The evolution of video games, from “Donkey Kong” and “Pac-Man” to “Final Fantasy” and “Halo,” has involved an array of technological advances that goes far beyond computer graphics and fancy controllers. As gaming continues to grow as the nation’s most profitable entertainment industry—surpassing even films in recent years—the skill sets required to produce popular games is spreading to a wider workforce, and musicians are getting in on the action.

Local musician Duncan Watt, who runs Fastestmanintheworld Music out of his home in Exeter, has been composing scores for video games since 2005. Watt and Ed Lima co-composed the orchestral score for “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,” which was released for Xbox 360, Play Station 3 and PCs last fall. Instead of using virtual orchestration and synthesized instruments on computers, the pair traveled to Prague in August 2007 and recorded the score with a 60-piece orchestra and 40-piece choir.  

On Thursday, March 5, the Video Game Orchestra will perform excerpts from “Brothers in Arms” and other video games at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston. Other composers who will be present at the show include Gerard Marino (“God of War”), Keith Zizza (“Caesar IV, Sim City Societies”) and Jack Wall (“Mass Effect”).

To Watt, the concert further proves that video game music is gaining credibility as a legitimate art form.

“It’s exciting to see digitial game scores taken seriously, and I’m sure there’s going to be a very wide audience there, from kids to adults to music lovers,” he said.

The Video Game Orchestra is a 90-piece ensemble directed by Shota Nakama and run entirely by Berklee students and alumni. Composed of a 45-piece orchestra, a 40-piece choir and a five-piece rock band, the nonprofit group exclusively performs contemporary orchestral arrangements of video game music. The orchestra, which includes musicians from 20 different countries, formed in April 2008 and has held two prior concerts.

According to Watt, the idea of orchestras performing live video game music is not totally new. Video Games Live, a professional touring show, conducted its first concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the L.A. Philharmonic in July 2005, drawing a crowd of more than 11,000 people. Play! A Video Game Symphony is another orchestra that tours the world playing video game music.

Watt said more and more video games are using real orchestras to record their scores. Demand for companies like Fastestmanintheworld has increased over the years, keeping Watt and other video game composers very busy. In addition to working on “Brothers in Arms,” Watt composed the original interactive orchestral score for “Mayhem Intergalactic,” a game recently released on the digital distribution network Steam. Fastestmanintheworld also provided audio services for “Need For Speed: Undercover,” released last year for Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, Wii and PCs. Watt even recently worked on music for an iPhone game.

Watt has also been active as a sideman for other musicians, performing on organ and keyboard. He runs a private project company called Kanuba Digital, providing voiceovers, mixing and mastering for area contacts. But video game music his primary focus these days. “It’s a very exciting time to be a musician involved in this industry,” he said.

The idea of video game music performed without the visual, interactive elements of the onscreen game is difficult for some people to imagine. Many games have music that changes depending on what the player does. Different settings can cue background melodies, ambient noises or dramatic percussion. Fastestmanintheworld offers a variety of audio services and sound effects, sometimes subcontracting to people with different areas of expertise.

“Some things I’m working on right now are in a non-linear fashion where the music loops and combines with other loops to create the score,” Watt said. “It’s a completely new way of writing music. … The player is co-composing the game along with the original composer.”

The “Brothers in Arms” score, however, only plays during breaks between the interactive battles, providing emotional cinematic music that helps push the story forward from one chapter of the game to the next. This makes the music easier to replicate in live settings. 

“Most digital game scores are not written in order to stand alone,” Watt said. “‘Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway’ is different in that there is no music during the game play because (it) is a realistic simulation of World War II combat.”

The Video Game Orchestra will supplement its concert by rolling clips from the games across digital video screens, sometimes playing in synchronization with the action that unfolds. The show is part of a daylong symposium during which students will learn about the entire process of scoring a video game. Watt will also serve as a panelist in a video game music discussion.

Watt stresses that video games are not just for children. In fact, the Entertainment Software Association reports that 65 percent of American households play computer or video games, and the average game player is 35 years old. From 1999 to 2008, the percentage of Americans over the age of 50 who played video games rose from 9 to 26. Forty percent of all gamers are women, according to ESA.

“People’s vision of what the video game industry is all about is pretty skewed,” Watt said.

The rapid expansion of the video game industry is opening opportunities not only for musicians, but for computer programmers, digital artists, graphic designers and people in numerous other fields. And video game music, like many other relatively new innovations, is only in the nascent stages of development.
“The industry itself is expanding incredibly fast,” Watt said.

The Video Game Orchestra’s live concert begins at 8:15 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, 617-747-2261. Tickets are $10. Visit www.berkleebpc.com.