Jason Graves, composer for Dead Space, has a very interesting background. A drummer musically he had an interest in training in working with an orchestra as a composer and trained with TV and film industry veterans.
He worked with greats in the industry, including Jerry Goldsmith who worked on many classic films such as Alien, Poltergeist and Chinatown. Graves recognized early that suspense and horror films have most of their impact from the audio, nearly 50% according to research studies.
When EA began work on Dead Space, Graves was very interested, he submitted an eight minute pitch piece to try and impress the Audio Director Don Veca. The demo tracks worked, in fact part was used note-for-note in the end credits of the game. In reality the demo worked too well, Graves threw every tool he had into the moody atmospheric and bass filled track and Veca wanted hours of this.
Graves had a challenge ahead of him, he had to plan the general sound and then determine how to implement it. He and Veca had many days of brainstorming sessions where they listened to numerous soundtracks from Aliens, to the Exorcist to older European horror. They eventually settled on the tone and theme they wanted.
Dead Space was interesting in how it was approved, EA wanted a 15 minute slice of the game to decide if they wanted to proceed. A fully realized 15 minute game with music, graphics and gameplay complete had to be generated. Graves composed the music needed and based on his perceptions it was manic, energetic and tense and the game was approved. Don Veca was happy, but he wanted the music different, he wanted the player to not have hope, to not feel like they were winning and the music was key to this.
Graves realized that the music needed to be grungy and visceral and would not have a concurrent theme. The music had to be dynamic, feel textured and have scare moments that could be triggered and scale. He, with Veca, came up with an idea of generating music in four layers, each layer grows in intensity and power and simulates the feelings of the scenes.
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