Structural Approaches

Well I don't know about a seasoned long-form competent composer, but the way I have done it in my experience working on videogames is a mixture of both of your ideas, and it will depend primarily on the technical capabilities of the engine your developers are using. When you work with layers and use them to bring in intensity (à la Mass Effect 3) you write the complete 3 -5 minute piece (or whatever length) and make a mental note that the stems that you will eventually downsize it to make sense on their own, having said that and to add to this effect you might actually write lines for instruments that will only be available on the middle or lower intensities, it doesn't have to be a one size fit all solution, adapting to the demands of the game and also to the demands of your piece is important.

Another possibility might be that you are outside of a location so instead of layered stems, you get some kind of filter over the location piece, but work on top of it with a new emotional layer that makes musical sense with the current action and with the location piece at the same time. I have done this while at the same time maintaining stylistic integrity, but I have also done it mixing different styles; the game required a piece to be playing on a party location, and the player would eventually sneak into some areas where he wasn't allowed, so I worked over a muffled beat of the party piece and built a different style piece altogether on top of it. In this case, it was one or the other and the music wasn't supposed to fade from A to B and back, but it was all happening in the same location so it worked well, and keeping the party groove in the back gave you the sense of one location being inside the other and not a different map altogether.

About programming development, you will do this always because you are a composer and are interested in doing a good job, as you write the score, you will invariably develop it for yourself, and will hopefully be able to integrate everything into the final version. But non-music folk tend to not care that much about it. Even if you point it out, not many feel elated that you are doing such an interesting intellectual juggling and your B2 theme is the main theme in retrograde, or that the second villain theme is actually the C section of the hero theme played in minor and harmonized over the main theme used as a bassline. Personally, if all the themes I use in a project are not siblings and related from the start I would have some trouble regarding the finished work as being about one thing. For me it makes sense, in the same way as using a ukelele for a tropical location makes more sense than using an acoustic guitar even though you might be playing the same melody. You change the instrumentation but keep the musical content, or you keep the instrumentation and develop the musical content. It is the world that you define that has to permeate the whole soundtrack.

 

Yes, well. When I write the music I try to get as much material as there is available. Concept art, stills, a script or design doc, I talk with the producer or whoever is in charge to get an idea about the requirements of the map, it's placement in the story timeline (or gameplay timeline if it's more appropriate), how many times it will be visited and revisited by the player, and when, etc. Then I talk with the audio guy to check out what is the engine capable or what specific capabilities are they implementing, from that I develop a workflow and get to work. After I write and deliver the track, I like to check it in game, review the mixes, see if it gets fatiguing, or repetitive, and I will adjust from that, so for me it's a hands on approach. Somehow it doesn't feel limiting when I am going through the process, not as limiting as just being "made aware" and composing accordingly.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, the process changes in accordance with the capabilities of the engine, you get a feel for the way your music will be presented and that will impact the way you produce the track. The actual writing process has not changed though, I still sit at the keyboard, or pick up the guitar, or just scribble down on a notepad if I am away, for the initial idea. Then I flesh it out on the computer and the actual development and mixing are done to picture, as in my case I have found the colors and spaces of the environment affect my mixing decisions.

I am not sure about the games you mention, but I think the level of interplay the composer has with the development team will affect how dynamic the whole process can be, the first videogame where they used a film composer was if I am not mistaken Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, where Harry Gregson-Williams was asked to come up with music that followed a specific brief, and the sound team then edited the parts and incorporated them where they saw fit. This might still happen today and parts of your score will be flown from one section to another, it's part of the deal and you don't have any control over that. Parts get flown in films too. Inon Zur has said he wishes he had time to play the games he works on, this does not mean he writes in a vacuum, it just means he doesn't play the games after they ship. The "fixed" pieces of music you mention may be a result from the technology at the time, maybe there weren't dynamic stems at the time, or maybe they just couldn't used them for memory constraints, etc. Lastly, I can see why you mention you don't really know for sure in which order the tracks might play, but the reality is even if you can't be 100% sure about that, there's always an intro, or a title track, and you can set the mood right there. Or even the trailer if you are doing that too.

But remember this is music that is made to support the game, many times it's not supposed to be listened to on it's own and you will find some of the more atmospheric cues are pretty boring on their own. So you have to let go a little of the control that you wish you could have over the presentation, because it will vary anyway, some times I will be writing and be very happy with a certain section only to find out later that the player can skip the whole scene and instead of 3 mins he plays 1 minute of that map and then goes into a conversation (with another music cue) and then comes back to the map and the music begins again and he finishes the map in 90 more seconds and never gets to listen to the part you where so happy about, on the other hand the player may decide to stick around and explore the map, and he will be rewarded accordingly in experience and also with this new music section. Because of this, the actual presentation is non linear, and music matures along with the game, each map and music cue being sort of an emotional picture frame through which the player will experience the game, and your piece sort of lives in that moment and shifts with him or her, it doesn't carry the action, but fuels it and gives it credence.