PaRappa creator shares views on music in games

PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura reckons that the games industry has a tendency to neglect the musical side of games because it's far more personal than the graphical side of production.

"Basically to make a good game system the graphics take a lot of people, especially with the Xbox 360, the PS3 or PC. This means that you include a lot of people in the decisions about graphics, asking questions about what will appeal to what demographic," Matsuura told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published this week.

"That makes graphics a hot issue within the team; music is a more personal creation. If I write a piece and ask you to listen to it, you probably won't ask me to change one precise note.

"Music creation is very private so the creators are often very distanced from the team."

Matsuura also shared his views on custom soundtracks (he's not a big fan), music-creation games like Electroplankton and the increasing profile of music-based games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. All of which makes for quite an interesting read, we reckon, so read the rest of the interview if you fancy, and then if you disagree you can come back here and shout at us. La la la la la.