Let's talk about flOw's music

by Nick Doerr { Feb 5th 2007 at 2:30PM }

A recent interview was composed (get it? Like composing music...) with Austin Wintory, creative mind behind the music of flOw. Points of discussion include the design process of flOw, music's integration and atmospheric effect in the title and Austin's deep, dark musical fantasies... er, we'll just give you a list.

What was your design process in creating the music for flOw?

"We sought something atmospheric and electronic, but not in the stark, soundscape sort of way. Something warm and organic, as if a symphony of instruments never before played on Earth." He goes on to say, "What resulted was a combination of literally hundreds of small audio files being triggered by the player interactions, and a steady background track." So... it's got the same user-created musical score akin to Rez?

Any emotional or aesthetic goals while creating the music?

"Relaxing was paramount, but each campaign of the game has a very different take on it. Some are more oriented towards being fun and light, others darker, some mysterious, etc."

Did you approach the Flash and PS3 versions of the game differently?

"Well, the Flash version is essentially at this point a playable demo of the PS3 version, giving you a snippet of the first part of the game. So I approached the first campaign almost identically, looking to be faithful to my own work, but make it better and cleaner." Austin also mentions how each campaign of the PS3 version will have a different musical influence -- one jazz oriented, etc.

Whew. Well, you can check out the whole interview if you'd like -- learn more about Austin, his inspirations, his goals and dreams, etc. We just covered the aspects of flOw and you know what? It sounds like a lot of fun. Both literally and... otherwise.

[thanks, John B.!]

Tags: flOw, Playstation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

WhackMushroom @ Feb 6th 2007 12:22AM

No its not even close to the same treatment as REZ. REZ is the precident; which used loops, drones, stabs and other traditional based electronic music elements to compliment the underlying music which was linear.

With Flow, its going to be a non-linear experience in sound .. since its open enviornment can virtually produce millions of different variations on how a user "flows" through.

I am really excited about Flow personally because even though its premise is simple, the artistry especially in the sound design will be a breaktrhough on an unprecidented level.