[Essay] My First Experience Composing Music for Online Games
Looking back on the past always fills me with emotion. The story begins four years ago, when I first started composing music for "Romance of the Turbulent Era Online," a game developed by Beijing Zhuoyue Software Technology. From that moment on, my connection to online games was sealed.
Today, the name "Romance of the Turbulent Era Online" may have faded from many people's memories, but at the time, the development news of this large-scale 3D MMORPG made in China created quite a buzz. Set against the ancient legend of "Nüwa Creates Humanity," the game had a strong cultural identity and its music aimed to reflect the distinct regional characteristics of Chinese geography. The total length of the game’s music reached over 40 minutes, each piece designed to correspond to specific regions like Bashu, Jilu, and Minnan, creating unique background music for each area. Looking back now, it is clear that many current online games use this method of creating music based on regional landscapes, a technique that was already well-applied back then.
While working on this project, despite having previously composed music for several single-player games, I still felt a bit nervous about my first attempt at online game music. During the production of "Romance of the Turbulent Era Online," I used some authentic traditional ethnic instruments. After much trial and error, my first classical martial arts online game music composition was successfully completed and received affirmation and praise from Zhuoyue Software. This work holds significant commemorative value for me.
Due to various reasons, "Romance of the Turbulent Era Online" faced many uncertainties and never fully launched. Although the carefully crafted game music couldn't meet the players as planned, I gained invaluable experience and lessons from this project. Time flies, and four years have passed. Reflecting on my first online game music composition and its unfortunate premature end, I've come to appreciate even more the importance of taking the first step and persisting tirelessly. As the saying goes, “Everything is difficult at the beginning.” Today, our game music compositions have exceeded 90 works, and with every project, we earnestly summarize our gains and losses, remain humble, and strive to improve both in music production and team collaboration, so that more players can enjoy high-quality online game music.