On November 9, Mick Gordon, who was the former Doom Eternal composer has finally shared his story of the game’s soundtrack debacle. Gordon stated there were problems between him and id Software during the early days of Doom Eternal’s development process.
Gordon provided various details of issues including the lack of communication between him and the developers, pay issues, and management problems.
The developers wanted Gordon to write multiple tracks for two levels per month, but id Software wasn’t giving the composer enough material to find his source of inspiration. Gordon claimed the game was still not in the best shape for a finished soundtrack.
“Aiming to produce finished music for levels still months away didn’t make sense,” Gordon said.
Gordon also commented about not getting paid consistently as he shared a story where he didn’t get paid for eight months, and his next paycheck would be a longer wait.
More problems arose when the composer himself found out the game was planning to release an official soundtrack to the collector’s edition. He was never warned in advanced to do an official soundtrack until the E3 2019 announcement.
“I sent an urgent message to id Software, saying they had put me in a difficult position,” Gordon said.
The composer stated there wasn’t any strategy or discussion going on for the soundtrack before Doom Eternal’s initial release date which was November 22, 2019. This caused heavy stress for Gordon to a point he contemplated quitting.
Doom Eternal would eventually get announced to be delayed for a new release date: March 20, 2020. During this delay, Gordon has reached out to Bethesda in an email to discuss the soundtrack management. He was not finding much success with id Software prior.
A gorgeous concept art of Doom Eternal.
The soundtrack was targeted to be available for the fans by April 16. Gordon was promised to finish 12 tracks for the soundtrack while id Software has the final approval.
“I crunched 18-20 hour days and slept under my desk,” Gordon explained the soundtrack development process.
Id Software’s lead audio designer Chad Mossholder, who was working an alternative soundtrack for a long time. Gordon wasn’t aware of this until an email was sent by id Software’s executive producer Marty Stratton.
The email message was regarding about the soundtrack’s deadline and there was no extension which Bethesda originally offered to Gordon if needed.
Gordon didn’t enjoy Mossholder’s mixing on his songs, and Mossholder has sent Gordon seventy-plus tracks under his request.
Due to time constraints, Gordon couldn’t polish the other tracks and decided to focus on the tracks he was contracted to work for.
The soundtrack was not met in positive reception from the fans, and this has angered Stratton.
“I could hear Marty making notes of my comments, but rather than acknowledge my concerns,” Gordon described his Skype call with Stratton.
An early version of one of the game’s later missions, Nekravol.
Stratton would publicly discuss about the soundtrack’s issue through a Reddit post. Gordon looked at this move as an attack to his public image.
“Reading the Reddit post made me sick to my stomach. Lie after lie after lie,” Gordon said.
Gordon would later stated in a Twitter post that Stratton would bribe the composer for six figures of cash to never discuss about the issue.
SOURCE: Medium Post
