Alright, as I promised on the message board, here's a little discussion of how our music system works. I'll be making reference to the 6-minute version of Where The Mind Is, so download that if you want to follow along.

As you download, let me describe our music system. Battlegrounds uses dynamic music, which means that the music changes to reflect what's happening in the game. (Dynamic music has actually been around for a long time - remember in Super Mario Bros., when you were running out of time, and the music sped up? That's an early example of dynamic music). It does this by detecting 10 different situations, also called "moods", and playing music that matches the current mood.

What makes our system powerful is the fact that it's "seamless". This means you can switch from one mood to another at any time without (a) interrupting the music (like Super Mario Bros. did), or (b) fading from one "mini-song" to another (like a lot of current games are doing).

Okay, enough description, let's take a tour of the MP3 and listen to these concepts in action. Wait!! Don't press play yet: our tour begins in silence...

Before the song - "Silent"

Before the music starts, we're in a mood known as "silent". This is used before a match starts, for example, when players are still joining the game or moving into position. Okay, you can press play now - and imagine the message "Prepare to Fight..." just appeared on the screen.

0:00 to 1:12 - "Early"

This mood plays at the beginning of a match, usually until players have exchanged enough attacks that "winning" and "losing" means something. Depending on how the match is going, it may last a shorter or longer time (from 45 seconds to 2 minutes). In some fast-paced game modes, we might skip this mood entirely.

1:12 to 2:48 - "Tied"

This mood plays when the two teams or players are closely matched. For example, in a 1-on-1 elimintation match, this might play if your damage level was within 10% of your opponent's damage level.

2:48 to 2:51 - transition

This is an example of the music system changing moods. Notice there's no sudden change or obvious cross-fading. In this case the transition takes the form of a drum fill, but can be anything (a swelling chord, a sound effect, etc).

2:51 to 3:39 - "Really Losing"

This mood plays when you're being seriously outclassed. (There's also "really winning", for when you're the one delivering the punishment).

3:39 to 3:42 - transition

Another transition.

3:42 to 6:06 - "Winning"

This mood is used when you're winning the match.

6:06 to 6:10 - ending

This is what you'd hear if you were winning the match and scored some sort of instant-victory, like knocking your opponent off the iceberg. (Normally, as the match nears the end, a mood called "Winning + Time Running Out" would play. It's more frantic and more upbeat).

So now you have an idea of how our music system works. You may have noticed that the MP3 only touches on 5 of the 10 moods. This is because each song actually contains 20-30 minutes of music. As a comparison, a lot of action games with "normal" music have 2-5 minutes of looping music on each level. Some recent games with dynamic music have had between 5-10 minutes of content for each level. So, hopefully, it will take a long time for the music in Battlegrounds to lose its novelty. (Side note: some songs contain rare melodies that you'll only hear in the most unique situations, perhaps every 25th match).

Finally, some of you are probably wondering how hard it is to add your own music to the game. I have good news: you don't need any special knowledge to begin. The music system accepts "normal" (non-dynamic) songs, and will fade them out at the end of a match. When you're ready to try your hand at writing dynamic music, you can compose as little as 4 or 5 minutes to begin with, and leave out certain moods if you want. The point is, you don't need to make a full-blown 25-minute dynamic masterpiece on your first attempt. You can even add to each mood after the song is finished, for example, you could write 1 minute of music for "winning", then later on add another 2 minutes without having to change the rest of the song.

Now, for the mod-makers that want to go really deep with their music, you won't be dissatisfied either. You have complete control over how various moods connect, how music loops or repeats, and what moods you provide. Plus, you can add custom moods, to fit any special situations in your mod, and still be compatible with existing songs. (And, for the crazy folk, there are things you can do that completely change how the system works).

Well, that's about it for this log entry. Hopefully I've given you all an idea of what we're doing with the music in this game, and how it will make the experience more fun for you as a player.