Marie Gicquel, edited by Alexis Rey-Millet 12:24 p.m., August 10, 2022
Europe 1 met one of the most famous video game composers in the world: Olivier Derivière.
"Alone in the Dark", "Assassin's Creed" or more recently "Dying Light 2", the Frenchman has signed the soundtrack of many cult games.
At the microphone of Europe 1, he returns to the particular role of video game music composers.
The often mocked universe of video games requires a lot of artists, including composers.
Europe 1 went to meet the most famous French composer in the world: Olivier Derivière.
Composer for cult video games like
Alone in the Dark
or
Assassin's Creed
, he recently signed the soundtrack for
Dying Light 2
, a blockbuster video game with a budget of more than 30 million dollars.
Olivier Derivière's work: to make the player feel what is happening in the game... even by closing his eyes!
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The music serves as a "guide" to the player
For three years, the composer ventured into the levels of this post-apocalyptic game to understand its atmosphere and create the score.
If the enemy approaches, we must feel it coming thanks to the music.
He composes from his studio, with his piano facing a giant screen, but also from the floors of the greatest orchestras in the world.
Olivier Derivière sees his role as that of an "orchestra conductor" who would direct the score while the player evolves through the levels.
"We have planned everything that is happening ... as if we were in front of an orchestra" he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.
In the world of video games, music has a rather special role, since it serves as a guide for the player.
Olivier Derivière returns to the place of the soundtrack in cult games like Mario Bros: "Nintendo had really installed this idea that the music could give a lot of indications to the player. For example, when we had less time, the music of the game was accelerating,” he explains.
To each action, its instrument
A task which nevertheless remains complex to carry out, since the risk persists that the player gets tired of the music.
"We don't know how long a player can stay in one place. It's something that's extremely difficult to manage. When you're a composer, you have to be very careful about how you're going to use the music so that the players end up cutting it off" explains the French composer.
For the
Dying Light 2
soundtrack , Olivier Derivière has developed an effective recipe: each action has its own instrument.
When the player must run, strings intervene in the music, when it is necessary to jump, wind instruments, and percussion to strike.
You almost want to play it with your eyes closed.