BioShock Composer Talks Rapture

August 06, 2007 | By: John Gaudiosi

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Garry Schyman, who composed the original music for the much anticipated shooter BioShock, talks with GameDaily BIZ about the process of creating interactive music, how it's helped propel his career, and why BioShock has been such an interesting project for him.

Film, television and video game composer Garry Schyman has created the original score for the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 and PC shooter, BioShock, from 2K Games and developer Irrational Games. The game, which ships August 21, is the latest project from the composer who worked on such '80s TV hits as Magnum P.I., The Greatest American Hero, and The A-Team. Schyman previously worked with THQ on Destroy All Humans 1 and 2 and Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers.

The composer took some time out of his schedule to talk with GameDaily BIZ about how the unique underwater city of Rapture allowed him to explore interactive music in a new way.

GameDaily BIZ: What's the appeal of working in the interactive space?

Garry Schyman: I have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to work on games that challenge me to write some of the most interesting music in my career. Games keep getting better and more interesting from a composer's point of view. So what's not to like? Really interesting games, which need really interesting music! Plus I have been getting budgets, which allow me to write and record with an orchestra. From a creative standpoint it beats TV and rivals feature films.

BIZ: Can you talk about how the process worked with BioShock?

GS: BioShock is a really unique project and they wanted something very different and meant it. BioShock is so beautiful and eerie and scary at times that it permitted me to create a whole new style of music for the game.

I was hired for an initial period about six months before I formally started scoring the game. It was "dream time" as they say in the film business and I got to play with ideas and themes for the game very early on. I was just working with screenshots and artists' renderings of what the game would look like as well as reading the game design documents. It was a very valuable creative time because I got to explore just how different and unique they wanted the music. I started the process of coming up with a composition, which combines various mid 20th Century classical composition techniques.

None of the early music ended up in the game, but it was not wasted time � I would recommend it to any composer and game developer if you really want something that stands out. Once started full time on the gig, I composed off and on for nearly seven months as the development team worked to finish the various levels.

BIZ: Did you see any of the game first? Where do you get your influences for this game?

GS: The developer is in Boston and I am in L.A. so I was unable to play the game as I worked. Though frankly I rarely do play the games as I am scoring them because more often than not the games are not ready to play at that point in the process. I relied on gameplay movies that they made for me to give me a sense and feel for the various levels or decks as I composed for them. Additionally, there is a philosophical underpinning of the game, which makes this project so fascinating. BioShock is the brainchild of Ken Levine, Irrational Games' lead designer and head of the company. He had always been fascinated by the novels of Ayn Rand and used her philosophy to influence the world of BioShock. Knowing that really helped me to created something uncompromisingly different and distinctive.

Additionally the Audio Director, Emily Ridgway, is a trained musician and she has some of the best musical instincts of anyone I have ever worked with. She really wanted something special and helped free me to come up with the unique music world I created for the game.

BIZ: The atmosphere is especially unique and dark in this game. What were you going after when scoring this game?

GS: The game is scary and dark indeed, so the music needed to capture that without being clich�. But BioShock is deeper than just scary, in that it is a tragically sad world that started with the best of intentions. Maybe a metaphor for the world today? But in any event I wanted to write music that was more than just scary � it had to be tragic and melancholy, at the same time it scared the blank out of you. That permitted some really interesting musical juxtaposition, combining elements that might seem mutually exclusive but in fact created a fresh sound for the project.