“Throughout the entire aisle of Skovos there are no hard cuts or


hard transitions,” says Seth. “Every single piece of music in every single possible scenario transitions seamlessly and naturally in real time. And I’m really proud of that.” “There are also tons of wonderful Easter eggs in some boss battles,”


he discloses. “In the battle with Inarius, every time Inarius uses his major attacks, a choir sings his name to telegraph timing. It’s a lot of work for a small moment, but that’s what you commit yourself to whenever you’re committed to making not just a game that gets out the door, but one that — like great art — stands alone.”


ADAPTIVE ROLES FOR MORE ARTFUL GAME DEVELOPMENT When questions arise around how to execute scalable music systems on an uncertain timeline, music designers offer the combined technical and production smarts for real, dependable answers. By consulting music designers from early development on, studios can establish strong music systems early that scale with production and steer the course for new creative merits. “Video game music is the art music of our time,” declares Seth. “In


With video games reaching new heights of player immersion, it


no longer suffices to rely on limited audio loops to fill out a game’s soundscape. Current adaptability expectations in game music require a more systematic perspective around the many musical elements at play and how compositions shift shape or transition alongside real-time gameplay. Tangible benefits of having a dedicated music designer on-board


include money savings on asset volumes and revisions, overall stability for producers, stronger pursuit of on-time, on-budget completion, and an elevated end product. When a music designer has done their job to great effect, everybody comes out of it feeling like they are ahead.


NO MUSICAL OPPORTUNITIES MISSED While a music designer’s leadership is best integrated from the onset of development, there’s still incredible value to be had by bringing them on for later enhancements or game expansions, as proven with “Lord of Hatred.” While honoring a game with a massive foundation already in place,


Seth helped uncover opportunities to raise the bar for devoted Diablo fans with the systematic implementation of hours upon hours of new, adaptive music in the massive expansion. “We brought some things to the table that have not been done


before on a Diablo game,” Seth shares. “We were able to back-end normalization, and we pre-levelled music throughout the DLC’s Skovos region so that we could more easily iterate during production and spend less time mixing content down the line. And, for the first time, Diablo has reactive music in dungeons.” Players returning to “Diablo IV” for the new expansion will find


dungeon and overworld soundtracks that morph and scale in real time with their personal performance or dungeon threat levels. Through music design, every evolving gameplay moment finds a musical movement to match.


50 to 100 years, when people look back and study music from our era, I’m convinced the music that they study will be music for the screen. And, so, I think we have a responsibility to do the best that we can with that art form. There’s so much great stuff being done with nonlinearity and adaptivity in game music — changing the way that music functions as players make different choices and as stories or quests progress. That’s not just a gimmick. It’s legitimately contributing to elevating and making great art.”


As the games industry continues to face waves of change, Unlock


Audio reshaped its service model around delivering flexible access to specialized audio experts like Seth. Whether developers need to fill select knowledge gaps or seek to stand up an entire audio department with proven and passionate genre vets, our style-driven studios pack real professional punch. Unlike traditional outsourcing models, Unlock organizes around


industry-recognized specialists rather than generalist resource pools. Through this curated, collaborative vision, Unlock Audio aims to be a timely wellspring of experience, leadership, and innovation with tailored, embedded audio teams — minus the admin overhead.


September/October 2026 MCV/DEVELOP | 49


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