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Jukebox Heroes: A civil chat with Dawngate's Jeff Broadbent
Massively: Today we have tea, crumpets, and the ever-so-delightful company of Composer Jeff Broadbent. Mr. Broadbent is here to talk about his work on the score for the upcoming MOBA Dawngate. So is working in the online video game world becoming a habit for you, going from PlanetSide 2 to Dawngate? Jeff Broadbent: It does seem the online video games are becoming the norm! I am actually working on a couple of new online games also at the moment. The interesting thing about the game market today is that there are many different platforms including mobile, downloadable, online, and console, so it's quite diversified. The Dawngate gig came about through audio director Caleb Epps. I was staying in touch with Caleb, and he let me know about a new project he was working on. He had me create a couple of demo tracks for the game, and based on that material, I was given the opportunity to score the game.
Jukebox Heroes: PlanetSide 2's soundtrack
PlanetSide 2 has a strange soundtrack, no doubt about it. For starters, the game is more about conflict and fragging than it is about lore and story. That's fine if that's its goal, but since so much about MMO scoring is driven by the story and places, it forced Composer Jeff Broadbent to focus on the factions instead. He then fractured the score into three parts, with each part sounding radically different than the others in an effort to underline a faction with a musical style. Thus, Terran Republic tracks are all about orchestra and choir, New Conglomerate tracks use blues rock, and Vanu Sovereignty rely mostly on synth. The styles are so different from each other that I can't see anyone loving this entire soundtrack, but I bet anyone could find at least one part to enjoy. Let's chew on these notes and spit out our favorites like the rough, tough music fans we are!
PlanetSide 2 rocks: An interview with composer Jeff Broadbent
In this post-Halo age, it's hard to imagine any sort of galactic ground battle happening without a stirring score at your back. So the challenge to the SOE audio team and Composer Jeff Broadbent was formidable: PlanetSide 2's soundtrack had to rock so hard that it would bring tears to the eyes of combat-hardened troops. Whether or not the musicians and audio team succeeded is, of course, your personal opinion, but it's hard not to be impressed with the end result. Broadbent's worked on a variety of projects spanning video games, TV, and film, but PlanetSide 2 is his first crack at scoring an MMO. We talked with Broadbent about his inspirations, experiences on the project, and his take on the end result. Read on and be enlightened!
