The Game Awards were created by Geoff Keighley in 2014, and now serve as one of the highest-profile annual ceremonies that celebrate the medium. With The Game Awards 2022 scheduled to air on December 8, many are analyzing the biggest releases of the year to determine what has the best story, most innovative gameplay, and so on. However, while video games are as capable of producing transcendent experiences as other art forms, it's also enjoyed by all ages. Younger audiences get plenty of releases to enjoy every year, such as DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms.

Released this September, Legends of the Nine Realms ties in with the streaming series DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms; set in a "modern era" over a millennium after the events of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. It's a "licensed kids game" through-and-through, published by Outright Games (known for targeting a 3-13 age demographic). However, Game Rant spoke to composer Chris Whiter about finding the balance between making a soundtrack that's "accessible" without playing down music's contributions to narrative and gameplay.

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From Orchestral Jazz to Video Game Scoring

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Whiter said he grew up enjoying and playing music, starting as a flutist before picking up instruments like saxophone. His background is in classical, utilizing mostly acoustic instruments, but he became interested in the creative freedom and improvisational nature of jazz. That led to an important milestone: playing Baritone sax as part of the UK's National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) from 2011 to 2013. He had the opportunity to compose music for the NYJO, which cemented an interest in writing music during his time at Southampton University.

While studying for his Master’s degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, Whiter started mixing his "core audio" with more electronic effects like reverb, evolving his creative palette similar to that interest in different musical genres. "Jazz is such a creative space in terms of what you can do as a musician - both playing and writing," he said. "It's hard to not be swept up in it, I think."

This combined digital and analog experience opened opportunities for Whiter in production music, developing sound libraries (some of his work has been featured in programs like the BBC's Top Gear). He also leveraged his orchestral experience into working with figures like Academy Award-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman and Vince Webb, whose work includes games and advertising.

Webb invited Whiter to work alongside him and Raoul Neumann on the music and sound design for Moonshine Studios' Get Packed, Whiter's first major experience composing and arranging within the games industry. Having grown up a fan of the original PlayStation, and still finding an appreciation for the music in games like Guerrilla's Horizon Forbidden West, Whiter was excited to take this interest to another level.

"I find that you can have a plan or idea of where you're going to go, but things can also fall into place in a way you don't necessarily anticipate or expect. Everything for me feels like it rolls on from my previous experiences, which has been nice."

Balancing Musical Detail with Audience Accessibility on DreamWorks Dragons

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Webb has experience working with developer Coatsink on games like VR experience Jurassic World Aftermath, but was too busy to pick up Transformers: Battlegrounds. He recommended Whiter for the job, a "right place, right time" situation for the composer. Through that job he developed a relationship with Outright Games and senior producer Vincent Grogan, which in-turn has gotten him jobs on more licensed games including PAW Patrol: Grand Prix and Legend of the Nine Realms.

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Whiter said he began working with DreamWorks Dragons' developer and producer from an early stage, which let his music "grow with the game and its different biomes" (including the Bio, Ice, and Fire Realms). One of the biggest challenges was giving each world its own unique character for both exploration and combat in a way that represents what's going on emotionally. "The music represents what you want it to in the game world you're creating," Whiter said, even with titles aimed at younger audiences.

"You can potentially make the music more accessible, but I never think about simplicity as the approach for a younger audience."

The British composer feels all the intricacies, details, and nuances that can appear in a track are important to give it character, so musicians shouldn't "play it down" just to reach a specific target audience. Of course, he said composers shouldn't make their work not suitable for that audience - anything "overly scary" for young children, for example - but it's also worth considering a game could be played by an older audience or simply be enjoyed by parents alongside their kids.

Live Recording on Legends of the Nine Realms, Adding Depth to Storytelling

Not simplifying music regardless of its target audience also benefits the "crucial" aspects of video game soundtracks to Whiter: immersion and underscoring storytelling. Whiter aims to make sure all his music is "adaptive and dynamic," sounding like one linear piece of music even if it's a hodgepodge of tracks covering different game states. While he feels music should never be competing with elements like voiceover, especially prevalent in Legends of the Nine Realms, there are often moments to consider how music can help boost the narrative. "As a composer, your job is to find those gaps in-between the narration or action that can help enhance that story."

Another key part of developing the overall sound world in Legends of the Nine Realms was being "in the room" with the Fames Orchestra - another example of Whiter's history playing forward in unexpected ways. A live recording of the main theme was published by Outright Games yesterday, coming after the November 17 debut of DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms season 4 on NBC's Peacock and Hulu. Whiter really appreciates the opportunity to highlight this work, especially on a family-friendly series with as much name recognition as How to Train Your Dragon.

"To showcase the music is such a lovely thing, because there's so much hard work that goes on from the musicians and audio teams on any project."

DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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