Tag: videogame music

Ludo2025 Call for Papers

10– 12 July, University Square Stratford Campus University of East London
Conference on Video Game Music and Sound

The organizers of Ludo2025 are accepting proposals for research presentations.

We welcome proposals on all aspects of sound and music in games.

This year, we are particularly interested in papers that support the conference theme of ‘Rhythm, vibes, and beats’. Papers on this topic may include:

  • Rhythm games
  • Rhythmic entrainment and gameplay
  • Story beats and narrative rhythm
  • Vibes, styles, and genres
  • Voices and vibes
  • Music, sound, and embodiment in games

Presentations should last twenty minutes and will be followed by questions. Please submit your paper proposal (c.250 words) with a short provisional list of literature, and details of any technical requirements, by email to ludomusicology@gmail.com by February 28th, 2025. We aim to communicate the programme decisions by March 17th, 2025. If you require more information, please email the organizers.

We encourage practitioners and composers to submit proposals for showcasing practice as research. The conference will be held in person, but with remote access options available.

Further conference information will be posted on the conference page here.

Organized by Melanie Fritsch, Milly Gunn, Andra Ivănescu, Michiel Kamp & Tim Summers.

Time-Shift Crystals in Skyward Sword



I know I’m always goddess-harping on about Zelda but here is a really good example of dynamic musical layering.

[Spoiler Alert]

In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword the level design for the third temple centers around a timeshift mechanic where link can hit crystals that shift the immediate vicinity to a time where the Lanayru Mining Facility flourished. In the present time the land is a desert inhabited by crustaceans and the remains of the old mining robots. In the past it was a working industrial facility.

When in the present the music has a much blander texture and is as arid and desolate as the desert for which this music is representing. When link moves into the area that is timeshifted the music takes on a much richer texture gaining new instruments and more details.

Although this is not a new feature it is really done to the highest standard I have yet seen in a videogame.

You can check out the musical differences ingame on any one of the links on this page:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lanayru+mine

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