recently revealed that the Collector's Edition of the game will include a soundtrack CD! What's amusing of course is that it's said to be the "full soundtrack" when we know that there are over 20 hours of music written. As the game's composer, how does this feel to get out there on hard media? Also, if possible, are there any clues as to the CD's contents?”

“Obviously it isn't a 'full' soundtrack. The CD will include all of the orchestrated main themes; about an hour total. We couldn't fit all the music in an uncompressed format on a single DVD, let alone a CD. This is the third time I get a soundtrack CD with the release of a game, and I feel honored. I feel like my hard work is being acknowledged and appreciated.”

“That, of course, doesn't mean we're done with audio. You mentioned briefly on the forums that there will in fact be some minimal voice work in the game. How has the process on this gone? Also, when did the necessity for voice pop up in development?”

“There has always been a plan for voices in the game, but it never extended much beyond the grunts and groans of players and NPCs. This alone is a huge task as we have 19 races, each with both male and female variations. We decided to extend the voice sessions to include simple emotes and socials, a relatively simple 'greet' and 'farewell' system for merchants, trainers, and quest NPCs, and we are still toying with the idea of having diplomacy be fully voice driven; if we can get it to sound the way we envision it.”

“You have also mentioned recently that "audio [in games] rarely gets the attention it deserves, but things are slowly changing in the industry". What exactly is changing to allow for more attention?”

“The gaming industry now out grosses the motion picture industry in terms of revenue. This allows for budgets that tend to be a bit larger along with the need to include a higher pedigree of talent. Many top film composers are discovering the gaming industry, and are using it to supplement their income and gain greater exposure. Ultimately, it is about competition and quality, and in order to stay competitive, you can no longer ignore sound and music and be successful. Gamers simply will not stand for it anymore.”

“Many composers and audio designers these days are splitting off with game developers and forming their own audio production companies. Do you think this ultimately helps the industry (more quality audio production under one roof), or make it more homogenized?”

“Having an in-house audio staff will always be more beneficial to the developer; albeit it is not always the best financial decision for companies that deal with smaller projects on tight budgets. I've worked both ways, and can say with confidence that I am far better plugged into the game and the personalities of those making it when I am in-house. The flip side is that I made more money as an independent contractor as I could score an entire game in a few months and move on to the next project immediately. When you are in-house, you are there for the long haul; especially when dealing with a MMO with a 4+ year development cycle.”

“Getting back to the game in question... with Vanguard on the runway to launch, what do you foresee Sigil doing once the game launches? It's been mentioned that the team will split up into live and expansion teams; does that place you somewhere in the middle?”

“First, I am taking a much needed vacation. After that, I will continue overseeing production and design and hopefully get to write more music. Content for expansions and live patches will keep us busy for as long as the players stick with us. I am itching to compose some new themes and tunes for the new areas slated for development.”

“Finally, if there's one thing you would want people to check out in the game come launch, what would it be?”

“That's easy! We spent a great deal of effort customizing our starting cities. Each one looks and feels unique. Everything was placed with care and a massive amount of effort went into them from every department. Different areas within a city are comprised of unique pieces of music that blend and transition into each other which makes for an incredibly cinematic feel. I highly recommend making a newbie in each city and spending some time just wandering around and taking in the sights and sounds.”