At 5/30/14 10:18 AM, SoundChris wrote:
But 1-2 hours of music are not really cheap if you wanted high quality.
Noting that most AAA games have at most a hour to maybe two hours of music, that would cost you somewhere in the hundreds if not thousands, even at the lowest of low pay standards you could find on any music place for a "high quality" composer who has even the slightest business sense.
Here are some good numbers to help you find a better length. I've worked on well over a dozen projects, written on game development, and have read an awful lot on the subject of game music.
1. Small Flash/Mobile Game (one-man team, generally licenses music): 5-15 minutes of music
2. Large Flash or Mobile game (2-5 man team): 10-25 minutes of music
3. Standard Desktop Indie Game ( 3-7 man team): 15-40 minutes of music
4. Large Desktop Indie Game (5-20 man team, likely with 2 composers): 30-75 minutes of music
5. AAA Game (a ton of people, 2-4 composers likely): 1-2 hours
Many of the most notable flash and mobile games actually have a shockingly small score. Some only use one song, some use three. At most you will see a score of about 15-20 45" to 1' tracks that each loop, and that's the most ambitious of flash games. Small indie games made for the desktop can contain more music, but still rarely exceed 30 minutes due to budget, space, and time issues.
If I were to plan out a score for this game, it would probably have a 2-minute main theme and a variation of 2-5 in-game pieces of 2-3 minutes each. Note that a looping piece of 2 minutes, if well written, is enough to entertain someone for a minimum of a hour. Puzzle games have a reputation for a very minimal score, often only one in-game piece.
If you are still determined to use a half-hour of music, I would financially advise you to find and license existing tracks, as that will be considerably cheaper than commissioning original material (probably only $10-50 per track depending on who the composer is, how good it is, and how long it is). Alternately, you can explore other options. Some composers provide royalty-free music for commercial use, and there is always the public domain, although that kind of bargain shopping will not get you an amazing score (nor will hiring inexperienced composers, which also has the risk of getting troublesome if they decide halfway though that music isn't really their calling).
I hope this advice will help you make some decisions on the music for your game. :)