DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms, developed by aheartfulofgames and published by Outright Games, drops players into the vibrant world of DreamWorks' Hulu show Dragons: The Nine Realms. Set 1,300 years after the events of the hit franchise How to Train Your Dragon, both Dragons: The Nine Realms and DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms offer a fun way to revisit the feeling of the original franchise.
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms features music by British composer Chris Whiter, who has worked on a number of Outright Games projects including Transformers BattleGrounds. Despite the fact that Outright Games' products are developed for players from ages 3-13, Whiter's music stands on its own, and in the case of DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms, is a fitting continuation of the musical aesthetic first established by How to Train Your Dragon composer John Powell. Outright Games even released an orchestral trailer for the game which highlights the recording session for Whiter's beautiful and soaring main theme.
Chris Whiter spoke with Screen Rant about his background and the joys and challenges of working on DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms.
Chris Whiter on DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms
Screen Rant: Before we get into the game, I wanted to ask a little bit about your background. You studied jazz composition, right? How did you find your way into working on video games?
Chris Whiter: I started in the classical world. I started on flute, way back when, and added sax to that in my early teens. I've always had an interest in jazz, and performed it, and played it alongside classical when I was at school. It wasn't really until I got to university - I studied in Southampton, where I did a lot of performing and composing - [that] I ed the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Great Britain.
Through NYJO, I got a lot of opportunities to write for the orchestra and compose for them, and [I] performed with them as well. I feel it was one of my biggest opportunities to start composing. I learned a hell of a lot through that process, like what to do, [and] what not to do, especially. As both a composer and performer, that was a real stepping stone for me in of going into what I do now.
Relating that to game audio; everything I've done, especially over the past ten, fifteen years, has always sort of just grown into each other, if that makes sense. I've worked in music for media in various guises, either as a session musician, or orchestrating, arranging, and composing. I have a very good friend called Vince Webb. He's composed for a number of games himself, [and he was] doing very well on his side, and through him, really, opportunities came to compose for games as well. This was about three and a half years ago, or so. Through those opportunities, I was able to start working in game audio and game music, and as a result of that, it's gone on to where I am now in of having the soundtracks I've got. I'll probably say this a few times, but I always feel very fortunate to be where I am. I think it always feels like a combination of a number of factors that can lead you to where you are. And here I am.
From my limited understanding of video game music, there's a lot of loop-based and technical stuff involved. If that's true, was it hard for you to wrap your head around that when you were first transitioning over?
Chris Whiter: Firstly, it is true. That is a very good way to describe it. It's a slightly different approach to what you would take for film or TV. For film or TV, I would describe it as linear music, where it starts and finishes. With a game, it's nonlinear. You have no idea where it's going to go, [or] what the player is going to do. The music needs to be able to adapt and be dynamic and follow the actions of the player in a way that sounds like it's a linear piece of music. You're trying to create a piece of music that sounds like it's seamless from A to B, even though it might be changing direction as the piece goes.
For me, I actually enjoy that as an approach. I think you think of music a bit differently; like you say, you work in loops, or you think of music in of dynamic layers, or adding pieces or adding parts [and] taking parts away. For me, it actually suits the way I write in a strange sort of way. It's an approach that I feel I work quite well in, so for me, it was actually quite a nice transition into that world. But it adds new challenges in good ways. I think it challenges you as a composer to think about the music slightly differently in of how it's being heard and how it's going to be consumed by the player, because ultimately, the music wants to enhance that sense of immersion. When you're playing a game, you want to feel like you're in a game. You want the music to be able to add to that feeling and be able to, as I say, feel like it's seamlessly moving along with you as you work through it.
The games you work on for Outright Games are designed young players. Does knowing that that is your audience change how you approach instrumentation or themes?
Chris Whiter: It's a good question, because it's a consideration you always have to have about who the target demographic or who the target audience is. Personally, I think for a younger audience, you might think a bit more about making sure the music is accessible, but I never like to think of it as oversimplifying. [It's] not dumbing down the music in any way, to use a more informal way of describing it. All the nuances of the music need to be there, and they can still be enjoyed by whoever the audience may be. And, it's not always just a younger audience who might listen to it.
With DreamWorks Dragons, there's a very strong possibility that parents and their kids might play it together, or enjoy it together, in the same way that films might be. The films are enjoyed by audiences of all ages. [But] you want to be considerate of the target audience. I think one example I've used before is, if it's a younger audience, you might make sure your music is not overly scary, for example. That might not be quite the approach you're going for. You still want to have all the nuances and detail that you would have in any score you're working on, but you might try and ensure that the music is as accessible as possible to those who are meant to be enjoying it.
With this game and with Transformers BattleGrounds, you're stepping into worlds that have already had a lot of music written for them, and John Powell wrote such fantastic music for How to Train Your Dragon. How do you reckon with all of that, and carry it forward, and still add your own touch?
Chris Whiter: The word 'daunting' springs to mind. Anytime you step into any existing canon like that... especially like me, because John Powell's scores - I mean, his work in general, but his scores are just such incredible work. I think you need to ensure that you have an understanding in some way of why the composer took the approaches they did, as in what considerations they made, what was the story, [and] what was the context of the music.
These brands such as DreamWorks Dragons and Transformers, they have such a broad and extensive fan base who often feel that the music is quite tightly associated with a certain brand or film or franchise. You have to ensure that you respect and understand what has gone before, and find ways of drawing on artists' stylistic elements, or traits, or some details that you feel exist in those worlds that you can bring into, in this case, this new world for Dragons. In this score, [there are] things like the Celtic flute [and] Uilleann pipes, that are sort of small details that I felt worked so well in the original films, and they translate very nicely into creating some sort of feeling of continuity.
It's a very, very daunting prospect, and it's a real privilege to be able to work in those sound-worlds. I always feel you just have to be very aware of what's been done so that you can draw on that, and build on it in some way in of adding to that sound-world for the new direction that it might be going in, in this case, with DreamWorks Dragons.
I love that Outright Games is posting those scoring session videos. You're playing the Celtic flute, right?
Chris Whiter: Yes.
Does that flute have another name?
Chris Whiter: "Irish flute" is probably how it's also known. Irish flute or Celtic flute. I think especially for the video, Celtic flute. The words have similar meanings in a way, [but] I think more traditionally, it would be known as an Irish flute. They're made of wood. -wise, they're a bit more limited. You'll play it in a very similar way to a conventional Western flute, except you don't naturally have chromatic options. In general, it just means that you might be a bit more limited in of the tonality - where it will sit in of range. You can get different sizes or different tunings for different settings, but that one in particular fitted nicely with the main theme. It's a lovely thing to be able to include. It's such a synonymous sound with the DreamWorks Dragons brand, going back again to John Powell's sound. And so to be able to bring that in was lovely, and, yeah, it was fun to play.
About DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms
Inspired by the DreamWorks Animation original series DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms, the game takes players on a fiery adventure across realms of fire, ice and more on a quest to rescue Night Light dragon Thunder's family. Fans can play as the courageous Thunder, and friends Plowhorn, Feathers and Wu & Wei and unleash their hidden dragon in a bid to save the legendary dragon kingdoms.
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
