Music Composer, Eric Heberling, joins Creative Director, Ted Peterson, to answer some community questions regarding The Wayward Realms' musical soundtrack, as well as preview a few tracks that will be releasing later on.
0:00 Intro
0:10 Eric’s introduction and career summary
10:10 What are your musical influences?
10:54 What are some "guilty pleasure" bands or artists that you like?
11:57 What is your favorite instrument?
13:03 What is your favorite track that you have made?
14:52 What do you think of the soundtracks for the later games?
16:27 Outside of The Elder Scrolls, what is your favorite video game soundtrack?
17:47 Can you give us a rundown on your setup?
22:03 Could you describe what you have in mind for Wayward Realms from a composer's point of view?
27:15 Will the tracks be MIDI files?
29:04 What technological limitations did you face while composing for Daggerfall, and how did they affect your approach to composition?
32:40 "Oversnow'' is one of my favorite video game songs ever and I hear it in my head everytime it snows. Will we have some similar tracks for Wayward Realms?
33:40 Will there be any music composed that will sound familiar or even the same as Arena and Daggerfall, like how Morrowind and Skyrim have similar orchestral compositions?
35:10 What aspect of your music for Wayward Realms are you able to portray with a greater level of depth that you feel was missing from your composition in Daggerfall?
36:00 In your opinion, what is the biggest change in sound design and philosophy from Daggerfall to Wayward Realms?
39:04 Do you have a set workflow, and how has your process changed over time, from your work on Daggerfall to current projects?
44:26 How has your experience working on Wayward Realms been different from other projects?
47:00 What is your approach in deciding the music for in-game environments? Also, how do you keep those tracks from feeling repetitive to the player?
49:43 How is the process different from composing a piece for a much smaller, specific area?
51:30 What do you think of including environmental sounds in your tracks, for example a battle song containing the rattling of mail and clashing of weapons, or a cave dungeon soundtrack including the splashing of water drops, as if these were actual instruments?
53:24 Have you ever considered having instrument playing be a skill in game, implementing procedurally generated music as more than background music?
55:15 What are some of the finer details of composing music that composers do, minor things that aren't very noticeable in the track, but are important to you as a composer?
58:50 The instruments and how they're used can tell the listener a lot about the local culture. So, what instruments are you using the most and how are you using them to communicate information to the player?
1:00:06 Will there be any Dwarf inspired tracks?
1:00:45 What are the best things a game development team can give you to help with your inspiration? Would it be worldbuilding documents, art, themes, major plot points or something else?
1:02:03 What are your thoughts on reuniting with old colleagues and creating another epic fantasy game?
1:03:25 “Desert” track preview
1:04:08 Discussion on the music tracks for WR
1:10:04 “Fanfare of the Realms” discussion and preview
1:12:55 “Winter” discussion and preview
1:15:45 Outro