Chatting with Prince of Persia Composer Inon Zur

Published December 5, 2008

Prince of Persia for Xbox 360® marks the first current-gen outing for gaming's favorite Prince. With this new self-titled outing, Ubisoft hopes to craft an exciting, hold-your-breath cinematic action/adventure experience that plays, looks and feels like nothing else out there.

New style of Prince, new style of soundtrack.

With this bold new direction comes the task of composing a musical score to match and even surpass the vision, adding drama, tension, and unspoken emotion to Ubisoft's new Arabian epic. Enter award-winning composer Inon Zur, whose work on games like Fallout® 3, Crysis, Men of Valor, and Prince of Persia: Two Thrones, has cemented his reputation with gamers and critics alike.

Once you hear the orchestra you understand there's no replacing it.

I had a chance to meet and chat with Inon at London Bridge Studio near Seattle—home to bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Mother Love Bone—as he wrapped up the live orchestral recording for Prince of Persia.

For a gamer, it was fascinating to watch Inon at work conducting, switching at will from light-hearted jokes between takes, and even at one point explaining the importance of boss battles to the non-gaming musicians, to the serious business of moving the orchestra through each section with subtlety, grace, and emphasis as each gesticulation, head movement, and even brief bit of eye contact communicated with great precision his intent to the musicians.

You gain an appreciation for just how powerful live orchestra is when contrasted with the largely lifeless MIDI-tracks of old, where digitally rendered notes could never communicate the full weight of the composer's intent. Here, with Inon at the helm and a talented orchestra at the ready, each refrain is embroidered with humanity, not just technical prowess.

The more intense the acrobatics, the more intense the music.

Sitting down with Inon after the recording session, I was curious just what brought him to the games industry to begin with. He explains, "In 1996 … my current agent heard my demo tape and he wondered if I wanted to compose music for video games, and immediately, I said no!" He laughs. "Luckily enough for me, he really insisted. He asked, 'Well, what are you interested in?' I said, 'I want to do music for movies, I want to do music for big orchestras' … and he said 'Oh, big orchestras, no problem,' and he started to send me stuff from Star Trek from Ron Jones that they had recorded, and I said, 'That's video games? That's cool!'"

With the new art style and new, more cinematic experience of Prince of Persia, I wondered how composing for this game differed from other games.

"The direction was pretty much 'go film' on this one. We really want to give a new experience. The previous Prince of Persias were much more game-like, and this one is more cinematic, so the music is more orchestral. It's richer, deeper, it has more of a mix of psychology and feeling. Before, on other Prince of Persia games we concentrated more on action."

Prince of Persia is itself a platformer, but with newly developed techniques, so too is the music. The hope in Prince of Persia is that you'll find virtually no repetition in the music throughout the experience. Equally important is that the music builds, or platforms, in response to your actions.

For example, while the musical groundwork begins to take shape as you make your first jump or two in a sequence, it begins to build, swell, and shift as you progress naturally from simple techniques to more intense acrobatics. The same goes for boss encounters as well. Inon explains, "You'll meet the same boss three times, and each time, we're building the excitement and intensity with the music to tell you, alright, this is the second time. You already know this boss, but he also knows you, and then the third time. This is what the music does with the platforming."

With the new hand-drawn visual style of the game, I asked Inon what he took from the game's visuals to inspire his own approach. He explains, "It's a little like retro in a good way. I brought a sort of Lawrence of Arabia feel to it. The theme is definitely ala Lawrence. We wanted the music to take the gamer into the past, so they'll be immersed into this feeling of majesty and magic … we're sort of trying to separate the two branches—Assassin's Creed™ and Prince of Persia—Assassin's is going more for an edge while Prince of Persia is drawing more on this kind of majestic old world."

In stores now!

Finally, I wondered where in the process Inon found his greatest satisfaction. Was it here, when the recording was finally finished, was it when he put the final touches on the composition, or when the gaming public hears his work for the first time?

"That's a very hard question," says Inon, "obviously recording the orchestra is a peak, no doubt. At least to me, that's when the music is really coming alive. There's something that really can't be replaced, like, people say 'Oh, well the MIDI sounds great,' but once you hear the orchestra you understand there's no replacing it. Also, on the screen, the MIDI, as good as it sounds, doesn't cut through the way a real orchestra does."

Sitting in on the Prince of Persia soundtrack's live orchestral recording was a remarkable experience and one that has had me lending a more appreciative ear to so many games' outstanding soundtracks. Do yourself a favor and pay greater attention to the musical artistry we're being treated to in games these days. You'll enjoy the experience that much more.

Many thanks to Inon for taking the time to sit down and chat!

Article by Ryan Treit