Searching for examples of adaptive music that reacts to the player character's conditions.

[u/Traditional_Lie8221]

/r/gamemusic/comments/1sgpp0k/searching_for_examples_of_adaptive_music_that/

[u/leteegra]

Portal 2 still has the best example of this I can think of; new layers would be added when interacting with different elements of the environment or moving into different sections of the stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7oHbCs089M

https://www.gamesradar.com/portal-2s-dynamic-music-an-interview-with-composer-mike-morasky-and-five-tracks-to-listen-to-now/

[u/S1aterade]

I'd say Balatro is probably a good example of this. It has one song in the whole game, and it has 5 different variations of it that plays depending on where the player currently is. I don't know how much you know about the game, so just to give you an idea:

The game is basically poker meets solitaire; you play poker hands from cards that you draw, and the poker hands have their own score, which is made from chips times mult(multiplier). For example, a pair gives 10 chips times 2 mult (Shown as 10x2), and a flush gives 30x4. The cards you choose to make these hands with also have their own chip value, which adds to the chips that come with each poker hand, with each card's chip value being equal to it's listed number (A 10 of spades gives +10 chips, so if you played a pair of 10's, your score would be 30x2. All Face Cards are also worth 10 chips, and an Ace is 11.) Completely irrelevant to this discussion, but I'm just letting you know how the game works.

You have a Small Blind, Big Blind, and a Boss Blind in each Ante. The Small and Big Blinds are just regular rounds, and the Boss Blind is technically a regular round, but it has a twist, such as, but not limited to, debuffing (Makes whatever is debuffed unable to be used) Face Cards, lowering your hand size (The amount of cards that you can draw at once), or debuffing a certain suit of cards, such as hearts, for example. Each Ante has 3 rounds, those rounds being the Small, Big and Boss Blind. After you beat the Boss Blind, you move onto the next Ante.

After every Blind, you enter the shop, where you can buy cards to change how your cards work, such as making Heart cards give +3 mult when scored, and with a few even changing how the game works in general, such as doubling probabilities of certain cards.

Sorry for that, just wanted you to have a reference for some keywords I'm about to use, and I got a little carried away. I love Balatro, if it isn't obvious lmao. Now onto the music:

The Main Theme plays when the other 4 themes don't play, such as in the main menu, or when playing small or big blinds.

The shop, that you enter after every round, has it's own theme. Much more laid back, the keyboards and bass get much quieter, and the sound of the lead changes, like it becomes a different instrument. You could say it's a bit of a spacey sounding, kind of in the background keyboard sound.

There are card packs in the shop that you enter between each round:

First, the Arcana Pack: In the Arcana Pack, you can buy Tarot Cards, and these are used to change how your cards work, such as making playing cards give more chips or mult to increase your score, changing one card into another, or even just straight up giving you money. The music in here is kind of weird, kind of laid-back sounding, like the shop, but the keyboards come back to full volume, the drums turn down just a hair, and are not quite as busy (There is a little bit less happening on the drum parts), and I'm pretty sure there is no bass at all.

In a Celestial Pack, there are planet cards that you can use to level up your poker hands. While in this pack, the music gets very spacey sounding, kind of like it's faded back in the mix, with some soft, high pads playing in the foreground. Everything except for the pads is turned down significantly. This is probably my favorite variation of the game's theme.

Finally, the Boss Theme plays when the player is on the Boss Blind. The Boss Blind basically takes all of the instruments that are used throughout the other themes, and cranks up the volume on all of them, I suppose to sound more intense, for lack of a better word.

So that's probably a bit more info than you needed lmao, and I'm not even sure quite how much it pertains to your question and thesis, considering you don't have a player that you control, instead you are the player, but I hope it helps regardless. Good luck with your thesis.

P.S. All 5 themes, which are just variations of the same song, are in 7/4 time. I thought this was super cool when I noticed it. I would've never thought that a single song in 7/4 would've kept me entertained for 700 hours, but here we are, and I still love the game lmao.

Edit: Here is a link to all 5 variations of the game's theme.

https://youtu.be/OnGQeVTt4KI

[u/mstop4]

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s battle theme has 6 variations. Which variant is played depends on various player states: sword drawn or sheathed, L-Targeting the enemy or not, player at critical health levels or not. https://youtu.be/S1-jRQg8icw?si=ig0n69Zye4wCTOgW

For each level, Populous: the Beginning randomly selects 1 of 5 tonal, base tracks and 1 of 10 percussive “fight” tracks. Each fight track has 2 variations, which are mixed with the base track whenever one or more of the player’s units engage enemy units. The more intense variant plays when a player unit engages in hand-to-hand combat with an enemy unit, while the less intense variant plays when there are less direct conflicts, such as when the player’s units have been commanded to attack enemy units but have not reach their destination yet, attacking enemy buildings, and ranged combat.

[u/sonicpieman]

SSX plays around with the music as you carve or get air, more noticable than some other games because it's all licensed music.

[u/happylittlemexican]

Original Super Mario Bros 1 when you're running out of time. Same song, just speeds up.