Music in games

[Koh]

Major components of a game: 25% Story (if there's going to be one, otherwise, this chunk is added to gameplay), 25% Graphics, 25% Gameplay and 25% music.

If there's going to be a story, it might as well be a good story. Otherwise, it's worthless. Things like PacMan don't really have a story, so that portion is given to the gameplay. Give us a reason to care about what's going on.

The graphics need to fit what's going on, first and foremost, but also, they should have a certain appeal. Laziness doesn't seem to hinder this category for many people, though it does for me; there's no excuse not to have smooth animations and more defined poses, even for simple-shaded or non-shades sprites. If the game is unappealing to look at, it will be very hard to grab people just from screenshots or gameplay-less teaser trailers. Sort of what happened with Undertale for many people, myself included, where the game doesn't advertise itself well at all with screenshots.

The gameplay should be easy to pick up and play (The formula to follow is: Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master), but also polished and steady. The difficulty curve should be a steady increase, and not completely sporadic. There should be as much balance as possible. Also, the gameplay should compliment the story in some way, if there is one.

The music needs to fit the atmosphere and invoke the atmosphere heavily onto the player, like Final Fantasy Tactics. If the music is nothing but a catchy or horrible tune that doesn't fit what's happening, immersion is immediately lost, and once it's lost, it's really hard to regain.