This article is written from the Real Life point of view Globe

Since we basically have wall-to-wall music during the entire game, our interactive music system is relatively simple in design but can get very complex in implementation. Essentially, we assign every room in the game a default piece of music which can change based on triggered events or what state the player is in (like if they are re-traversing that room after getting the ship grapple and then they trigger a mini boss encounter). We define all of these music assignments in a single spreadsheet which is interpreted at runtime. Each room has a total of 10 available music slots and every musical transition that is triggered during gameplay is scripted into each room by hand. Most rooms are very simple, but some have a crazy amount of complexity due to all of layers of events we cram into them to make our re-traversals significant and meaningful. We also added the ability to modify music volume based on static multipliers or a spine. This allowed us to duck the volume of the music and sound effects when the player speaks to NPCs or during the beginning or end of a cinematic.

—Scott Petersen

The interactive music system is a dynamic engine implemented by Retro Studios in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.[1][2] Scott Petersen[3] described it as "simple in design" but "very complex in implementation" in an interview with Music4Games. All musical arrangements are defined in a spreadsheet, and this is interpreted at runtime. Every room in the game is assigned a default piece of music, such as the theme of the area, and ten music slots. However, the music is scripted by hand to change or transition based on events that are triggered in the room, or the state that Samus is in, according to Petersen. He cites as an example, a mini-boss encounter that occurs after Samus obtains the Ship Grapple Beam and returns to a previous room. Some rooms are simpler to script music for, while others that are the site of events are more complex. An option to adjust the in-game music's volume based on static multipliers or a spine was added, allowing the volume of music and sound effects to temporarily dim when speaking to a non-player character, or at the beginning or end of a cutscene.

