Arthur Gyl interviews Jean-Christophe Ploquin

Arthur Gyl: So Jean-Christophe, here we are again! This time, I’d like to understand how you create your musical games. Where does this strange idea of mixing music and gameplay come from?

Jean-Christophe Ploquin: [laughs] Strange, you say? Coming from someone who writes science fiction, that’s rich! But seriously, it all started with the acousmatic-plastic exhibition “Music & Me” that I created with Louis Jeanne in 2022. The audience really appreciated discovering acousmatic music in a playful and interactive way. Then my son Alexandre finished his animation studies at Laniméa and started designing a point-and-click game. That gave me an idea! What if I adapted “Music & Me” into a video game?

A.G.: Ah, family influence! But concretely, how do you go from an exhibition with sound sculptures to a video game? It’s not the same medium at all!

J-C.P.: Exactly! That’s where it gets exciting. In the exhibition, visitors touched sculptures to trigger sounds, created their own compositions… The principle was already interactive. For the game, I kept this idea: the player explores a musical universe, but instead of sculptures, they click on visual elements that trigger sound sequences. The music builds up as exploration progresses.

A.G.: Wait, you’re telling me that the music changes according to what the player does? How do you do that technically? Because when I write, my words don’t change depending on who reads them!

J-C.P.: [laughs] Ah, but imagine if your novels adapted to the reader! Actually, I use “stems” - separate musical layers that I can activate or deactivate in real time. With Godot as the game engine and Ardour for audio, I create musical loops that assemble differently according to the player’s actions. It’s like having a virtual orchestra that reacts to clicks!

A.G.: Godot, Ardour… you’re speaking Chinese! But tell me, what was your biggest failure? There must have been moments when it turned into total cacophony?

J-C.P.: Oh my! [laughs] I remember a bug where all the tracks triggered at the same time instead of alternating. Imagine 15 different musical loops superimposing all at once! It was… let’s say… very experimental! But sometimes, these accidents give ideas. That bug inspired me to create a sequence where musical chaos is part of the gameplay.

A.G.: But concretely, what do you start with? The music or the gameplay?

J-C.P.: The music, of course! The gameplay is just the interactive layer that allows the listener to act on the music. All musical possibilities must be considered beforehand, and validated as musically interesting. It’s non-linear writing, composition by reservoirs, where nothing is really left to chance.

A.G.: What’s the biggest challenge? Making music or making a game?

J-C.P.: They’re completely different: both are enormous challenges, each in their own way, but music depends on my creativity while the game depends on my technical skills.

A.G.: Do you want to educate people about acousmatic music or just entertain them?

J-C.P.: Thirty years in the national education system and I would continue teaching? No, seriously, I seek to entertain them above all. We say “play music”: it’s a game! We must have fun! If they learn things at the same time, well, so much the better.

A.G.: And now, you’re working on Ascendance… What’s the difference?

J-C.P.: “Ascendance” is the adaptation of a play that I never had the pleasure of having performed; a game based on genealogy, another of my obsessions. A tragicomic journey to meet ancestors, also built on non-linear reservoirs. Any family tree can be loaded into the game: the journeys are different each time. But I’m not working on it anymore: it’s finished and comes out on June 9th. I’m already on another project.

A.G.: But you never stop! It’s bulimia! And what will it be this time?

J-C.P.: “GraviTone”, an adaptation of the video-musical exhibition “Fluctus Planetarium”; another of my projects with Louis Jeanne.

A.G.: And then you stop!

J-C.P.: Never!

A.G.: You’ll still have to let me write from time to time… People are asking for the sequel to the homo permanens adventures!

J-C.P.: Promise. I’ll leave you a slot.