The composer for Sim City 4 is chiefly Jerry Martin with other composers like The Humble Brothers. In this game a jazz theme is carried out along with classical styles that borderline epic scores.
Sim City 4 Background
Sim City 4 is a city-builder simulation game that is developed by Maxis, a division of Electronic Arts. It was released in early 2003 and is the first in the series to bring in full 3d graphics. The game starts with the player terraforming the land. Once the environment is setup the player can begin building a settlement. The simulation progressively gets harder as the small town grows into a megalopolis. Your role is to play as the mayor. You get a group of advisors to assist you with everything from the cities budget to various services and the well-being of your citizens. This game is open ended and the possibilities are only limited by your creativity and how well you can keep up with the financial and logistical side of the city.
Terraforming tools
Close up medium sized city
Song: Terrain
Musician: The Humble Brothers
The Songs Role
This piece starts out slow with sparse instruments that sound ominous. A couple accent sounds come in that are angelic and bright. This parallels the beauty that is being created with the placement of hills, mountains, rivers, and trees. About a minute in, drums appear to give this song a faster beat and up its intensity. This reflects a major aspect of the game, money. Once the terraforming is complete, you begin to lay down the first roads and create the the residential, commercial and industrial zones. At this point the clock is ticking to turn this into a profitable city before it goes bankrupt and game over.
The song makes another transformation at the 2:20 mark. An acoustic guitar comes in along with more angelic voices. This is aligned with a part in the game where you must overcome the first hurdle of being profitable with all the basic necessities of a town in place. The player can now take a deep breath as the initial threat of demise is gone.... for now. At the 2:54 mark violins enter the song. This communicates a part of the game where the player can transition from being an accountant / business man and focus on the creative aspect of the game by spending the cities surplus money on items like parks, decorative features, and large venues like stadiums for the citizens to enjoy.
At around 4 minutes in the song makes another transition. This time it is beginning to revert back to where it started. This is very much in line with an ever present aspect of the game, it is not all bliss. As the city grows you get new problems like the potential for gridlock, power outages, or lack of high density buildings just to name a few. This outro is much shorter than the intro. This is reflective of the fact that these new problems have much clearer solutions than the issues at the beginning of the game. Finally, the song ends on a positive note with the gong and the uplifting voices.
Social Commentary
This song does not have social commentary outside the game per se. With this game being a simulation, the various aspects speak to the real life challenges of city planners.
Personal Opinion
This song to me is very relaxing and is conducive to creative thinking. It makes me think of the kind of music you hear in a "brain food" music playlist. The fact that it doesn't have any vocals adds to openness and freedom it engenders. This song is one of my favorite instrumentals and it will remain a mainstay in my music rotation.
This was a really cool choice for a piece of music, I never even noticed but looking back, that music definitely had me dialed in and hyper focused on the game. I always thought it was funny in the new Sims games when they would have artists like the Black Eyed Peas record songs in the “Sim Language”, a silly but engaging touch that pulled you further into the game.
I feel like I had an exact opposite reaction to this song than the one you described (probably also because I don’t have any positive memories associated with it). The main feeling I got from this piece was “unsettling.” I felt like the “ominous” tone you mentioned, that was set in the beginning, was continued through most of it. In line with this, I don’t know that I would call the vocal accents “angelic and bright”; they felt alien and surreal to me, and contributed to the otherworldly feeling. The only part that was enjoyable to me was when the violin came in (there were sparkling chimes, too), around minute 3. That felt pleasantly engaging, and while maintaining some tension, it wasn’t tense in a bad way; it felt normal, and I can understand it being used for a stimulating task like city planning. After that, though, it went back to the main sound of the beginning, and the unsettled, anxiety-producing tone was back, and did not leave a positive feeling. It made me think it should belong to a SFF or horror game. When it was over, I switched to a different song; “unearthly” just does not sit well with me for any length of time. I think it matches the surreal terraforming aspect of the game well, though, even if it was overall too tense for me.
The composition is amazing. Especially the way it mirrors the many stages and challenges players encounter. The use of different instruments and tones communicate the shifts in gameplay dynamics which adds depth to the experience.
This was a really cool choice for a piece of music, I never even noticed but looking back, that music definitely had me dialed in and hyper focused on the game. I always thought it was funny in the new Sims games when they would have artists like the Black Eyed Peas record songs in the “Sim Language”, a silly but engaging touch that pulled you further into the game.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I had an exact opposite reaction to this song than the one you described (probably also because I don’t have any positive memories associated with it). The main feeling I got from this piece was “unsettling.” I felt like the “ominous” tone you mentioned, that was set in the beginning, was continued through most of it. In line with this, I don’t know that I would call the vocal accents “angelic and bright”; they felt alien and surreal to me, and contributed to the otherworldly feeling. The only part that was enjoyable to me was when the violin came in (there were sparkling chimes, too), around minute 3. That felt pleasantly engaging, and while maintaining some tension, it wasn’t tense in a bad way; it felt normal, and I can understand it being used for a stimulating task like city planning. After that, though, it went back to the main sound of the beginning, and the unsettled, anxiety-producing tone was back, and did not leave a positive feeling. It made me think it should belong to a SFF or horror game. When it was over, I switched to a different song; “unearthly” just does not sit well with me for any length of time. I think it matches the surreal terraforming aspect of the game well, though, even if it was overall too tense for me.
ReplyDeleteThe composition is amazing. Especially the way it mirrors the many stages and challenges players encounter. The use of different instruments and tones communicate the shifts in gameplay dynamics which adds depth to the experience.
ReplyDelete